Thinking Theater NYC

  A Midsummer Night's Dream Written by William Shakespeare Directed by Brandon Walker and Erin Cronican Presented by The Seeing Place Theater via Zoom August 29-30, 2020 [UPDATE: extended on YouTube through 9/5; get streaming tickets here .] L to R: Puck, Cobweb, First Fairy, Peaseblossom, Titania, Oberon. Courtesy The Seeing Place Theater In her 2010 book The Promise of Happiness (Duke University Press), Sara Ahmed notes that "heterosexual happiness is overrepresented in public culture," so much so that it becomes "difficult to separate out narrative as such from the reproduction of happy heterosexuality" (p. 90). Queer reimaginings of canonical texts, such as The Seeing Place Theater's virtual reading of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream , thus perform a vital role in constructing a robust counterdiscourse within our heteronormative culture. And in an echo of Shakespeare’s interplay between the real and the fantastic worlds in the pl

Image courtesy Spin Cycle PR Nancy Manocherian’s the cell theatre has announced the premiere of its first serialized online broadcast Tolerance Party: #1 "Ice Breakers , "  which will be available to stream via its website. Six strangers are brought together in a video chat by an unknown entity and are given a group task, but no one can agree on what it is. They've received written instructions--they think--and carry with them a belief in a larger purpose. How can these folks learn to co-exist inside a new world order that doesn’t obey the rules of time and space?  This dark comedy written and directed by Joseph Hendel (Katzelmacher, USA) is a serialized plunge into the social politics of the xenosphere. Audiences are encouraged to participate in a live chat function that will help determine the fate of the characters in following episodes. The cast includes Corey Allen ( Mindhunter , Manh(a)ttan ) Bob Jaffe ( Sweetbitter , Brotherhood , Memory Retrograde ) Heather Mo’Wi

  Image courtesy Theatre Now WHO: Theatre Now WHAT: Theatre Now New York presents “Behind the Lab,” a biweekly web series WHEN: August 19th, continuing through the fall WHERE: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheatreNowNewYork Beginning today, Theatre Now New York is presenting  Behind the Lab , a biweekly web series spotlighting the songs and the songwriting process of Theatre Now Writers Lab members. The series will feature new music, interviews with the artists, and general discussion on how creativity can continue to flourish in uncertain times. The series will be available on Theatre Now New York’s YouTube channel . Featured writers will include Dylan Glatthorn and Will Lacker, Casey Kendall and Jonathan Bauerfeld, Thicket & Thistle, Henco Espag and Kathy Ng, Jonathan Keebler and Bob Kelly, Ethan Crystal and Garrett Poladian, Jonathon Lynch, Paul Cozby, Matt Patrick Walsh, and Michael Finke. The series is hosted by Tom Morrissey, Artistic Director of Theatre Now, and Colleen Ha

  Andromeda's Sisters: An Arts & Advocacy Forum Written, choreographed, and directed by various artists Presented by The Neo-Political Cowgirls via Musae and Zoom August 14, 2020 Kate Mueth. Image courtesy Emily Owens PR On August 14th, not-for-profit dance theater company The Neo-Political Cowgirls (NPC) held the first part of its fourth annual fundraising gala, Andromeda's Sisters: An Arts & Advocacy Forum , virtually, presenting a series of monologues and dance pieces created by female-identifying artists. NPC and its gala are dedicated to, as Founding Artistic Director Kate Mueth said, the need to protect and amplify women's creative voices. One need look no further than this past week's attempts to label Kamala Harris "mean" and "nasty" (a tactic that may sound familiar) because of having displayed insufficient deference to powerful men for an example of the way that patriarchy continues to work to police gender roles and to silence wome

