(718) 260–2500 Brooklyn Paper’s essential guide to the Borough of Kings August 30–September 5, 2019
EXHIBIT
He’s got all the history you can handle!
A local historian and antique collector will
present a hands-on exploration of the fight to give
women the vote, at the Coney Island Museum
on Aug. 31. During his hour-long “Suffragette
City” lecture, Denny Daniel — who runs the
traveling exhibition the
Museum of Interesting
Things — will combine
stories about early feminists
with more than 50
historic items that the audience
can hold, including
newspapers from the
turn of the 20th century,
postcards (pictured), ballot
books with the names
of the first women voters,
and a vintage voting
booth from the election
of President Warren G. Harding. Daniel says
that the highlight of the collection is his wardrobe
of vintage dresses.
“I love the dresses. I’m probably going to
have someone try them on,” he said.
During his presentation, Daniel will pass
around a gray, plain frock that British feminists
wore in the early 20th century, a white
dress common among American suffragettes,
and a corseted gown called a “bustle dress” that
was a staple for the era — and that feminists
loathed.
“The bustle dress is a size negative one,” Daniel
joked — he has never seen someone fit into
its tiny frame.
His many vintage treasures enliven the history
of the women’s suffrage movement, and
demonstrate how it intersected with other social
movements of the time. The buttons, ribbons,
and postcards also advocate for civil rights and
alcohol prohibition — two campaigns that many
suffragettes took part in.
“The movements were all intertwined, and
it was in the women’s best interest to fight for
all three of them,” Daniel explained. Support
for the temperance movement often came from
women who suffered domestic violence at the
hands of drunken husbands, he added.
“Suffragette City” is one of Daniel’s many
traveling exhibitions. Daniel has also presented
his vast collection of memorabilia to school children
and history buffs in the service of lectures
about the 1960s space race, the history of film,
and more. Daniel says that his passion for history
and his love for teaching drove him to found
the traveling museum.
“It’s to get people back to being curious and
positive again,” he said. “It’s to bring back that
curiosity that we all grew up with.”
“Suffragette City” at Coney Island Museum
(1208 Surf Ave., second floor, at W. 12th Street
in Coney Island, www.coneyisland.com). Aug.
31 at 5 p.m. $10. — Rose Adams
Show of strength
New ‘Hercules’ musical makes stars of amateur Brooklyn actors
By Chandler Kidd
Brooklyn Paper
It’s not over ’til the bearded lady
sings!
A three-day festival of vocal performances
will conclude with a rock
oratorio from an opera singer dressed
as a man who is dressed as a woman.
The seventh annual Resonant Bodies
festival, returning to Roulette in
Boerum Hill from Sept. 3-5, will feature
three recitals from notable singers each
night, ending with bearded drag queen
Blythey Oratonio, the male persona
of mezzo soprano Stephanie Blythe.
The acclaimed opera diva says that
her bearded alter-ego gives her more
options to express her artistry.
“Blythely is Stephanie, it is me, but
the character allows me to sing opera
roles that I normally don’t sing as a soprano,”
Blythe said.
She developed the character of
Blythely, a tenorissimo, for a show to
benefit the Philadelphia Opera, in which
she performed with famous Philly drag
queen Martha Graham Cracker.
She found that donning the beard
allowed her to mix genres and connect
with the audience in a unique
way, she said.
“My reason for wanting perform,
whether I am performing this or an
American cabaret, is to make contact
with the audience, because Blythely can
say things that Stephanie can’t say on
stage, because he is a drag queen and
he is outrageous!” Blythe said.
During her show on Sept. 5, Blythe
will sing a mash-up of disco, rock, and
opera, using skills she has developed
from her many opera performances.
“I still sing with a supported technical
Marty Sohl
tone, I am just employing a different
style,” she said. “I employ the
same technique — it doesn’t sound like
an opera singer singing rock ’n’ roll,
it sounds like an opera singer singing
opera.”
The founder of the Resonant Bodies
festival said that she is excited to
see Blythe explore a new genre and
direction.
“I love a performance that connects
to a performer’s personal fulfillment
of their greater life purpose. I feel
that Stephanie is setting an example
of what it means to be fearless and
bold. I am looking forward to laughing,
and to the change of pace her set
will offer in the overall Festival arc.,”
said Lucy Dhegrae.
The festival offers a unique artistic
experience for singers like Blythe, and
for the audience, said Dhegrae.
“For those who are enchanted by
the power of the human voice, this is
your Mecca,” she said.
The Resonant Bodies Festival at
Roulette (509 Atlantic Ave. at Third
Avenue in Boerum Hill, www.resonantbodiesfestival.
org). Sept. 3–5 at
7:30 p.m. Stephanie Blythe performs
on Sept. 5. $20 ($50 for three-night
pass, $75 VIP).
Frock the vote
VENUES
Gilded age
Long live the King!
The historic Kings Theatre in Flatbush has
prepared for its 90th birthday next week with a
series of new renovations designed to make the
Jazz Age venue bigger and better.
