Thinking Theater NYC

Image courtesy Kampfire PR The Broadway Podcast Network  (Tony award-winner Dori Berinstein and Alan Seales, in association with Kent Nicholson, Katie Rosin, and Steve Saporito) and the distributor  Ditto Music  are releasing, for FREE download, the songs from the podcast Bleeding Love   (book and story by Jason Schafer, suggested by Oscar Wilde’s “The Nightingale and the Rose; music by Arthur Lafrentz Bacon; lyrics by Harris Doran; directed and edited by Doran). The Bleeding Love, Songs from the Podcast album will launch on Friday, June 26th with the release of the single “ It’s Just A Street ,” sung by Tony award-nominee Sarah Stiles. It will be followed by the release of “ Is This Summer ,” sung also by Stiles and The Voice ’s Tony Vincent, on Friday, July 10. The final single from the album will be the title track “ Bleeding Love ,” also sung by Vincent and out on Friday, July 24. The entire album will be available to download at no cost on iTunes, Spotify, You...

From Here Book, music, lyrics, and direction by Donald Rupe Arrangements and orchestrations by Jason M. Bailey Presented by Equality Florida Streaming at From Here June 12-June 28, 2020 RJ Silva, Justin Jimenez, and Peter Heid (foreground L-R). Photo by Ashleigh Ann Gardner. The pandemic has taken over every aspect of our lives, including our memories. I had not thought about the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando in a while. The new musical From Here reminds us of the second deadliest mass shooting in the US and the deadliest attack against LGBTQ people. It is questionable whether the shooter targeted Pulse because it was a gay club , but the attack felt even more pointed since it happened during Pride month. The memory that stands out the most to me is walking to Stonewall the next day and seeing a crowd of hundreds standing, crying, hugging, laying flowers, and lighting candles. What also stands out is NYPD officers surrounding the crowd with assault rifles similar to the one...

Image courtesy Kampfire PR The Parsnip Ship  is a podcast play company that amplifies bold artists for audiences who crave accessible stories and storytellers. Its eclectic live events and audio podcasts work to create communities in person and digitally.  The Parsnip Ship (Artistic Director: Iyvon Edebiri), in partnership with the Broadway Podcast Network (BPN), is hosting a Parsnip Happy Hour on Wednesday, June 24th at 6:00 pm EST at www.BPN.FM/TPSLive (and streaming on BPN’s Facebook and YouTube ). Joining host Parsnip Ship’s Artistic Associate, Al Parker (producer, arts administrator, and stage manager), are Amara Brady (generative artist & cultural dramaturg) and Bruce Jones (actor, writer, filmmaker) in a discussion on Queer artistic spaces. It is integral to Parsnip Ship’s mission to highlight voices that have been systematically under-produced and under-presented. The Parsnip Happy Hour offers a safe space for artists to show work, reflect on the moment, and sha...

Davey Mitchell. Photo by Michael Blase. In celebration of Pride 2020, Vangeline Theater/ New York Butoh Institute will present Queer Butoh 2020 (DIGITAL) in collaboration with Howl Arts . Queer Butoh 2020 will virtually present the works of Mee Ae, in Swoon ; Dustin Maxwell in In a Dark Forest Partly Illuminated: Portal;  Davey Mitchell in Diary of a Mad Swan ;   and Scoop Slone in Fragments . At its origin, the introduction of Butoh in Japan was widely controversial. The first homoerotic butoh performance, Kinjiki ( Forbidden Colors ) created by Tatsumi Hijikata in 1958, caused controversy amongst its spectators. Butoh is essentially the dance of the marginalized, and the LGBTQ population is still largely marginalized in the world," says Vangeline, curator of this series. "This year, despite obvious challenges, it is particularly important to find ways to celebrate our LGBTQ artists for the 50th-anniversary celebration of Pride." Queer Butoh 2020 will be available...

Image courtesy Michelle Tabnick PR Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company  has announced the Virtual CrossCurrent Choreographic Festival, in collaboration with Flushing Town Hall, on Friday, June 26, 2020, 7pm-8:15pm EDT and Friday, July 3, 2020, 7pm-8:15pm EDT.  The CrossCurrent Asian American Choreographer Festival is the only festival focused exclusively on emergent Asian American dance choreographers. This year, panelists Nai-Ni Chen, Miki Orihara and Peiju Chien-Pott have selected six emergent Asian American choreographers to showcase their work at Flushing Town Hall. They are: Peter Chang, Yuki Ishiguro, Chaery Moon, Barkha Patel, Chien-Ying Wang, and Rourou Ye. The virtual festival is an opportunity for Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company to introduce the choreographers and their work to audiences before they return to stage. For the June 26th performance, the featured choreographers will be Rourou Ye and Yuki Ishiguro.  Yuki Ishiguro, Japanese native, artistic director of the dance comp...

Margherita Tisato in Rooms . Photo courtesy Michelle Tabnick PR. Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble will premiere a virtual performance video of Anna Sokolow's Rooms , to be titled Rooms2020 , on Thursday, June 25, 2020 at 7pm. Rooms2020 will be available to view here . "Art is a mirror."  If life imitates art far more than art imitates life, then Anna Sokolow was distinctly ahead of her time.  Rooms , Sokolow's 1955 masterpiece, examined the psychic isolation and unfulfilled desires of characters isolated in their small, city apartments. The controversial and groundbreaking work breathed with the loneliness and alienation following the breakdown of wartime solidarity, when the threat of atomic annihilation, the 1952 polio epidemic, and the Red Scare hung like invisible contagions and created a mood of pervasive uncertainty and dread over America. The Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble began rehearsals for Rooms in August 2019 as one half of a concert series scheduled for M...

