I Love the Night Life (3)

One of the things I most looked forward to when I moved to New York in 1975 was going to the theater. I made the magnificent sum of $150.00/week and it wasn't all that magnificent. But somehow I squeezed visits to theater into my budget, even if it meant eating a big pretzel for lunch on occasion.

One of the mainstays of my theater going for the last dozen years has been the Pearl Theater Company. I attend with a friend I used to work with -- a nice way to keep in touch -- and we see five plays a season. The Pearl puts on "classic" plays, usually one Shakespeare play, maybe Ibsen or Chekhov or a Greek tragedy. We've seen Moliere, Strindberg, Shaw, and one of my all time favorites, "The Venetian Twins" by Goldoni. I'd never heard of Goldoni or the play and it was one of the funniest afternoons of my life.

The Pearl meets in a small, far off-Broadway (St. Mark's Place -- 8th Street -- and First Avenue) in the East Village. Though somewhat off my usual haunts it's been fun to be in a different neighborhood. It's much more of a student neighborhood with lots of NYU housing in the area. They're moving to W. 55th Street and tonight was my last visit to E. 8th Street. We saw "Vieux Carre," a moderately obscure play by Tennessee Williams. I was prepared to leave at intermission if it was slow, but I enjoyed it very much and even stayed for the Director's Talk that followed. The director was Austin Pendleton, who has been in many television shows, as well as being a theater director.

Here are a few other pictures of the evening. The first is a new building for the Cooper Union, the engineering school. Candidate Lincoln spoke at the school in February 1860.

The second photo is E. 8th Street before the play and bottom photo is lively 8th St. after the play. I was walking to catch the bus. It's 10:30 and there are lots of people around. It was a beautiful warm evening and people were out walking, eating at sidewalk cafes and just enjoying the evening.

I do love living in New York, though I did have a moment of doubt tonight. I was taking the subway to the theater and for some unknown reason the train skipped my stop. I changed trains, went back a stop and walked/ran the three blocks to the theater. I wasn't beaming, but did have the presence to take a few photos to share.

Thanks, gentle readers, for all your great comments. I love sharing New York!