On July 22, we hosted our very first Open Mic Night, and it was a great success! Envisioned by our Program Manager Sophie Brubaker, we’re excited to keep this event around as regular programming for our community.
A Q&A with Sophie:
What inspired the open mic night?
This year, since our artists span across two companies in NYC (Off the Lane and our parent company, Mustard Lane), we are making a huge effort to connect the two communities.
The open mic night was a chance for OTL and Mustard Lane folks to introduce themselves as artists and people in a setting that was only right for what our companies focus on (the arts in NYC, of course).
Did anyone surprise you?
Oh my gosh YES. So many folks decided to perform ON THE SPOT once they saw other artists being brave and bold.
The itch to perform spread like a wildfire in the space.
We had everything from original songs to covers to people playing instruments to comedy sets.
One Laner, Keith, came in adamantly saying that he was not able to perform that evening because of a cold, but then he picked up a guitar and sang and rocked all of our socks off.
Describe another stand out performance.
We had a set of three roommates (two connected to OTL and one new to the community) who came in with an original song.
One roommate, Ryan, played the guitar while the other two roommates, Rachel and Kelly, sang gorgeous harmonies.
It was their first performance and original song as a new band called “Picnic House,” which was just so special for us to witness.
Will there be more open mic nights?
Another big YES!
We want to make open mic nights a regular thing to give all of our OTL and ML artists a chance to perform, workshop any pieces that they are working on, and always meet other artists!
The next one is going to be on Thursday, August 24th at 7pm ET!
Even though the event was created to connect our OTL and ML communities, it is always open to the public, and we can’t wait to invite you to be part of our arts family!
