Tango at the Shakespeare statue, and Andrew Bird stages Eggs at 20: Jul 31 – Aug 6

The Mysterious Production of Eggs

        Hi — a thin week for staged work and a rich one for performance in the looser sense. There is no play in the park between now and Thursday, but there is tango at the foot of the Shakespeare statue Saturday evening, a baroque ensemble at the Bandshell Tuesday, and on Thursday Andrew Bird performing a twenty-year-old record in full with an orchestra behind him — which is closer to theater than most things billed as concerts.

Weather this week
Saturday and Sunday are dry at 86°F and 83°F, then the pattern turns unsettled — a wet Monday, and Tuesday through Thursday humid in the mid-80s with 40 to 50 percent thunderstorm chances that land mostly in the afternoon and evening. Both of the week’s outdoor evening performances sit inside that risk window, so check before you leave for the Bandshell Tuesday and Rumsey Thursday; neither venue announces a rain call far in advance.

Sat Aug 1, 6–9 PM — tango at the Shakespeare Statue
The dancers take Shakespeare Statue Plaza from 6 to 9, which is one of the more quietly theatrical things the park does — social dance staged at the base of the Mall’s literary monument, with the light going down the allée behind it. No admission, no seating, no program. Come at 6:30 when it fills out. Earlier in the day, storytelling runs 10 to 1 at the Hans Christian Andersen statue — the spoken-word tradition the park has kept going for decades, and worth an hour if you’ve never sat in on it.

Sun Aug 2, 11 AM–8 PM — the Folkdancers at King Jagiello Plaza
The International Folkdancers hold King Jagiello Plaza from 11 to 8 — nine hours of participatory dance in the round, which is the park’s longest continuous performance of the week by a wide margin. Watch or join; the circle absorbs beginners without ceremony.

Mon Aug 3 — dark
Nothing performing anywhere in the park, and rain all day besides. The Arsenal gallery is free and open 9 to 5 if you want an hour indoors — Jack Vartoogian’s photographs of forty years of SummerStage, which is performance documentation of a very high order.

Tue Aug 4, 7:30 PM — Nosky’s Baroque Band at the Naumburg Bandshell
Free, 7:30 to 9, and the 121st season of the oldest free outdoor classical series in the country. Aisslinn Nosky’s ensemble plays period repertoire with unusual attack — this is not background music, and the Bandshell’s shell throws it well. Arrive by 6:30 to sit inside the plaza rather than behind it. Programmatically it leans toward the dramatic end of the baroque, which is why it belongs in your inbox rather than only in the music fan’s.

Wed Aug 5 — dark everywhere
No performance of any kind on the calendar, park-wide. A genuinely empty night in the middle of festival season.

Thu Aug 6, 8 PM — Andrew Bird performs The Mysterious Production of Eggs with the Wordless Music Orchestra
Free at Rumsey Playfield, with Surma opening. Bird plays the 2005 record in full for its twentieth anniversary, orchestrated — a staged, sequenced performance of a complete work rather than a set, and the most theatrical booking SummerStage has this month. The queue at 72nd Street will be the week’s longest from about 6. Before it, the Arsenal hosts Foundational Voices: The People Who Built SummerStage, 4:30 to 7, free — the producers and stage crew who made the festival, in conversation. Two halves of the same evening if you want to make a night of it.

On the horizon
Barefoot Shakespeare returns to Summit Rock on August 28 and 29, 3 to 8 PM both days — the company’s August run, outdoors, free, and the only Shakespeare currently on our calendar. Put it in the diary now; we’ll have detail closer to the dates. Still no Delacorte listings and no Swedish Cottage marionette dates in our data — both gaps on our side rather than empty stages.

Quick recap

  Sat 6–9 PM: tango at the Shakespeare Statue Plaza. Free, no seating, best after 6:30.
  Sat 10–1: storytelling at the Hans Christian Andersen statue.
  Sun 11–8: International Folkdancers at King Jagiello Plaza.
  Tue 7:30: Nosky’s Baroque Band, Naumburg Bandshell, free.
  Thu 8 PM: Andrew Bird performs Eggs in full with the Wordless Music Orchestra. Free, Rumsey, arrive by 6.
  Thu 4:30: Foundational Voices at the Arsenal — an oral history of SummerStage.
  Aug 28–29: Barefoot Shakespeare at Summit Rock.
  Monday and Wednesday are dark park-wide.

To the next curtain,
The Central Park Guide