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The actor will appear in performances aimed at profiting from an organization that wants to save West Park Presbyterian Church on the Upper West Side from demolition.
By James Barron
Hi, it’s Wednesday. Today, we’re going to look at how a campaign to save a church from demolition, when church leaders were looking to have the building torn down, greeted actor Matt Damon involved in a fundraiser.
How do you get a star like Matt Damon to appear in a play in an Upper West Side church?
“Ask him,” Kenneth Lonergan, who wrote the play in question, “This Is Our Youth. “
Damon will appear in a feature of “This Is Our Youth” on Nov. 16. The exhibit is to raise funds for the West Park Center, which rents out the West Park Presbyterian Church on West 86th Street on Amsterdam Avenue. Tickets start at $500. The maximum value for a momentary performance, on November 17, will be $250, and there will be no constant entry for some seats; Those who participate can pay whatever they want.
Damon is the latest celebrity in the media and his campaign, contrary to the wishes of the congregation, to prevent the demolition of the Romanesque Renaissance-style church. Actors Mark Ruffalo and Wendell Pierce; actress Amy Schumer; and rapper and actor Common have also gotten involved in the cause.
Together, they lend their names in an ambitious effort to raise cash for the center, adding maintenance to the construction so that the scaffolding and sidewalk that had long covered the assets can be removed.
Debvia Hirshman, the center’s executive director, said the goal is to raise more than $300,000 for “This Is Our Youth” performances. That would be in addition to a new fundraising crusade to raise $2 million to fix the construction, a sum that the warring parties to the demolition say would cover the cost of the paintings described in a recent report by a consulting engineer for the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission.
A church spokeswoman questioned the investigation, calling it a “band-aid solution” that would fund interior paintings needed to meet chimney protection standards and accessibility standards, just as a lawyer for the center questioned a monetary investigation conducted for the monuments commission. .
This document indicates that the building, in the hands of an owner other than the congregation, can produce a moderate return. Hirshman said he met with church officials last summer and showed up to make the church “financially sound” if he withdrew a hardship application. He filed a complaint with the Monuments Commission last year.
The request is a first step toward demolishing the building as part of a real estate deal that would give the congregation area what would be a new one-component construction on the site. The church, which was designated as a historic landmark in the city, despite the congregation’s objections, in 2010, will get $30 million from a developer with whom it signed a binding contract in 2022.
Hirshman Church leaders rejected his proposal.
The center had been presented prior to the purchase of the building; A church spokesperson said “none of the donations were feasible or realistic, given the cost of repairs. “The spokeswoman also said the center “continued to be unable to raise sufficient funds” to fund repairs.
The monuments commission has scheduled a vote on the church’s candidacy.
As for Damon’s appearances on “This Is Our Youth” next week, Lonergan turned to him because Josh Hamilton, who gave the impression in the original Off Broadway production, wasn’t available. The rest of the cast is ready: Ruffalo, reprising his lead role from 1996. and Missy Yager, along with director Mark Brokaw. Ruffalo was concerned about the middle of last year and even brought Mayor Eric Adams at the Tribeca Film Festival to advocate for saving the building.
It helped that Damon and Lonergan met and Damon knew the play: he performed in a London production for two months in 2002.
“I explained the scenario to him and he immediately said, ‘I’m willing to do it,’ which I imagine he would say if he were available,” Lonergan said, “and in fact, he had an apartment a block away. away from church for a year or two, maybe. That goes back a long way. He said Damon was looking to “keep what’s special in the neighborhood. “
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ALTERNATIVE PARKING
Valid through Friday (Veterans Day).
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Bottom line: Former President Donald J. Trump took the witness stand in a Manhattan courtroom on Monday as he tried to maintain the empire that made him famous. Here’s what we learned.
Understanding Trump’s defense: Christopher M. Kise and Alina Habba, the two lawyers who accompanied the former president at the defense table, are other facets of what his consumer looks for in a defense attorney.
Democrats retained a seat on the Brooklyn City Council that is showing signs of drift. Justin Brannan, a Democrat who is the tough chairman of the council’s finance department, defeated his Republican opponent, Ari Kagan, according to the Associated Press.
Both are sitting council members who found themselves at odds in the same district over a redistrict. Kagan, a former Belarusian radio and television host who was elected a Democrat in 2021, switched parties last year.
On Tuesday, Brannan called his victory a triumph over “toxic tribalism” and vowed to serve all voters, regardless of political affiliation.
In the Brooklyn borough, created to magnify the voice of Asian voters, Democrat Susan Zhuang defeated Republican Ying Tan. Both candidates built their campaigns around the issues of crime, education, and quality of life in New York City.
Elsewhere in the city, many Democrats ran unopposed, including Yusef Salaam, one of the so-called Central Park Five indicted, black and Latino men who were exonerated in 2002 for raping and assaulting a jogger in Central Park thirteen years earlier. He contested the No. 1 pick in Harlem last summer.
As Salaam prepared to deliver his victory speech on Tuesday, my colleague Jeffery C noted. Mays hadn’t lost sight of the fact that former President Trump was facing criminal prosecutions. Trump had called for the reinstatement of the death penalty following Salaam’s arrest. .
“Karma is genuine and we want that,” Salaam said.
METROPOLITAN AGENDA
Dear Diary,
One thing I wanted to do was paint at Macy’s in New York. I had the opportunity to do this when things slowed down at my current job and control asked volunteers to take unpaid time off.
I took a month off and my husband and I went to New York. We found a temporary apartment and I set off for a job at Macy’s during the holiday season. I didn’t say I only had plans to work there for a month.
I was fifty years old at the time and started running with a much younger organization of men and women.
I spent my first day learning how to use money login and where everything is in the Array store. It’s very exciting.
At lunchtime, some of the younger women asked me to stop by McDonald’s to have lunch with them. Wow, of course I went. They spoke mostly Spanish. I didn’t understand them, but I didn’t care.
I couldn’t have been more excited at the end of the day, I checked in and headed for the door. Outside, the girls were yelling at me, “Come on, Alice. “
They were looking for me to go with them, but I said no, thank you. I lived right across the street.
-Alice Redmond
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Submit your submissions here and read more from the Metropolitan Diary here.
I’m glad we can meet here. -J. B.
P. S. Here are today’s mini crossword puzzles and spelling bee. You can find all our riddles here.
Kellina Moore and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can contact nytoday@nytimes. com.
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James Barron is a Metro reporter and columnist who writes the New York Today newsletter. In 2020 and 2021, he wrote the column Coronavirus Update, as part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning public service policy. He is the author of two books and was the editor of the New York Times Book of New York. Learn more about James Barron
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