I got involved in two projects this summer for one very singular reason: to help the Staten Island community return to our “reimagined normalcy,” as it was coined, through the arts.
I volunteered to organize the musical performances during “Stapleton Saturdays,” a 12-week program that closed Van Duzer Street to vehicular traffic between the hours of 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. every Saturday from June 12 through Aug. 28. The 12-week duration was part of the “Open Streets” DOT grant: you did all 12 or nothing.
I also earned another opportunity to act in a version of the Clifford Odet play “Waiting For Lefty,” produced by the Staten Island Shakespearean Theatre Company, with whom I’ve worked many times in the past.
These two projects ran simultaneously and, boy, did I get a workout! Between walking to rehearsal twice a week and walking around all day on Saturdays, I got in “my…
