Thinking Theater NYC

The Lonely Road Stories and photography by Will Clegg Directed by David Crabb Presented at The Kraine Theater 85 E 4th St., Manhattan, NYC February 18-March 6, 2022 Photo by Will Clegg The tradition of the great American road trip is just one that does not appeal to me. I hate cars, driving, and long stretches of boring road where I can’t read a book or watch a movie since all I can think about is not puking out the window due to motion sickness brought about only by car travel. Oh, and the safety statistics of car travel do not help either. But I get it. It’s an appealing, romantic idea. And any time one of my Spanish partner’s friends visits from across the pond, they want their own American road trip. I have tentatively agreed to one in May—god help me. I also have known many people in my life who want to recreate not only Kerouac’s romance of the road but also his personality and  behavior . I will never get the attraction to Kerouac or his road. The Lonely Road leans into this t

Are You Lovin' It? Written by Theatre Group GUMBO Directed by Kayo Tamura Presented at The Kraine Theater 85 E 4th St., Manhattan, NYC February 16-March 6, 2022 Kayo Tamura and Ryo Nishihara. Photo by Sue Brenner Are You Lovin' It? coats the dystopia of corporate globalization in brightly colored fun, a coincidence of method and message in a show that delivers absurdism and satire with anarchic energy. From award-winning Osaka-based Theatre Group GUMBO, which was established by director Kayo Tamura in 1994 and began touring internationally in 1997, Are You Lovin' It? serves up a vision of fast-food imperialism in which Happy Meal toys are distributed based on the essence of one's being and you really don't want to know what's in that burger patty–and makes it hilarious. Are You Lovin' It? is currently playing as part of FRIGID New York's 16th annual festival, in which one hundred percent of the proceeds go to the artists. For a full schedule of

Pueblo Revolt Written by Dillon Chitto Directed by Amanda Levie Presented by No Peeking Theatre at UNDER St. Marks 94 St. Marks Place, Manhattan, NYC February 19-March 5, 2022 A previous production of Pueblo Revolt .  Courtesy Emily Owens PR No Peeking Theatre specializes in productions that engage every sense except sight, and it brings its brand of blindfolded theater back to UNDER St. Marks with Pueblo Revolt , a story of two Indigenous brothers in a Spanish-occupied town that begins on the eve of a 1680 uprising that historically pushed the colonizers out for more than a decade . Developed during AlterTheatre’s 2020-21 AlterLab Playwright Residency in San Rafael, California, Pueblo Revolt is currently playing as part of FRIGID New York's 16th annual festival, in which one hundred percent of the proceeds go to the artists. For a full schedule of shows, all of which can be experienced in person or via livestream, visit FRIGID New York's website . Image courtesy Emily Owens

Bathroom of a Bar on Bleecker Written and directed by Mike Lemme Presented at UNDER St. Marks 94 St, Marks Place, Manhattan, NYC February 19-March 6, 2022 Emil Ferzola. Photo by Mike Ford  Some people say that their best ideas come to them on the toilet. For Jack (Emil Ferzola), a podcaster at the center of an international incident in Mike Lemme's  twisty near-future satire Bathroom of a Bar on Bleecker , his best idea was to record his show from the toilet. Or at least it seemed that way. Bathroom of a Bar on Bleecker is currently playing as part of FRIGID New York's 16th annual festival, in which one hundred percent of the proceeds go to the artists. For a full schedule of shows, all of which can be experienced in person or via livestream, visit FRIGID New York's website . When we meet Brooklyn native Jack, the host of an enormously successful "comedy" podcast of the variety for which, he acknowledges, Joe Rogan paved the way, NYC is in dire trouble–although, J

