TNC'S AWARD-WINNING STREET THEATER COMPANY
in
THE 2008 ANNUAL SUMMER STREET THEATER TOUR

IT'S THE ECONOMY, STUPID!
or
THE TURNING POINT

ALL PERFORMANCES ARE FREE TO THE PUBLIC!!!

Saturday, August 2nd - 2PM - Manhattan
TNC, East 10th Street at 1st Avenue

Sunday, August 3rd - 2PM - Manhattan
Jackie Robinson Park, 145th Street & Bradhurst Avenue

Saturday, August 9th - 2PM - Manhattan
Tompkins Square Park at East 7th Street & Avenue A

Sunday, August 10th - 2PM - Brooklyn
Bedford-Stuyvesant, Herbert Von King Park at Marcy & Tompkins

Friday, August 15th - 8PM - Brooklyn
Coney Island Boardwalk at West 10th Street

Saturday, August 16th - 2PM - Bronx
St. Mary's Park at 147th Street & St. Ann's Avenue

Sunday, August 17th - 2PM - Manhattan
Central Park Bandshell, 72nd Street Crosswalk

Saturday, August 23rd - 2PM - Brooklyn
Prospect Park Concert Grove

Sunday, August 24th - 2PM - Queens
Jackson Heights, Travers Park at 34th Avenue between 77th & 78th Streets

Saturday, September 6th - 2PM - Manhattan
Wise Towers at West 90th Street bet. Columbus & Amsterdam Avenues

Sunday, September 7th - 2PM - Manhattan
Washington Square Park

Saturday, September 13th - 2PM - Staten Island
Sobel Court & Bowen Street

Sunday, September 14th - 2PM - Manhattan
St. Marks Church, East 10th Street at 2nd Avenue

Theater for the New City's award-winning Street Theater Company opens its 32nd annual tour August 2 with "It's the Economy Stupid! or The Turning Point,"  a rip-roaring musical which will tour City streets, parks and playgrounds throughout the five boroughs through September 14. The production, free to all New Yorkers, has book, lyrics and direction by Crystal Field and musical score composed by David Tice.  (Schedule follows at bottom of this document.)  The  piece recounts the New Yorkization of the misfit angel Gabriel, who rides earthward on a bad dream to warn the inhabitants that the fate of their planet is in their hands.  He must overcome the villainous Electric Man, messenger of the Dark Force, and save the world.

ABOUT TNC STREET THEATER
            TNC's award-winning Street Theater always contains an elaborate assemblage of trap doors, giant puppets, smoke machines, masks, original choreography and a huge (9' x 12') running screen or "cranky" providing continuous movement behind the actors.  The company of 27 actors, twelve crew members, two assistant directors and five live musicians shares the challenge of performing outside and holding a large, non-captive audience.  The music varies in style from Bossa Nova to Gilbert & Sullivan.  Complex social issues are often presented through children's allegories, with children as the heroes, making these free productions a popular form of family entertainment.

SYNOPSIS
            Angels of every religion are milling about the heavenly kingdom, which is abuzz since things are so awry on Earth.  The planet is at a turning point: it can go toward life and peace, or death and destruction--the destruction of the planet.  Even the Senior Minister has washed his hands!  Given free choice, the time has come for the world to solve its own problems, Americans especially!   One of the Angels must go down from Cloud Nine and wise up the earthlings. 

            Gabriel, a trumpet-playing misfit, appears with a bag of bad dreams he has captured, thinking he can get the people a better night's sleep.  He opens the bag to show The Boss and the dreams all escape, requiring a cosmic roundup.  To get rid of the pesky troublemaker, the Boss dispatches Gabriel to be the messenger.  "Go!" sing the Angels, "You can get there on one of your bad dreams."  One of the Bad Dreams squeaks "I'll take 'im," and they vanish through a hole in the clouds.

            The play becomes a saga of the New Yorkization of Gabriel, who feuds with Electric Man (a Dark Force Messenger, who disrupts the earthlings' desire for life, peace and health) and attempts to enlighten the three American Leaders: a Fireman, a Cop and a Teacher.  He is dumped into the middle of a fire fight in Iraq and witnesses Anti-War protests in New York.  He even spends a night in a City jail.  In a surprise ending, the trumpet playing loudmouth, chatterbox, windbag of an Angel co-opts the Dark Force Messenger and brings him home to Heaven.  All hail the adventures of Gabriel!

            There is great political comedy to be wrung out of a "heavenly" perspective on our current troubles and scandals.  The play gives us an angel's eye view on issues of conservation, rising prices, the war in Iraq, affordable housing, job creation and privatization of everything (even water!).  The angels' call to action is kind of like the sound of a tree falling in the forest:  our higher selves are crying out, but does anybody hear them?   With the political economy--and civilization--at a tipping point, the politics of concealment and privatization won't save us.  Only sacrifice, forthrightness, and a higher awareness of the brotherhood of man can do that.  

IT'S THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Production Photos

All Photos by Ariel Hessing