Well that was fast! 2019
is almost over, but it feels
like just yesterday that Gov.
Andrew Cuomo pulled off
the ultimate fl ex and threw
out more than three years
of planning to keep the Ltrain
from shutting down. Of
course, Cuomo’s 11th-hour
ploy to avert the L-pocalypse
was just three days into the
year, which would sadly come
to be marked by some grim
records, including the longest
ever shutdown of the
federal government, a massive
measles outbreak , and
the most cyclist fatalities of
all time. But it wasn’t all bad!
Mayor de Blasio announced
his “Green Wave” expansion
of the city’s cycling network,
a senior friendly racket game
called pickleball became the
sensation of southern Brooklyn,
and state Sen. Andrew
Gounardes made good on his
predecessor’s promise to fi nd
funding for much-needed repairs
to Marine Park. And topping
it all off, Congress closed
out the year with a vote to nix
the Verrazzano Bridge’s oneway
toll, which is expected to
ease traffi c for long suffering
Bayridgites heading to Manhattan,
and generate more
than $10 million in additional
annual revenue for the state.
January
Shore things and sunken
dreams: City offi cials announced
INSIDE
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Got Straight no strings: The digital puppet production “Fear in the Western World,” explores how gun violence and fear shooter
affect two parents searching for their abducted child. Photo by Maria Baranova
Puppet show explores gun violence and fear in America
By Rose Adams Welcome to the gun show!
A new high-tech puppet
show blends horror movie
tropes and Greek mythology to discuss
gun violence in the United States. “Fear in
the Western World,” opening as part of the
Exponential Festival at the Target Margin
Theater in Sunset Park on Jan. 5, follows
two parents who trek through catacombs
hidden beneath under their suburban home
in search for their abducted daughter — and
who come across mythical, gun-wielding
creatures along the way, according to the
show’s co-creator.
“There’s a Greek slant on their
adventure as they go on,” said David
Commander, who wrote and directed
the production with artist Rob Ramirez.
“The whole performance is presided
over by Janus, the god of transitions and
passageways.”
The play’s spooky tunnels make the
show feel like a horror movie, Commander
said, but its creatures are as frightened as
they frightening. The protagonists, and the
catacomb dwellers they come upon, cling
to their guns for a sense of protection —
often injuring each other in shootouts —
even if there is no real danger, Commander
noted.
“They’re using guns because they’re
scared,” he said. “They’re scared
when they’re safe; they’re scared when
they’re being threatened. They’re just
frightened.”
Commander created “Fear in the
Western World” in response to the many
mass shootings in the US since the Sandy
Hook elementary school shooting in 2012.
Each tragedy involved a cycle of violence,
media coverage, and political posturing
that, to Commander, felt like an endless
carnival ride.
“There’s something kind of like a
haunted house ride or a rollercoaster where
you can’t get away,” Commander noted.
“You can’t escape it. You’re in for the ride.”
The show mimics the sense of anxiety
that Commander believes plagues the
country, and that contributes to the cycle of
fear and gun violence. But despite its dark
subject matter, the show is not completely
bleak, he said.
“It has a very optimistic ending,” he
promised.
The show will feature several hightech
puppets with tablets for heads,
with distorted images of human faces
on their screens. The puppeteers will
move the puppets with rods, and change
their expressions by using a video game
controller. The puppeteers will remain
visible to the audience, allowing viewers
to see how the show is made, Commander
said.
“There’s no attempt to trick the
audience,” he said. “The audience has a
choice in what to focus on.”
“Fear in the Western World” at the
Target Margin Theater 232 52nd St.
between Second and Third avenues in
Sunset Park, (718) 398–3095, www.
targetmargin.org. Jan 5–19; Wed–Sat at
8 pm; Sun at 3 pm. $25 ($18 students and
seniors).
Your entertainment
guide Page 35
Standing O ............................20
Letters ....................................29
Education ............................... 31
HOW TO REACH US
COURIER LIFE,4 DEC. 27, 2019-JAN. 2, 2020
that Coney Island
would receive a long soughtafter
stop on the city’s ferry
service as part of a new express
route to lower Manhattan!
Locals hailed the decision
as “another great victory”
for the People’s Playground,
since the ferry would cut the
Manhattan commute down to
around 40 minutes. Offi cials
were still debating where to
place the ferry terminal, but
had set their sights on W. 33rd
Street and Bayview Ave. by
Coney Island Creek. Around
the same time, Canarsie
straphangers learned their
seaside community would not
be getting its own ferry stop,
with offi cials claiming exisiting
public transit networks
get residents to Manhattan
faster than a ferry would and
the pier’s restrictive parking
rules would make it diffi cult
to bring a ferry stop there.
Cance-L’d: Governor Andrew
Cuomo abruptly called
off the year-in-the-making
L-train shutdown on Jan. 3,
three months ahead of the Lpocalypse,
which would have
shut down service between
Brooklyn and Manhattan for
15 months to allow for repairs
to the tunnel beneath the
East River, which suffered
severe fl ood damage during
Superstorm Sandy. While
the announcement came as
a relief to many northern
Brooklynites, some residents
who had already relocated in
anticipation of the shutdown
were none-too-pleased with
Cuomo’s 11th-hour power
move.
Feeding the Furloughed:
Food Bank of New York doled
out hundreds of care packages
at the Barclays Center to federal
workers on furlough in
the longest government shutdown
in US history on Jan.
22. The do-gooders handed
out dried food, milk, meat,
vegetables, and toiletries to
more than 200 people — many
of whom were Transportation
Security Administration
employees. Meanwhile,
the government shutdown
forced a Gowanus-based nonprofi
t— Rebuilding Together
— to cancel a technical education
program geared towards
job-seekers from low-income
communities, and a cleanse
of the fi lthy Gowanus canal
was delayed yet again after
Federal Environmental Protection
Agency leaders were
furloughed.
Prosecutor perishes: Former
District Attorney Charles
Hynes passed away at a hospice
care center in Florida on
Jan. 29 at 83 years old. Hynes
served as the borough’s top
prosecutor for 24 years, taking
offi ce in 1990 and retaining
the seat until 2014, where
he cracked down on domesticabuse
crimes and formed his
reputation as a champion for
abused women. But Hynes’
legacy was tarnished by his
politically motivated prosecution
of Brooklyn lawyer
John O’Hara for voter fraud,
and allegations that he used
$219,000 in seized funds to pay
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BKLYN’S BIGGEST
Gov. Cuomo talks with engineering experts during his walk through of the L train tunnel ahead of his announcement
in January that he would call off the shutdown. Governor’s Offi ce
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