Thinking Theater NYC

  Journey Around My Bedroom Written by Dianne Nora Directed by Jaclyn Biskup Presented by New Ohio Theatre for Young Minds December 26, 2020-January 10, 2021 live via Zoom and January 11-February 11, 2021 on demand Photo by New Ohio Theatre In 1790, French military and government official Xavier de Maistre penned the parodic travel narrative Voyage Autour de ma Chambre ( Voyage Around My Room ; published 1794) while under house arrest for dueling. A sequel, Expédition Nocturne Autour de ma Chambre ( Night Voyage Around My Room ), followed in 1825. While this might seem like an unlikely point of departure for a play aimed at children, many children's lives must feel like a form of house arrest right now, and Dianne Nora takes inspiration from de Maistre's works for Journey Around My Bedroom , a charming, whimsical puppet play about a girl, the power of her imagination, and her embracing of her own courage.   That girl is Xavi (Ashley Kristeen Vega), and when we first meet her,

Homesick Movement and choreography by Danielle Agami Directed and edited by Samantha Shay Music by ZAAR Presented by Source Material via streaming December 20, 2020-January 10, 2021 Danielle Agami and Jordan Klitzke. Image courtesy Emily Owens PR A work themed around the feeling of homesickness certainly seems appropriate for a time when many people's annual holiday gatherings will not take place. The short dance film Homesick made its world premiere on December 20th, followed by a Q&A, moderated by artist and CalArts Professor of Dance Cinema Francesca Penzani, with star and choreographer Danielle Agam, director Samantha Shay, cinematographer Victoria Sendra, and composer Sara Flindt, who makes experimental music as ZAAR. Homesick presents a cinematic reimagining of Agami's solo work Framed , which focuses on a peripatetic artist and the end of a relationship. The fifteen-minute Homesick and the accompanying Q&A will be viewable to ticket purchasers through January

  RIIIchard Written by Norman Briski Filmmaking by Frank Fantini; stage lighting by Miguel Ángel Valderrama Presented by Teatro Latea via live streaming December 17-19, 2020 In the popular imagination, Richard III has become synonymous with villainy, a hunchbacked, scheming child murderer. The Richard of Argentine actor, director, and playwright Norman Briski, however, is not the monster of Sir Thomas More and later, and most influentially, William Shakespeare. Briski's stripped-down short play RIIIchard offers a Richard who diverges from these traditional portrayals and whose ambition is not merely self-directed. Richard (Bruno Giraldi), holding a drink, begins the play with some of the familiar lines about the winter and discontent but quickly departs from his Bardic forbear, holding forth in a liberal admixture of Spanish and English dialogue that continues throughout the performance. Eventually, the camera pulls out to frame Richard between two women (Josefina Lausirica and V

  pen/man/ship Written by Christina Anderson Directed by Lucie Tiberghien Presented by Molière in the Park and French Institute Alliance Française December 12, 2020 (live) and December 12-January 4, 2020 (recorded) via YouTube Jared McNeill. Photo courtesy DARR Publicity. If nothing else, Christina Anderson's play pen/man/ship certainly throws into relief that our continuing state of semi-confinement in homes with Netflix and streaming theater is pretty cushy compared to confinement aboard a sail-driven former whaling ship traversing the Atlantic. pen/man/ship continues Molière in the Park's virtual season and marks its compelling first foray into contemporary drama. Dedicated to free theater, Molière in the Park brings this trenchant, engaging production to audiences for the low price of pulling up YouTube (but you can donate here !). Beginning with some of animator Emily Rawson's silhouette-centered work, the production draws us inside a ship sailing from the United Sta

Inside the Wild Heart Conceived by Andressa Furletti and Debora Balardini, based on the works of Claire Lispector Directed by Linda Wise Presented by Group .BR via gather.town November 27-December 20, 2020 Photo by Erika Morillo As we have settled into pandemic life, we have gotten used to theater, with a very limited number of exceptions, being something that takes place on YouTube or Zoom. And while some productions have made very inventive use of the features of these platforms, the current offering from Group .BR, New York's sole Brazilian theater company, takes virtual theater very literally somewhere new. Inside the Wild Heart , a celebration of the work of lauded Brazilian fiction writer Clarice Lispector (1920-1977), through gather.town, a browser-based service which allows for the creation of custom virtual spaces. Inside the Wild Heart , the title of which alludes to Lispector's debut, stream-of-consciousness novel, Near to the Wild Heart ( Perto do coração selvagem

The Fire This Time Alumni Spotlight: Roger Q. Mason Presented by The Fire This Time Festival in collaboration with FRIGID New York via Facebook and YouTube Live November 24, 2020 live, and recording streaming on YouTube This Thanksgiving week, when we are supposed to be thinking about what we are grateful for, and ideally also about the dark undersides of our national mythology, seems like a particularly fitting time for the first annual The Fire This Time Festival Alumni Spotlight. The Fire This Time (TFTT), founded in 2009, amplifies Black voices by showcasing the work of writers of the African diaspora through short plays, staged readings, and more. As well as a richly deserved celebration of Roger Q. Mason and his artistry, this inaugural Alumni Spotlight also acted as a fundraiser for TFTT: donations can be made via TFTT's website . In addition to a sampling of Mason's corpus, the Spotlight featured reflections from a selection of other theater artists. TFTT Artistic Di