Thinking Theater NYC

After two successful showings at the A.P.E. Gallery in Northampton, Massachusetts this past April, director Marina Zurita is bringing her latest research-driven piece, Riven , to BRIC Arts in Brooklyn, NY. Created in collaboration with creatives Laila Garroni and Josanna Vaz, Riven examines catadores (waste-picker) culture in Brazil, and further explores the intersections of motherhood and the accumulation of waste. Says Zurita, “In times of climate change and accumulation of waste, we often don’t think about the 20 million heroes around the world sorting and picking through our discards. Our hope is that Riven can shift perspectives towards the global community of waste pickers and their practices of sustainability and deep community building. We are thrilled to share Riven with Brooklyn audiences and engage more people into this fascinating conversation.” In 2021, amid the pandemic’s spotlight on essential workers, Zurita spent time in her home city of Sao Paulo, Brazil, intervie

Hidden Written and directed by Marc Weiner Presented by The Playwrights’ Gate at the Chain Theatre 312 W. 36th Street, 4th Floor, Manhattan, NYC May 11th-May 28th, 2023 Eileen Sugameli, Mark Friedlander, and Sean Edward Evans in Hidden . Photo by Shraya Kag Collective memory can be a pernicious thing in contemporary America. But to be a Jewish American has always meant living with a complex and inescapable relationship to the near past: to be like other Americans, only with the unique burden of bearing witness to the existential horrors of modern, systemic extermination. As the events of the Holocaust and the Vietnam War retreat further and further from contemporary American memory, the Jewish American voice has a unique capacity to continue to give voice to these events, to serve as a repository for an unyielding and uncompromising collective memory and in doing so, remind all of us of our moral obligation to, in fact, never forget. Marc Weiner’s is one such voice. Weiner's new pl

Jacob Storms. Photo courtesy of Spin Cycle  The newly renovated AMT Theater in midtown will host a special LGBTQIA+ Pride return engagement of the Off-Broadway Premiere of Tennessee Rising: The Dawn of Tennessee Williams , a solo play written and performed by Jacob Storms and originally directed for the stage by Alan Cumming. It will run June 2 – 23 before heading to Edinburgh this summer and Rochester, NY in September. You can read our review of the show's previous run at AMT here . What led Tennessee Williams to become the most groundbreaking and unique playwright of the twentieth century?  Tennessee Rising: The Dawn of Tennessee Williams  explores the formative six-year period from 1939-1945 in which an unknown writer named Tom metamorphosizes into the acclaimed playwright known as Tennessee. The solo play brings these unknown years center stage as the audience becomes friend and confidant to young Williams as he experiences the unexpected highs and devastating lows of his earl

cityscrape Written by Sophie McIntosh Directed by Nina Goodheart Presented by Good Apples Collective and Gillian Fu at Arts on Site 12 St. Marks Place, Studio 3R, Manhattan, NYC (masks required) May 18-28, 2023 Mia Fowler and Simone Policano. Photo courtesy of Good Apples Collective After last summer's widely praised macbitches (you can read our review here ) delved into the female-friend-group machinations surrounding a university production of Macbeth , playwright Sophie McIntosh returns to themes around the perils, power, and pleasures of women's friendship among the under-30 creative class with her new play, cityscrape . cityscrape marks the engrossing debut production from McIntosh and director Nina Goodheart's Good Apples Collective, which aims to " empower emerging [queer and gender-marginalized] artists to … revolt against oppressive hierarchies ." In part, cityscrape itself dramatizes the difficulties of scraping by as an emerging artist, at the same t

The Best Punk Band in Conway, Missouri: An Oral History of Presley Cox and the Fallout Five Written by Kirby Fields Directed by Rachael Murray Presented by UP Theater Company at Fort Washington Collegiate Church 729 W 181st St., Manhattan, NYC May 3-20, 2023 Henry Temple, Devin Romero, and Zuzu. Photo by Amy Milstein For a certain group of us, few things are better than a live punk or metal show, preferably in the smallest venue possible, so it is genuinely exciting to see the new production from NYC's UP Theater Company successfully translate that energy to a stage play. The Best Punk Band in Conway, Missouri: An Oral History of Presley Cox and the Fallout Five , from UP Artistic Director Kirby Fields, though, is not merely an uncritical celebration of punk and local music in a time and place when such DIY scenes were still fully analog and offered one of the few sites for certain types of outsiders to find community. Set in the fictional small town of Conway, Missouri, The Best

