Thinking Theater NYC

MacArthur Fellow and award-winning choreographer Shamel Pitts and TRIBE present a 10th-anniversary performance of Black Velvet at The Flea Theater (20 Thomas Street, New York, NY 10007), November 19–21, 2026, at 7:30 pm. Created by Pitts and performed by Channce Williams and Ke’ron J. Wilson, this anniversary production returns to a work whose original international journey helped lay the foundation for TRIBE. Tickets, priced $35-75, are available at https://givebutter.com/blackvelvet. Black Velvet  – Once called “a haunting duet” by The New York Times – premiered on November 11, 2016, in São Paulo, at dawn of the first Trump presidency. In 2026, this work retains its singular political artistic relevance as a work about Black empowerment,liberation, movement, and textural beauty. Originally titled  Black Velvet: Architectures And Archetypes , the award-winning multidisciplinary work was created and performed by Pitts in collaboration with performer Mirelle Martins and...

User Agreement Written by Ben Holbrook Directed by Dante Green Presented by The Makers' Ensemble at The Makers' Space 281 N. 7th St., Brooklyn, NYC October 22-November 8, 2026 Vann Dukes & Marvelyn Ramirez. Photo by Angel J. Rivas. One of the corrosive effects of the interpolation of generative AI into so many aspects of our lives is its erosion of trust: the constant doubt, for example, no matter how fleeting, that the words that anyone–even a friend, family member, or partner–writes to us are actually their own. Of course, in an advertising-saturated culture of "influencers" and the curation of the self-as-brand, this development is more an intensification than a novelty–much like the ecological destruction being wrought by this latest frenzy of capitalist accumulation. Ben Holbrook's superb play User Agreement , a 2023 O’Neill Finalist currently making its NYC premiere in an exceptional production at The Makers' Space in Brooklyn, takes several of thes...

Women Who Eat Written by Devin Davis-Lorton Directed by Laura Bertrand and Jack Callahan Presented by Chorus Girl Productions in collaboration with Point Blank Productions at Theaterlab Atelier 357 W 36th St., Floor 4, Manhattan, NYC October 22–November 8, 2026 Before anyone opens their mouths – let alone speaks – in Women Who Eat , plates of half-eaten food sit on a table in the Seaside Center for Recovery. As we audience filed into the theater, pre-show house staff directed those who wished to avoid gore to stage left, away from those would-be thrill seekers on stage right. Under these portentous auspices, the production’s glaring white room takes on an ominous aura. Almost directly situated in front of a few tight rows of seats, the space has the economical furnishings of a vaguely menacing institutional space: a bookcase, beanbag chairs, and a weathered desk, complete with a worn copy of Infinite Jest and an uneaten apple – Chekov’s Edenic totem in a play whose script announces ...

LBJ: The Play Created by and starring Sunny Zimmerman Co-directed by Caitlan Moore and Andrew Barth Feldman Devised by the cast (Katie Davis,  Soraya Perry , Albert Muzquiz) Presented by  Jo Firestone  at  Paradise Factory 64 E 4th St, Manhattan, NYC October 9-30, 2026 Sunny Zimmerman. Photo by Jose Miranda In Sunny Zimmerman’s LBJ: The Play , the path to power is precarious, and their Lyndon B. Johnson has all the swagger of a great man coupled with a near touching need to be recognized as one. Before the school bell rings, Katie Davis is already teaching. Wearing white Supergas, school capri pants, a lanyard and ID, her hair pulled up, and surrounded by all manner of overlarge beverages, she conducts a whispered conversation with an audience member named Mark about his behavior, then sanitizes her hands. Tennis balls cover the feet of the desks, while presidential portraits line the upper walls of the classroom. When the bell rings, the audience, previously c...

Blue Gum, Brooklyn , a new play written and directed by Laurie Rose Savage, a finalist in Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope Screenplay Contest, is making its world premiere in a limited Off-Off Broadway engagement October 9–25, 2026, at Matthew Corozine Studio Theater in Manhattan. Running for nine performances, this family drama is set against the economic pressures of a changing Brooklyn, exploring how old resentments, familial obligations and unspoken expectations shape the bonds between sisters. As competing narratives and buried secrets emerge during a family dinner, each woman must face the complicated economies of family: who gives, who takes, who stays, who leaves, what we owe one another, and what we hold for ourselves. Produced by KMD Productions, a Texas- and New York City-based production company, in association with New York City- and Miami-based Matthew Corozine Studio Theater, the production explores suppressed emotion, family dynamics, avoidance, and the ways...

Halloween 13 ¾  –  Strip of the Slasher Movie Villains Presented by  Hotsy Totsy Burlesque at The Slipper Room 167 Orchard Street, Manhattan, NYC October 8, 2026 Dutch Baby. Photo by Jason Laboy.  For the better part of five decades, Michael Myers has made a career of clearing rooms. For one night at The Slipper Room, he finally brings down the house. As embodied by Fem Appeal in Hotsy Totsy Burlesque’s Halloween 13 ¾  –  Strip of the Slasher Movie Villains , horror cinema’s famously expressionless killer makes for a thrilling entertainer – the perfect capstone to an evening in which some world-class slashers prove to be excellent company. Presented by Cherry Pitz and Handsome Brad, Hotsy Totsy’s Halloween offering gathers Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger, Ghostface, and assorted other nightmares for an evening of striptease, mutual pop-cultural affection, and unapologetically terrible jokes. The fun begins before the show proper, as patrons settle in with ...