Thinking Theater NYC

G Lucas Crane and Jim Findlay. Photo credit: Marina Oriente On Monday, July 8, 2019 at 9 pm, OBIE and Bessie Award-winning Restless Productions and Pioneer Works  will present DECODER: Ticket That Exploded , the second installment of their multimedia-infused trilogy based on William Burroughs’ NOVA series (the full series - Soft Machine , Ticket That Exploded , and Nova Express -  is being commissioned by the Chocolate Factory, where it will premiere in 2020). The production is part of a month-long company residency at Pioneer Works that includes workshops with writer, teacher, and scholar, and organizer of the Burroughs Centennial Conference at CUNY Alex Wermer-Colan ,  who devised dramaturgy for the piece (July 15, 7-9 pm), and Brooklyn-based sound artist, performer, and musician G Lucas Crane (July 20, 1-5 pm). DECODER: Ticket That Exploded uses the Burroughsian cut-up technique to create a unique blend of literature, live music, theatre, and technology, developed by a te

Clubbed Thumb's Summerworks 2019 continues  now through June 29, 2019 at the wild project (195 E. 3rd Street, between Avenues A & B, Manhattan, NYC), an eco-friendly theater, film, music, and visual arts venue that presents diverse, engaging, inspiring, and entertaining works to the vibrant and growing community of Alphabet City in New York’s East Village, while bringing together the artists and the environment in a unique way. With Sarah Einspanier's Lunch Brunch having concluded on May 28, the next two shows up in the festival are Zhu Yi's You Never Touched the Dirt from   June 3-13 and Daniel Glenn's King Philip's Head is Still on that Pike Just Down the Road from June 19-29.  These shows will be followed in July by a pair of festivals.   YOU NEVER TOUCHED THE DIRT   Written by Zhu Yi Directed by Ken Rus Schmoll With Holly Chou, John D. Haggerty, Daniel K. Isaac, Kenneth Lee, Jennifer Lim, and Julyana Soelistyo June 3-June 13 The Li family would

NATIONAL QUEER THEATER ANNOUNCES FIRST CRIMINAL QUEERNESS FESTIVAL FOR WORLDPRIDE, JUNE 13 - JULY 7, 2019 We've posted about the the inaugural  Criminal Queerness Festival before on Thinking Theater NYC , and two weeks from opening seems like a good time to post a reminder about what looks to be a very intriguing lineup of extremely timely productions from a group of international playwrights. (Look for a review on this site of Adam Ashraf Elsayigh's Drowning in Cairo once the festival is underway). To recap: The Criminal Queerness Festival, sponsored by WorldPride and the  Stonewall Community Foundation , will be the product of  The National Queer Theater , an organization founded in 2018 with the mission of fostering and supporting LGBTQIA+ communities through social justice in the performing arts through partnership-based education programs and by producing socially-conscious plays about issues in the community. Coinciding with WorldPride 2019 and the 50th a

Donna Walker-Kuhne. Photo provided by Emily Owens PR The League of Professional Theatre Women (Kelli Lynn Harrison and Catherine Porter, Co-Presidents), an organization which has been leading the gender parity conversation and championing women in the professional theater for over 35 years, is pleased to bestow their inaugural Rachel Crothers Leadership Award to Donna Walker-Kuhne, founder and CEO of Walker Communications. The award will be presented at the LPTW Leadership Luncheon on Thursday, June 27, 2019 from 12-3 pm at Sardi’s Restaurant (234 West 44th Street, New York, NY 10036). The award is named for playwright and director Rachel Crothers, who led seven other professional theater women in organizing members of the theatrical community in supporting the American war effort in 1917, a time when women could not even vote. Crothers was a founder of The American Theater Wing and its Stage Door Canteen, and she one play per season produced on Broadway over a 30-year span.

