THE NEW YORK TIMES, MONDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2020 N C3Months after promising radical changes in
how it treats actors and other affiliated art-
ists, the Flea Theater announced that it
would do just that, but not the way those art-
ists expected. As part of plans to “embark
on a new mission,” the theater, a notable Off
Off Broadway company, said on Thursday it
would close its most prominent programs
for emerging actors, directors and writers,
in effect eliminating dozens of positions.
The announcement, in a letter from the
Flea’s board of directors, is the latest devel-
opment at that troubled company.
This summer, in an open letter, resident
artists there accused the Flea of “racism,
sexism, gaslighting, disrespect and abuse,”
as well as of exploiting artists who were
paid little or nothing to work there. In re-
sponse, the theater vowed to begin paying
all of its artists. And on Thursday it
presented part of its plan.
News that their positions had been elimi-
nated did not go down well with the resident
actors, directors and writers, who have
worked to change the theater’s practices.
“We spent six long months on negotia-
tion, organization, and leadership, spear-
headed largely by Black Artists, in an effort
to sustain the institution and effectively
transform it into the equitable establish-
ment it was always meant to be,” a group of
resident artists wrote in a statement posted
to social media on Friday. “The Board has
dismissed its unpaid Artists, in seeming re-
taliation for these attempts to organize.”
The Flea’s letter said that the move was a
necessary response to the financial effects
of the coronavirus pandemic.
“The Flea has a responsibility to act in
recognition of the economic realities of the
moment, which have a serious impact on
programming, the breadth of our next sea-
son (whenever that may be), the number of
artists we are able to support and every
other aspect of our operation,” the board
wrote, noting that the theater now has just
three employees.
As a result, three initiatives will end as of
Dec. 15: the Bats acting program, with
about 100 members; a residency program
for directors; and a writers’ room, where
playwrights contribute to the popular se-
ries “Serials.”
The group rejected the idea that the
changes were necessary.
“The Flea was sick long before Covid,”
their statement said. “And to claim that sev-
ering ties with all Artists is part of some eco-
nomically prudent decision, because of the
financial strain of the pandemic, holds no
water in an institution where those Artists
are not paid.”
The letter said the changes were also
meant to make the theater more equitable,
but many artists viewed it as a betrayal.
Adam Coy, a resident artist and a mem-
ber of the Bats, wrote in an email that the
decision “feels directly related to our col-
lective organization and attempts to holdthe institution accountable for exploitation
of labor and a toxic culture, where harm of-
ten fell on the shoulders of BIPOC bodies.”
The board noted that it hoped to develop a
smaller artists’ residency program. Nona
Hendryx, a musician and the interim chair-
woman of the Flea’s board, further ex-
plained the plan in an email on Thursday.
“We’re working to create a new vision
and purpose for The Flea through a residen-
cy program in which artists will be paid,”
Hendryx wrote. “This new program will
provide a venue for artist-driven ideas and
provide financial support and other re-
sources directly to participating artists.”
The Flea was founded in 1996 and since
2017 has operated from a three-theater
building in TriBeCa that was estimated to
cost $25 million. Niegel Smith, its artistic di-
rector, is one of the few Black artistic direc-
tors at a prominent New York theater. The
theater’s producing director, Carol Ostrow,
recently left the organization.
Although the theater hires and pays ac-
tors for some shows, it often casts volunteer
members of the Bats, contending that the
experience helps boost careers.
Brandon Lorenz, a spokesman for Actors’
Equity Association, a labor union, noted
that the Flea’s building has proved to be a
symbolic liability as leaders try to demon-
strate they are making good on pledges of
fairness and inclusivity.
“I hope that a new fund-raising plan for
fair pay, fair treatment and a diverse work-
place will be pursued with the same vigor
used to raise $25 million for a new theater
building,” Lorenz wrote.TODD HEISLER/THE NEW YORK TIMESFlea Theater Ends 3 Programs for Artists
Actors, directors and writers
feel betrayed. The board says
the move was necessary.
By GABE COHNThere are no
in-person shows for
now at the Flea
Theater’s TriBeCa
home, which
includes three
performance spaces.
Fill the grid with digits so as not to repeat a digit in any row or column, and so that the digits within each
heavily outlined box will produce the target number shown, by using addition, subtraction, multiplication or
division, as indicated in the box. A 4x4 grid will use the digits 1-4. A 6x6 grid will use 1-6.
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Put two stars in each row, column and region of the grid. No two stars may touch, not even diagonally.
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This Brain Tickler shouldn’t take you [answer phrase] than a minute or two to do. Enter afive-letter fabric in the dashes to complete the phrase. A __ __ __ __ __ G E RBrain Tickler
SATURDAY’S ANSWER Sedate, seated, teasedANSWERS TO
PREVIOUS PUZZLESPUZZLE BY WILL SHORTZ
“AN ASTONISHING COLLECTION!”
—RICHARD LEDERER, author of Anguished English
SO TO SPEAK11,000 Expressions That’ll Knock Your Socks Off
ON SALE 12.08.2020
Crossword Edited by Will Shortz
ACROSS
1 Message to the
office staff
5 Old South
American empire
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gnats
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benchmarks
15 Start a game of
cards
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abroad, e.g.
