Thinking Theater NYC

Do a Little Dance is a drag performance art show. A certain gentleman asked Mae to do a little dance, and she froze. She blew it. She blew it! Join her now as she tries to put on the show that she needs to redeem herself through burlesque, live music, lip-syncing, performance art rituals, and other strategies.  Featuring Mae. B. Tomorrow,  Do a Little Dance comes to UNDER St. Marks (94 St Marks Pl, Manhattan) for performances on May 22nd, 23rd, 24th, and 30th.  Content warning for partial nudity, sexually suggestive content, needles, simulated bodily fluids. Tickets are available here . 

Patria, The Town of Cain and Abel ( Patria, il Paese di Caino e Abele ) Conceived by Fabio Banfo, Giacomo Ferraù, and Giulia Viana Directed by Giacomo Ferraù Presented by Centro Teatrale MaMiMò and Eco di fondo with the collaboration of the Flamigni Archive May 10, 2026 at Culture Lab LIC , 5-25 46th Avenue, Long Island City, Queens, NYC May 13, 2028 at Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò at NYU , 24 W 12 St., Manhattan, NYC May 16, 2026 at The Rat NYC , 68-117 Jay St., Brooklyn, NYC Fabio Banfo in Patria, The Town of Cain and Abel . Photo courtesy of Mamimo Company. Solo show Patria, The Town of Cain and Abel ( Patria, il Paese di Caino e Abele ) brings a narrative of Italian sectarianism and violence in the second half of the twentieth century to NYC at a time when such a story could not seem more relevant to audiences here as U.S. institutions and norms continue to fracture and divisions deepen. As the play's subtitle suggests, Cain and Abel serve as the microcosmic model for the p...

Needle & Bone Written by Maggie Cino and Scott C. Sickles Additional material by Montserrat Méndez Directed by Felicia Lobo Presented by drops in the vase at The Flea Theater 20 Thomas Street, Manhattan, NYC May 6-16, 2026 Caye Navarrete, Tom J. Reid, Jeffrey Robb, & Morgan Zipf-Meister. Photo by Adam Fontana. Before the audience at The Flea has found their seats and Needle & Bone fully begins, The Knitting One (Caye Navarrete) is already waiting for us; maybe she always has been. Seated at the side of the stage in a rocking chair, draped in knitting and working their needles in silence, they establish the production’s metaphysical logic before a word is spoken. Around them, yarn winds through the set like exposed nervous tissue, sinews coating tattoo-machine wires and tendrils transforming the shop into something simultaneously workplace, shrine, family archive, and haunted house. At the center of the stage stands the evening’s defining image: a tree growing directly th...

Traviata - A Free Prose Opera ( Traviata - Opera libera in prosa ) Written and directed by Andrea Caldi, Fabio Fassio, and Elena Romano Directing consultant: Cecilia Vecchio Libretto by Francesco Maria Piave Based on La Dame aux Camélias , by Alexandre Dumas fils Presented by Bottega di Cyrano – Teatro degli Acerbi May 7, 2026 at Culture Lab LIC , 5-25 46th Avenue, Long Island City, Queens, NYC May 11, 2028 at Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò at NYU , 24 W 12 St., Manhattan, NYC May 12, 2026 at Casa Belvedere , 79 Howard Avenue, Staten Island, NYC Andrea Caldi, Elena Romano, and Saverio Bari. Photo courtesy of Bottega di Cyrano. Giuseppe Verdi's opera La traviata ( The Fallen Woman ), which debuted in Venice in 1853 with a libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, adapted the play La Dame aux camélias (1852), by Alexandre Dumas fils , which was itself an adaptation of Dumas's own novel of the same name, published a few years earlier. Traviata - A Free Prose Opera ( Traviata - Opera l...

The Totality of All Things Written by Erik Gernand Directed by Shannon Patterson Assistant Director: Em Walter Production Stage Manager: Sophia Flynn Set Designer: Scott Aronow Lighting Designer: Shane Hennessy Sound Designer: David Margolin Lawson Costume Designer: Sofie Daley Presented by UP Theatre Company at Theater 154 154 Christopher St, Manhattan, NYC May 7-17, 2026 Joseph Dean Anderson, DeAnna Lenhart, Colleen Clinton, and Logan Floyd. Photo by Mikiodo. At the start of UP Theater Company’s production of Erik Gernand’s The Totality of All Things , directed by Shannon Patterson, the word “TRUTH” waits on a classroom board before the play has begun in earnest. The lights are already up as the audience enters, giving us time to inhabit this journalism classroom: buzzing fluorescents overhead, chrome-and-plastic chairs, awards crowding the walls behind the teacher’s desk, institutional paint fading at the edges. The room feels immediately recognizable and intensely specific, every...

Tale of a Potato Written and directed by Angelo Trofa Presented by Batisfera Teatro May 5, 2026, at Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò at NYU , 24 W 12 St., Manhattan, NYC May 9-10, 2026, at Culture Lab LIC , 5-25 46th Avenue, Long Island City, Queens, NYC Protagonist (center) and some coworkers in Tale of a Potato. Photo courtesy of Batisfera Teatro. The potato is often described as humble. Lowly. A staple, but also a side dish. It can even, in the idiom couch potato, serve as an insult. Obviously, then, it's the perfect avatar for a dramatic everyman, or so one would be forced to conclude after Tale of a Potato , a new tabletop play from Valentina Fadda and Angelo Trofa's Batisfera Teatro, a contemporary theater company based in Cagliari, Italy. At the 2023 In Scena! Italian Theater Festival, Batisfera created a sweeping story with tiny candy protagonists in The Gummy Bears' Great War ( La grande guerra degli Orsetti Gommosi ; you can read our review here ), and Tale of a Pota...