  Photo by Jennie Miller Kinesis Project dance theatre will present Breathing with Strangers: Along the Water's Edge , live-streamed from waterfronts across New York and Pennsylvania from August 14-23, 2020 at 6:30pm EDT. A site-specific, large-scale outdoor dance performance, Breathing with Strangers is a ragged, sweeping and surprising love song to New York City. Two dancers meet, twist, and wind through the pathways of various waterfronts. These dancers will appear in unlikely and beautiful places. Viewers will hear stories of New York interactions and can share their own her e. Breathing with Strangers will surprise and delight all ages. RSVP here for the free series . More information is available here . August 14, 2020 at 6:30 PM EDT LIVE: Summer on the Hudson presents: LiveStream from Riverside Park South Sumaya Mulla Carrillo and Jiemin Yang perform Breathing with Strangers as a duet. August 15, 2020 at 6:30 PM EDT LIVE: Kinesis Project presents: LiveStream from Inwood Hi

  Erv Works Dance - Andrew Bonsu Photoshoot. Courtesy Muchelle Tabnick PR Battery Dance  has announced $1 virtual classes, continuing the tradition of offering "free" workshops as part of the Battery Dance Festival. There will be nine diverse workshops taught by choreographers from around the world over Zoom. The hour-long classes will run August 14-22, 2020, beginning at 10am EDT each day. Zoom links will be provided after registration. Reservation cost of $1 is non-refundable. Friday, August 14 Will Ervin | Contemporary Ervin's choreography has been presented at Dumbo Dance Festival, Brooklyn Ballet, Equilibrium Choreographer Showcase, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, University of Illinois, Earl Mosley's Institute for the Arts, Montclair State University, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, State Farm Center, American College Dance Association. A semifinalist in Jacob's Pillow Chance to Dance, Ervin will introduce his distinctive style in the first worksh

  Image courtesy Theatre Now New York WHO: Theatre Now WHAT: Theatre Now New York accepting submissions for its Musical Writers Lab WHEN: August 10th through October 1st of 2020 at 7pm EST WHERE: www.tnny.org/musical-writers-lab Theatre Now New York, a non-profit artists service organization and theatre company dedicated to supporting musical theatre writers is accepting submissions for their Writers Lab with two new slots available. The Lab is a community of musical theater writing teams who meet regularly working on the development of new musicals through Lab presentations, sharing their process and offering support. Lab members benefit additionally from Theatre Now that includes developmental productions, publishing and licensing. This is a highly skilled, active, and collaborative group focused on embracing and fostering the diversity of musical theatre styles, forms, and creators. Theatre Now is seeking two new teams to join the Writers Lab this fall for a total of 12 teams. The

Image courtesy Emily Owens PR No Puppet Co. (Krista Knight and Barry Brinegar) are presenting the world premiere of Crush , a video puppet play written by Krista Knight, presented in six parts and released in separate installments on YouTube , from August 4th through 20th. Picking up roughly from where Kafka left off—a loner, squatter, and rebel dares to love. We follow the anti-morphosis through a series of beat poetry performances as our hero draws nearer to the object of his desire and his undoing. Playwright and co-creator  Krista Knight  is a Juilliard School Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program Fellow (2016-2018), Page 73 Playwriting Fellow (2007), MacDowell Fellow (2008), Shank Playwriting Fellow at the Vineyard Theatre (2011-2012), Vanderbilt Writer-in-Residence (2020), the Chance Theater Resident Playwright (2020), and winner of the Heideman Award at Actors Theatre of Louisville (2016). Co-creator Barry Brinegar is a composer, performer, and multi-media artist o

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 , have released the  Bleeding Love, Songs from the Podcast   album  (music by Arthur Lafrentz Bacon, lyrics by Harris Doran) for FREE download on all streaming sites. The album is the music from the podcast, Bleeding Love , with book and story by Jason Schafer, music by Arthur Lafrentz Bacon, lyrics by Harris Doran, and directed and edited by Doran. Bleeding Love  takes place in a world where it is too dangerous to go outside, and where a starry-eyed teen cellist risks leaving her apartment to win the love of the rebel punk next door. A twisted musical with a good, pure heart, which you can listen to exclusively on the Broadway Podcast Network , and anywhere you listen to podcasts (you can read our review here ). “I loved writing these songs for the characters in Bleeding Love ,” says Bacon. “Each indivi

