BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP BUZZ NOVEMBER 10 - NOVEMBER 16, 2017 31 BROOKLYN
CULTURE BRIEFS
COMPILED BY JAIME DEJESUS
LA TRAVIATA
Opera lovers should head to Our Lady of Perpetual
Help (OLPH) as the Regina Opera Company
presents a sneak preview of "La Traviata.”
Attendees will enjoy a free, fully staged performance
of Verdi’s tragedy. The opera, which
tells the story of a courtesan who sacrifices her
own happiness for the sake of her lover’s family,
will be sung in Italian with English supertitles,
and presented with piano accompaniment. The
conductor for this performance is Gregory Ortega
and the stage director is Linda Lehr.
The free event will take place at the OLPH
auditorium, 5902 Sixth Avenue, on Tuesday
November 14 at 7:30 p.m.
For more information, visit www.reginaopera.
org.
A TALK WITH DAVID
FREEMAN
The Brooklyn Public Library will host A Year
in the Wilderness: A Talk with Dave Freeman
on Tuesday, November 14 at 6:30 p.m. at the
Leonard Branch, 81 Devoe Street.
Amy and Dave Freeman are the authors of A
Year in the Wilderness, a rousing cry of witness
activism and a beautifully illustrated account of
their year living in the Boundary Waters Canoe
Area Wilderness to raise awareness about the
threats of sulfide-ore copper mining.
They have traveled over 30,000 miles by
canoe, kayak and dogsled through some of the
world’s wildest places, from the Amazon to
the Arctic. National Geographic named them
Adventurers of the Year in 2014.
The free presentation will be followed by
audience Q&A and signing.
For more information, visit http://www.
bklynlibrary.org/calendar.
PHOTOGRAPHY’S
PIONEER
Get to Green-Wood Cemetery for Photography’s
Pioneers.
Attendees will join Jeff Richman, Green-
Wood’s historian, on a first-ever tour of the pioneers
of photography who are now permanent
residents of the cemetery.
What will be revealed is a fascinating world
of innovators and inventors, including Francois
Gouraud, the agent Daguerre sent to America
to introduce his revolutionary creation; John
Draper, whose gravestone incorrectly states
that he was the first person to photograph a
human face in America and his son Henry, who
pioneered photographs of the moon, and more.
The event will be take place on Saturday,
New Utrecht grad "spiking"
in new Netflix series
BY MEAGHAN MCGOLDRICK
MMCGOLDRICK@BROOKLYNREPORTER.COM
Nearly a decade since
accidentally auditioning
for his first musical
during his junior year of high
school (he thought it was a talent
show), Bushwick native and New
Utrecht graduate Anthony Ramos
is gearing up for the release
of the first-ever Netflix original
series with his name on the bill.
The Class of ’09 public-school
alum – who has already made
a name for himself as the originator
of both John Laurens and
Philip Hamilton in Lin-Manuel
Miranda’s Grammy-Award
winning musical phenomenon
“Hamilton” – will star as Mars
Blackmon in the contemporary,
small-screen remake of Spike
Lee’s 1985 debut film “She’s
Gotta Have It.”
The show — in which Ramos
will play a character originated
by Lee in the now-30-year-old
movie — centers on Nola Darling,
a Brooklyn-based artist
in her late 20s, and her three
lovers: Greer Childs, Jamie
Overstreet and Blackmon.
“It’s a show about a woman living
in 2017 gentrified Brooklyn
truly exploring all aspects of her
life and living that life to the fullest,”
Ramos told this paper. “She’s
beautiful, she’s smart, she’s ambitious
and she just so happens
to have three lovers – and each
guy could not be more different.”
Blackmon, Ramos said, is “pretty
eccentric.”
“He brings out the child in
Nola,” he said of his character.
“I think he brings out the best in
Nola. I feel like maybe I’m a little
biased, but I’m Team Mars.”
As for his casting, Ramos said,
Lee seemed to seek him out.
“I think we were still in previews
for ‘Hamilton’ and Spike
came to see it,” he recalled. “He’s
sitting in, like, the fourth row
and all of a sudden we’re bowing
and I catch him pointing at me. I
looked over at my buddy Chris
Jackson who would stand next to
me during bows and said like, ‘Is
Spike Lee pointing at me?’
“He says, sort of through the
side of his mouth, ‘Well, he ain’t
pointing at me,’” Ramos went on.
“The next thing you know I get a
call, maybe a month later, and it’s
the simplest message: ‘Anthony,
it’s Spike Lee. Call me back.’”
And he did.
“I’m totally honored,” Ramos
said. “Spike could have had a
bunch of other people play this
role and he didn’t.”
Filming the project was a
switch for the public-school
alum, who has spent most of his
career on stages, big and small.
“It’s a different type of discipline,”
he explained. “On stage,
you’re keeping your energy up
for two to three hours, sometimes
even just an hour and a half. With
Spike, we were starting to shoot
at 5:30 in the morning and sometimes
going all night. And you’re
not shooting the whole time – you
could be first up, you could be last
up. You’ve gotta be ready to rock
for all 12 hours as opposed to just
a few on stage.”
As the series’ release date fast
approaches, Ramos said, the buzz
is growing – especially in his
Photos courtesy of Netflix
Anthony Ramos is
starring in a new Netflix
series, “She’s Gotta Have
It,” directed by Spike Lee.
home-borough, where much of
the show was filmed.
“Everyone is hype,” he said,
going on to cite specifically
his girlfriend, friends, family
and longtime mentor Sara
Steinweiss (who, he said is still
“freaking out” about a recent
“Will and Grace” cameo) as constant
pillars of support. “The
buzz is definitely spreading
in Brooklyn, especially with it
being something Spike Lee did.
Spike is a king in Brooklyn.
Brooklyn loves him and, man, I
love Brooklyn, so it’s a good look
for us out here.”
Even more than his own character,
Ramos is excited for the
world to meet Darling, and to see
what happens when Lee puts her
and Blackmon together. “I think
it’s gonna be dope,” he said.
Ramos’ co-stars include Cleo
Anthony as Childs, Lyriq Bent as
Overstreet and DeWanda Wise
as Darling.
“She’s Gotta Have It” will debut
on Netflix Thanksgiving Day,
Thursday, November 23.
When asked what advice he
has for local theater kids looking
for their big break, Ramos
answered simply: “Keep doing it
until you don’t want to.”