INSIDE
Circle of life: Isabella Uzcátegui and
Kayla Asbell star in “House, or How
to Lose an Orchard in 90 Minutes or
Less,” debuting at Theater Mitu on
Aug. 23. Theater Mitu
Home stretch
New play uses film to explore the housing crisis
By Aidan Graham Talk about a full house!
A bizarre new play in Gowanus
will explore what makes a house
a home. “House, or How to Lose an
Orchard in 90 Minutes or Less” combines
intimate first-person interviews with
Anton Chekhov’s 1903 play “The Cherry
Orchard” and the 1977 cult-classic horror
film “House,” to tell a provocative story
about the meaning of shelter, said the
show’s director.
“It’s really a meditation on these questions
of housing, and what does a house
mean?” said Rubén Polendo. “And to really
zero in, not necessarily on the statistics
of it, but more on the emotional aspects.”
The play — put on by the experimental,
technology-heavy production company
Theater Mitu — wants to engage the audience
in a larger conversation about housing,
using first-person interviews with
homeless people, the tale of a family forced
to sell their home, and eerie elements from
a haunted house story, said Polendo.
“We ran a whole host of interviews
with people who have lost their homes, or
have transitioned their homes,” he said.
“We wanted to also source a piece of
literature to look at a meditation on that
subject — that’s how we landed on ‘The
Cherry Orchard.’ And, the third piece of
the puzzle is a 1970s Japanese horror film
called ‘House,’ which adds a sense of tension
about what’s left behind.”
The show will features seven actors
performing live on stage, as well as various
television screens displaying pre-recorded
video throughout the performance.
Audience members will wear headphones,
and all the sound from the videos and
miked actors will be channeled directly to
them, said Polendo.
“It has more in common with seeing
a series of visual art installations,” he
said. “It does really feel like an intimate
conversation that’s very personal and very
emotional. The headphones really allow
for that experience.”
Polendo hopes the audience will gain
a new emotional understanding of homelessness
and the plight of those who lack
proper shelter.
“When you walk away, you walk away
affected,” he said. “That can mean a lot of
things. It can mean that you’ve heard or
felt things about the subject that you hadn’t
before, or it triggered your imagination.”
“House, or How to Lose an Orchard
in 90 Minutes or Less” at MITU580 (580
Sackett St. between Nevins Street and Third
Avenue in Gowanus, www.theatermitu.org)
Aug. 23 at 7:30 p.m., Aug. 24–25 at 2 p.m.
and 7:30 p.m. $25.
Your entertainment
guide Page 47
Police Blotter ..........................8
The Right View ....................34
Letters .................................... 35
Brownstoner ........................38
Wellness .................................. 41
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COURIER L 2 IFE, AUG. 16-22, 2019
CYCLIST DIES IN MIDWOOD
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
Police released the teen driver
who they claim killed a cyclist
in Midwood on Sunday without
charging him, according to
authorities.
Offi cers from the 66th Precinct
took the 18-year-old man
into custody on Aug. 11 after
investigators determined he
sped through a red light and
T-boned another car at the intersection
of Coney Island Avenue
and Avenue L at 12:30
p.m., causing the other vehicle
to slam into 52-year-old Park
Slope cyclist Jose Alzorriz,
killing him, cops said.
Video footage posted online
clearly shows the operator of
a white Dodge Charger blowing
past the red light and plowing
into a blue Honda SUV at
speeds that appear in excess
of the 25 miles per hour speed
limit Mayor Bill de Blasio set
for most city roadways in 2014.
Police have not issued any
summonses related to the collision,
according to NYPD
spokeswoman Det. Denise Moroney,
who would not say when
the driver was released, or
comment on the status of the
investigation, except to say it
remains ongoing.
The license plate number on
the teen’s Dodge Charger is associated
with two prior speeding
tickets, in addition to four
violations for driving with missing
plates, and several parking
tickets, all of which were issued
in 2019, according to Twitter
bot How’s My Driving.
Detectives have contacted
District Attorney Eric Gonzalez’s
offi ce and briefed his staff
on the investigation, according
to a police spokesman, who
would not comment on the record
regarding the potential
for future charges.
If prosecutors were to seek
a felony indictment against the
teen driver, they would likely
pursue either criminally negligent
homicide, or the stiffer
charge of second-degree manslaughter,
according to a law
enforcement source.
Gonzalez charged Dorothy
DEADLY SCENE: Police released the 18-year-old driver who smashed his white Dodge Charger into another
car, which then fatally struck 52-year-old cyclist Jose Alzorriz at the intersection of Coney Island Avenue and
Avenue L in Midwood on Aug. 11. Photo by Steve Solomonson
Bruns — the Staten Island motorist
who struck and killed
two children after running
a red light in Park Slope last
year — with second-degree
manslaughter after investigators
discovered that a doctor
had warned her not to drive
for health reasons. Bruns’ case
was set to go to trial this year,
but the she ultimately chose to
end her own life in November ,
when she was found dead beside
a bottle of pills and a suicide
note.
Police did not immediately
charge Bruns following
the March 2018 collision, and
it wasn’t until May 2018 that
she was arrested following a
lengthy investigation.
On Monday night, Mayor
Bill de Blasio — who said he
saw a video of the incident
and called it “horrible” — demanded
the driver be charged,
saying that the reckless behavior
demonstrated in the footage
warranted immediate action.
“He just blows right through
a red light and you know, kills
someone. Of course, there
should be numerous charges
right now,” de Blasio told Errol
Louis on Inside City Hall.
“I’m not a lawyer but I’d say
it should be a serious, serious
charge with many years in
prison.”
Hizzoner went on to request
state legislators harden the
penalties for motorists who
kill people from behind the
wheel of a car.
“I think it is time to reassess
our whole relationship
with the automobile and say
if you kill someone and you
did something wrong as part
of that, there should be a very,
very serious penalty,” he said.
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