Thinking Theater NYC

Hamlet Speak Adapted and directed by Kathy Curtiss Presented by Renaissance Now Theatre & Film at the Chain Theatre 312 West 36th Street, 4th floor, Manhattan, NYC July 26-29, 2023 Joshua Johnson as Horatio and Austin Zimmerman as Hamlet. Behind: The Players. Photo by Jonathan Slaff. If there is a better way to begin a production of Hamlet than with the music of German band Rammstein, we haven't seen it yet. Rammstein's industrial-infused hard rock plays over projected images and video of war across the ages to begin Hamlet Speak , a new version of Shakespeare's Hamlet , freely adapted and directed by Renaissance Now Theatre & Film's Artistic Director Kathy Curtiss, which includes short monologues in a contemporary voice from Hamlet and Ophelia. Curtiss, who took a similar, and similarly successful, approach to the Scottish play in last year's Macbeth Redux (read our review here ), adds often confessional, sometimes metatheatrical commentary, which, partic

Beckett. Women. – an evening of three short plays by Samuel Beckett Directed and designed by Diana Zhdanova Presented by AnomalousCo at HERE 145 Sixth Avenue, Manhattan, NYC July 26-30, 2023 Kathryn Mederos Syssoyeva, Ylfa Edelstein, and Lesya Verba. Photo by Jarrett Robertson. It is tempting to argue that Samuel Beckett's particular marriage of experimental form with spare lyricism and compassionate cynicism remains unique in the dramatic canon. Beckett. Women. , from transdisciplinary performance collective AnomalousCo, stages a trio of Beckett's short plays centered on women, Footfalls , Not I , and Rockaby , bringing its own unique vision to these works as it places them into dialogue with one another. Designed and directed by AnomalousCo Co-Artistic Director Diana Zhdanova, a queer dissident artist from Russia, the show features a triad of spellbinding solo performances from women artists that vividly demonstrate the enduring power of these plays. The evening begins with

A Midsummer Night's Dream Written by William Shakespeare Adapted and directed by Laurie Harrop-Purser Presented by  Renaissance Now Theatre & Film at the Chain Theatre 312 West 36th Street, 4th floor, Manhattan, NYC July 26-29, 2023 L to R: Eden Bostrom, Ryan Hopkins (as Puck), Josh Munoz, Preston Ochsenhirt, and Charli Purser. Photo by Jonathan Slaff. Music, poetry, love, recreational drugs: each of these can transport an individual, and Renaissance Now Theatre & Film's new production of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream has them all as it marries the magic of music with the more literal magic of the play's reality-manipulating faeries. This version of the Shakespearean comedy sets itself in Laurel Canyon, California, in the late 1960s/early 1970s, imagining the characters as musicians, roadies, and concertgoers. It is running in rep with Hamlet Speaks , a version of the play that includes new, "audience involved monologues" by Ham

gerstl took the easy way out Written by Lydia Blaisdell Directed by Ashley Olive Teague Developed and produced with Notch Theatre Company Presented at New Ohio Theatre 154 Christopher Street, Manhattan, NYC July 26-29, 2023; and on demand through August 12, 2023 Nikomeh Anderson, Amy Staats, and Marcel A. Mascaro. Photo by Molly Hagan Late in Lydia Blaisdell's gerstl took the easy way out , Mathilde (Amy Staats) points out that historical narratives ignore the people, primarily women, who enable men to be so-called geniuses by, for example, washing their dirty, sweaty underwear–a devaluation of the labor of social reproduction that is integral to heteropatriarchal capitalism. The Austrian Mathilde, atypically, has two men of genius to deal with: she is married to and has children with composer Arnold Schönberg (Marcel A. Mascaro) and has a passionate affair with Expressionist painter Richard Gerstl (Nikomeh Anderson). gerstl took the easy way out constructs its funny, angry, non-l

Hamlet: La Telenovela Translation/literary adaptation by José María Ruano de la Haza Directed by Federico Mallet Presented by FRIGID New York , Something from Abroad , and Quemoción at the Kraine Theater 85 E 4th St., Manhattan, NYC and via livestreaming July 21-30, 2023 Martha Preve, Silvana Gonzalez, Andy Price, Federico Mallet, Shlomit Oren, Castor Pepper, Gabriel Rosario, and Pelayo Alvarez. Courtesy of Emily Owens PR This July is shaping up well for fans of Hamlet (or the merely Dane-curious), with Hamlet Speak , a shortened cut of the play that includes contemporary monologues for Hamlet and Ophelia, playing this week at the Chain Theatre ; director Kenny Leon's music-infused version, which positions itself in conversation with his 2019 production of Much Ado About Nothing, continuing its run in Central Park; and, our subject here, Hamlet: La Telenovela , which brings to the Kraine Theater a fast-moving, tremendously funny adaptation that ranks among our favorite experiences

Cori Hundt (she/her) & Danielle Joy (she/her) of Via Brooklyn Theatre Co. - an award-winning not-for-profit theatre company that develops theatrical productions, coupled with interactive programming, to engage audiences around the world - realized that, as women both in their 30's, they are about to age out of their lifelong dream of ever starring in a teenage rom com on the CW. So, instead, these elderly millennials have started a podcast about all the crap STILL going on in the arts and entertainment industry for female-identifying artists. Co-host Hundt says: "Still…?!" The Podcast are the conversations that are already happening (and have been happening for decades) between female-identifying artists on break during rehearsals, on the train ride back from shows, lining up for auditions, and while waiting for company meetings to start. Danielle and I would go off on these tangents while working together, and finally we thought, "What if we just pressed record

Vermont Written and directed by Rachel Carey Presented by Thirdwing at the wild project 195 E. 3rd Street, Manhattan, NYC July 18-30, 2023 Zachary Speigel, Sadithi De Zilva, and Rob Riordan. Photo by Valerie Terranova "[H]ow do you not become what you hate?" asks the character Mina (a splendid Sadithi De Zilva) deep into Rachel Carey's new play, Vermont . This question is essential not only for Mina and others at the small commune where Vermont takes place but also to the play as a whole, an absorbing comic exploration of how we define personal happiness as well as our place in and responsibility to larger communities. Vermont is the most recent live production from hybrid theater and streaming company Thirdwing. Patrons can purchase either tickets to Vermont only or a 1-year membership to Thirdwing for $49 (or $4.99/month), which includes 2 tickets to the show, 1 ticket to each upcoming production, and access to all content on its streaming platform. Membership in Ver

galatea 2.0 Written by Sophie Dushko Directed by C. C. Kellogg Presented by Invulnerable Nothings and Brooklyn Art Haus at Brooklyn Art Haus 24 Marcy Avenue, Brooklyn, NYC July 6-23, 2023 Vincent Santvoord and Izabel Mar. Courtesy of Alton PR The coin toss at the outset of galatea 2.0 blurs the lines between real and fictional worlds in a way that both is of a piece with the rest of the play and gains retrospective symbolic power by its end. The coin toss determines which of two actors will play human being Eliza and which a love doll with the product name Galatea 2.0 (unless you're seeing it on a Saturday night, when the actors swap the roles assigned by the afternoon show's coin toss). The suggestion of female interchangeability has deep resonance for a play interested in how men shape women–and women shape themselves–as vessels for men's desires, egos, and needs. From playwright and performer Sophie Dushko and directed by facilitating artistic director of Invulnerable