A previous Freestyle Lab. Photo credit: Cristina Lundy  New York Shakespeare Exchange , responsible for programming from regular ShakesBEER pub crawls and the online Sonnet Project to full productions of Shakespeare's dramatic works. has announced its next Freestyle Lab, titled ARMOR AS STRONG: Trans Warriors through a Shakespearean Lens. The event is free  and will take place on Tuesday, May 28, 2019 from 7-9 pm (doors open to the audience at 6:30 pm) at the 53rd Street Library Theater (18 W. 53rd Street, NYC). Coming between Memorial Day and the start of Pride Month, ARMOR AS STRONG will feature a group of actors from New York's trans/gender non-conforming community performing speeches and short scenes featuring some of Shakespeare's best known soldiers. The performance will be followed by a town hall conversation about society's understanding of gender identity, and how our limitations can lead to broken and inhumane policies. It will ask: What truly makes a s

Loveville High: A Prom in Nine Musical Podcasts Book and Lyrics by David Zellnik Music by Eric Svejcar Available at  https://www.lovevillehigh.com/ Hailey Kilgore & Conor Ryan. Photo via Kampfire PR The high-school musical genre is one I have always been attracted to without knowing exactly why. I think I can put the pieces together to make sense of my attraction, but the most important piece in the equation is the fantasy factor of the genre. High-school musicals, from Grease to High School Musical , allow a type of projection onto my own high school experience that enables me to relive it the way I would have liked it to be—freak flag unfurled with minimal consequences for waving it. This was the brilliance of Glee —even though the show lost its way. And this is just the musical front of the genre. The high-school genre is seemingly endless, and this makes sense for several reasons. First, it is a reference point most of us have and can be easily universalized by s

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. Cab

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 Blake Kelton Prentiss 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 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

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

Image provided by AntiGravity 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, De ar 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, 201

Image provided by Elizabeth Kostova Foundation 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 a

Michael Urie. Photo provided by Spin Cycle 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-I

Sour Grapes Productions has announced a new queer comic Shakespeare adaptation, to be presented by FRIGID New York beginning Friday, May 17, 2019. 2 Shrews, 1 Chalice: A Shakesqueer Comedy reimagines and recontextualizes Shakespeare's oft-considered-problematic Taming of the Shrew , describing itself as depicting "the courtship of Patricia and Katherina--both headstrong, loud-mouthed, and unfazed by the "charms" of men. Initially, Katherina is an unwilling participant in any relationship; however, Patricia "tames" her with various BDSM torments, until she becomes a desirable, compliant, and obedient wife." The show stars Genny Yosco as Katherine and Carroll Herring as Patricia, with Claire Unabia, Katherine Yacko, Katrin Mattson, Anthony OConnell, Daniel George, Alexander Gheesling, Hadas Pacholder, Dorie Casper, Ellen Ko, and Elizabeth Claflin rounding out the rest of the cast. While we (the editors of this site) unfortunately can't mak

"IMG_4212" by GGAADD is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU) , the leading network for developing theater professionals, will present the panel discussion "It Doesn't Have to Be #MeToo: Sexual Harassment Education and Prevention for Theater" on Thursday, May 23, 2019 at 7:30 pm (networking begins at 7pm) at St. Luke's Theatre (308 W. 46th Street, Manhattan, NYC). The theater has its own #MeToo stories from both women and men, and artists will share stories of harassment and misconduct, followed by a presentation recognizing and fighting harassment, after which a panel of representatives from Dramatists Guild, ART-New York, and the Actors Fund will share what they are doing to empower their members and prevent harassment, misconduct, or assault in the theatrical workspace. The event, presented in association with the  League of Professional Theatre Women , will be facilitated by Yvette Heyliger, with confirmed speakers Jenna C

Olivia Auerbach, Glory, and Kate Robards. Photo provided by Strawberry Milk Comedy Strawberry Milk is a monthly stand-up comedy series with a devotion to diversity and the laudable goal of a world where white men are not the majority in comedy. Strawberry Milk provides a platform for diverse voices to shake up the traditional comedy scene, and its next show, its eighth, will be Friday, May 24th, 2019 from 8 pm to approximately 9:30 pm at Escondido (146 Bowery, Manhattan, NYC). Strawberry Milk, which highlights both new and established talent, is produced by the all-women team of Olivia Auerbach, Glory, and Kate Robards.  Auerbach, a TV writer and stand-up comedian recently featured in the  Wall Street Journal  born in Amsterdam and raised for much of her childhood in Asia, uses her comedy to elevate women’s equality, global issues, and the underbelly of society. Glory, a Dominican Harlem native recently featured in  Teen Vogue , uses personal encounters as part of sharing obse

