Thinking Theater NYC

Back in February 2019, just as the annual FRIGID Festival was scheduled to get underway, UNDER St. Mark's, one of the festival's two venues, suffered extensive damage from a combination of a burst pipe and, well, frigid temperatures in NYC, forcing it to shut down. With some last-minute rearranging and an assist from nearby IATI theater, the show(s) did go on, but now Horse Trade and FRIGID are asking for theater fans' help to complete repairs on this longstanding indie venue.
According to Managing Artistic Director Erez Ziv, about $15,000 are still required to finish renovations begun in December and complicated by February's damage. As Ziv wrote in a May 21 mailing, "It’s vital that we keep the spaces affordable, available and hospitable so artists don’t need a trust fund to create their work." 
Upcoming shows at UNDER St. Mark's include a night with Jackson Sturkey and His Orchestra on Wednesday, May 22, 2019 at 6:30 pm ("Music. Cabaret. Burlesqu…

Measure for Measure Written by William Shakespeare Adapted and directed by Phoebe Brooks Presented by Spicy Witch Productions at The Flea Theater 20 Thomas St., Manhattan, NYC May 18-June 1, 2019 In each of its seasons, Spicy Witch Productions pairs contemporary and classical plays in repertory in order to explore gender and identity. The themes of previous seasons have included gender presentation, gendered violence, and the construct of relationships as a form of ownership. This season, Spicy Witch’s seventh, focuses on rebellion and revolution and puts a production of William Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure into thought-provoking conversation with new play The Virtuous Fall of the Girls from Our Lady of Sorrows. In addition, putting its money where its theme is, Spicy Witch will donate a portion of sales of merchandise, available in the lobby, to Planned Parenthood. We discuss each production in a separate review: The Virtuous Fallat this link and Measure for Measure with referen…

The Virtuous Fall of the Girls from Our Lady of Sorrows Written by Gina Femia Directed by Blayze Teicher Presented by Spicy Witch Productions at The Flea Theater 20 Thomas St., Manhattan, NYC May 17-June 1, 2019 Shava Clarke, Alia Guidry, Renita Lewis, and Pearl Shin. Photo credit: Phoebe Brooks
In each of its seasons, Spicy Witch Productions pairs contemporary and classical plays in repertory in order to explore gender and identity. The themes of previous seasons have included gender presentation, gendered violence, and the construct of relationships as a form of ownership. This season, Spicy Witch’s seventh, focuses on rebellion and revolution and puts a production of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure into thought-provoking conversation with new play The Virtuous Fall of the Girls from Our Lady of Sorrows. In addition, putting its money where its theme is, Spicy Witch will donate a portion of sales of merchandise, available in the lobby, to Planned Parenthood. We discuss each product…

AntiGravity, which has been creating ensemble-based cross-disciplinary performances since 2012, have announced a new collaboration with poet Kyle Dacuyan entitled Legal Tender. Legal Tender describes itself as "a decolonized, queer hypnosis made up of poems and movement; a cross-country astral trip through small-town gay bars and newsrooms; a series of guided meditations on hustling, schlock, and the breaking points of reality. With cameo appearances and non-required exercise."

We wrote of one of AntiGravity's previous productions, Dear Diary LOL, that it offered "intriguingly intimate and consistently funny snapshots of what it means (and feels like) to grow up as a woman in America" ("The Silence of the Diary," Culture Catch, 30 Sep. 2018).

Legal Tender has been selected to play month-long indie theater festival ANT Fest at Ars Nova (511 West 54th St, Manhattan, NYC) one night only, on June 11th, 2019 at 7 pm. 
Get your $15 tickets here. $20 tickets …

As part of the European Month of Culture, Origin Theatre Company will present a free staged reading of Bulgarian playwright Yasen Vasilev's Borgestriptych, directed by Ashlin Hatch, on Tuesday, May 21, 2019 at 7:00 pm at the Bulgarian Consulate NYC (121 E 62nd St, Manhattan, NYC; subway: F/Q/R to Lexington Ave/63rd St). 
Borgestriptych, the inaugural winner of the Interdisciplinary Art Grant, solely funded by the American Foundation for Bulgaria, and designed by the Council for European Studies, the Bulgarian Concert Evenings in New York, and the Elizabeth Kostova Foundation, draws inspiration from three short stories by Jorge Luis Borges – it takes the narrative from the first one, the characters from the second, and the setting from the third. Four performers, each of them a version of Borges, are metamorphosing into his many characters. In this world, library and universe are equal, and the spaces and their occupiers are entirely made of quotes. 
Playwright Yasen Vasilev is a Bu…

To honor the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Inn Uprising, Saks Fifth Avenue is partnering with the Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative (SIGI) and Broadway and television performers. Saks has pledged to donate at least $100,000 from sales of the "Saks
x Stonewall" capsule collection, available in select Saks Fifth Avenue stores and on Saks.com, to SIGI, the mission of which is to eliminate social intolerance of LGBTQIA+ nationally. The partnership will also feature special Fifth Avenue window installations, a digital campaign featuring members and allies of the LGBTQIA+ community, and a celebration in New York City.

The collection features Pride-inspired clothing and accessories created in collaboration with designers including Alice + Olivia, Balmain, Christian Louboutin, Cinq à Sept, Jonathan Simkhai, Judith Leiber, Prabal Gurung, Proenza Schouler, and Stella
McCartney. (All items are available at Saks.com/Stonewall-Inn-50th-Anniversary/shop/_/N-52kknt/Ne-52iqfl?PA=TRUE…