There are artists who come to New York to play with a few suitcases and their instruments. Gregory Charles arrives with his own theater and more than 50 trailers! Press met the team responsible for building their QUBE and giving shape to their crazy project.
“Things accelerated last summer, but we have been working on this project for several years now, in particular to find a suitable site in New York”, specifies Mélanie Reeves, faithful collaborator of Gregory Charles.
Dressed in black and wearing red safety shoes to match her beanie, she is responsible for the production of the show Vintage Live in the Big Apple.
On this second day of editing, last Tuesday March 17, you have to have a fair amount of imagination to believe that, in a few days, a complete theater, with stage, tables, chairs and red carpet, will exist on quay 97 of the river. Hudson, New York.
For now, the embryo of the project comes down to huge concrete blocks stacked on top of each other, a few pillars still lying on the ground and a dozen workers, including several Quebecers.
A dock without electricity
Finding a site ready to receive Gregory Charles’s mobile theater in New York for a month took patience and effort. “We considered places that were not suitable before finally finding this place”, specifies André Ducas, also responsible for the realization of the project.
Owned by the Hudson River Park Trust, Pier 97, located at 57th Street, is managed by event promoter Live Nation. The latter regularly organizes concerts and events there, from May to September. “They were offered to occupy the space during the month of April, which allows them to extend the season by one month,” says André Ducas.
The catch? The wharf is little more than a concrete slab on pillars bathing in the Hudson River. It offers neither electricity nor drinking water. André Ducas, Mélanie Reeves and their team therefore had to improvise everything. A small army of carpenters, plumbers and electricians had to completely redevelop the site.
At the back of the wharf, on March 17, we could already see gigantic generators that were imported from Quebec for the occasion.
A limited number of options
Considering the magnitude of the task, it makes you wonder why Gregory Charles goes to such great lengths to import his mobile theater instead of just renting a room.
“There is no way to” simply “rent a venue in New York, retorts André Ducas. Everyone wants to play in New York, and it’s almost impossible to find a venue for a month at a reasonable price … Of course, the project is very expensive, but if we’re there, it’s because ‘there is an advantage,’ specifies this former Cirque du Soleil and Spectra.
If the entourage of Gregory Charles refuses to give the price of the operation, André Ducas admits that we are talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars.
As in Quebec, the Quebec singer will present in New ork a version of his show Vintage. Here too, spectators will be able to interact and make musical requests to Gregory Charles using their smartphone.
In addition to hosting around twenty performances of Vintage Live from April 1 to May 2, the QUBE theater must present the show in English by Rachid Badouri (April 14) and a performance by Roch Voisine (April 21).
“Gregory wants to share his project with other artists,” explains Mélanie Reeves. Does he plan to sublet his theater in the future? Impossible to know. “What matters for the moment is that this first experience in New York is a success”, she confides before returning to the construction of her “immense game of Meccano”.
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