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subway?
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(greatest work)
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perhaps
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the elevator for
me?”
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Is Us”
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“nice” things for
Santa
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flashlight”?
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offense
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here!”
56 “Person” that
speaks in beeps
and boops
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melt
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as legal tender?
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with a “belt”
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land to build on
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by day, maybe
71 Hairstyle that
may have a pickDOWN
1 Cuts the grass
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3 Amish cousin
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creatures5 Vow before a
judge
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voicewise
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sticker
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telephone no.
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growth
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slopes and prices
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offerings
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dweller
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Asian countries’
names27 Item in a purse
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money30 Nail the test
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need
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people move
to the Cayman
Islands
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amazing
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in Morse code
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rose44 Hurricane that
was the subject
of 2006’s “When
the Levees
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upper lip
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informally
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to Chicago’s
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time: Abbr.ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE
PUZZLE BY BARBARA LIN12/7/20Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 9,000 past puzzles,
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Read about and comment on each puzzle: nytimes.com/wordplay.1234 5678 91011121314 15 1617 18 1920 21 2223 24 25 2627 28 29 30 3132 33 34 35 36 3738 39 40 41 4243 44 45 46 4748 49 5051 52 53 5455 56 57 58 59 60 61 6263 64 6566 67 6869 70 71SL IMJ IM L IMBER
LINEEMUP IDEATE
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DANCER ILIKEDIT
E I THER DEV I L I SH
SNOOTS YES L E TS“Waters of a Lower Register”
came about when Creative Time,
the public art organization, had to
rethink its event calendar in the
early days of the pandemic, said
Justine Ludwig, its executive di-
rector. Ms. Ludwig contacted Ms.
Hamilton in July, and the artist
seized the opportunity to create a
new work that would express the
turmoil of a year that has includ-
ed, in addition to the health crisis,
frequent hurricanes and horrific
instances of racial injustice in the
United States.
The video sequences take the
viewer “from drowning to flying,”
Ms. Hamilton said, adding that it
“mimics the roller coaster of this
year.”
The 13-minute film installation
will play on a loop from 4:30 p.m.
until the park closes at 1 a.m. An
online talk with the artist will take
place Dec. 17 at noon.
The new work highlights the po-
tential for Pier 3, which opened in
2018, as a site to showcase com-
plex works of art.
Pier 1, opened in 2010, has been
home to multiple temporary art
installations, including Anish
Kapoor’s whirlpool-like “Descen-
sion” in 2017 and the giant orange
bells of Davina Semo’s “Reverber-
ation,” currently on view. But Pier
3 has recently proven itself a for-
midable outdoor gallery as well.
Earlier this year, the same
paved plaza at the end of the pier
that Ms. Hamilton’s installation
will occupy was the setting for
Antony Gormley’s gigantic slinky-
like “New York Clearing,” which
proved popular with parkgoers.
Placing a large artwork there
“was the aha moment when it hit
us that, wow, this is a fantastic
place for art,” said Eric Landau,
president of Brooklyn Bridge
Park Corporation, which runs the
park.
Ms. Hamilton is curious what
sounds the city itself will contrib-
ute to the experience of viewing
“Waters of a Lower Register,” and
what will seep in. “I think it could
be interesting to hear a taxicab
honking” in the background, she
said. “It could enhance the work
perhaps in a way we don’t yet
know.”Those who wander the circuitous
paths of Pier 3 in Brooklyn Bridge
Park may be drawn to the western
edge of the pier by the sound of
water. But the noises, by turns
calming and agitating, won’t nec-
essarily come from the waterfront
site.
Rather they may be emanating
from an installation of videos of
lush and swampy Southern land-
scapes.
It will all be part of “Waters of a
Lower Register,” a work by the
artist Allison Janae Hamilton,
which will play on five 70-inch
screens from Dec. 16-20. The
screens will be placed in an arc on
the northwest corner of Pier 3, of-
fering the intimacy of a screening
room and the safety of an open-air
setting, with the view of the Lower
Manhattan skyline behind them.
Ms. Hamilton, 36, has lived in
New York since 2006. “Waters of a
Lower Register” focuses on the
watery landscape of northern
Florida, where she was raised, to
explore the human-inflictedforces of climate change. Rising
sea levels and violent storms af-
fect both Florida and New York,
Ms. Hamilton said. And Brooklyn
Bridge Park, which borders the
East River, is in a flood zone.
“It’s meant to be immersive,”
Ms. Hamilton, said by phone from
Florida, where she has been holed
up for much of the pandemic.
The artist is intentionally juxta-
posing the rural areas of her home
state with the urban cityscape of
New York. But she explained that
even seemingly untouched land-
scapes have been shaped by hu-
mans, often to the detriment of
people of color. She shot some of
her footage from a kayak on the
Wacissa River, which was bi-
sected by a canal built by enslaved
people.A Pier Doubles
As a ‘Fantastic
Place for Art’
An artist focuses on northern
Florida to explore the forces
of climate change.Brooklyn Bridge Park to
host ‘Waters’ piece.
By JANE MARGOLIESEnjoy wordplay every day.
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