So much joy!! I got to celebrate Pride on Little Island, New York City’s new public park in Hudson River Park by W. 13th Street, photographing the dress rehearsal of Artist-in-Residence Tina Landau’s Tina and Friends: BYOB (Bring Your Own Beautiful) at The Amph on Saturday afternoon.
The Pride month headliner for Little Island, Tina & Friends: BYOB (Bring Your Own Beautiful) was Tina’s celebration of inclusion and all things beautiful, and acknowledged the Pier’s long history with the LGBTQIA+ community.
Tina Landau is a writer, director and teacher whose work includes directing/conceiving SpongeBob Squarepants: The Broadway Musical, Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Head of Passes (Steppenwolf, The Public and the Mark Taper Forum), WIG OUT! (Vineyard Theatre), and In the Red and Brown Water (The Public), Bill Irwin/David Shiner’s Old Hats, Chuck Mee’s Big Love and Iphigenia 2.0 (all Signature Theatre), Paula Vogel’s A Civil War Christmas (New York Theatre Workshop) and her musical Floyd Collins (also bookwriter/additional lyrics, Playwrights Horizons). On Broadway, Landau has also directed Tracy Letts’s Superior Donuts and the revival of Bells are Ringing. At Steppenwolf, where she is an ensemble member, directing credits include The Wheel, Hot L Baltimore, The Brother/Sister Plays, The Tempest, The Time of Your Life (also Seattle Rep, ACT), The Diary of Anne Frank, The Cherry Orchard, The Ballad of Little Jo, Berlin Circle and her own play Space (also Mark Taper Forum, the Public). Landau has co-authored The Viewpoints Book with Anne Bogart and has taught regularly at such schools as Yale, Columbia, Harvard and Northwestern. Upcoming projects include a follow-up book with Bogart, Viewpoints on Viewpoints, and the premiere of the new musical Dave in spring 2018 at Arena Stage. Awards: USA Fellow, Princess Grace Award, TCG/NEA Director Fellowship, Pew, J. Alton Jones and Rockefeller Awards.
The concert/variety show/intimate party featured guest appearances by cast members of various shows that Tina has helmed – Stephanie Hsu, Kelvin Moon Loh and Allan K. Washington (SpongeBob Squarepants:The Broadway Musical); Bill Irwin (Old Hats); Jason Danieley (Floyd Collins, Beauty); Jon Michael Hill (Superior Donuts, Head of Passes, Hot L Baltimore, The Tempest); Rebecca Naomi Jones, Stacey Sargeant and Libby Winters (Big Love); Amber Iman (A Civil War Christmas); Tony Yazbeck (Antony and Cleopatra) and Jared Grimes; Jessica Molaskey with Maddie and John Pizzarelli; Anthony Fett, Nate Luckenbaugh, Jo Lampert, Jodie Landau, Shakina Nayfack and more, with musical direction and arrangements by Kimberly Grigsby. Check out the set list and my coverage of the rehearsal below.
Set List
Sunday and Gone at Last – Jessica Molaskey, and Maddie and John Pizzarelli
Impossible Dream 98‘ – Kelvin Moon Loh
Fear This Falling – Nate Luckenbaugh, Stephanie Hsu, and Allan K. Washington
You Don’t Own Me – Stacey Sargeant, Rebecca Naomi Jones, Libby Winters
All The Things You Are -Jason Danieley
Chosen – Jon Michael Hill
Wicked Game – Jo Lampert, accompanied by Kirsten Agresta Copely on harp
A Songs About Apples – Jodie Landau with his backup singers
Rhythm of the Body and Rymes of the Soul – Bill Irwin
Imagine – Amber Iman
Me and My Shadow – Tony Yazbeck and Jared Grimes
Rainbow Connection – Shakina Nayfack
Best Day Ever – Stephanie Hsu, Allan K. Washington, Kelvin Moon Loh and cast members from the Broadway and touring companies of SpongeBob Squarepants: The Broadway Musical.
About Little Island
Little Island is a new public park, primarily funded by the Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation with support from the City of New York, in Hudson River Park. The park features a lush, seasonal, landscape with rolling hills, walking paths and open lawns, and dazzling views of New York City.
Little Island is one of the latest additions to the four mile-long Hudson River Park, which runs from Chambers Street to W. 59th Street. Little Island has a 687-seat amphitheater, an intimate stage for 200 visitors, and an open plaza, all designed to host a range of programming for all ages, from theater, dance, and music to food and beverage experiences to educational programs and community events. Little Island provides New Yorkers, and its visitors, with a unique urban oasis—a place for experiences that ignite imagination, foster spontaneity and play, and support camaraderie and connection. littleisland.org
Lia Chang is an actor, a multi-media content producer and co-founder of Bev’s Girl Films, making films that foster inclusion and diversity on both sides of the camera. Bev’s Girl Films’ debut short film, Hide and Seek was a top ten film in the Asian American Film Lab’s 2015 72 Hour Shootout Filmmaking Competition, and she received a Best Actress nomination. BGF collaborates with and produces multi-media content for artists, actors, designers, theatrical productions, composers, musicians and corporations. Lia has appeared in the films Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Dragon, Taxman. She stars in and served as Executive Producer for the short independent films Hide and Seek, Balancing Act, Rom-Com Gone Wrong, Belongingness and When the World was Young (2021 DisOrient Film Audience Choice Award for Best Short Narrative). She is also the Executive Producer for The Cactus, The Language Lesson, The Writer and Cream and 2 Shugahs.
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Backstage Pass with Lia Chang 