Day Of Performances Coming To Park Slope's Fifth Avenue

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — A day of performances is headed to Park Slope's Fifth Avenue this weekend in the first installment of the city's Open Boulevards programming in the neighborhood.

A line-up of opera, clowns, jazz performers, dancers, Shakespeare and more will kick off on Sunday at the Fifth Avenue Open Boulevard, which is one of ten corridors across the city designated for a performance-focused version of the Open Streets initiative aimed at giving more room for New Yorkers to dine and get outdoors during the coronavirus crisis.

The Open Boulevards programming has been traveling throughout the designated corridors since July.

In Park Slope, the Aug. 8 event will be the first of two performance days. Another is scheduled for October, according to a schedule.

The performances will be held between Third and Fourth streets on Fifth Avenue and run from 3 to 7 p.m., according to the schedule. Neighbors are encouraged to bring their own chairs or blankets to watch the performances, which are open to all ages.

"Anyone who wants to take a break and soak up some culture in the form of Shakespeare, opera, clowns, dance, jazz and eclectic music," the Park Slope Fifth Avenue Business Improvement District said in the announcement.

Here's a look at the line-up, provided by the BID:

• 2:30 – 3 Pre-Show – Sarabesque and Bethford

Collaborative clown and dance partners Sarah Pope and Beth Leonard are dancers, improvisers, choreographers, administrators, and teachers who have worked interactively together with enthusiastic audiences at arts venues and festivals throughout the city.

• 3pm - Drilling Company Shakespeare

Renowned for Shakespeare in the Parking Lot and outdoor theater in Bryant Park, the Company will create scenes from a variety of the Bard’s plays, with musicians to playing “Shakespeare songs”. www.drillingcompany.org

• 4pm – Opera on Tap

Taking opera out of the concert hall and into alternative venues, the innovative Brooklyn-born OOT makes sure new audiences experience the drama, beauty, and exhilaration of opera while promoting it as a viable, living, progressive and FUN art form. Their pre-show OperaCade, inspired by the Zoltar machine at Coney Island, is an approachable performance venue and mobile public art installation. www.operaontap.org

• 5pm – Mitch Marcus Quintet

MMQ is 21st century jazz that plays “adventurous music that swings with all the muscularity and verve of (jazz) pioneers like Mingus, Monk, and Rollins, but pays tribute to that glorious past by daring to advance the sweet science of collective improvisation into the future.” (Wired Magazine) Featuring: Evan Francis, alto sax/flute;
Mitch Marcus, tenor sax; Jeff Miles, guitar; Peter Brendler, bass; Jerad Lippi, drums. www.mitchmarcusmusic.com

• 6pm – Bombay Rickey

With a unique sound evocative of 1960s movie soundscapes, Bombay Rickey plays both covers and original music that borrow equally from the worlds of surf rock, cumbia, spaghetti-Western, and Bollywood, balanced out with soaring operatic vocals. Winner of the 2014 Vox Pop Award for Best Eclectic Album from the International Music Awards by New York Music Daily. In the words of Time Out NY, “this pan-global cocktail is a true treat for the adventurous ear”. Featuring:Kamala Sankaram, vocals/accordion; Drew Fleming, guitar/vocals; Jeff Hudgins, alto saxophone/vocals; Gil Smuskowitz, upright bass; Brian Adler, percussion. www.bombayrickey.com