The Bedroom Plays Presented by Eden Theater Company via Zoom, June 9th, 2020 Full performance available via YouTube: The Man in the Fuchsia  Mask Written by Jake Brasch Directed by Jordan Gemaehlich Daēva Written by Cassandra Paras Directed by Byron Anthony In a Bubble, With Only You Written by Tracy Carns Directed by Diane Davis With the COVID-19 pandemic ongoing, theater has had to search for logistical solutions for an art form partly defined by audiences and performers sharing the same space, such as presenting recordings, socially distanced versions, or readings of existing works or planned productions. By now, however, we are also starting to see theater reckon with how to respond artistically to life under the virus, and the live Zoom performances of  The Room Plays  from Eden Theater Company (ETC) are among the vanguard of this artistic response. The Room Plays consists of three trios of site-specific short plays by emerging New York City playwrights that arose ...

Image courtesy Michelle Tabnick PR Ballet Hispánico, America's leading Latino dance organization, known for "piercing stereotypes" ( The New York Times ), continues to celebrate 50 years of uniting people through dance with Noche Unidos on Tuesday, June 30, 2020 from 7:30-8:15pm EDT on Facebook , Instagram , or YouTube . All are welcome to view the show, with an advanced RSVP requested here , and donations are optional. The evening includes seven virtual world premiere performances featuring Ballet Hispánico Company dancers, new works created remotely in the past weeks by world renowned choreographers, celebrity appearances including Rita Moreno, Norman Lear, Pacquito D'Rivera, Arturo O'Farrill, and other Latinx artists. A highlight of the eveing will be performances by Ballet Hispánico School of Dance students Julienne Buenaventura and Ruby Castillo, Nuestro Futuro scholarship recipients in BH's La Academia program. The pre-recorded show will include new work...

Bleeding Love Book by Jason Schafer Music by Arthur LaFrentz Bacon Lyrics by Harris Doran Directed and edited by Harris Doran Presented by Dori Berinstein, Alan Seales, and the Broadway Podcast Network, in association with Kent Nicholson, Katie Rosin, and Steve Saporito Available wherever podcasts are found, including Broadway Podcast Network , Apple Podcasts , and Spotify Image courtesy Kampfire PR Quarantined listening to a musical about quarantine would seem like the last thing our frayed nerves need right now. However, my little, frayed nerves really did need this musical. Bleeding Love , the creative child of Jason Schafer (book), Arthur LaFrentz Bacon (music), and Harris Doran (lyrics, editing, and direction), premiered in 2015 in Denmark and has come to us in our quarantined state as a podcast. You can access for it free from wherever you get your podcasts. Set “in a world where people are cloistered inside, because it’s too dangerous to go out,” Bleeding Love tells the story ...

Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU)  has announced the first virtual presentation of its 2020 TRU Voices New Plays Reading Series, presented with generous support from The Storyline Project . The series, a benefit for Theater Resources Unlimited to help make up for financial losses due to COVID-19, will take place on Sunday, June 14, 2020 at 2:30pm EDT and on Wednesday, June 17, 2020 at 2:30pm EDT. Information and ticketing can be found here .  The series will comprise world premiere readings of two timely and resonant plays: No Entry ,   by Marc Paykuss, which follows Jews who were displaced after being liberated from Nazi camps and placed in interim detention camps, and Disbelief , a Cassandra Tale ,   by Garret Jon Groenveld, which uses the Cassandra legend to catalog the struggle of women being believed and having their voices heard. This year's TRU Voices Series is being performed under an agreement with the Performers' Unions through the Theatre Authority. Ticke...

A Cocktail Party Social Experiment, 16 Dec. 2019. Photo courtesy Wil Petre & Team. What: A Cocktail Party Social Experiment (w/ Distance) Conceived, developed, and hosted by Wil Petre When:  Thursday nights: June 11th, 2020 June 18th, 2020 June 25th, 2020 & Thursdays moving forward Where: 8:30pm EST via Zoom Estimated Run time: approximately 75 minutes – and after party Wil Petre , an NYC-based cocktail guru, and a performer best known for his off-Broadway work (including Third Rail Projects’ The Grand Paradise ) invites the audience to join  A Cocktail Party Social Experiment (w/ Distance)  – an unconventional hybrid of story slam, game night, and boozy voyeurism, playing Thursday evenings at 8:30pm EST via Zoom. The suggested ticket price is $18, and reservations can be made here . Is it possible to have a meaningful conversation with a perfect stranger in our socially distanced and anxious world? This question has inspired the theater artist and storyte...

Playwright Cassandra Paras. Photo credit: Whitney Brown Eden Theater Company (Diane Davis and Cassandra Paras, Co-Artistic Directors) will present The Room Plays, a series of new 10-minute plays by emerging playwrights, created for and presented on Zoom. Performances will be on Tuesday, June 9 at 8pm, Thursday, July 9 at 8pm, and Thursday, August 6 at 8pm, livestreamed on Zoom via Eden Theater Company’s Facebook page . Admission is FREE with donations accepted via Fractured Atlas . Each presentation will run approximately 45 minutes, with no intermission. As our community continues to remain apart from one another, our common ground has become isolation. The Room Plays were created to continue ETC’s mission of bridging the gap between its artists and its audience by providing them with the surety that although we are apart, we are not alone. Our core value of Dedication to the Unknown has prompted the organization to explore what isolation means when we choose to isolate versus when is...