The New York City Street Players

LOTS PLANNED!

2012-03-15T11:42:00.001-07:00

HELLO AMERICA!

The NYC Street Players will be gargantuanly busy this season! Join us for any or ALL of our events, each of which is FREE and OUTDOORS!

May 12th - Hudson River Pageant - Hudson River Park, Pier 40, NYC

June 9th + 10th - Figment Festival - Governor's Island, NYC

June 16th - Clearwater Festival (Tentative!) - Clearwater, NY

June 23rd - Mermaid Parade - Coney Island, NYC

July 14th - Wikimania (Tentative!) - George Washington University, Washington D.C.

August 11th - The Fresh Ground Pepper Circus, TBA NYC

HOWL! Festival (whenever it ends up being!) - Tompkins Square Park, NYC

We will be performing our newest physical comedy: HENRY HUDSON'S SOLAR STEAMBOAT!

SEE YOU THERE!

WHAT ARE THE NEW YORK CITY STREET PLAYERS?

2012-01-26T10:23:00.002-08:00

WHO - The New York City Street Players is a group of humans who play in the streets of New York City. We are performance artists, musicians, actors, bards, dancers, writers, poets, clowns, breathers, lovers, magicians, thinkers, singers, buskers, laughers, and leaders. We are a newly formed group, formed because we think New York City needs us to restore places like Union Square to their rightful functions.

WHAT - Free Outdoor Public Behavior

WHERE - Parks and public spaces in New York City

WHEN - Now (Summer 2012)

HOW - With imagination, memorization, and colorful costumes.

WHY - 1.) To promote a standard of human connection/compassion versus a standard of isolation/ignorance. 2.) To open/further a dialogue about the nature of living in this cyber-city. 3.) Because theater is not a place but a voice. 4.) To return to the ancient tradition of theater as a community gathering event. 5.) For fun.

WAHOOO!

2011-10-08T00:03:00.001-07:00

Meet me there on Monday for more FUN!

OUR PERFORMANCE at HUDSON RIVER PAGEANT 2011

2011-09-22T10:15:00.001-07:00

The NYC Street Players perform at FGP LAY MIZ!

2011-08-03T20:40:00.000-07:00

2011-08-01T19:38:00.000-07:00

This guy is picking up what I am putting down. I have seen him perform, now on a saxophone. He is great!

Henry Hudson 2011 Photos Up On Facebook!

2011-05-31T22:29:00.000-07:00

AHOY!

We have completed our performance in this year's Hudson River Pageant!

There are photos up on Facebook, courtesy of the lovely Siobhan O'Loughlin. HERE THEY ARE! They're of our rehearsal at my apartment and our set-up for the performance, and the parade after. Too bad there are none of the performance itself because Siobhan was performing with us so she couldn't take pictures!

More soon!

- DREW

Announcing! Henry Hudson and the Myth of the Crying Clouds!

2011-05-16T10:44:00.000-07:00

At 2:50 pm on Saturday May 21st The New York City Street Players will be performing another environmental theatrical piece on the deck of the Queen of Hearts Steamboat! Just south of Christopher Street in Hudson River Park, as a part of the Hudson River Pageant. Please come out to support!

See parade schedule here.

The piece is written/directed by Drew Vanderburg and will feature music from members of the Rude Mechanical Orchestra. It marks the 400th anniversary of the mutiny of Hudson's crew and his subsequential abandonment on a boat-cast-adrift in the Hudson Bay. He was never seen or heard from again. The 5-minute-play's story is that he in fact lived a long happy life with Native Americans and fell in love with the land that he discovered. He dies at the source of the Hudson River, Lake Tear of the Clouds. The clouds cry for his death and the flow of their tears creates the river.

Fulton's Fanfare Pictures!

2010-10-05T18:36:00.000-07:00

Hello Humans,

Here are some pictures from Fulton's Fanfare, a short environmentally conscious performance piece that the NYCSP did in The Hudson River Pageant.

It took place on The Queen Of Hearts, a steamship in the Hudson River.

We joined the parade afterwards and enjoyed a celebration in the grass!

Stayed tuned for more jubilant site-specific performance from The New York City Street Players!

ANNOUNCING! Fulton's Fanfare! May 22nd!

2010-03-23T21:05:00.000-07:00

Ahoy!

