Thinking Theater NYC

Romeo & Juliet Written by William Shakespeare Directed by Sam Stone Presented by Sister Shakes Productions at UNDER St. Marks 94 St. Marks Place, Manhattan, NYC August 5-14, 2022 Everyone reading this probably knows at least one line of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet . But even in such an omnipresent cultural text, consider how much potential variation is latent in that line depending on who says it, how, and in what context. With its new production of Romeo & Juliet , Sister Shakes Productions, a company founded in 2017 that centers "female-identifying and non-binary stories and perspectives," offers yet another new experience of this familiar work. Sister Shakes presents its abridged version of the play, running about ninety minutes, with gender-blind casting, a choice which destabilizes and queers the work's heteropatriarchal underpinnings. No matter to what degree one may see the text itself as critical of those underpinnings, this production opens spaces

Shut UP, Emily Dickinson Written by Tanya O'Debra Directed by Sara Wolkowitz Presented at Abrons Arts Center 466 Grand Street (at Pitt Street), Manhattan, NYC July 28-August 13, 2022 Tanya O’Debra as Emily Dickinson and Gregg Bellón. Photo by Molly Broxton. Not so long ago, television's Dickinson gave us Emily Dickinson the cool, rebellious, queer, feminist teen. Now, the stage at Abrons Arts Center gives us a new Emily Dickinson, and she is…mostly not those things; but neither is she the austere, reclusive genius of other imaginings. In Tanya O'Debra's wickedly funny Shut UP, Emily Dickinson , the poet would be quite happy if everything could just be how she wants it when she wants it that way; and just because she is correct that she should not be forced to conform to others' ideas of things such as love does not mean that she cannot at the same time be exasperating to those others–to be the kind of person, say, who assumes that her wealthy family's laborers

  Irondale , Brooklyn’s leading theatrical and artistically ambitious think-tank theater ensemble, has invited nine teens from Ukraine’s The School of Open-Minded Kids Studio Theater, located in Lviv, to present the United States premiere of Mom on Skype on August 13-14. Previously directed by an active-duty Ukrainian solider, Oleg Onechchak, and performed in a warehouse-turned-bomb-shelter in Lviv in April, the play features a range of stories about family separation as told from the perspective of children. The teens' time in NY will be a chance to tell their story without the threat and fear of war, and thanks to the Irondale Ensemble Project, they will have a safe theater to do it in and will spend time working alongside both the Irondale Ensemble and the Irondale Young Company. . The cast has arrived in the U.S. and are currently in Ivoryton, CT at a musical theater sleep-away camp with Young at Arts in partnership with Sing for Hope. When they return here to NYC, they will e