FEBRUARY 2021 DAVID CROMER THERE IS LIGHT Cover photo provided by Baris Selcen PARK WEST NEIGHBORS 1 SOCCER CLASSES DEAR RESIDENTS, FOR KIDS AGES 1.5 -14 Love is in the air! Valentine’s Day is here and there are a plethora of at-home date night ideas in the Calendar of Events on page 10! Voted best Soccer club in Manhattan 2019 On page 6, you will find the story of this month’s featured resident PUBLICATION TEAM David Cromer, a dedicated Upper West Sider and Tony Award- winning director. His is certainly a fascinating story and he really dives deep in to the mindset of what goes into making a world-class Broadway play! PUBLISHER: Pages 12-13 contain helpful insights courtesy of Syl-Lee Antiques, Professional Jonah Hochman including how to get the best value when selling some of your most valuable items. On page 5, this month’s Non-Profit Spotlight is the Soccer Training Wild Bird Fund. They are a fantastic organization that helps to ensure that the local bird population is well taken care of. On page 14, check 917-703-0409 SEARCHING FOR HEALING? out the running series we have continued for Patrick Lencioni. Of Learn about prayer that reduces fear & increases immunity course, the St. Agnes Library offers its monthly update on page 15. [email protected] CONTENT COORDINATOR: JOIN OUR ONLINE CHURCH ACTIVITIES Sabrina Lobner New Yorkers are resilient, have courage and be kind! “NYC's top rated Sunday Services • Sunday School • Testimony Meetings • Bible Study [email protected] Soccer Program DESIGNER: VISIT OUR READING ROOM IN-PERSON Peace and blessings, for kids!” Now open Mon-Sat: 3:30 to 6:30pm Robert Alexander [email protected] Follow Socroc_Soccer on instagram www.firstchristiansciencechurchnyc.com CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER: SABRINA LOBNER CONTENT COORDINATOR Baris Selcen and recieve 10% off your first semester. First Church of Christ, Scientist [email protected] 10 West 68th Street, New York, NY 10023 [email protected] Ph: (212) 877-6169 Email: [email protected] Please note our physical location is currently closed. ADVERTISING CONTACT: Jonah Hochman PHONE: (631) 428-3858 EMAIL: [email protected] FEEDBACK / IDEAS / SUBMISSIONS: Have feedback, ideas or submissions? We are always happy to hear from you! Deadlines for submissions are the 25th of each month. Go to www.bestversionmedia.com and click “Submit Content.” You may also email your thoughts, ideas and photos to: Jonah Hochman [email protected] IMPORTANT PHONE NUMBERS EMERGENCY………............................ 911 POLICE DEPARTMENT….. (212) 580-6411 POISON CONTROL…........ (800) 222-1222 GAS LEAK…........ (800) 752-6633 (ConEd) Interested in becoming an Expert Contributor? LOCKSMITH...................... (212) 580-0066 LIBRARY…........................ (212) 621-0619 Any content, resident submissions, guest columns, advertise- Contact the Publisher of this magazine for more information. ments and advertorials are not necessarily endorsed by or represent the views of Best Version Media (BVM) or any munic- ipality, homeowners associations, businesses or organizations that this publication serves. BVM is not responsible for the reliability, suitability or timeliness of any content submitted. All content submitted is done so at the sole discretion of the sub- mitting party. © 2021 Best Version Media. All rights reserved. PARK WEST NEIGHBORS 3 The Wild Bird Fund NON-PROFIT SPOTLIGHT Would you like a new EXPERT CONTRIBUTOR home in your body? Article and Photos courtesy of the Wild Bird Fund Pain-free and able to move in a SENIOR HOME CARE non-restricted fluid way? n the middle of the Upper West Side, between 87 th and 88 Well, then GROTOIC Ith streets, in the prettiest storefront on Columbus Avenue, Craig Sendach - Touching Hearts at Home IS FOR O sits the only in-city wildlife rehabilitation center in the country. (212) 201-6139 - www.touchinghearts.com/nyc 30% discount for new Before the Wild Bird Fund wildlife rehabilitation and education The heart of home care, Touching Hearts at clients at the BRAND NEW center opened in 2012, New York was the only major city in the Home provides caregiver services from just U.S. that did not have a wildlife rehabilitation facility. a few hours up to 24 hours to seven days Body Evolutions West 72nd a week, including weekends and holidays. Whether in Manhattan, Brooklyn or Queens, 140 West 72nd When COVID-19 struck, the Wild Bird Fund was designated (Between Amsterdam and Columbus) Craig and his team will ensure the best an essential service by the Governor’s Office and the Mayor’s caregiver fit for you or your loved one. www.bodyevolutions.com