Please drop in at Hudson River Park on May 22nd to see a bewildering parade of ecological love! The parader will travel from the World Financial Center at Vesey St. north to Gansevoort Street at 14th St. between 1 and 6pm! Smack in the middle, at 2:50pm (give or take), we, The New York City Street Players, will be presenting our newest play!

Our piece, entitled Fulton's Fanfare, will be 5 minutes long and will re-enact the maiden voyage of The Clermont, Robert Fulton's steamship, which was the first ship to travel from New York City to Albany in 1807. Our "re-enactment" will have HORNS, FLAGS, DANCE, SONG, SMILES and CELEBRATION. We will thank the Hudson River for all that she has given the people of NYC.

PEACE

A classic blunder by the NYCSP!

2009-12-16T23:40:00.000-08:00

AHOY

2009-10-16T10:30:00.000-07:00

Pull once more fools, pull once more!

Dear New York Citizens,

Above is a picture from Bread and Puppet. I was there summer 2009 and it rocked. Here are some more pictures from the farm in Glover, Vermont!

Stilters practicing after a parade in Cabot, Vermont.

The magical pine forest.

Mother nature, built of love.

Peter Schumann, age 75, artistic director of Bread and Puppet, baking bread.

Backstage during the Dirt Cheap Money Circus.

Sheep and Chicken ride bikes to Glover Day!

Oh there's so much more. Impossible to describe. See for yourself!

2008-10-13T10:25:00.000-07:00

Images of Euro-Americas Clown Carnival!

This whole thing sounds wonderful and tempting to me.

I love to laugh! Pass the fizzy-lifting-drink!

UNTIL TONIGHT!

2008-09-20T13:16:00.000-07:00

The Passions of Amoroso has come to an end. It has been an experiment. It has only been one step on a long path. It was a step up.

Things I learned:

The path is longer than I thought.
Vocals are mostly useless outdoors. Actions speak louder.
Stillness is valuable and focus-in-able.
Banana peels actually are extremely slippery!
Bethesda Terrace rocks.
Police don't care about this kind of stuff at all.
There is a high degree of competition for street performance space in NYC.
Commedia costumes are expensive. Actions speak louder.
Stage managers are glorious.
MUSIC MAKES THE PEOPLE COME TOGETHER.
plus more more more...

Remember: THE SHOW IS ALWAYS HAPPENING. IT NEVER STARTED AND IT NEVER ENDS. ("Life flows on within you and without you." - George Harrison)

"If civilization is the exploiter, the masses is nature, and the party is the poets." - Gary Snyder (from Revolution in the Revolution in the Revolution)

Thanks for everything this summer. Thanks for loving.

PEACE,
Drew

"High five if you know you're alive; human connection's what makes us thrive!"

ARTS ON PIER 36 presents: ART FESTIVAL on Pier 36!!!

2008-09-03T11:30:00.001-07:00

Featuring the New York City Street Players!

Pier 36 is located off of Montgomery Street on the East River.
With a view of old Brooklyn warehouses, the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges and the Statue of Liberty, Pier 36 is one of NYC's best kept secrets!

Come join us for a day of art, performance and expression featuring:
Aris Ziagos, Shoot the Messenger, Masala Jam, Jami Jacskson, Elise Knudson and Second Life, Carolyn Ota, Lydia Bell, Seen Performance, El Grito de Poetas, Alexa Benoit, Alexis Liston, Aguila Marrero and Reina Miranda, Ze'ev Willy Neumann, Michelle Hunter, Permanent Parade and Spilt Milk Productions, The New York City Street Players, Brian Starkey and more...!

Directions to the Pier: Take the F Train to the East Broadway stop, make a right when you exit subway and walk to Montgomery Street, then walk as far East as possible, all the way to the river and you will find Pier 36.

For more information on our artists, schedule and location, please
check our blogspot: www.artsonpier36.blogspot.com

Calendar of Events

2008-08-16T08:57:00.000-07:00

ALL SHOWS FREE and FUN!

The WHY CHEAP ART? Manifesto is alive and well.

2008-07-30T20:05:00.001-07:00

HURRAH! The month of August is READY FOR YOU!

2008-07-30T20:02:00.000-07:00

Our show is on the road
prepared for your enjoyment
our props are in a suitcase
prepared for its deployment.

This ART is cheaper than I thought
and fourteen times more fun
come out and see us dance and sing
one for all and all for one.

