Were you at the Issue Project Room last night? I wasn’t. But I wish I’d been able to get in there.

My husband went but he couldn’t get in because he didn’t have a RESERVATION. They set up a space for some of the overflow crowd to view the event on video. But he couldn’t even get in there. Located in a silo-like building near the Carroll Street Bridge in the Gowanus area, the Issue Projects Room is not a very large space.

But in the teeming rain, there was, of course, a huge crowd for local celebrity-hero Steve Buscemi and Stanley Tucci.

If you were on the e-mailing list of Issue Project Room, you might have known about this  special evening which presented Steve Buscemi and Stanley Tucci, reading excerpts from screenplays of current remakes of films by the late Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh.

Turns out Tucci was NOT scheduled to be there. "Stanley Tucci was rumored to be here," Buscemi told the crowd pre-show. "He was never planning to come. He hates Brooklyn. Actually he’s working." (paraphrase by a friend who was there.)

Ida Tuturro was there and, according to my friend, delivered a knock out performance in "Blindate" with Steve Buscemi. My friend, whose boyfriend was smart enough to make reservations on Sunday, said that all the actors were top notch and that it was an incredibly great evening.  The surprise musical guests were Chocolate Genuis, but she didn’t stay to hear them.

"Interview", directed by Buscemi, is the story of a star political journalist who must interview a popular soap opera actress against his will.

"Blinddate" directed by Tucci, tells of a grieving couple who cope with the loss of their child by acting out new identities through personal ads.

Excerpts were read from a third Van Gogh screenplay "06", a tale of two people who meet on a phone sex hotline and develop arelationship without ever meeting. Originally nominated for a Dutch academy award in 1994, "06" is set to be directed by Bob Balaban.

And it only cost $20.

ISSUE: Project Room provides "an open and versatile enviroment where both established and emerging artics can conduct, exhibit and perform new and site-specific work according to their respective vision."

Get on their mailing list and find out about innovative projects, rare artist appearances (I’ll say),  first time showings, and multidisciplinary events.

ISSUE PROJECT ROOM
400 Carroll Street
(between Bond & Nevins)
on the Gowanus Canal
www.issueprojectroom.org
info@issueprojectroom.org