FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM FEBRUARY 8, 2018 • BUZZ • THE QUEENS COURIER 61
buzz
Take the Panorama Challenge at the Queens
Museum and get your team name etched on a trophy
BY ANGELA MATUA
amatua@qns.com / @
angelamatua
For the 11th year in a row,
the Queens Museum will host
the Panorama Challenge, a trivia
night meant to test challengers’
Two actors from Middle Village featured in off -Broadway play
BY RYAN KELLEY
rkelley@qns.com
Twitter @R_Kelley6
From gang violence and mass shootings
to suicide and self-defense, guns have
become an epidemic in America — and
an upcoming play featuring two Middle
Village actors takes aim at explaining
why.
In “Subway Story (A Shooting),” writer/
director William Electric Black attempts
to show the pressures faced by young
people that cause them to resort to violence.
Presented by the Th eater for the
New City, the show is the fi ft h and fi nal
chapter of Black’s “GUNPLAYS,” a series
of plays about urban gun violence. By setting
the story in a subway car, Black also
found a way to incorporate gender identity,
homelessness, sexual abuse, Dreamers
and Islamophobia into the subject matter.
“We’re in this culture where people are
mad and angry, and when you feel this
then you squeeze this all into the train,
we let it out on each other,” Black said.
“We’re constantly feeling the pressures of
surviving.”
Th e main character of the play is an
African-American teenage girl named
Chevonn who is working on a nonfi ction
essay for her junior English class.
Chevonn is physically abused by her
mother and sexually abused by her father
at home, and the character in her story
is trying to fi nd a gun to take home and
shoot her mother. As she rides the subway,
Chevonn tries to fi nd a gun by
talking to other people on the train, and
she ends up recording many of their stories
in her notebook.
One of the characters Chevonn meets
along the way is Emmett, a transgender
boy played by Middle Village resident
Natalie Marie Martino. Emmett is bullied
in school and has a gun that he plans
to use to commit suicide, but he off ers
it to Chevonn if she will agree to shoot
him fi rst.
Martino, 16, is a junior at Frank Sinatra
School of the Arts and
the youngest member of
the cast. She said that
being able to learn from
her elder cast members
and receiving feedback
from them has helped
her grow as an actress.
More importantly,
Martino researched the
history of being transgender,
spoke to a transgender
friend about
how they’re treated,
and came to understand
the struggles they go
through.
“I enjoy getting inside
the mind of people
struggling,” Martino
said. “Just seeing the way I’m viewed by
other characters and thinking about the
audience view of him, I think about how
we’re viewing each other in society.”
With plenty of serious and thought-provoking
material, “Subway Story (A
Shooting)” also needs some comedic
relief. Th at’s where fellow Middle
Village resident Jeremy Lardieri comes in.
His character is an MTA employee who
appears periodically in the train, carrying
a boombox with his shiny white gloved
hand and ready to do his best Michael
Jackson dancing impression.
Black is good friends with Lardieri’s
parents and has known him since he was
a toddler. Black recruited Lardieri to be
a choreographer and actor in some of
his past productions, and aft er Lardieri
took some time away from his hobby
to care for his newborn son, he was
eager to reunite with Black. Lardieri said
that “Subway Story (A Shooting)” is an
eye-opening show, but at the same time
very relatable.
“It’s very interesting to be part of something
that’s more in-your-face relevant,”
Lardieri said. “Th at night when people
leave and go on the subway, they’ll say,
‘Oh, there’s this character’ and ‘Th ere’s
that character’ and ‘I see that character
every day.”
For Black (born Ian Ellis James), creating
works for a greater purpose is a passion
for him now. Th e former Sesame
Street and Nickelodeon writer has seven
Emmy awards and is a faculty member
at NYU’s Tisch School. His hope is that
“Subway Story (A Shooting)” sells out
the small 60-seat theater its shown in and
ends up helping save some young people’s
lives, he said.
“Subway Story (A Shooting)” will be
shown at Th eater for the New City’s
Community Th eater at First Avenue and
E. 10th Street from Feb. 22 to March 18.
More information and tickets can be
found at the Th eater for the New City
Website or by calling the box offi ce at
212-254-1109.
Photos courtesy of Theater for the New City
Natalie Marie Martino (left) and Jeremy Lardieri (right) star in the
upcoming show “Subway Story (A Shooting)”
knowledge of New York City
facts.
Th e challenge will take place
at the world’s largest architectural
scale model at the museum,
which is located at Flushing
Meadows Corona Park grounds.
On March 2, MC Matt Apter
will read questions prepared by
quizmaster Jonathan Turer.
Judges will highlight clues
on the architectural model
with a laser and categories will
include Gotham Gangsters on
Film; McKim, Mead & White
sites; the Grammys; the movie
“Wonderstruck”; and the exhibit
“Never Built New York” at the
Queens Museum.
Teams of 10 will use the clues
and musical hints to fi nd the correct
answers and teams can organize
as Panorama Challengers or
Panorama Pros. Challengers will
have easier questions while Pros
will answer twice as many questions
per round for a total of 60.
Tour guides from Th e Levys’
Unique New York, which provides
private and group tours in
New York City, will match contestants
to teams.
All-woman Afro-Brazilian
samba reggae percussion band
Batala New York will perform
while judges tally the scores and
contestants will be able to purchase
sandwiches, snacks and
beverages. Rockaway Brewing
Company will provide beer.
Th e winning Pros team will
have its name etched on the
Panorama Challenge Trophy at
the Queens Museum.
Doors will open at 6 p.m. and
the challenge will offi cially start
at 7 p.m. General admission
tickets are $15 online and $20 at
the door. For Queens Museum
and City Reliquary members,
tickets cost $12 online and $15
at the door.
A free shuttle bus will travel
from the Mets-Willets Point
7 train stop from 5:30 to 7 p.m.
and 9 to 10 p.m.
Photo via Queens Museum
The Panorama Challenge will test participants’ knowledge of New York.