New York’s Lincoln Center Thursday announced Restart Stages, an outdoor performing arts center with 10 outdoor performance and rehearsal spaces to help kickstart New York City’s arts revival.
It plans to launch April 7 (World Health Day) with a still-to-be-determined performance for healthcare workers, followed by resident companies like Film At Lincoln Center and the New York City Ballet as well as arts and cultural institutions from around NYC.
Lincoln Center’s campus has 18 acres and will set up facilities from traditional stages to reading rooms. It’s working with NY PopsUp, a festival that started this month and runs through Labor Day to revitalize live performances. The public-private partnership overseen by producers Scott Rudin and Jane Rosenthal held its first event last weekend with Jon Batiste at the Javits Center.
PopsUp spans New York City’s five boroughs as well as upstate and Western New York. Other confirmed performers include Hugh Jackman, Renée Fleming, Amy Schumer, Alec Baldwin, Chris Rock, Matthew Broderick, Sarah Jessica Parker, Patti Smith, Mandy Patinkin, Q-Tip and Billy Porter.
There’s been flurry of movement in NYC arts and entertainment recently as Governor Andrew Cuomo also allowed large arenas to reopen this week at reduced capacity with testing and movie theaters to reopen March 5 with safety protocols.
Lincoln Center said Restart Stages will partner with groups including the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute and the Harlem Arts Alliance, the Korean Cultural Center and others, which will share the stages.
The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Ballet and New York Philharmonic hope to resume in the fall but haven’t announced dates yet.