THEATERLAB PRESENTS
ROUND THE BLOCK!
Celebrating Arts and Community in the Garment District
Friday, May 20th  and Saturday, May 21st]
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Tickets are $15 – buy them HERE
Please refer to your programs for a detailed itinerary. See below for details about participating venues, guides, and artists.Â
FRIDAY TOURS depart from Theaterlab at 4:00pm, 4:30pm, 5:00pm, and 5:30pm.
Guides: Duff Norris, Samia Omari, Reno, and Drew Valins
Featured locations: International Pleating, People’s Forum
Featured artists: Michaela Lind, Romy Nordlinger
SATURDAY TOURS depart from 520 8th Avenue at 2:00pm, 2:30pm, 3:00pm, and 3:30pm
Guides: Duff Norris, Samia Omari, Reno, and Kat Rousseau
Featured locations: Art to Ware, Chashama, International Grocery
Featured artists: Parron Allen, Lesley Ware, Naoki Iwakawa and Noel HerouxÂ
Now in its third season, Round The Block! Celebrating Arts and Community in the Garment District is a promenade-style performance connecting all the creative people in the neighborhood – businesses, community organizations, garment workers, visual artists, and theatermakers. This season, we want to focus on the idea of craft, using it to explore both the history and the ever-evolving tenancy of one of New York’s most diverse neighborhoods. Renewed energy and curiosity brought by a new team of artists acting as our guides are filling this unique and entertaining performance tour.
This years’ presentation features two itineraries, different on Friday and Saturday afternoon. The tours, led by our artistic guides – some returning, some new – will depart every 30 minutes and last about 45 minute each, and both will conclude at our West 36th Street home with a mini-performance and a snack.
On Friday, the walk that features stops at Tom’s Sons International Pleating – a high-end fashion pleating company that has been in the same family for generations, and at People’s Forum – an activist incubator for grassroots organizations that features a co-working space, a bookstore, and the People’s CafĂ©. The performers that day include longtime Theatrelab artist: a clown extraordinaire Michaela Lind. We will also be sharing with you an excerpt from her upcoming one-woman show GARDEN OF ALLA, a riveting story of a forgotten Hollywood pioneer and LGBTQ trailblazer Alla Nazimova,written and directed by our longtime collaborator Romy Nordlinger.
On Saturday, we are taking you to Art to Ware – a boutique like no other where you can get socially conscious, locally made and designed, upcycled wearables. It is housed in one of the neighborhood buildings transformed into artsy spaces thanks to Chashama‘s Storefront Startups program. The shop’s founder Leslie Ware will tell you all about it and introduce designer Parron Allen who will do a fitting for a willing audience member. Next, we’ll take a peek inside the International Grocery – a store with over 50 years of history at its Ninth Avenue location where you can buy all kinds of specialty foods from around the world. The walk will conclude at our West 36th St. where we have a special treat for you: our beloved action painter Naoki Iwakawa joins forces with the musician  Noel Heroux (creator of PC-fantasy-grunge entity Hooray For Earth and current Sub Pop recording artist) for a mini-performance.
Please Note: CV19 boosters and KN95 masks are required for the tour.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
Theaterlab’s programming is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.