A Streetcar Named Desire Written by Tennessee Williams Directed by Kevin Hourigan Presented by The Coven and  Precariat Productions in association with Wolfpack Theatrics at Mister Rogers 231 Rogers Ave, Brooklyn, NYC May 7-25, 2019 Max Carpenter, Isabel Ellison, and Russell Peck. Photo credit: Rosie Soko Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire needs little introduction. The 1947 play won a Pulitzer Prize, the 1951 film adaptation, with some of the play’s sharpest edges sanded off, received critical acclaim, and, of course, a Simpsons parody bestowed upon it one of our society’s more widely recognized imprimaturs of cultural importance. It continues to be widely read, taught, and produced; and a new production under the direction by Kevin Hourigan represents a new chapter in the play’s storied history. For the first time, a U.S. production of Streetcar has been licensed to allow a genderqueer/trans actor to play tragically distressed Southern belle Blanche D

Photo provided by Michelle Tabnick PR The National Park Service in partnership with Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company presents the Ellis Island Asian American Heritage Festival on Sunday, May 19, 2019, with ceremony and performances starting at 12 noon at The Great Hall of Immigration at Ellis Island , located on the second floor of the main Ellis Island building. A full schedule of performances of one hour by nationally renowned artists and performers will celebrate Asian American Heritage Month by showcasing traditional and contemporary Asian-American music and dance with notable performing artists from the community in New York and New Jersey, including the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, Kindling Sindaw (Philipines), Vietnam Heritage Center, the Kalagangothri Foundation (India), and Hālau Hula O Na Mele 'Āina O Hawaii' (Hawaii). The Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company , which the New York Times has compared to "endlessly proliferating forces of cosmic energy," will perform the ope

Actionplay , a non-profit organization dedicated to providing children, teens, and adults on the autism spectrum and with related conditions equal access to education, arts, and culture, will present the world premiere of its neuro-inclusive musical  Welcome to My World on Saturday, May 18, 2019 at 7 pm and Sunday, May 19, 2019 at 2 pm.  Welcome To My World  was created by the participants in the Actionaplay's AIMS (Action Improv Musical) program, a 25-week musical theatre devising workshop for teens and adults on the autism spectrum and with related conditions. With direction by Executive Director Aaron Feinstein and musical direction by Artistic Director Gabriel Lit,  Welcome To My World  follows a teenage autistic girl named Aliza who is visited by an unexpected guest from another planet. The idea of the show and the theme song were created by actor and AIMS participant Natalie Kaiser, and the story and songs were devised by the group and reflect themes that the group deal

Photo provided by Michelle Tabnick PR Musical Theatre Factory will be hosting a gala at Town Stages  (221 West Broadway, Manhattan, NYC) on May 13, 2019 at 7:30pm to celebrate five years of growth while creating spaces to collaborate outside the pressures of critical and commercial success and dismantling oppressive ideologies in order to move towards collective liberation. As Robin Sokoloff, executive director of Town Stages, puts it, "MTF's wholehearted commitment to reimagining story-telling by creating avenues for equitable representation both onstage and offstage has transformed the face of musical theatre in New York City and beyond."  The gala will feature a night of dance and song honoring Michael R. Jackson ( A Strange Loop ) and introducing the inaugural MTF Makers Cohort with work and performances by Troy Anthony ( The River is Me ), Jacob Jarrett ( Wonder Boy ), Melissa Li and Kit Yan ( Interstate ), Jillian Walker ( SkinFolk: An American Show ), AriDy

Photo credit: Erik McGregor The League of Professional Theatre Women , an organization which has been at the forefront of the gender parity conversation and championing women in the professional theatre for over 35 years, will lead the seventh annual Women Stage the World Parade  on Tuesday, June 11 from 6-7 pm. The march will begin and end at the TKTS booth in Times Square, with the purpose of advocating for equal representation for women in theater. Women Stage the World is an advocacy project designed to educate the public about the role that women play in creating theater and the gender barriers that they face as men continue to outnumber women by 4 to 1 in key roles such as playwright, director, and designer. Women buy two-thirds of the tickets and represent 65% of the theater audience, yet 80% of the time, the storytelling on stage is shaped by men's rather than women's voices. The Women Stage the World Parade will prompt ticket-buyers to ask three vital questio