Thinking Theater NYC

Anabella Lenzu , choreographer, scholar, educator, and author of  Unveiling Motion and Emotion/ Revelando Movimiento y Emoción  (2013), has spent the last two years engaged in research for her new solo show "Listen to Your Mother,"  which will make its world premiere from May 16th-19th, 2024 at La MaMa Moves (66 East 4th Street). What makes a good mother? What makes a good artist? "Listen to Your Mother" is a choreographic research project dedicated to the lives of women-identifying artists who are immigrant mothers living in New York City. The show seeks to capture these underrepresented women's stories in order to inspire dialogue, appreciation, and social support instead of the ongoing prejudice that is historically endured by mothers and women in the arts. Using Lenzu's ongoing movement research and embodied practice exploring spoken word, movement, and media, this work will expose and capture the body histories of mothers who are immigrant artists gra

Adult Film , a Brooklyn-based theatre company, film studio, and actor training center, is currently presenting Sea Gull , a new version of Anton Chekhov's play, at Rutgers Presbyterian Church for a limited run in the Upper West Side. Originally set to end on May 26th, this run has been extended to June 2nd after a sold-out first weekend. AF artistic director Ryan Czerwonko directs and plays Konstantin. The cast features Mia Vallet as Nina, Megan Metrikin as Arkadina, Christian Ryan as Trigorin, Lauren Guglielmello as Masha, Simon Fortin as Sorin, Ira Gamerman as Medvedenko, Christopher Jon Martin as Dorn, Ellie Mae Miller as Paulina, and Peter Rinaldi as Shamrayev, with Rob Riordan understudying. AF is a group of working-class artists who set out in May 2023 with a mission to work on the play for one whole year, seemingly an impossible task in our fragmented hypermodern moment, while recording the process as part of a feature film documentary. With a focus on the show as a laborato

Persona Metropolitana Written by Annachiara Vispi and Giulia Macrì Music and Composition by Lorenzo Saini Presented in collaboration with Dominio Pubblico at NOoSPHERE Arts on May 11, 2024, at 6 pm and at Playwrights Downtown on May 12, 2024, at 3 pm Giulia Macrì. Photo by Elena Costa. Some moments in Persona Metropolitana when dancer Giulia Macrì performs within inches of the audience put one briefly in mind of the “It's Showtime” performers on the NYC subway, who similarly combine impressive athleticism and exquisite physical control–and who similarly embody how denizens of cities share and repurpose tight space, shaping them to their needs, including to make art. Of course, these spaces also shape the people who inhabit and endlessly traverse them, and it is this multi-directional dynamic that Persona Metropolitana explores through a captivating combination of sound, video, dance, and narration. Persona Metropolitana is appearing in NYC as part of the 2024 In Scena! Itali

The Genesis of Regeneration ( Genesi del rigenero ) Written and performed by Beppe Allocca Directed by Beppe Allocca and Roberta Provenzani Presented at Casa Belvedere on April 30, 2024, at 7 pm; at Culture Lab LIC on May 5, 2024, at 7:30 pm; and at Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò at NYU on May 10, 2024, at 8 pm Beppe Allocca. Photo by Caterina Ciabatti. A number of theatrical productions might teach you something while still making you laugh, but far fewer of them will also leave you wanting to buy a piece of convertible knitwear. Beppe Allocca's solo show The Genesis of Regeneration ( Genesi del rigenero ) proves a triple threat in this regard. Allocca introduces himself as a theatrist artisan , the first term marking his theatrical endeavors and the second his production of knitwear using "regenerated" yarn. As it delves into and contextualizes the process of that production, the fantastically entertaining Genesis of Regeneration –part of the 2024 In Scena! Italian

Like a Little Grain of Sand ( Come un granello di sabbia ) Written and directed by Salvatore Arena and Massimo Barilla Historical Consultants: Giuseppe Gulotta and Nicola Biondo Presented by Mana Chuma Teatro at Theaterlab , Manhattan, NYC on May 6, 2024, at 8 pm and Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimo’ at NYU , Manhattan, NYC on May 10, 2024, at 6 pm Salvatore Arena. Photo by Marco Costantino Under the best of circumstances, when everything functions as it should, it is questionable how far any justice system lives up to its name. When corruption and misconduct steer the process, even the innocent can find it almost impossible to extricate themselves from the system's crushing gears. Such was the case for Sicily's Giuseppe Gulotta, whose decades of injustice suffered at the hands of the Italian legal system is grippingly dramatized in Like a Little Grain of Sand ( Come un granello di sabbia ), written by Salvatore Arena and Massimo Barilla in consultation with Gulotta himself, whom

The Visit (Il colloquio) Written and directed by Eduardo Di Pietro Presented by Collettivo lunAzione at Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimo’ at NYU , Manhattan, NYC on May 8, 2024, at 8 pm and BAAD! Bronx Academy of Art and Dance , Bronx, NYC, on May 9, 2024, at 7:30 pm Alessandro Errico, Marco Montecatino, and Renato Bisogni. Photo by Malì Erotico The harm caused by the prison-industrial complex is not limited to those whom it incarcerates. Family and loved ones also suffer from a system that leaves, for instance, shattered families and parentless children as its byproducts. It is some of these individuals, caged in their own way by the sentences of loved ones, that The Visit ( Il colloquio ) brings to the stage. Eduardo Di Pietro, who conceived and directs the play, trained as a director, playwright, and anthropologist, and, drawing on all of those roles, the show's creation involved both substantial collaboration with the actors and a series of interviews with women deeply impacted