Image courtesy Spin Cycle PR American Indian Artists Inc. (AMERINDA) presents the World Premiere of It Came from Across the Big Pond and Files of the Indin Police , two plays by William S. Yellow Robe Jr., directed by John Scott-Richardson. The two short comedies were originally scheduled to be performed live on a “summer fun” double-bill this June over a run at Manhattan’s Theater for the New City. Instead, they have been adapted into radio dramas performed and recorded by the actors in isolation on their cellphones. The plays are now available to stream for free here . Established in 1987, American Indian Artists Inc. (AMERINDA) is a community-based multi-arts organization that works to empower Native Americans and foster intercultural understanding of Native culture. Located in New York, AMERINDA is the only Native American multi-arts organization of its kind in the US, and has been widely recognized for its artistic and cultural integrity. AMERINDA Theater produces staged readin

  The Bathroom Plays Presented by Eden Theater Company via Zoom August 6, 2020 Monogamous Animals Written by Brennan Vickery Directed by Alex Pepperman Pigeons Written by Amy Berryman Directed by Amber Calderon Mary Written by E. E. Adams Directed by Jordan Gemaehlich The third and final installment in Eden Theater Company's three-part series The Room Plays —short plays performed on Zoom that explore some aspect of the isolation that has defined American life under the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic (you can read our review of previous installments The Bedroom Plays here and The Living Room Plays here )—locates itself in a space that is already primarily one of solitude: the bathroom. In the works that make up The Bathroom Plays , the titular space becomes, under the pressures of the pandemic, one also of escape, confession, and connection. This trio of plays furnishes a strong finish to the series, continuing to insightfully, entertainingly, and often unpredictably probe its theme.

Image courtesy of Emily Owens PR Corkscrew Theater Festival in collaboration with Sheep Eats Wolf will present corkscrew 4.0, a series of interactive online experiences as twisted, unsettling, absurd, and alienating as the internet itself. Available here  starting Monday, August 10 through Sunday, August 23, these experiences are inspired by the plays programmed for what would have been Corkscrew’s fourth summer season of five world premieres and four readings. In light of COVID-19, Corkscrew has committed to producing this exact line-up in August 2021 and supporting the artists in the meantime in the creation of these entirely new works. Each production team received $750 in production subsidy for their 2020 projects as well as the first half of its originally planned $1,500 commissioning fees; the reading series teams received an additional $500 fee for their projects. The creative teams behind the five world premiere productions have adapted, reimagined, and exploded their plays, e

TNC's 2019 Street Theater production. Photo by Jonathan Slaff Since outdoor performance permits are not being given at this time, Theater for the New City has adapted its 2020 Street Theater tour to the virtual space. The theater will live stream its new production, Liberty or Just Us: a City Park Story , from August 1 to September 13. The piece is an oratorio written and directed by Crystal Field and composed by Joseph Vernon Banks. Its playing schedule will be Saturdays and Sundays at 2:00 PM plus Friday, August 14 at 6:30 PM. Each performance will pay tribute to the park, playground or neighborhood street it was originally scheduled for. (See complete schedule below.) If Phase 4 regulations change, the production is fully prepared to shift to live outdoor performances on the same schedule, with social distancing and occupancy limits strictly enforced. Audiences will be able to view the performance on the theater's website  and its Facebook page . These live performance

Robbie Fairchild in "In This Life." Photo Credit: Giacomo Belletti Bat-Sheva Guez's short film In This Life will be released for free on TV and online on WNET ALL ARTS beginning on Wednesday, August 5, 2020. View In This Life here . In five acts, In This Life explores the language of loss, conveying the complexity of grief in the often-wordless way that it impacts our lives. The film is a leap of faith for former New York City Ballet principal and Broadway star Robbie Fairchild as he embarks on an ambitious collaboration with the director, choreographers, and dancers. Sharing the roles of writer and producer with Bat-Sheva Guez, Fairchild imbues this odyssey with the very personal experience of one man going through this rite of passage, which is as universal as it is unique. The work stands outside the boundaries of genre: part narrative film, part dance film, and part video art. Each act illustrates a different phase of the grieving process, as choreographed by a di