And Toto Too Written and performed by Megan Quick Directed by Alyssa May Gold Presented by Lizzy Ana Lincoln and Dani Turner at The Kraine Theater 85 East 4th Street, Manhattan, NYC February 18-26, 2022 Photo credit: Arin Sang-urai Anyone familiar with the film The Wizard of Oz (which, especially in comparison to other 80-plus year-old films, is a lot of people) knows exactly who Toto is. Fewer people probably know that Dorothy's canine companion was played by a female dog named Terry. As Terry, playwright and actor Megan Quick (dog) dishes on these and other topics in And Toto Too in funny, ultimately touching fashion. And Toto Too is currently playing as part of FRIGID New York's 16th annual festival, in which one hundred percent of the proceeds go to the artists. For a full schedule of shows, all of which can be experienced in person or via livestream, visit FRIGID New York's website . A Hollywood veteran looking back over her career, Toto's Terry–conjured with l

  The National Women's Theatre Festival's Occupy the Stage 22: The Remix is underway, and while this national festival is not taking place in NYC, seven out of its 22 playwrights are NYC-based, and all performances are available to stream. Occupy 22 plays center women, non-binary, gender non-conforming, trans, Black, Indigenous, POC, Global Majority, disabled, deaf, and neuro-diverse artists. Occupy began in 2016 as a performance-as-protest to the lack of plays being produced by women playwrights across U.S. stages and has become an annual affirmation of the multitudes of brilliant, diverse work being written by women and underrepresented gender playwrights. Now in its 6th year, Occupy The Stage 22 , based in Raleigh, NC, will be presented as a livestream festival of new plays mixed in with encore readings of fan favorites from previous years. Through this annual showcase and community celebration, Occupy advocates for intersectionality in our industry and increased visibilit

A Venomous Color: Burbank (Act 2) Written and directed by Cameron Darwin Bossert Presented by Thirdwing via its streaming service The hybrid model at the core of Thirdwing, founded by Artistic Director Cameron Darwin Bossert, embraces both live and streaming theater productions. The first act of Thirdwing's streaming A Venomous Color: Burbank extended the narrative begun by its fantastic in-person show A Venomous Color: The Fairest , which, in its run at  the wild project , explored Disney's "Nunnery," a department made up exclusively of women painters and inkers, as they worked to complete Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs  (you can read our  review here ). The four-episode first act of Burbank –written and directed, like The Fairest , by Bossert and functioning as a sequel and companion piece to The Fairest without requiring having seen the earlier play–moves from The Nunnery to the male environs of Walt Disney and his animators as it continues a captivating explor

7th Annual Women in Theatre Festival : Hybrid Two-Handers and Monologue Slam Hybrid Two-Handers written by Eliza Bent, Kaaron Briscoe, Georgina Escobar, Amina Henry, and Erin Mallon  Monologues written by Suzanne Bradbeer, Rachael Carnes, Alexis Craig-Hart, Catalina Florescu, Julienne Hairston, Judith Leora, Francesca Pazniokas, Sally Seitz, and Lia Romeo Directed by Michole Biancosino and Andrew W. Smith Presented by Project Y Theatre Company via weekly pass for streaming on-demand February 4-March 18, 2022 Natalie Nankervis and Starr Kirkland in #GirlPowerHour . Photo by Julianna Austin As part of the seventh installment of the annual Women in Theatre Festival (WIT), in which more than half of all the artists involved are women and which produces new work by women, Project Y Theatre Company commissioned five women playwrights to create short works "that invite in an audience of simultaneously streaming and in-person audiences" and require only two actors. Sadly, the omicro

Petunia's Playhouse Live!: Petunia's Big Day Book by Laura Kay Clark Directed by Christina Rose Ashby Music and lyrics by Billy Recce Presented on demand by New Ohio Theatre for Young Minds and Party Claw Productions January 17-February 6, 2022 Photo courtesy Party Claw Productions No doubt there are those for whom a new school term has only ever been an occasion of self-confident excitement. For most of us, though, students and teachers alike, back-to-school involves some degree of fretfulness. Petunia's Playhouse Live!: Petunia's Big Day , based on the web series written and performed by Laura Kay Clark, tackles these first-day jitters with a spirited family-friendly musical. The 2020 web series Petunia’s Playhouse aimed to help equip its young viewers with tools and tactics to address the mental health-related challenges of living in a pandemic. Petunia's Playhouse Live!: Petunia's Big Day faced its own pandemic challenges: it was set to bring Petunia and c