Save Our Stages

I've had the idea to do a series of drawings of theaters for awhile. The closure of Broadway has drained Times Square of its overwhelming crowds. This has made it a great spot for urban sketching, but has also make it an especially depressing landscape. It is surreal to walk through block after block of shuttered theaters, empty of the throngs of tourists, workers, and hustlers that clog the streets in normal times.

I'd wanted to see Hadestown. I have a bad habit of procrastinating on going to see a show and then it closes. How was I to know that they would ALL close? Who knows how many of these shows will be able to re-open? Even if theaters were allowed to re-open tomorrow, they'd be subject to a limit of 25% capacity, and it is impossible for any production to operate at those numbers, even the big commercial shows.

Built in 1929, the Loew's Kings Theatre on Flatbush Ave. was one of the five flagship "Loew's Wonder Theatres." It fell into decline and was shuttered in the 1970's, lying vacant and derelict until being renovated in 2015 by the ACE Theatrical Group out of Houston. It is now shuttered again, like every other performance venue. On this day, the awning was shelter for a homeless man.

This one I drew three years ago. At the other end of the spectrum from Broadway are a number of tiny venues like this one. Their survival is tenuous in the best of times; I don't know how they will weather this situation. The commercial houses and big institutions will come back at some point, but these little theaters?

The Joyce Theater, a dance performance space on 8th Ave. On the side of the building is a quote from choreographer Twyla Tharp: "Art is the only way to run away without leaving home."

The Lunt-Fontanne Theater. Comedy and Tragedy, and maybe that's Dionysus in the middle? I'm not sure. These Greek theatrical masks are a reminder that live performance has survived a multitude of plagues, wars, failing governments, and disasters for millennia, and will surely survive this. The Tina Turner musical was playing here when Broadway shut down. A giant banner above the marquee reads: "I've rarely heard an audience with this mighty a roar."

Webster Hall is one of the most historically significant halls in New York City, and has been recognized as the first modern nightclub. It was designated a New York City Landmark in 2008. It was built in 1886 as a "hall for hire," hosting labor union rallies, weddings, lectures, concerts and other events, particularly focusing on the working-class and immigrant population of the Lower East Side, and gained a reputation for leftist, socialist, Anarchist and labor activity. In the 1910s and 20s, it became known for masquerade balls and soirees of the Bohemians, earning the nickname "The Devil's Playhouse." It became known as primarily a music venue in the 1950s, featuring Latin artists, such as Tito Puente and Tito Rodriguez, and folk artists like Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie. Over the next 70 years it featured just about every major musical act you can think of, from every genre, and countless more that you've never heard of. In the first half of the 20th Century, it survived at least five fires, as well as the 1918 pandemic. Will it survive the 2020 pandemic?

The Brooklyn Academy of Music is the oldest performing arts center in America, founded in 1861. Originally located in Brooklyn Heights on Montague St., that building burned down in 1903.

This building was then commissioned for Lafayette Ave. in Fort Greene, designed by architects Henry Herts and Hugh Tallant, who also designed the New Amsterdam Theater and the Lyceum Theater. It opened in 1908 with a production of Faust starring Enrico Caruso and Geraldine Farrar. It quickly became a predominant venue in the city, featuring legendary performers such as Isadora Duncan, Paul Robeson, Sarah Bernhardt, and Rudolf Nureyev, and speeches by Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.

In 1967, Harvey Lichtenstein was appointed executive director, and over a 32 year tenure, BAM was revitalized and became known as a center for progressive and avant-garde performance, as well as film. It has featured a multitude of international artists, including Philip Glass, Trisha Brown, Peter Brook, Pina Bausch, Merce Cunningham, Bill T Jones, Laurie Anderson, Peter Sellars, Robert Wilson, Mark Morris, and many more.