Thinking Theater NYC

Moving Body - Moving Image 2020 Festival Trailer from Barnard Movement Lab on Vimeo . The Barnard College Department of Dance and the Movement Lab will present  Moving Body–Moving Image: Aging & Othering , A Biennale Dance on Screen Festival, conceived and curated by Gabri Christa, online on Saturday, April 4th, starting at 12:00 pm. This festival is free and open to the public . To participate in interactive discussions and panels, register here. The  MOVING BODY – MOVING IMAGE Festival , which focuses on social themes in screendance (also called dance film or dance for camera), made its sold-out debut in 2018. This year, it takes on Aging & Othering – a subject made even more relevant as the raging COVID-19 epidemic puts older members of the global population at heightened risk. The main festival program features two 45-minute screenings of shorts films, followed by two interactive panel discussions, at 4:00 pm and 5:00 pm. The panelists include Karen Williams, D

Photo courtesy Michelle Tabnick PR Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre is presenting Remote Dance Learning, an opportunity to keep students moving while they are out of school. These free sessions are led by Notes in Motion teaching artists and are available online here . "It has been a great year of dance program thus far and I am confident that in good time we will all get to the other side of this crisis and be dancing with the young people throughout NYC again soon," said Amanda Selwyn, Artistic/Executive Director. "During the remote learning period, join Notes in Motion teaching artists as they lead you through some fun activities to keep you active and dancing!" Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre creates original and dynamic dance theatre that magnifies humanity through dance. Productions pivot around core themes and through an interplay between athletic and pedestrian motion, activate emotional expression, character, and narrative in a rich and abstract collage. P

Photo by Helen Maybanks Due to the impact of the novel coronavirus, 59E59 Theaters (Val Day, Artistic Director; Brian Beirne, Managing Director) has announced that the 2020 Brits Off Broadway festival has been canceled. The 15th annual season of new British theater was scheduled to begin on April 14. The 59E59 Theaters Box Office will be in touch with ticket holders directly. In lieu of a refund, 59E59 encourages patrons who can afford it to donate the value of their tickets to 59E59 Theaters to help offset the financial losses they are incurring due to the pandemic. 59E59 remains committed to these artists and is already in discussions about reprogramming most of the previously announced shows into its Brits season in 2021. Additionally, 59E59’s Board of Directors has pledged to continue to pay 59E59’s staff through the end of June. On a cheerier note, audiences can view two productions from this season’s lineup from the comfort and safety of home. Breach’s production of

Photo credit: David Rodgers After selling out the first three live streams of Desperately Seeking the Exit Uncut & Online , Peter Michael Marino once again shares the notorious tale of the making and unmaking of his West End-Blondie-Madonna musical Desperately Seeking Susan between April 1-5, 2020. In 2007, American actor/writer Peter Michael Marino wrote a musical based on the Madonna film Desperately Seeking Susan featuring the hit songs of Blondie. It opened on London’s West End…and closed a month later. Whoops! This high-octane, comical solo train ride fills in the blanks of how the $6 million musical was made and unmade. From hatching the idea, to deals with producers, MGM, Debbie Harry, and even Madonna...all the way to thrilling workshops, dangerous previews, scathing reviews, closing night, and beyond. Experience this notorious award-winning tale LIVE on your computer. WHAT: Desperately Seeking the Exit: Online Live WHO: Written & Performed by Peter Micha

Battery Dance  has announced the creation of Battery Dance TV, launching on Friday, March 27, 2020 at https://batterydance.org/dancetv/ to provide free live dance classes and programming for the general public by Battery Dance and affiliated artists through a regularly scheduled program. Faced with the cancellation of its New York City public school dance classes and the postponement of its State Department Nigeria tour and with its popular dance studios closed, the company staff members went into high gear (from living rooms and kitchens), creating online content. "Battery Dance TV allows us to continue connecting people across the world through dance at this time of social distancing and isolation," said Jonathan Hollander, artistic director of Battery Dance. "We and everyone we know at home and abroad are facing emotional, psychological, physical and financial challenges. For 45 years, we have explored the power of dance as an art form and a means for social

Photo credit: David Rodgers After selling out the first two live streams of Desperately Seeking the Exit Uncut & Online , Peter Michael Marino will once again share the notorious tale of the making and unmaking of his West End-Blondie-Madonna musical Desperately Seeking Susan - on your computer. This 90-minute live-streaming event will include a reading of the story you may or may not have heard, plus bonus footage from the actual West End and Tokyo productions, plus accompanying scenes from the film and how the film scenes were adapted for the stage. WHAT: Desperately Seeking the Exit Uncut & Online WHO: Written & Performed by Peter Michael Marino. Original Direction by John Clancy. WHEN: 2:00 p.m. EST, Saturday, March 28 WHERE: Your computer or tablet HOW MUCH: $10 Click here to purchase tickets.

