A Few of My Favorite Things: A 2015 Wrap Up
It’s hard to believe that there is only a week left of 2015! My first season here is flying by. For my final blog post of the year, I wanted look back and to share with you some photos and highlights of the season so far.
Here I am backstage after the Thalia Book Club: Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels with legendary director John Waters and actress Zoe Kazan. John Waters made a quip onstage that only women and gay men had read all four books of Ferrante’s Neapolitan series. I told him that I am living proof that at least some straight men had read it — although going from the audience at our event, we are in the minority!
Rick Riordan, author of Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, is a phenomenon with a rabid following in the tween demographic. And they came out in force for a Thalia Book club to hear Rick talk about his new series Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard.
One of the perks of being the son of the Artistic Director. My 10-year-old Sebastiano gets to meet Rick Riordan before the event. He kept it together, but afterwards Sebastiano said he felt overwhelmed meeting his hero.
We opened Project Fifteen with a marathon Sinatra show. Over nine hours, 100 songs made famous by Sinatra were performed by more than 50 artists. One of the many highlights was an appearance by actor and singer Tony Danza. He even wowed the crowd with some tap dancing. Who knew?
Backstage at the Arthur Miller Centennial show in October. Laurie Kennedy, Brian Dennehy, Jack Doulin, Rebecca Miller, and Tony Kushner. Brian said he appeared as Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman 750 times in the 1990s!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eLt-0QmV5g
Singer Anne Carrere had the audience eating out of her hand in Piaf: The Show. She even got the audience singing along with “La vie en rose” as you can hear in this clip.
Humans of New York — a project featuring a blog and bestselling book of street portraits and interviews from the streets of New York — came to Symphony Space for a special Selected Shorts last month. The creator and photographer Brandon Stanton was on hand to introduce the event (with the evening’s host Brandon J. Dirden on the left). Not surprisingly this Selected Shorts event sold out in a flash. Humans of New York’s facebook page has over 16 million followers!
All photos: Rahav “Iggy” Segev (with the exception of my backstage Riordan iPhone shot.)
