THE WEST VILLAGE CHORALE SUMMER SINGS SERIES |It’s easy enough to nod your head in agreement and beam a beatific smile when the calendar says “December” and a cheery caroler implores you to keep Christmas in your heart all year long — but just try to muster that sentiment during the dog days of August, when sunstroke-induced hallucination is the closest you’re likely to get to hearing those sleigh bells jingling, ring-ting-tingling too. But on August 22, you can rest assured that the sounds of a holiday classic wafting from Judson Memorial Church are firmly rooted in reality. That’s when the West Village Chorale (WVC) concludes the 45th season of its Summer Sings series by plucking a favorite from its holiday repertoire: Handel’s “Messiah.” Patrick Gardner, director of choral studies at Rutgers and conductor of the Riverside Choral Society, does baton duties, as you raise your voice alongside an assemblage of vocalists from the multiplicity of choruses in the New York area. Scores, intermission refreshments, and piano accompaniment are provided, alongside the very real sense that nearly eight full months into the year, it’s beginning to look (or at least sound) a lot like Christmas.
Mon., Aug. 22, 7:30pm at Judson Memorial Church (55 Washington Sq. South, at Thompson St.). Tickets: $15 general, $10 students. Visit westvillagechorale.org for more info, including auditions for the group that begin on Aug. 30.
AMY STILLER WORKSHOPS “JUST TRUST” | You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen; and Jerry and Ben, and also, Anne Meara — but do you recall, the least-known Stiller of all? If not, it’s the right time to discover what you’ve been missing. First seen by this scribe quite a few years back, in solo performance at PS122, Stiller burst onto the stage with a silent, frenetic, unbelievably lengthy Irish Step Dance — milking that genre’s hypnotic intensity and disciplined physicality for maximum comedic effect by revealing a slight, only occasional, hairline fracture in her brave façade. Aiming high and keeping up, her manic task implied, has its rewards: but stare at the struggle too long, and it begins to unravel under the weight of multiple absurdities. Flash forward to 2016, and Amy’s new project finds her “striving to emotionally survive as the only non-famous person in a very famous family.” Still in the workshop phase, “Just Trust” comes to Dixon Place for one night only, mere weeks after it kicked off Cornelia Street Cafe’s SOLOFEST series of one-person performances. “Trust” promises to be a fitting showcase for the wry, raw, self-aware, and, above all, empathetic Amy, who has managed to carve a distinct niche within the Stiller clan — as well as the crowded field of self-reflective writer/performers who mine the days of their lives for comedic gold.
Tues., Aug. 23, 7:30pm at Dixon Place (161A Chrystie St., btw. Rivington & Delancey Sts.). For tickets, ($15 in advance, $18 at the door; $12 for students/seniors), visit dixonplace.org or call 212-219-0736.
FRINGE AL FRESCO: “A HISTORY OF SERVITUDE” | Through next weekend, all manner of dance, comedy, drama, and off-the-deep-end FringeNYC productions are taking place at various Downtown venues, at the reasonable price of $18 per seat — but there’s no price quite like $0, and there’s no more authentic way to get back to the campfire roots of storytelling than seeing a show in the great outdoors. To that end, the largest multi-arts festival in North America includes a Fringe Al Fresco series of free, open-air productions. Featured in this year’s series is “A History of Servitude,” which takes you on a sweeping tour through time, and across the globe. An eclectic international cast — whose ranks include Philadelphia-born Israeli-American actor Yair Ben-Dor, of ABC’s “Quantico” — uses Commedia del’Arte-style physical comedy, acrobatics, and song to examine history from a working class point of view. Did Einstein’s maid put a bug in his ear when he was formulating the Theory of Relativity? Did Shakespeare live off the fat of a janitor’s genius, as opposed to that of Francis Bacon? Find out, when street theater troupe The Department of Fools focuses their penchant for satire on the folly of pride and the power of the underdog.
Free. Runtime: 60 minutes. Sat., Aug. 20, 3:15pm; Sun., Aug. 21, 3:45pm; Fri., Aug. 26, 4:45pm; Sat., Aug. 27, 2:15pm. At FringeLOUNGE at the Clemente (107 Suffolk St., btw. Rivington & Delancey Sts.). Visit fringenyc.org and departmentoffools.wordpress.com.
—BY SCOTT STIFFLER