We are re-posting this announcement from Rebis (see our review of one of their shows here ): Rebis Lab / Virtual Classes Now that you might have more time on your hands to be still, to question why any of us are doing what we are doing, it is the perfect opportunity to LEARN. The emergence of online classes is not just a reaction to the jobs stripped from artists as a result of quarantine measures. This is a new opportunity for knowledge keepers to share their wisdom and knowledge with familiar and newly socially-distanced communities. This is an opportunity for you to expand your mind and body in the safety and comfort of your own home.  —Let us share with you!— Every Monday / Wednesday / Friday at 1pm EST on  Instagram Live . Join  Rebis Lab on Facebook  for more information.

Ballet Hispánico has announced a new Instagram video series entitled B Unidos , to begin on Monday, March 23, 2020 at 12 noon. The series will feature a series of videos posted each weekday, created by the three arms of the Ballet Hispánico: the professional company, the School of Dance, and Community Arts Partnership (CAP) and featuring the hashtag #BUnidos at www.instagram.com/ballethispanico/ . "As a community of dancers, artists, and human beings, we are all in this together. We will persevere through this challenging time and we hope that these videos provide a coping outlet, for you, for our followers and the community overall," said Eduardo Vilaro, artistic director and CEO of Ballet Hispánico. "Now more than ever, it is important to band together in support of the arts. The personal and professional challenges that we have already endured and will continue to face over the next few weeks or months are significant. What we can take from this time of cancellati

A My Name is Allison Written by Emery Schaffer Directed by V. Greene Presented by Somehow9am Productions at The Tank 312 W. 36th St., Manhattan, NYC March 7-15, 2020 In Julian's (Henry Raber) apartment, Settlers of Catan is laid out on the table for his monthly board game night with his friends from college days Trish (Molly Lang) and Pete (Leo Defriend). Not everything is Battleship and Harry Potter Clue, however. Julian is coming off a recent bad date; Trish is practicing, on the advice of her couples' therapist and with something less than glowing enthusiasm, for having children with her husband; and Pete has not only just gotten fired—again—from a job but has also received a mysterious accusatory note. And tonight, Juilan has invited Allison (Caroline Dunaway), whom he has "met" on a new dating app that only provides names and not pictures. That Allison communicates at all times through a lace-edged sock puppet is only the beginning of the twisty h

Small Funerals . Photo courtesy of 369grad Update: March 16, 2020: This festival has been postponed until October 2020. Participating artists and venues to be confirmed. The New York City-based Kairos Italy Theater along with the Italy-based KIT Italiana and Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò at NYU will present the eighth annual In Scena! Italian Theater Festival NY, a festival of Italian theater taking place in all five boroughs of NYC, April 27-May 11, 2020. We here at Thinking Theater NYC will be covering the festival, so look for reviews of all the shows once the festival begins. Each year In Scena! presents a survey of the best Italian theater from Italy, in New York City. The festival features full productions that have already toured in Italy as well as readings of Italian plays in translation, lectures, and exchanges between Italian and International artists. The goals are to promote greater awareness of Italian theater and Italian artists among New York theatergoers and

Mr. Toole Written by Vivian Neuwirth Directed by Cat Parker Presented by Articulate Theatre Company in association with Lagniappe Productions at 59E59 Theaters 59 E. 59th St., Manhattan, NYC February 28-March 15, 2020 Ryan Spahn. Photo by Ken Howard When we first saw Vivian Neuwirth's Mr. Toole , which revolves around the personal and literary struggles—if one can separate the two—of A Confederacy of Dunces author John Kennedy Toole, it was as a short play in the 2014 EstroGenius festival, when we called it a powerful piece and said that it would be easy to imagine as a full-length production . Now, that full-length production has arrived, with a greatly expanded Mr. Toole making its debut at 59E59 Theaters on the fortieth anniversary of the posthumous publication of Toole's Pulitzer Prize-winning comic novel of New Orleans. Mr. Toole explores the messy intersections of loss and preservation, resilience and despair, through the fight for a literary legacy. N

A Southern Fairytale Written and performed by Ty Autry Directed by David L. Carson Presented at The Kraine Theater 85 E. 4th St., First Floor, Manhattan, NYC Wed., February 19 at 7:10pm; Sat., February 22 at 5:00pm; Sat., February 29 at 5:00pm; Wed., March 4 at 7:10pm; Fri., March 6 at 5:30pm Ty Autry. Photo by Mike Glatzer Photography Fairytales really do come true for queer kids in the South. That is, if they can keep it together until they get the hell out. So goes the narrative of Ty Autry’s one-person play A Southern Fairytale . Advertised both as a fairytale and “The story of a gay Christian growing up in the Deep South,” the play focuses on Autry’s real-life story of growing up gay in small-town Georgia. Not only is the play Autry’s story and written by him, but he is also the lone actor in the play. Part of NYC’s Frigid Festival of independent plays, Southern Fairytale represents the need for these sorts of independent, open festivals. As the play opens, Aut