Thinking Theater NYC

Plan C Devised and written by the ensemble of Hook & Eye Theater Conceived and directed by Carrie Heitman Presented by Hook & Eye Theater and The Tank at The Tank 312 W 36 St, Manhattan, NYC March 12-April 12, 2026 The cast of Plan C . Photo by Valerie Terranova. In The Invention of News (Yale University Press, 2014), Andrew Pettegree notes, "Women ... played an active role in the print industry virtually since its beginning, almost certainly a more active role than in any other craft industry," and he supplies as one example of this activity "the achievement of the redoubtable" Alexandrine von Taxis, a German countess who "effectively ran the Taxis postal network for eighteen years after her husband's death, and steered the company through the notably turbulent decades of the latter part of the Thirty Years War" that devastated seventeenth-century Europe (pp. 281, 218, 282). Plan C , the new play from Hook & Eye Theater Company, takes t...

Entangled: 12 Scenes in a Circle K off the I-40 in New Mexico Written by Mona Mansour and Emily Zemba Directed by Scott Ilingworth Conceived by SOCIETY Presented by SOCIETY at HERE Arts Center 145 6th Ave, Manhattan, NYC March 11-29, 2026 Entangled , featuring Joshua David Robinson, Shpend Xani, Hiram Delgado, Caroline Grogan, Meredith Garretson, Christy Escobar. Photo by Ashley Garrett. If everything in the universe (or multiverse) is predetermined, an incalculably immense and complex cascade of cause and effect down to the subatomic level, does that mean not only that there is no free will but also that there is no such thing as true randomness? If humans typically experience being as unidirectional temporal movement, what would it mean to accept the concept that all points in time exist simultaneously? What might prompt someone to make (or "make") an important life decision in the aisles of an interstate-adjacent chain convenience store? These are the sort of questions y...

The Exterminators Written and directed by Maxwell Eberle Presented in association with Center for Theatre Research at Center for Theatre Research 13 West 17th St., Manhattan, NYC March 17-22, 2026 Auryn Rothwell and Yousuf Shah.  Photo credit: Geve. Often what is most disconcerting is not that which is seen, but what transpires out of sight. The unseemly unseen. In The Weird and the Eerie , Mark Fisher describes the eerie as emerging from questions of agency, when something appears where it should not be, or is absent where it should be. Maxwell Eberle’s new play, The Exterminators , locates that specific brand of the uncanny in a subterranean extermination prep chamber where death is a constant, procedural and concealed. The question is not what is being killed, but how one learns how to participate in the killing. Eberle’s staging renders that process with stark visual economy: two lockers, two masks, two jumpsuits, and a single spraypack. From the outset, hierarchy is ...

Tempest Tossed Adapted from William Shakespeare's The Tempest Directed by Janina Picard Music Direction and original music by Flavio Gaete Presented by New Place Players at Casa Duse 16 Prospect Park West, Brooklyn, NYC March 5-26, 2026 L to R (foreground): Clara Tristan, Craig Bacon, Anna Bikales It can be challenging to convey to a contemporary audience the interactive, immersive nature of the early modern theaters where the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries were performed. The notion that the play is something taking place in a different universe from the audience, behind that “fourth wall” as it were, is deeply engrained. However, New Place Players’ chamber adaptation of The Tempest , Tempest Tossed , performed in the intimate townhouse parlor of Casa Duse, brilliantly bodies forth this key feature of the early modern theater in a production that is at once historical restoration and contemporary revision of what has often been regarded as Shakespeare’s farewell to t...

New Love Written by Adam Szymkowicz Directed by Christy Hall Presented by brooklynONE productions  at bkONE: The Tom Kane Theatre 51 35th St. Brooklyn, NYC March 5-15, 2026 Brianna Espinal and  Isaiah Rothstein One of the peculiar truths of theater is that intimacy is built not through grand declarations but through repetition. Lines are rehearsed, gestures repeated, rhythms discovered together until something like learned instinct begins to emerge. In Christy Hall’s deftly directed production of Adam Szymkowicz’s New Love , that hard-won instinctive connection becomes the play’s most persuasive argument about the rather grand conceit of romance itself. From the outset, the play toys with the notion that the audience will ultimately decide the fate of its central couple. Should they remain together? Should they part ways? Yet perhaps the most compelling moments of this two-hander suggest that such questions are beside the point. Love here ironically cannot be voted o...

Two-Way Glass Productions, an independent production company that seeks to emphasize the ever-shifting relationship between spectator and spectacle, will present Walter Schlinger’s Romeo and Juliet , written and performed by Sean Gordon and directed by Dixie O’Connell. The production will be presented as part of the 2026 New York City Fringe Festival with FRIGID New York at The Rat NYC (68-117 Jay St, Brooklyn, NY 11201) with performances on Fri April 3 at 9:50pm, Sat April 11 at 8:40pm, Mon April 13 at 6:30pm, and Sun April 19 at 2:00 pm.  Former English undergraduate Walter Schlinger stands alone in a wide, infinite, green field. In this meta-theatrical solo performance, Walter reckons with the role our mentors play in our development and attempts to provide insight into the world's most famous love story. While desperately trying to share his work with anyone who will listen, he grapples with the notions of youth, tragedy, and validation. The creative team include...