Thinking Theater NYC

Waiting for C-Row Written and directed by Aaron J. Stewart Presented at Teatro LATEA 107 Suffolk Street, Manhattan, NYC January 27-31, 2026 Ndeye Daro Niang and Precious Omigie Two people wait on a deserted stretch for a third, who has power over their lives. Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Aaron J. Stewart’s Waiting for C-Row share this basic situation, the latter drawing inspiration from the former while transposing the action to a less abstract, more contemporary setting. In place of Godot ’s country lane, Waiting for C-Row unfolds on an urban street abutting the water; in place of a leafless tree, a single lamppost rises from center stage, simultaneously Godot ’s tree and moon; and rather than a pair of everyman tramps, our protagonists are a pair of female sex workers. Having begun life as a ten-minute play and later developed and adapted into a short film in 2021, Waiting for C-Row made its premiere this January as a new, full-length one-act play at New York Theater F...

Photo courtesy of Ana Radice-Morras Catatonic , a darkly comic new one-act by Baltimore-born, D.C.-raised, and NYC-based playwright Diego Rio Ortiz, will be presented at Teatro LATEA in Manhattan as part of the New York Theater Festival (see the full list of shows for the 2025/2026 winter festival  here ). In this surreal and unsettling short play, a desperate man responds to a Craigslist ad to become a cat for a man and his daughter. The production runs 35 minutes and is presented alongside another one-act in a 90-minute program. It is directed by Chris Grubb and features Diego Rio Ortiz, Ana Radice-Morras, Patrick T. Feeney, Ruby Rodgers, Peter Hart, Sammy Schwartzman, and Kyle Douthy. Photo courtesy of Ana Radice-Morras Performances of Catatonic  are: Wednesday, 28 January 2026 at 4:00 PM Friday, 30 January 2026 at 6:30 PM Sunday, 1 February 2026 at 1:00 PM Tickets are available at:  https://innovationtickets.com/product/catatonic/ .

The Fire This Time Festival With plays by Preston Crowder , Donathan Walters, Teniia Micazia Brown, Mo Holmes, Naomi Lorrain , and DeLane McDuffie Directed by Ken-Matt Martin Presented by FRIGID New York and The Apollo at the Jonelle Procope Theater at The Apollo Stages at The Victoria 233 West 125th Street, Manhattan, NYC January 23-31, 2026 Malik Childs (foreground), Naomi Lorrain, and Victor Musoni in Goose . Photo by Maya Jackson. The Fire This Time Producing Artistic Director Cezar Williams ended his preface to the performance of the festival's annual 10-Minute Play Program that we attended with James Baldwin's assertion, "There is something terribly radical about believing that one's own experience and images are important enough to speak about, much less to write about and to perform." As the current federal government openly suppresses and attempts to disappear certain types of representation, Baldwin's words hold as true as ever, and work like that ...

Cimino's Defeat Written by Eric Faris Co-directed by Sam Cini and Ryan Czerwonko Presented by Adult Film at Torn Page 435 W 22nd St., Manhattan, NYC January 20-February 14, 2026 Gia Bonello and Tad D'Agostino. Photo by GEVE. It's no great insight to observe that many (overwhelmingly male) "geniuses" in the arts are controlling perfectionists prone to mistreating those around them, including their collaborators. In the history of modern cinema, Stanley Kubrick arguably represents the most prominent example of this type. Michael Cimino, director and co-writer of 1978's The Deer Hunter , is another; and, in 1980, both men released films notoriously produced with an obsessive dedication to their respective directors' visions: The Shining and Heaven's Gate . The former debuted to mixed reviews, while the latter destroyed Cimino's career, although he would direct a handful more films before his death in 2016. While Kubrick's film is now considered ...

and her Children Written by Rosie Glen-Lambert and Hailey McAfee Directed by Rosie Glen-Lambert Presented by The Attic Collective at SoHo Playhouse 15 Vandam Street, Manhattan, NYC January 14 - February 13, 2026 Hailey McAfee. Photo by  Ian McQueen If the question of *how* one defends the indefensible is repeated with nauseating regularity, the related questions of why, and perhaps most intriguingly, who, are less obvious. The Attic Collective’s and her Children (co-written by Rosie Glen-Lambert and Hailey McAfee) tackles these questions through a reimagining of Brecht’s Mother Courage and her Children (1939) in which the titular mother, Anna Fierling (McAfee), is now a spokesperson for the NRA defending the organization after a mass shooting. In shocking twists, we learn over the course of this one-woman show that Anna not only lost one son to gun suicide but also that her other son perpetrated the very shooting she has to defend (killing both his twin sister and himself i...

Debajo del árbol de almendras Written and directed by Luis Caballero Presented by Teatro Círculo 64 East 4th Street, Manhattan, NYC January 16-25, 2026 Presented in Spanish and English with supertitles The cast of Debajo del árbol de almendras . Courtesy of Teatro Círculo   The furor–and legal consequences –surrounding the unauthorized felling in 2023 of England's Sycamore Gap Tree points to the psychological significance that such natural landmarks can hold for people. Many of us could probably point to similar examples in our own lives, especially in our childhoods, even if their importance is individual rather than national. For Puerto Rican playwright and director Luis Caballero, "an immense …[,] breathtaking, majestic" almond tree that stood outside his parents' home when he was growing up, close enough that "its branches touched the balcony of the house," occupies such a position. This tree, Caballero has said, acted as both "friend" and witn...