6
BROOKLYN WEEKLY, MAY 5, 2019
New guide shows 111 of the
borough’s best-kept secrets
delicate character, who famously
“depends on the
kindness of strangers” soon
clashes with her sister’s
brutish husband Stanley.
Blanche and Stanley each
exemplify a certain very
traditional gender role,
said Peck, which makes
them fascinating foils.
“From the moment
they meet, Blanche and
Stanley are kind of these
polar opposite forces: he’s
kind of written as this archetype
of a blue-collar
alpha male who asserts
his masculine energy,
and Blanche is painted
as the opposite — she’s
very soft, feminine, privileged,
and delicate,” said
Peck. “Blanche brings
out things in Stanley that
he is not used to dealing
with, and he also kind
of awakens this beast in
Blanche as well.”
Peck felt a connection to
Blanche ever since studying
Williams in college,
and they brought a passion
to interrogate the roles that
gender plays in the show,
according to the director.
“They have been the
engine of this production
from the beginning, and
the source of all of the initial
artistic impulses that
have come through,” said
Kevin Hourigan.
Hourigan and the cast
had to secure permission
COLOR COMMENTARY: The bright costumes in “Pepperland”
recall the mod styles of the 1960s. Robbie Jack
PEPPER
from the Williams estate
to stage this production,
and the play is faithful to
the playwright’s original
text. But the non-traditional
casting highlights
how gender dictates the
power dynamics among
the characters, the director
said.
“We’re not trying to deconstruct
gender as much
as hold it up to the light and
examine how it’s working,”
he said.
“A Streetcar Named Desire”
at Mister Rogers (231
Rogers Ave. between President
and Union streets in
Crown Heights, www.wearemisterrogers.
com). May
7–25, Tue–Sat at 8 p.m.,
May 19 at 2 p.m. $30 ($35 for
reserved seating).
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changes to Courier Life, One MetroTech Center North, 10th Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201.
— originally slated for the
album, but released separately.
Those songs will be
matched by an equal number
of original, Pepper-inspired
tunes crafted by jazz
composer Ethan Iverson, all
performed live by a quirky
ensemble featuring the sax,
trombone, keyboard, vocals,
and a theremin, the psychedelic
electronic instrument
played without any physical
contact. The odd assembly
creates a sound that propels
the dancers in a unique direction,
said Grant.
“This is not the type
of band we typically work
with, to have these sounds
accompany our movement
is super fun and atypical,
it really feeds us on stage,”
she said.
The show started when
the city of Liverpool, home
of the Beatles, contracted
choreographer Mark Morris,
founder of Fort Greene’s
Mark Morris Dance Group,
to create a dance piece celebrating
the 50th anniversary
of the 1967 album. The
show premiered at Liverpool’s
“Sgt. Pepper at 50 Festival”
in 2017, and has since
toured the world. The May 8
opening will be its fi rst appearance
in New York City.
Morris’s choreography
incorporates an eclectic variety
of dance styles, which
refl ects the inspiration that
the Beatles found in music
throughout the world, said
Grant.
“There’s a pop dance feel
in some of this, there’s ballet,
and Indian dance, especially
during the ‘Within
You, Without You’ section,
which has some basis in Indian
music,” she said.
Catch “Pepperland” at
Brooklyn Academy of Music
30 Lafayette Ave. at Ashland
Place in Fort Greene,
(718) 636–4100, bam.org.
May 8–11 at 7:30 pm. $30–
$100.
Continued from cover
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
This is the guide of Kings!
A new book showcases
more than a hundred interesting
spots in Brooklyn,
going beyond the
usual tourist traps. “111
Places in Brooklyn That
You Must Not Miss” unveils
the borough’s quirky
and historic sites, which
the author hopes will lead
Kings County residents out
of their routines to rediscover
the objectively best
borough.
“As locals we form our
little routes to the subway
or shops that we frequent
and we at some point stop
looking as vigorously as
when we fi rst arrived,” said
John Major.
The Park Sloper fi rst
moved to Brooklyn some
two decades ago from Ohio,
and said that he has kept
the attitude of a visitor by
continually seeking out interesting
places in his adopted
home. His guide takes
explorers beyond Brooklyn
Heights brownstones and
Williamsburg bars to unveil
the borough’s vastness
and complexity — and its
weirdness, too.
For example, on the
fourth fl oor of City Point
you can discover the House
of Wax, where bartenders
stir craft cocktails against
a backdrop of eerie vintage
wax fi gures. Effi gies of German
Kaiser Wilhelm, Napoleon,
classical composers,
and the victims of gory
medical procedures made
their way from a 19th century
exhibit in Berlin, Germany,
to America’s Downtown,
according to Major.
“It’s just this very
weird, macabre experience
to be in there,” he said.
“They have great cocktails
and about 25 beers on tap,
meanwhile you’re sitting
at the bar and you’re staring
at these faces of history
looking back at you.”
Also in the book is a
row of 19th-century houses
in Crown Heights, on Buffalo
Avenue between Bergen
Street and St. Marks
Avenue. Here you will fi nd
the remnants of the 1830s
African-American enclave
Weeksville, named after
its founder, former slave
James Week, who bought
the two lots of land and sold
houses to black men, who
were only allowed to vote
at the time if they owned
property.
Only a couple of buildings,
known as the Hunterfl
y Road Houses, remain,
but they show how Brooklynites
have fought to liberate
the suppressed for centuries,
according to Major.
“To me it represents this
real pride personally, that
Brooklyn has this piece of
history within it,” he said.
Major found some of his
111 entries through online
research, but he said that
the old-fashioned method
of walking around neighborhoods
and getting the
locals’ recommendations
still holds up in the information
age.
“What better recommendation
can you get
than from someone who
lives there and takes great
pride in sharing a place
that’s important to them?”
he asked.
Meeting people with
a deep knowledge about
where they are from was a
great pleasure during his
journey, he said.
“People who are so passionate
about that history
— I fi nd it so fun to be in
the presence of people who
have a real passion,” he
said.
“111 Places in Brooklyn
That You Must Not
Miss” by John Major.
www.111places.com. In
bookstores now. $19.90.
WAX WORK: John Major’s new guide book “111 Places in Brooklyn
That You Must Not Miss” includes Downtown’s House of Wax bar.
Photo by Kevin Duggan
DESIRE
Continued from cover
/www.111places.com
/www.wea-remisterrogers.com
/www.wea-remisterrogers.com
/www.wea-remisterrogers.com
/bam.org
/www.111places.com