Office. During the pandemic, courageous New Yorkers also 212.10.212 deemed it necessary to rescue the injured, sick or orphaned Infobewest2.com wild animals they found. What does that say about New York City? We care about each other and our fellow wild New Yorkers. Despite the pandemic, more than 7,000 patients have been brought Wild Bird Fund. From the smallest, the ruby-throat- ed hummingbird, to the largest, the mute swan, 184 different species were treated this year at WBF. New York’s 50,000 acres of parks, marshlands and abandoned lands attract more than • Companionship 350 species of birds who live here, migrate through or come here to breed. The Wild Bird Fund is the only emergency care • Light Housekeeping facility they have, and compassionate New Yorkers are their only ambulance. • Memory Care We start by listening to your unique needs. So what do you do if you find an injured bird? Most often • Laundry & Linens Then we’ll customize a plan of care with our people will see a little bird lying on the sidewalk and think it’s trained caregivers who understand your dead. But it may just be unconscious. You can do a quick check • Transportation by seeing if you can move the unresponsive bird’s legs; if they personal needs and lifestyle. move freely, there’s a chance of revival. • Shopping & Errands Call us: (212) 201-6139 Keep the bird warm. Put the bird in your pocket to warm it up. Our caregivers help older adults • Meal Preparation Do not worry about disease. Birds have avian diseases, which continue to live at home. www.touchinghearts.com/nyc we generally can’t get. Just wash your hands. When a little songbird ends up concussed on a cold sidewalk where the tem- We can help you make wise EXECUTIVE perature is 70 or 60 degrees in the summer and below freezing TRAINING in the winter, it can die of hypothermia. choices suitable for your SERVICES Find a paper bag or little box. When birds go into a quiet, personality and lifestyle. dark place, they rest. A brown paper bag is the perfect bird ambulance and recovery room. Take the bird in the bag/box into a small room like a bathroom and let the bird rest for an hour in the bag. If after an hour the bird is fluffed up and has its beak tucked under a wing, you should bring it to a wildlife RICHARD rehabilitator such as the Wild Bird Fund. If it is hopping around in the bag/box let it escape from the bag into that small, closed LOUIS room. If it flies well, turn off the lights and recapture it. Then you can take it to a park with a water source and let it go. 211 W. 92ND STREET, NYC PHONE: 718-432-0532 New York City Audubon estimates that 90,000 to 230,000 EMAIL: [email protected] 162 West 84th Street migratory birds die each year from window strikes in the city. (at Amsterdam Avenue) There’s a 50% chance you can save the bird – a worthwhile en- Also visit our other location at New York, NY 10024 646.315.5001 deavor considering that more than a third of all North American 585 W 235th Street t: 212.932.8531 bird species are at risk of becoming extinct. Riverdale, NY 10463 e: [email protected] [email protected] MetroFrameArt.com Northern saw-whet owls and American bittern by Ardith Bondi. www.salon84ny.com WWW.FITSPACE.NYC 4 FEBRUARY 2021 PARK WEST NEIGHBORS 5 Eugene Jerome plays) as serious American plays. They RESIDENT FEATURE are great comedies, but he, Neil Simon, was a far more complex writer than he is often given credit for, and those plays demonstrated it. I had a reputation at the time for illuminating revivals of American plays, and so I was hired to do a deeper dive into those plays. It was a disaster, something went wrong with the marketing, we were hemorrhaging money, and we closed very early. The few people who saw it really loved it, so that led to other jobs. While that was not a financial suc- cess, it was also not a failure.” The work came flooding in for Cromer, and he was offered a plethora of gigs outside of Broadway. “Broadway is one of the things you can do in the theatre, and it’s the well-known one, and it’s the high-profile one, and sometimes it’s the very lucrative one; but I go back to Chicago to work, I got to Boston to work, I work here at not-for-profit at Lincoln Center or Manhattan Theatre Club.” Eventually, Cromer would receive the opportunity of a lifetime. On the evening of June 10, 2018 at the 72nd Annual Tony Awards, The Band’s Visit won ten of the eleven awards it was nominated for. One of those awards was Best Direction of a Musical, which was awarded to Cromer. “It was a composer I loved, a playwright I loved and had worked with; the producer was very open to my input.