Misconceptions Written by Steve Wangh Directed by Jessica Burr Presented by Blessed Unrest at 122CC Theater 150 1st Avenue, 2nd floor, Manhattan, NYC May 11-June 3, 2023 L to R: HiIary Dennis and Cellia Pitt. Photo by Maria Baranova Reproductive choices are almost necessarily fraught, especially in a society in which, as scholar Lee Edelman argues, the figural Child functions as a fundamental part of heteronormative hegemony. Misconceptions , the new production from Blessed Unrest, examines one such choice, whether or not to continue to terminate a pregnancy, through a combination of a fictional narrative and the words of real-world women and media figures. From NYC-born playwright Steve Wangh, no stranger in his long career to politically charged topics, Misconceptions finds the humanity and even humor in terrain that, in the United States, has not only been politically weaponized over decades but has also recently seen the dangerous, sometimes literally fatal, obliteration of women

Little Funerals ( Piccoli Funerali ) Written by Maurizio Rippa Performed by Maurizio Rippa (voice) and Amedeo Monda (guitar) Presented by 369gradi May 11, 2023 at BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance , 2474 Westchester Ave, The Bronx, NY May 12, 2023 at Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò at NYU , 24 W 12th St, New York, NY May 13, 2023 at Snug Harbor Cultural Center , 1000 Richmond Terrace, Staten Island, NY Maurizio Rippa and Amedeo Monda (guitar). Photo courtesy 369gradi Maurizio Rippa’s Little Funerals began with the writer and performer’s explanations of its origins in his dissatisfaction with the traditional, Catholic funerals that are standard in his native Italy. Regardless of the age of the deceased or the manner in which they died, the funerals are all the same, he explained via translation by the In Scena! Italian Theater Festival's artistic director Laura Caparrotti. This lack of ability to personalize the ritual for collective mourning led to his creation of Little Funera

Since the 2023 In Scena! Italian Theater Festival opened on May 1, it has presented audiences across the city's five boroughs with family history and candy fantasy, explorations of trauma and feel-good comedy, and more than one rap. To close out this successful two weeks of events, the festival finishes its NY leg on Tuesday, May 16th, with an award ceremony and reading for the 2023 Mario Fratti Award. This closing night will take place, beginning at 6 pm, at the Italian Cultural Institute of New York (686 Park Ave, Manhattan, NYC), and, as with the rest of In Scena! 2023, admission is free.  The 2023 Mario Fratti Award will be awarded to playwright Andrea Scrimàli for his play L’attesa , which deals with love, seen through the many reflections of generational conflict. The awards ceremony will include a reading of the English translation of the play, directed by a female-identified director, Kiara Pipino. Since 2022, the Mario Fratti Award readings and plays in NY have been direc

D.D.D! Donne Donnette Donnacce Written, directed, and choreographed by Tiziana Troja Presented by LucidoSottile May 12, 2023 at Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò at NYU , 24 W 12th St, Manhattan, NYC May 14, 2023 at Vino Theater , 274 Morgan Ave Suite 201, Brooklyn, NYC Michela Sale Musio and Tiziana Troja. Photo from www.casaitaliananyu.org It seems fitting that the final Manhattan performance of the 2023 In Scena! Italian Theater Festival–taking place throughout NYC's five boroughs from May 1st through 16th, with free admission to all events–is, at bottom, a show about being in a show. D.D.D! Donne Donnette Donnacce , presented in Italian with English supertitles by Tiziana Troja and Michela Sale Musio's multidisciplinary theater company LucidoSottile, presents a very funny, very meta look at performance and performers. At the heart of the show, which is making its debut at the festival, beats a delightful blend of satire and celebration. Troja and Sale Musio play a pair of actor

Luisa Written and performed by Bruna Braidotti Presented by Compagnia di Arti e Mestieri May 4, 2023 at Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò at NYU , 24 W 12th St, Manhattan, NYC May 9, 2023 at TheaterLab , 357 W 36th St 3rd floor, Manhattan, NYC Bruna Braidotti. Photo by Giorgio Russo. The beginning and end of Luisa , written and performed by Bruna Braidotti, deploy doll imagery in connection to its titular character, in the first instance as something that has been broken and in the latter instance as a touching symbol of an unfulfilled longing for comfort and protection bound up with a lack of voice. In between, the show presents a compressed journey through Luisa's living with being a sexual abuse survivor. This elegantly crafted and absorbingly acted show, performed in Italian with English supertitles, is presented this month as part of the 2023 In Scena! Italian Theater Festival, taking place throughout NYC's five boroughs from May 1st through 16th, with free admission to all e

