Thinking Theater NYC

Shakespeare Sports Theatre Company will open its Shakespeare Summer Tour with a new production of the Comedy of Errors  directed by Michael Hagin and with Adam Sherwin as stage manager.  Shakespeare's hilariously haywire Comedy of Errors is a frolicsome farce so fantastically foolish that it's practically a recipe for roaring laughter. Imagine, if you will, a bustling ancient Ephesus, where not one but TWO sets of identical twins are about to stumble headlong into a hilarious hullabaloo! We're talking Antipholus of Syracuse and his ever-so-loyal (and equally confused) servant, Dromio of Syracuse, who unwittingly wander into the very city inhabited by their spitting images, Antipholus of Ephesus and his own bewildered Dromio! This production of The Comedy of Errors , a play where mistaken identities run riot, features the following cast: Vic Gitre, Charlie Keegan James, Emily Glaser, Jennifer Kim, Melissa Meli, Erica Gerold, Katie Freimann, Lila Ashley Meyers, Kasey C...

  The Leg Conceived by Sophie Amieva and Katerina Marcelja Directed by Sophie Amieva Presented by notAmuse Theater at MITU580 May 23-June 7, 2025 Photo by Rebecca Marcela Oviatt (BECCAVISION)  The Leg , the latest performance work by notAmuse Theater, is a captivating experience of an off-kilter world which may in fact be our own. The well-balanced ensemble of performers not only play off one another but contend with their costumes–some with exaggerated straitjacket sleeves or yards of tulle–and a space continually reshaped by the inflation/deflation of impressive fabric set pieces amongst and above them. Photo by Rebecca Marcela Oviatt (BECCAVISION)   notAmuse Theater (under the direction of Sophie Amieva and production designer Katerina Marcelja) integrates a range of theatrical traditions from Butoh to Buffon to create works which address structures of social and political power. The Leg (choreography by Mark Bankin, with lighting by Jacqueline Scaletta and sound de...

Freedom’s Last Stand Written by Barry Rowell Directed by Mia Y. Anderson Music by Rob Mitzner and David Ross Musicians: David Ross, Rob Mitzner, and Matthew Milligan Presented by Peculiar Works Project at  Target Margin’s Doxsee Theater 232 52nd St, Brooklyn, NYC May 29-June 14, 2025 Photo by R. Z. Schell Peculiar Works Project’s Freedom’s Last Stand , written by Barry Rowell and directed by Mia Y. Anderson, takes its audience deep into the fractured mind of an emerging domestic terrorist in the final hours of a deadly standoff. Set in a cabin in the Idaho woods, the production reconstructs not just a moment of crisis, but the ideological labyrinth that led there. The story centers on Daniel Frey, a white man radicalized by a toxic mix of online conspiracies, white nationalist rhetoric, and masculine grievance. Trapped in a bunker with a gun, a guitar, and something that looks eerily like a body wrapped in a sheet, Daniel broadcasts his manifesto through social media, trains for a...

Point Loma Written by Tim Mulligan Directed by Ken Wolf Presented by Manhattan Repertory Theatre at the Chain Theatre 312 W. 36th Street, 3rd fl., Manhattan, NYC May 31-June 15, 2025 Parker Jenkins and Jessica Luhmann. Photo by Chris Bentley. In his recent book The Ethics of Horror (Lexington Books, 2024), Michael J. Burke argues for a distinction between traditional haunting films, in which specters seek some kind of restitution and ultimately, thanks to and along with the living protagonist(s), achieve closure, and a more recent strain that he terms phantom persecution films, in which the ethical debt to the spirit(s) can never be paid and closure remains forever out of reach. If we transpose these categories to the stage, Tim Mulligan's haunted-house play Point Loma , making its world premiere at the Chain this month, does not completely fit either–or maybe more precisely, shifts from one of them to the other–much to its advantage. Mulligan, also author of the World of Witchla...

Photo courtesy of Barefoot Shakespeare Company Popularly referred to as “Shakespeare for Sports Fans,” the UNREHEARSED! series is a great opportunity for actors to go toe-to-toe with the Bard while simultaneously stretching their improv muscles. Cast members are given just 30 days to learn their lines and get off book. At NO TIME are they permitted to rehearse with each other or coordinate performances. Audiences will be delighted to see referees standing by, ready to call “foul” and flag actors for missed cues, flubbed lines, and ad-libbing. Audience members can also get in on the action by placing bets on who they think will make the most mistakes! A two-hour extravaganza of live-theatre magic mixed with the hilarious hijinks of hoping actors will mess up! UNREHEARSED! The Comedy of Errors and UNREHEARSED! A Midsummer Night’s Dream will take place at Summit Rock in Central Park on Saturday, May 31 and Saturday, June 7, respectively, at 5:30pm. Admission is free. Photo courtesy of...

Outraged Hearts: The Pretty Trap and Interior: Panic Written by Tennessee Williams Directed by Jaclyn Bethany Presented by The Fire Weeds in association with Houghton Hall , BKE Productions, and FutureHome at Houghton Hall Arts Community 22 E 30th Street, Manhattan, NYC May 15-30, 2025 L to R:  Chris Ghaffari, Jaclyn Bethany, Jacob Storms, Megan Metrikin. Photo by Joey D'Amore. Tennessee Williams's (1911-1983) The Glass Menagerie (1944) and A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) have long since secured a central place in the pantheon of 20th-century American theater. Their single-act precursors, however, The Pretty Trap (1944?) and Interior: Panic (1945-46), remain far less widely known and produced. Under the title Outraged Hearts, New Orleans-based theater company The Fire Weeds, founded by Jaclyn Bethany and Lin Gathright and "dedicated to innovative storytelling through a female-driven lens," fruitfully juxtaposes these underseen one-acts in a theatrical double bil...