Food is the theme downtown this weekend. At Danspace Project’s popular Food for Thought benefit series, the admission price of two cans of food and $5 will get you the chance to chose from three nights of innovative choreography. All canned proceeds collected over the weekend benefit St. Mark’s Church’s food program. Curators for this weekend are participants in the Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance (ICPP) at Wesleyan University: Lydia Bell(Thursday), Héloïse Darcq (Friday), and Jane Gabriels (Saturday).
If you find yourself hungry for all things Middle Eastern, head over to the New York Theater Workshop for the premier of Noor Theatre Company’s Food and Fadwa. They write: Family traditions and food are at the heart of this new play that tells the story of Fadwa Faranesh, an unmarried, 30-something Palestinian woman living in Bethlehem in the politically volatile West Bank. Known for her delectable cooking and deep-seated sense of duty to her family and aging father, Fadwa escapes reality through her quirky cooking show, as she prepares for the wedding of her younger sister despite the hardships of daily life under occupation. Politics blend with family tensions to “create a sometimes humorous and sometimes heartbreaking meal of a play that melds the fight a Palestinian family wages to hold onto its traditional culture with its need to celebrate love, joy, and hope.
New York Theatre Workshop Artistic Director James C. Nicola notes, “Five years in the making, the play’s production represents not just the arrival of a new writing voice in Lameece Issaq and Jacob Kader, but also the emergence of a new theatre company that makes new work from a Middle Eastern-American perspective.”
Food for Thought: Danspace Project // May 17 – 19 // 8pm // $5 with two cans of food, $10 without // No reservations.
Food for Fadwa: New York Theater Workshop // previews begin May 18 // 8pm // $65.