Mubarak's Niece ( La nipote di Mubarak ) Written by Valentina Diana Directed by Vinicio Marchioni Performed by Marco Vergani Presented by Anton May 4, 2023 at Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò at NYU , 24 W 12th St, Manhattan, NYC May 9. 2023 at TheaterLab , 357 W 36th St 3rd floor, Manhattan, NYC Marco Vergani. Photo courtesy Emily Owens PR An extended moment of stillness at the beginning of the outstanding solo show Mubarak's Niece ( La nipote di Mubarak ), during which actor Marco Vergani is seated on the floor and delivers lines from beneath a burqa, blending, in the performance at Midtown's TheaterLab, into the white walls and floor of the room, gives way to near nonstop movement through the rest of the production, Vergani circling the intimate space in a way that heightens the intensity of feeling for the audience. In a similar way, an insignificant event–the show's first-person narrator needing a place to stop after work for some food in 2009 Italy–sets in motion wh

The Gummy Bears' Great War ( La grande guerra degli Orsetti Gommosi ) Written and directed by Angelo Trofa Presented by Batisfera May 10, 2023 at Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò at NYU , 24 W 12th St, Manhattan, NYC May 13, 2023 at Culture Lab LIC , 5-25 46th Ave, Queens, NYC L to R: Raspberry Red, Lemon Yellow, and Apple Green. Photo by Sabina Murru. Tragic dignity is probably not the first phrase that one would associate with gummy bears, but it may make the shortlist after seeing The Gummy Bears' Great War ( La grande guerra degli Orsetti Gommosi ), which injects a certain amount of perhaps unexpected gravitas into its often humorous tale. Part of the humor is inherent to the scenario that the show puts forward wherein a nation of animate candy bears declares war on a nation of dinosaurs that appears to boast a robust bureaucratic state. The Gummy Bears' Great War, performed in Italian with English supertitles, is presented this month as part of the 2023 In Scena! Italia

I Am So Much Better Live ( Dal vivo sono molto meglio ) Written by Paola Minaccioni, Alberto Caviglia, Claudio Fois, and Daniele Prato in collaboration with Andrea Lolli Directed by Paola Rota Presented by by Teatro Stabile d’Abruzzo in collaboration with Stefano Francioni Produzioni May 5, 2023 at Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò at NYU, 24 W 12th St, Manhattan, NYC May 9, 2023 at Hudson Theatres , 6539 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, CA Paola Minaccioni. Photo by Francesca Lucidi Theater, film, television, and radio performer Paola Minaccioni has built a storied, decades-long career in her native Italy. With her solo show I Am So Much Better Live ( Dal vivo sono molto meglio ), Minaccioni brings a blend of stand-up and sketch-style character work, punctuated with musical contributions from DJ Lady Coco, to the United States. I Am So Much Better Live , performed in Italian with English supertitles, is presented this month as part of the 2023 In Scena! Italian Theater Festival, takin

WE, PUPPETS Story of a Life Shattered by Racism ( NOI, PUPAZZI  Storia di una vita sconvolta dal razzismo ) Written and performed by Marco De Simone Production Associate: Campania Danza Presented at Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò at NYU 24 W 12th St, New York, NY May 2 and 5, 2023 Marco De Simone. Photo by Nicola Niceforo. WE, PUPPETS Story of a Life Shattered by Racism ( NOI, PUPAZZI Storia di una vita sconvolta dal razzismo ), presented, for free, in Italian with English supertitles as part of the 2023  In Scena!  Italian Theater Festival, offers an interrupted-childhood themed one-man show. It opens with a lively dialogue between Mastro Leccornia (Hare) and Spillo (Squirrel). The two work in a pastry shop, and Spillo confides in his friend that he longs to make it to the shore, someday, to see the ocean. Lights come on, and the puppeteer comes in front of the puppet stage to introduce himself: His name is Saul Di Cori; he is 12 years old and lives in Riapino (a fictional town) in

Only Mozart is Missing (Manca solo Mozart) Written and directed by Antonio Grosso Performed by Marco Simeoli Presented by Altra Scena and Viola Produzioni May 2, 2023 at Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò at NYU, 24 W 12 St., Manhattan, NYC May 3, 2023 at the Center for Italian Modern Art, 421 Broome St., Manhattan, NYC May 6, 2023 at Marygrove Conservancy, 8425 W McNichols Rd, Detroit, MI Marco Simeoli. Photo by Francesco Nannarelli. For Salvatore Simeoli, grandfather of writer, director, and actor Marco Simeoli, music is life, and life is music. Salvatore, we learn very early in Marco's humorous, big-hearted solo show Only Mozart is Missing ( Manca solo Mozart ), always loved music and credits music with his success in life, which is tied to the music shop which he opens in Naples. The show, written by Antonio Grosso, who also directs, is based on Simeoli family lore, particularly on stories from Salvatore, whose personal experiences compose a melody that weaves through several deca