WALKING TOUR: “MACABRE GREENWICH VILLAGE” Stroll through the Village on any given day and you’re likely to see some strange and memorable things — but murders, hangings, explosions, famous missing persons and ghosts? That stuff, you don’t encounter every day (unless you know where to look). NYU instructor and “Encyclopedia of NYC” contributor Joyce Gold knows where the bodies are buried — and after her walking tour, so will you. “Macabre Greenwich Village” gives you the lurid backstory on places such as the Washington Square Park graveyard, Newgate Prison and Edgar Allan Poe’s home.
Sat., Oct. 27 & Sun., Oct. 28. Tours begin at 1pm. Meet at the Washington Arch (Fifth Ave., just south of Eighth St.). Tickets are $18 ($15 for seniors 62+). No reservations necessary. For info on this and other tours throughout the city (and throughout the year), call 212-242-5762 or visit joycegoldhistorytours.com.
THE CROOK THEATER COMPANY PRESENTS “MACBETH” Actors fear to speak aloud the title of this dark Shakespeare effort — and for good reason. Between the omens spouted by three witches and the guilt-induced vision of a dagger, “The Scottish Play” has enough blood on its hands — and in its plot — to haunt you long after the curtain comes down. The Crook Theater Company’s adaptation of “Macbeth” puts a horror-genre stamp on the proceedings, along with some gender-bending casting. Set in a “bleak future full of violence and betrayal,” demons and zombies also figure into the brew.
Through Nov. 4 (Mon., Wed.-Fri. at 8pm; Sat. at 2pm/8pm; Sun. at 2pm). At Access Theater (380 Broadway, at White St.). For tickets ($18), call 800-838-3006 or visit macbeth.brownpapertickets.com. Also visit thecrooktheatercompany.com.
GREENWICH HOUSE POTTERY PRESENTS: LINDA SORMIN’S “MY VOICE CHANGES WHEN I SPEAK YOUR LANGUAGE” “This immigrant lives in fear of waste,” says Linda Sormin of her personal habits. “Nothing is thrown away. Old yogurt is used to jumpstart the new batch,” she notes, contextualizing her own thrift as a means to understand what role repurposing plays in her art. “What is worth risking for things to get juicy, rare, ripe? What might be discovered on the verge of things going bad?”
In her first NYC solo exhibition, Bangkok-born Sormin (who immigrated to Canada at the age of five) uses a site-specific installation to explore themes of fragility, aggression, mobility and survival. “My Voice Changes When I Speak Your Language” fills the gallery space of Greenwich House Pottery by “embroidering raw clay through objects she has found and re-purposed.” In their second life, these fused objects are used to enact stories of Sormin’s Batak Indonesian past and experiences as an immigrant moving between cultures.
Through Nov. 21 (opening reception, Fri., Oct. 26, 6-8pm). Free. At The Jane Hartsook Gallery at Greenwich House Pottery (16 Jones St., btw. Bleecker & W. Fourth Sts.). Gallery hours: Tues.-Sat., 10am-4pm or by appointment. For info, visit greenwichhouse.org. Also visit lindasormin.com.
WALKING TOUR: “HEROINES OF THE LOWER EAST SIDE” Learn about, and celebrate, the lives of nine women who brought social, political and artistic change to the Lower East Side in the early 20th century. Historian and preservationist Joyce Mendelsohn (author of “The Lower East Side Remembered & Revisited”) leads the inaugural edition of this two-hour walking tour. Highlights include a stop at the Henry Street Settlement — where you’ll hear about Settlement founder Lillian D. Wald (who also founded the Visiting Nurse Service of New York). Additionally scheduled: deep background on the life of anarchist and self-styled revolutionary Emma Goldman — a writer and public speaker whose positions on workers’ rights, free speech, birth control and atheism got her deported to Russia in 1917. The tour concludes with a visit to the Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy’s Kling & Niman Family Visitor Center, to view a special photography exhibit.
Sun., Nov. 11, 10:45am-12:45pm. Meet at Straus Square (corner of E. Broadway, Essex & Canal Sts.). The tour is a fundraising event for the Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy. Tickets are $36. For a contribution of $54, participants will receive tour admission and a signed copy of Joyce Mendelsohn’s book (“The Lower East Side Remembered & Revisited”). For $100, receive both of the above and two free passes to any other LESJC public tour. Participants must pre-register and pre-pay by Thurs., Nov. 8, at nycjewishtours.org . For more info, call 212-374-4100.
