What’s New at New 42 – November 2021

Year round and especially this time of year, I take time to practice gratitude. And apart from the health and safety of my loved ones, the thing I am most grateful for is the opportunity to re-open the doors of the New Victory Theater.

On opening night, we started off with a bang and a beat when Fogo Azul, a samba reggae marching band, performed on the theater’s grand staircase to join the newest members of the New 42 Youth Corps on their first day of work. Patrons and passersby danced on our little section of 42nd Street and it felt like a party that belonged to the city as much as it belonged to us.

Once the audience was seated, NYC Cultural Affairs Commissioner Gonzalo Casals joined Artistic Director Mary Rose Lloyd and myself in sharing thanks to all of you, our generous donors, teachers and families, as well as staff, crew and teaching artists.

We then turned our focus to the cast of Ping Chong + Company’s Generation RISE as they shared experiences of growing up in New York City and coming of age over these last 20 months. So much has happened and so much has changed.

But that night we were grateful for what hasn’t—that as the lights dimmed and the curtain went up, we felt that old and familiar anticipation for whatever was going to happen next, and that even socially-distanced, we shared a singular thrill to be in the same space, together.

Only at the New Victory does an evening begin and end with young people, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.