Old Guard, New Rooms: A Week Ridgewood Got Its First Curtain and Forest Hills Got Its Dylan

New York spent this week handing its stages to two different kinds of newcomer: the veterans finally getting a room built to their scale, and the rooms themselves, opening for the first time. Bob Dylan played through a tornado warning at Forest Hills. Three of jazz’s most restless improvisers took over the Village Vanguard for six straight nights. And in Ridgewood, a former sweater factory hung its first curtain. Nobody was debuting this week so much as arriving — some after decades, some after a renovation.

Theater

Ridgewood got its first curtain of the summer: Adult Film’s inaugural production at Modern Sweater, a converted sweater factory turned performance space, opened Woyzeck on July 15 and runs Wednesday through Saturday into August 15 — Seth Bockley directing a 70-minute, intermission-less staging of Büchner’s class-conflict horror, with Blue Man Group veteran Randall Jaynes among the cast. BroadwayWorld

At the cell’s twenty-seat Gallery Space, Ryan Drake’s Big Feelings — Julia Greer playing a first-grade teacher unraveling on her last day of school — closed a sold-out run July 23; TheaterMania called it “one of my favorite plays of the year.” TheaterMania

And Central Park’s summer institution turned a page of its own: Free Shakespeare in the Park began previews of The Winter’s Tale at the Delacorte July 25, Daniel Sullivan’s twelfth production there, with Raúl Esparza and Lily Rabe leading a cast that includes Chuck Cooper and Steven Skybell ahead of an August 11 opening. The Public Theater

Independent Film

IFC Center opened Potsy Ponciroli’s Motor City July 24, an Alan Ritchson-led 1970s Detroit revenge thriller built almost entirely without dialogue and scored like opera; In Review Online called the approach “audacious” for a film willing to trust its images over its script. Deadline In Review Online

The New York Asian Film Festival closed out its 25th-anniversary edition with the North American premiere of Na Hong-Jin’s Cannes sensation Hope at SVA Theatre July 20, capping a complete retrospective of the director’s four features; Na received the festival’s Daniel A. Craft Award for Excellence in Action Cinema the same night. Variety

BAM’s “Contemporary Arab Cinema” series, previewed here last week, wrapped its nine-day run July 23 with the Umm Kalthum biopic El Sett and Venice Grand Jury Prize winner The Voice of Hind Rajab among the lineup. BAM

Music

Bob Dylan brought his Long Hot Summer Tour to Forest Hills Stadium July 21, playing through a tri-state tornado warning that canceled a Yankees game and Dave Matthews’ Jones Beach date the same night; Glide Magazine praised the 85-year-old’s “understated authority,” backed by Lucinda Williams and Jimmie Vaughan. Glide Magazine

Downtown at the Garden, Phish opened a non-consecutive five-night stand July 22 — continuing July 24, 25, 27, and 29 — their 92nd through 96th Madison Square Garden shows; opening night’s setlist leaned on 1992-era references and rarities unplayed since the ’90s. Far Out Magazine

At the Village Vanguard, pianist Kris Davis, saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, and drummer Tyshawn Sorey took over the storied basement room for a rare six-night trio engagement, July 21 through 26 — three of the instrument’s most exploratory current voices sharing one of jazz’s oldest stages. Village Vanguard

Eartheater closed out the run previewed here last week: two release shows at Bowery Ballroom, July 24 and 25, behind Heavenly Body: If I’m the Bottle You’re the Message, an album that reframes pregnancy as a vessel for something larger than itself. Bandcamp

Visual Arts & Other

Two threads from last week closed out: Williamsburg’s Our Lady of Mount Carmel feast wrapped its 139th, twelve-day run July 19 Brooklyn Paper, and Governors Island’s poetry festival closed with its first-ever after-party, a communal toast to fifteen years of keeping poetry free. Governors Island

Up in the Bronx, WallWorks New York’s “Inspiration Point” closes out its run July 31 at 710 Tiffany Street — worth the trip north before it comes down. WallWorks New York

At the Joyce, Mark Morris Dance Group’s “American Heartbeat: Country and Western” program returned July 23 and 25, part of a three-program repertory season that includes the New York premiere of Pizzica. Mark Morris Dance Group

Coming Up

• Kerry Washington’s last night — she plays her final performance in The Whoopi Monologues Aug 2 before Jurnee Smollett steps into the role Aug 4. Deadline
• John Berger at 100 — Metrograph, Film at Lincoln Center, BAM, Anthology Film Archives, and the Museum of the Moving Image open a five-venue centennial series for the critic and filmmaker, beginning July 29 at Film at Lincoln Center. Film at Lincoln Center
• Phish’s final two nights — the MSG stand closes out July 27 and 29. Far Out Magazine
• Woyzeck continues — Ridgewood’s newest stage keeps its debut run going Wednesday through Saturday at Modern Sweater, through Aug 15. BroadwayWorld

Takeaway