Students Perform The Full Monty In Support Of New Orleans
Here is my first attempt at writing a newspaper article since the fifth grade. I submitted it to several editors and haven’t heard back from any, so I will publish it here unless an editor decides to publish it, in which case, I’ll remove it. I think these kids deserve a little publicity…
NEW YORK—The tank, as it was described by New Orleans native Gary Solomon Jr., 19, carried him and his family inside as it rolled along familiar city streets, submerged under several feet of water. They were among the few civilians given military clearance to re-enter New Orleans in the days following Hurricane Katrina, which devastated much of the city back in August 2005. As they passed the Saenger Theatre where Solomon had seen every Broadway show since he was a little boy, he realized that the arts he called the heart and soul of New Orleans culture were endangered.
“To see that it was completely underwater, the marquees outside, water up to Dame Edna’s knees was horrible,” he said, fearing that the artists who have always driven New Orleans’s culture will no longer be able to survive in the city. “They’re going to go away and never come back.”
Motivated to prevent cultural extinction, Solomon said, he turned his first enterprise as a theatrical producer into a charity. He and approximately 50 volunteers, all New York University students, have devoted long hours to the first Manhattan production of The Full Monty since it closed on Broadway in 2002, which they will perform at NYU’s Shop Theatre on the second floor of 721 Broadway from March 6th to 11th, with performances at 8 p.m. each night and one matinee at 2 p.m. on the 11th.
According to Solomon, half of all ticket sales will be donated to the Performing Artists Fund established by the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans to support artists who have returned to New Orleans and are committed to rebuilding theatre culture there; the other half will go toward production costs.
Solomon grew up in New Orleans with a love of both the city and the theatre culture he is trying to save. By the age of twelve, he had developed an interest in the theatrical arts.
Solomon started out in theatre doing lighting for productions at St. Martin’s Episcopal School where he was a student. By his freshman year of high school, he knew he wanted to attend Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. He was making money working in theatre in a variety of venues by his sophomore year, and in his junior and senior years, he attended New Orleans Center for Creative Arts six hours a day as a supplement to his normal high school education. Since the fall of 2004, Solomon has been a student at Tisch where he studies on the Technical Production Track.
“We were concerned he had this passion and nothing else,” his father, Gary Solomon Sr., 49, venture capitalist, recalls of his and his wife, Martha Newman Solomon, 48’s, initial reaction to their son’s enthusiasm, but he later added, “He’ll work in the theatre somewhere, in some form or fashion; I’m sure.”
Mr. and Mrs. Solomon Sr. are currently living with Solomon’s two younger brothers, Sam,17, and Conway, 13, in Metairie, Louisiana while they wait for their house in New Orleans to be rebuilt. Solomon says they have helped him contribute upwards of $10,000 of his own money to the production costs for The Full Monty.
Solomon said he was in New Orleans for the summer, relaxing after a day of work at Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre when his mother called him to inform him of the mandatory evacuation ordered by Mayor Ray Nagin.
“This was just another evacuation. We’ve done it all our lives. We rake up the leaves in the yard and go back to work. I never wanted it to disappear,” he said of his beloved city.
When Solomon arrived late to NYU where classes started on September 5th, friend and fellow Tisch student, Caleb Hammons, 20, from Kentucky, contacted him with a proposition. Hammons wanted to direct The Full Monty a musical about six unemployed steel workers who perform a striptease act.
“It’s one thing to say you’d like to do a huge show with 21 people in the cast. And another thing to have someone like Gary who can totally handle it,” Hammons said. “It is essential to have a producer you can trust.”
Their initial attempt to obtain a license to produce the show was denied by Music Theatre International, the company that handles the show’s production rights. According to MTI License Rep. Uriah Leddy, permission had to be granted by the owners of the original rights. All organizations within a one-hundred mile radius of Manhattan fall under scrutiny, and because of Solomon’s affiliation with NYU in Greenwich Village, he fell within this area.
With the help of his friend and mentor Tom Capps, the production supervisor of Mamma Mia!, Solomon was able to contact Jack O’Brien and David Yazbek, the original director and composer for the Broadway production of The Full Monty. He was given a contract in November, and rehearsals began in January.
One week into rehearsals, Solomon approached the student team with his idea of donating part of the ticket sales to the Performing Artists Fund, having gained approval from the Contemporary Arts Center. He was met with excitement, according to Hammons. Solomon said he felt guilty living in his apartment in New York, having lost the first floor of his New Orleans home while others lost entire homes and family members.
“It’s obvious Gary loves New Orleans. It’s a part of him,” Hammons said. “Arts and culture can’t really ever die as long as there are people there supporting it.”
Anyone interested in seeing the show can call the Box Office at (212)217-2040. Tickets are a suggested $5 donation.
Tags: 7. USA, 7A. New York City, New Orleans, New York City
Drea
Leave a Reply