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Showing posts from January, 2022

Review: "Saturn's Return" Probes a Community in Desperate Decline

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Saturn's Return Written by Chance Muehleck Directed by Melanie S. Armer Presented by Nerve Tank Media Available on Nerve Tank's website and all major podcast apps Image from  Saturn's Return AD — Nerve Tank Media At the center of Saturn's Retur n, by Chance Muehleck, looms a present absence. This atmospheric limited series audio drama, adapted from Muehleck's 2021 stage play, which debuted at Tompkins Corners Cultural Center, is set in the town of Barthos, most of whose residents attribute the good fortune of the community and its people to a figure known as the Yellow King. The mythological Saturn ruled over a golden age of plenty, but The Yellow King, in his appellation and his function, additionally brings to mind both Robert W. Chambers's King in Yellow, a figure in a text that brings madness or death to those who read it, and the sacred kings of James Frazer's The Golden Bough , who ensure the fertility of the land (including by being sacrificed), but i

News: The Premiere of Play-by-Mail "The Love Letters," by Austin Bowers

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Unattended Baggage presents the premiere of The Love Letter Plays , written by Austin Bowers and conceived by Sean Pollock, a socially distant immersive experience for a limited audience of 20.  The letters are an erotic fan fiction written in three parts by Austin Bowers ( Nathan For You ) and based on the characters Roman and Kenzie he wrote for the show (Season 3, Ep. 3: “The Movement”). Bowers says, “The Love Letter Plays are a trio of love letters starring my fictional lovers from my first time on the show: Roman and Kenzie! Those two hold a special place in my heart because of how many fans of the show expressed interest in the lives of those characters!”  This romantic comedy romp will be printed out and mailed to your home and will contain stickers, doodles, and Bowers’s autograph on every letter. Audiences will receive all three of their letters by Valentine’s Day 2022 (those looking for a Valentine's gift may want to keep this in mind).  TICKET INFO: Must be reserved by 1

Review: "Ectoplasm" Conjures a Spirited Good Time

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Ectoplasm Written and directed by Sara Fellini Presented by spit&vigor theatre company at The Players Theatre 115 MacDougal St., Manhattan, NYC January 13-February 6, 2022 Sophia Radix, Adam Belvo, Caitlin Dullahan-Bates, Jillian Cicalese, Kelsey Bentz, Raina Silver, Florence Scagliarini. photo by Federico Mostert Ectoplasm , a new play from Sara Fellini, who also directs, begins with one woman alone on stage and ends with another. The first is Kaye Schultz (Caitlin Dullahan-Bates), who enters to the plaintive music of indie band Lord Huron and a somewhat cheeky admonition to reflect on universal mortality; and the second is her partner in an early twentieth-century Spiritualist business, medium Sara Marshall (Jillian Cicalese). Over the course of one entertainingly eventful soirée featuring the pair, the revelations come not only from the spirit world. Caitlin Dullahan-Bates, Florence Scagliarini, Jillian Cicalese. Photo by Adam Belvo The gathering occurs at the home of Madame Fr

News: FRIGID New York Announces Performance Schedule for 2022 FRIGID Festival

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A Play for Voices . Credit: David Bennett FRIGID New York will present the 16th Annual FRIGID Festival at The Kraine Theater (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Avenue and Bowery) and UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place between 1st Avenue and Avenue A) from February 16-March 6, 2022. Tickets are available for advance purchase at www.frigid.nyc . Performances will also be available to livestream from home. Proof of full vaccination is required for all in-person audience members. The FRIGID Festival is an open and uncensored theatre festival that gives artists an opportunity to let their ingenuity thrive in a venue that values freedom of expression and artistic determination. In true support of the Indie Theater Community, 100% of box office proceeds go directly to the artists whose work is being presented. The full schedule of shows follows: A Hanky and a Top Hat! Presented by Torkova Entertainment - NY, NY Written & performed by Bobby Torkova; directed by Gene Santarelli A Hanky and a

Review: Bravery is the Soul of "Wit"

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Wit Written by Margaret Edson Directed by Brynn Asha Walker Presented by The Seeing Place Theater at The Paradise Factory 64 East 4th Street, Manhattan, NYC December 30, 2021-January 16, 2022 Janice Hall, Erin Cronican, & Christopher James Murray. Photo by Russ Rowland The Seeing Place Theater (TSP), a group dedicated to "actor-driven, social justice theater" that inspires audiences to action, begins its twelfth season with a riveting production of Margaret Edson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Wit . Wit 's narrator-protagonist Vivian Bearing (Erin Cronican) holds a doctorate in 17th-century English literature, and her research focuses on John Donne, especially on his sequence of Holy Sonnets, composed in 1609-1610 and circulated in manuscript. Firmly established in her career at 50, Bearing has been diagnosed with Stage IV ovarian cancer, and the certainties of scansion seem both more and less important than ever before as she brings her intelligence, anger, and h