The theater— which first opened as the Loews
Theatre on Sept. 7, 1929 — recently added space
to it 3,000-seat auditorium, reworking the orchestra
pit so that it can accommodate 500 extra
audience members, with an adaptive setup
to allow room for standing or seating, said the
theater’s marketing director.
“We were looking for more flexibility in
the way that we can use the space,” said Sarah
Weiss. “We’re now able to have more diverse
musical programming, where people want to
be on their feet, and more ways that we can
use the space.”
In addition to expanding the main theater,
the venue has also found room in its expansive
lobby for a new performance space: the newly
opened Kings Comedy Lounge.
“It’s a great space in that we can continue
to grow and provide a performance area for
new, developing artists — especially if they’re
from the neighborhood,” said Weiss. “It gives
us the ability to showcase artists who are upand
coming.”
Early-bird patrons and after-show stragglers
can also visit the theater’s outdoor courtyard,
which opened late last year , she added.
“We host vendors that set up carts and tents
— and we try and focus on business that are in
the neighborhood,” said Weiss.
The newly remodeled space is perfect for the
upcoming class of A-listers visiting the theater
in the coming months, said Weiss.
“I’m really excited for the Raconteurs, and
Jenny Lewis,” she said. “We also have our
‘welcoming the authors’ events, with Malcolm
Gladwell and Ta-Nehisi Coates — they’re showcasing
their new works. It’s exciting to have them
in conversation about their new releases.”
The changes are all part of an effort to make
sure the 90-year-old theater remains up-to-date
and relevant to the neighborhood.
“We have some really exciting things in the
works,” said Weiss. “This year, we have a few
more younger artists who are on their way up.
It’s exciting to see that Kings is part of that
scene.”
See the renovations for yourself at the Kings
Theatre “Happy Hour Tour” 1027 Flatbush Ave.
between Tilden Avenue and Duryea Place in
Flatbush, (800) 745–3000, www.kingstheatre.
com Sept. 6. at 6:30 p.m. $30.
— Aidan Graham
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
They can go the distance!
A phalanx of non-professional actors
from two Brooklyn community
groups will make up a Greek chorus for a
new mythical musical on the distant isle
of Manhattan. The theatrical adaptation of
the 1997 Disney film “Hercules,” playing at
Central Park’s Delacorte Theater from Aug.
31 to Sept. 8, will feature 61 Brooklynites
making their Off-Broadway debuts.
The Public Theater, known for its popular
“Shakespeare in the Park” series, recruited
more than 200 amateur actors from across
the five boroughs to play minor parts in
the all-singing, all-dancing tale of a Greek
demi-god going from zero to hero. Among
those new thespians are a Sunset Park dad
and his two daughters, who were recently
bitten by the acting bug.
“If you would have told me that I would
be in ‘Hercules,’ I wouldn’t have believed
you,” said Marvin Romero. “This is really
the first theater that we’ve done. We’ve
never done anything like this, and to be a
part of it is amazing.”
The show follows the plot of the animated
Disney film, and features six songs from its
Oscar-nominated score by composer Alan
Menken and lyricist David Zippel, who wrote
several additional songs for the performance.
Romero found himself transported back to
his childhood by hearing the original music,
which he would sing with his daughters
on the way home from rehearsals.
“We go home every day singing it. It’s
stuck in our heads, we’re in the train singing,”
he said. “I felt like a kid again.”
Romero and his two daughters, Isabelle,
8, and Mayiah, 5, took up acting classes at
the Sunset Park social services organization
Center for Family Life at the beginning
of this year. Public Works held auditions
at the 39th Street Center, and Romero
and his two kids secured parts at the beginning
of June. Isabelle will portray one
of the Three Fates, while her dad and sister
will play townspeople of Agora.
The organization also sourced thespians
from a weekly acting workshop at the
Brownsville Recreation Center. One participant
at the Brownsville site, who studied to
be an actor but ended up in a different field,
says that getting a part in the show has rekindled
her love for the art form after more
than a decade away from the stage.
“For me this is like a second chance, I’m
getting a second chance for real,” said Kariyma
Jo Ann Nelson, who was thrilled to
be cast as a townsperson of Thebes.
“To be able to come back to theater again
— I miss it,” she said. “I need this, and I
wanted to just get back involved.”
“Hercules” at Delacorte Theater in Central
Park enter at Central Park West and
81st Street in Manhattan, (212) 539–8500,
www.publictheater.org. Aug. 31–Sept. 2
and Sept. 5–8 at 8 p.m. Free tickets distributed
by an in-person lottery at the
Delacorte, each day from 5–7 p.m.
Sing of queens
Vocal fest welcomes drag show
Denny Daniel
Divine dancers: A stage version of the Disney musical “Hercules” will feature 61 non-professional actors from two Brooklyn community groups, shown in rehearsal.
Joan Marcus
Keep an eye out: Sunset Park 8-year-old Isabelle Romero, left, rehearses for
her role as one of the Three Fates, in the Public Theater’s production of “Hercules,”
opening in Central Park’s Delacorte Theater on Aug. 31.
Joan Marcus
Moustache and music: Stephanie Blythe will perform as her drag
queen persona Blythely Oratonio at the Resonant Bodies festival.
Photo by Paul Martinka
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