Why we LOVE TDF, or SEE BROADWAY FOR $40!

Each blog entry will do its very best to include some useful advice for actors (and perhaps New Yorkers at large), as well as include one music recommendation (The music is a bonus, because I can’t help myself).  If you like it, tell me and share with your friends! If you don’t, write me a kind, gentle note down in the comments section to tell me how I can improve! Thanks!

Hello and welcome to my brand new blog, MAAYAN’S NEW YORK MINUTE!  The first recommendation I have is for an organization that some of you may already know– the wonderful, wonderful Theatre Development Fund, or as I like to call it, Hey! We Can Get Broadway Tix for $40 a pop without waiting in line for half the day!

We all love theatre (I assume, as we are in this business) – but on an actor’s salary, you can’t always afford to watch all the theatre you want to see and also, for instance, pay rent and eat. And standing in line at TKTS, or entering the various Broadway lotteries, can be very time-consuming too, unless you have an out-of-town guest who’ll do it for you….  Which is where TDF comes in, like an adult’s tooth-fairy, making our theatre dreams come true.  

As per their website, part of the TDF mission is, “[…] to encourage and enable diverse audiences to attend live theatre and dance in all their venues.” What this means is, if you are a performing arts professional; full-time student (high school or above), or full-time teacher; union member; 62+ retiree; civil service employee; staff member of an NPO; or a member of the armed forces or clergy* then you can buy an annual TDF Membership (currently $30) and pay a discounted price for many shows on and off Broadway, as well as enjoy an Off-Off-Broadway special of $9/show. The shows offered change DAILY.  Amazing!

Just to give you an idea, recent shows offered though TDF include comedies (Talley's Folly; The Lyons; Chinglish; Relatively Speaking), dramas (Ann; The Trip to Bountiful; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; The Heiress; Cyrano de Bergerac; Stick Fly;  Wit on Broadway; Venus in Fur), musicals (Annie; Cinderella; Bring It On; On a Clear Day You Can See Forever; Phantom of the Opera; Rock of Ages, and even Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark) and variety shows (such as the terrific Fuerzabruta!). A while back, a friend and I saw the amazing Jerusalem TWICE through TDF, each time paying a mere $38.50 per ticket. WOW!

To join, register and pay through their Website, www.tdf.org (now offering a spring special, $25 instead of $30); you then have to mail them proof that you do indeed belong to one of the groups listed above (at the time, I’d sent in a postcard of a Fringe show I was in, Leslie Bramm’s Venus and Mona). That’s it! You and your +1 (or 2, or 3...) are good for a YEAR of really, really affordable Broadway and Off-Broadway theater. Hurray!!


* Summarized from the TDF Website, www.tdf.org

*****

And now for the music recommendation:
The only individual to have recently succeeded in gallantly fighting his way to my heart through the dark iron curtain that is New Folk Music From the UK and Beyond, is GOTYE. His latest album, Making Mirrors¸ is diverse and beautiful (and to be honest, by now you may well be sick of “Somebody That I Used to Know”), but on current constant-replay at the Schneider household is an older track, “Heart’s a Mess”, from 2009. It’s like Bjork had a change of heart about that whole swan dress business and decided to become a young Australian crooner, instead. Enjoy!