Thinking Theater NYC

The Greek Cultural Center and The Garret Theatre  will present Isaac's Eye , by Lucas Hnath, from September 1st-17th, 2023 at the Greek Cultural Center's Astoria Playhouse. This will be the second full-scale co-production between community mainstay The Greek Cultural Center and The Garret Theatre Company, an upstart co-operative organization in Astoria. It is presented by special arrangement with Broadway Licensing, LLC, servicing the Dramatist Play service Collection (Dramatists.com) and the Actors Equity Association. Isaac's Eye is a half-fictional account of the early professional career of famous scientist Isaac Newton. The play imagines that certain choices Newton made, especially in his relationships with others and with himself, dramatically altered his (and therefore our) way of seeing the world. Isaac's Eye was commissioned and developed by Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P Sloan science and technology project and received its world premiere at Ensemble Studi

  Having had a workshop run downtown last June (you can read our review here  - short version: we recommend it!),  Mi Abuela, Queen of Nightmares , written by Christine Stoddard and directed by Fiamma Piacentini, returns further uptown, for a run from September 8-October 1 at The Tank (312 West 36th Street). Mi Abuela, Queen of Nightmares follows Maya, a young Salvadoran-American, who navigates trauma and family mythology through magic and folklore as she comes of age in Phoenix, Arizona. Her story explores mother-daughter relationships, mixed race identity, being the child of an immigrant, growing up without a father, and using fantasy as a coping mechanism, while featuring movement and dance. Owls, jaguars, and cacti also make dream-like and delightful appearances. The cast of Mi Abuela, Queen of Nightmares features Adriana Ascencio, Lupita Asto, Telba Cavero, Andie Fuentes, Addy Marsh, and Ash Patlan. Performances will take place on September 8th, 9th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 18th, 21s

Mecca Is Burning Written by Cris Eli Blak, Lisa McCree, Levy Lee Simon, and Mona R. Washington Contributing writer: Karen Brown Directed by Karen Brown Presented by The Negro Ensemble Company, Inc. ; co-commissioned by Penn Live Arts at the University of Pennsylvania Harlem School of the Arts, 645 St. Nicholas Ave., Manhattan, NYC August 10-20, 2023 A couple is estranged by their responses to impending violence. Dee' Ja-Ray (Kenya Wilson) and A'Brian (Alton Ray) receive an alert about impeding violence on their cell phone. Photo by Jonathan Slaff. For over a century, Harlem has been a center of Black culture in the United States, but the gentrification that began to encroach on the neighborhood in the new millennium continues to impact on and reshape the community in ways reflected in the title of the new play Mecca Is Burning . Mecca Is Burning is a production from The Negro Ensemble Company, Inc. (NEC), founded in 1965 by playwright Douglas Turner Ward, producer/actor Rober

The Ukraine Fringe Team. Courtesy of Alex Borovenskiy Ukraine Fringe grows out of the only English-language theatre festival in Ukraine, the PRO.ACT Fest, which after its 5 years of existence is changing its format.  The idea of Ukraine Fringe came from 2 international theatre makers, Steve Gove (founder of Prague Fringe) and Alex Borovenskiy (artistic director of ProEnglish Theatre of Ukraine). Together they will bring the International Fringe culture to Ukraine and raise awareness about Ukraine in the World. The creators of Ukraine Fringe believe that the format is perfect for the country because it is affordable for a wide audience and it supports the unique work of independent artists.  The goal of Ukraine Fringe in 2023 is to support Ukraine via the Ukraine Fringe Festival, which has objective including to unite the world's Fringe theaters, to bring Fringe culture to Ukraine, to create a festival with an active position, and to increase the world's awareness of Ukraine and

Shrew You! Written by David Andrew Laws and William Shakespeare Directed by Sophia Carlin Presented by Hamlet Isn't Dead at UNDER St. Marks 94 St. Marks Place, Manhattan, NYC August 11-18, 2023 Olivia Ridpath, Azumi Tsuzui, and Jillian Cicalese. Rehearsal photo. Courtesy of Emily Owens PR. Among the dramatic works of William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice and The Taming of the Shrew share the distinction of being the most problematic to mount in a way that does not turn off contemporary audiences. But while it is possible to frame Shylock as a tragic figure within what is supposed to be a comedy, Shrew presents the arguably more difficult problem that Katherine embraces and even celebrates her own gaslighting oppression by the end of the play. Some productions try, with varied success, to soften the play's misogyny–by, for instance, playing Katherine's praise of women's subjugation as sarcasm–but it's a tough target to hit while preserving the original text.

