I just got back from two weeks in Spain and I’m tempted to tell you all about it, especially since local theater activity pretty much shuts down after May until the end of summer.
My tour took me to Barcelona and the north, into Basque country and the provinces of Cantabria, Asturias and Galicia, winding up in Madrid and Toledo. Among the highlights: Pamplona where you can run with the bulls in July; the resort town of San Sebastian on the Bay of Biscay; Bilbao, home of Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum; the heights of the Picos de Europa; a lot of wine and good food, and, well, you get the idea.
So, while recovering from jet lag and before losing my Spanish accent, let me call your attention once again to our very own Thalia Spanish Theatre on Greenpoint Avenue in Sunnyside. If you hurry, you can still catch the last of this season’s free outdoor concerts, the 17th annual year of Thalia al aire libre. It’s on Sunday, June 12, from 1-2 p.m., at Thomson Hill Park/Noonan Playground, where you’ll hear duets and arias from Spanish operettas (zarzuelas) and some romantic Latino love songs. Seems like a good place to snuggle with your sweetie.
And there are still two more weekends of the prize-winning comedy “No Problemo, Amigo”, by Colombian writer Jaime Espinal, about an office worker who becomes a superhero at night. Music will be supplied by Los 3 Certidos, which, of course, you know translates as The Three Little Pigs.
By the way, there’s no need to worry if your Spanish is close to non-existent. Thalia’s productions are always bilingual, and when there’s music and dance and dazzling-costumed performers, I can assure you that language is no obstacle.
Founded in 1977 in a former supermarket by Cuban-born actress and director Silvia Brito, Thalia is now led by Artistic/executive Director Angel Gil Orrios, a native of Spain, who took over in January 2000. A lot of the hard work it takes to keep a theater company going falls upon the non-Latino Kathy Giaimo, Milwaukee’s gift to Queens, the administrative director now in her 22nd year. For more information about Thalia, call (718) 729-3880, or access www.thaliatheatre.org.
Another active group in western Queens is The Astoria Performing Arts Center, celebrating its 10th anniversary season. APAC works out of the Good Shepherd United Methodist Church on Crescent Street, and it’s amazing how they can turn a gymnasium space into a real theater. Boasting of the 2010 Best Musical New York Innovative Theatre Award for its production of “Children of Eden”, its latest offering was “The Human Comedy”, the William Saroyan play made musically by “Hair” composer Galt Macdermot. Under the direction of Artistic Director Tom Wojtunik, the show was another example of APAC giving life to a seldom performed work.
If you’re looking for some good summer entertainment, and you haven’t saved up enough for a Broadway ticket, cross the river in July for the 12th annual Midtown International Theatre Festival. A roster of 22 plays and 11 musicals is available at 312 West 36th Street, and the top price is only $18. Then, for more of the same, Manhattan in August will be the scene for the Fringe Festival.
For you devoted readers who have made it to the end of this column, I have a couple of euros left from my trip to Spain if you can tell me how to open, without a struggle, the wrappings on airline food. For the challenges on my next flight, I need some answers.
Contact Ron Hellman at RBH24@Columbia.edu.