About the NYCSP

2008-07-09T23:12:00.000-07:00

WHO - The New York City Street Players is a group of humans who play in the streets of New York City. We are performance artists, musicians, actors, bards, dancers, writers, poets, clowns, breathers, lovers, magicians, thinkers, singers, buskers, laughers, and leaders. We are a newly formed group, formed because we think New York City needs us to restore places like Union Square to their rightful functions.

WHAT - Free Outdoor Public Behavior

WHERE - Parks and public spaces in New York City

WHEN - Now (Summer 2008)

HOW - With imagination, memorization, and colorful costumes.

WHY - 1.) To promote a standard of human connection/compassion versus a standard of isolation/ignorance. 2.) To open a dialogue about the nature of living in this cyber-city. 3.) Because theater is not a place but a voice. 4.) To return to the ancient tradition of theater as a community gathering event. 5.) For fun.

Cast List

2008-06-10T23:24:00.000-07:00

Amoroso/Harlequin/Scapin
Oscar Alvarez
Drew Vanderburg
Michael Lister

Amorella/Columbine
Gemma Kaneko
Kyla Drukman
Lilly Alia
Devon Caraway

Zannis
Everybody

Mud to Mud: The Death of Eddie Boros

2008-06-02T07:41:00.000-07:00

A beacon of curmudgeony hope and rotwood dadaism has come and gone in our East Village. At April's end New York City shared the last breath of Eddie Boros. He was the man responsible for the sculptural phenomenon known as the Tower of Toys, a cantankerously lumbering celebration thrusting from his 30-years-owned plot in the Avenue B Garden. The man had planted trees in the Korean War. The man had both legs amputated. The man spoke with me one sunny day, and was gruff, but beautiful.

As I added some trash of my life to the dumpster outside the garden which, a month after Eddie's passing, contained the corpse of his unique tower, I spoke to a local gardener. We agreed that although sad to see the city take the artwork down, it was fitting. She said that Eddie had always loved the everchanging nature of art, desiring the ceaseless morphing of his creation as the leaves of a plant would grow, shrivel, and sprout again. But since his amputation the tower had stagnated. Now his death and the city's euthanasia had opened fallow grounds for a bunch of new plots in the community-run garden. New life will rise.

Left behind, too, is a new view of the sky.

Temperance Fountain during NY Dance Parade

2008-05-19T16:56:00.000-07:00

After sashaying the city with the New York Dance Parade last Saturday, we arrived at the stages of Thompkins Square Park for the party. To my exuberant delight a group of gorgeous redclothen dancers had embraced the Temperance Fountain for its balanced architecture and bath of sunlight.

Inaugural Adventure - SUMMER 2008

2008-04-07T00:05:00.000-07:00

This is
an open invitation
to AUDITION
for...

The Passions of Amoroso is an 18 minute long play of the Commedia dell'Arte, containing:

Cast of Characters
Amoroso - A Lover
Amorella - A Lover
Harlequin - A Fool/Seer
Columbine - A Fool/Seer
Scapin - A Soldier

(The play also contains several Zannis who play small comic roles. You may be cast in multiple roles. I wish to double, triple, or quadruple cast each role so that we can have as much flexibility and fun as possible. You may have different scene partners during different performances.)

AUDITIONS

(Meet @ Gandhi statue on USW between 14th and 15th)

This production will be done as a FREE PUBLIC performance OUTDOORS from approximately August 1st - August 31st, 2008. Performances will probably be at 7pm on any/every day that we can get the right characters together. Rehearsals will also be on a flexible schedule casually over the course of June and July.
(Any money the audience drops in our hat we share.)

Note: I do not want "actors". I want behavers, misbehavers, thinkers, singers, lovers, fools/seers, soldiers, breathers, humans. Prepare nothing but come prepared for everything.

WHO - The New York City Street Players is a group of humans who play in the streets of New York City. We are performance artists, musicians, actors, bards, dancers, writers, poets, clowns, breathers, lovers, magicians, thinkers, singers, buskers, laughers, and leaders. We are a newly formed group, formed because we think New York City needs us to restore places like Union Square to their rightful functions.

WHAT - Free Outdoor Public Behavior

WHERE - Parks and public spaces in New York City

WHEN - Now (Summer 2008)

HOW - With imagination, memorization, and colorful costumes.

WHY - 1.) To promote a standard of human connection/compassion versus a standard of isolation/ignorance. 2.) To open a dialogue about the nature of living in this cyber-city. 3.) Because theater is not a place but a voice. 4.) To return to the ancient tradition of theater as a community gathering event. 5.) For fun.