It is no page-turner!
An all-star group of writers, photographers, and storytellers will create an ephemeral “live magazine” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on April 5. The “Pop-Up Magazine” — a multi-media collection of true tales about technology, art, business, fashion, and food — is a unique interpretation of a general interest magazine, said the show’s creative director.
“That’s why a ‘magazine’ seems to work best as a framework for what our show is — it’s all non-fiction stories, and all very different,” said Derek Fagerstrom. “A magazine is contained between two covers — ‘Pop Up Magazine’ is contained on stage for one night only.”
The “performed journalism” show will feature 14 performers, including the producer of National Public Radio’s “Radiolab” show Molly Webster, columnist Lindy West, chef and author Samin Nosrat, and Brooklyn comedian Wyatt Cynac. Each has created an original piece for the show, and each will be accompanied by music from a five-piece incarnation of the Magick Magick Orchestra, with violin, cello, piano, percussion, and harp. Some of the narrated stories will also incorporate projected photo-essays, short films, and sound clips.
But the only way to experience the show is to buy a ticket — it will not be filmed or recorded. Fagerstrom and his team ask audience members to put away their phones, in order to avoid recordings, and so that the audience can engage wholeheartedly with the people, music, and images on stage.
The live nature of the piece means that audience members have to become storytellers themselves to describe the night to friends, said Fagerstrom.
“If you don’t have a link to a Youtube video of the show or whatever it is, you are tasked with telling them the story,” he said. “It feels very intimate. It’s not about sending a link or a video — it’s about making a deep connection with each other, and of course we do want to make is special for the people who come out to see it.”
A version of the show in 2015 sold out BAM’s Harvey Theater, so this year’s edition it has moved to the Howard Gilman Opera House, which is more than twice the size.
“Pop-Up Magazine” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Howard Gilman Opera House [30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Place and Saint Felix Street, www.bam.org, (718) 636–4100]. April 5 at 7:30 pm. $25–$70.
