When TKTS first revealed plans for its Times Square steps they were referred to as Rome's "Spanish Steps on steroids," which seemed about right except we rarely seem to see artists or performers hanging around them. But that'll change next month when the latest project from The Times Square Alliance's Arts program brings an interesting bit of performance art, Flight, to the steps.
After a successful run at PS1 last summer the project from artist Liz Magic Laser features six actors recreating famous chase scenes at the Crossroads of the World. Think everything from Battleship Potemkin to 28 Days Later, M to American Psycho. As the piece jumps from chase to chase, the villains/victims/witnesses and perpetrators constantly switch roles.
Laser describes the piece like this: “In Flight performers embody the historical arc of the staircase in cinema as it has shifted from an arena of revolutionary struggle in Battleship Potemkin to the site of private trauma in films like The Shining.”
The confused looks on tourist's faces as actors run up and down and up and down could almost be worth the trip to Midtown. Flight will be doing its thing on the steps twice on Tuesday, May 3 (at noon and 1 p.m.), three times on Friday, May 6 (at 7, 8 and 9 p.m.) and four times on Saturday, May 7 (at 1, 2, 8 and 9 p.m.).