L to R: Old Hamlet's Ghost (Pelayo Álvarez), Gertrudis (Silvana Gonzalez), Hamlet (Federico Mallett), and Apolonia (Cástor G. Sánchez-Pepper). Photo by Miguel Garzon Martinez Hamlet couldn't possibly get more dramatic… or could it? Hamlet couldn't possibly be funny...or could it? Are Shakespeare and Telenovelas a match made in heaven? For those who want to see a different side of Shakespeare's gloomy Danish prince,  FRIGID New York in collaboration with Something from Abroad and Quemoción will present extended performances of Hamlet: La Telenovela , a parody in Spanish (with English subtitles) of the critically acclaimed Shakespeare masterpiece. With  Hamlet: La Telenovela  audiences experience  Hamlet  like never before, with an adaptation that heightens the melodrama innate in the story and explores it under a farcical and comedic lens, embracing the extremely cathartic guilty pleasure that only telenovelas (soap operas) can give. (You can read our review of  Hamle

Double Bill: Shakespeare's Ladies at Tea or I Thought You'd Never Asp , written by Kathleen Kirk, after William Shakespeare and Shakespeare's Deaths (in 15 Minutes) , by the Free Shakespeare Theatre Company Chicago Directed by Frank Farrell Presented by First Flight Theatre Company at UNDER St. Marks 94 St. Marks Place, Manhattan, NYC August 10-19, 2023 The death of Caesar (Frank Farrell, center). Photo courtesy Emily Owens PR. William Shakespeare is probably the most canonical of canonical playwrights, but that doesn't mean that theater artists can't have some fun with his works and perhaps are even invited to do so by that canonicity. FRIGID New York's The Little Shakespeare Festival, running through August 19th at UNDER St. Marks, features shows with non-traditional approaches to Shakespeare's corpus. With gender diversity, which can manifest in diverse ways, as this year's festival theme, the plays at Little Shakespeare remix, reimagine, and respon

Ultra Left Violence creators Daniel Irizarry and Robert Lyons There are only three days left to see Robert Lyons’s Ultra Left Violence , the final show in The Obie Award-winning New Ohio Theatre's acclaimed 30-year run. Ultra Left Violence , which concludes the last ever Ice Factory Festival, ending on August 12th, reunites playwright and New Ohio Artistic Director Robert Lyons with director/performer Daniel Irizarry, whose fall 2022 hit My Onliness was called “a welcome gust of weird” ( New York Times ) and “the most insane show now playing in New York City” ( TheaterMania ). (You can read our review here .) Their earlier collaboration Yovo has been performed in NYC, Poland, Cuba, and South Korea and has been translated into Spanish, and American Sign Language. Both plays are included in My Onliness and Others , a collection of six plays by Lyons published in fall 2022 by Mercer Street Books. We purchased our copy in the lobby at Ultra Left Violence , which we were lucky enoug

Tia Talk Created and performed by Amelia Bethel and Karen Loewy Movilla Presented by The Tank 312 W 36th St., Manhattan, NYC August 5-27, 2023 Amelia Bethel and Karen Loewy Movilla The set of Tia Talk evokes any number of chat show sets, with its chairs and mugs paired around a small table and thrown into relief against a shimmering backdrop; but that show that transpires there is far from your typical daytime TV fare. Tia Talk the play presents us with Amelia (Amelia Bethel) and Karen (Karen Loewy Movilla) as the presenters of Tia Talk their new talk show, which they intend as a bit of gossipy fun but which keeps taking unanticipated detours related to Latiné identity, history, and culture (so far as those are separable categories to any degree). The inevitability of the irruption of these topics into whatever Amelia and Karen discuss seems in itself meaningful, but it certainly does not make Tia Talk any less funny and convivial. The play begins with Amelia and Karen centering a ver