Thinking Theater NYC

The Coronation of Queen Jaguar Created and performed by Christine Stoddard and Aaron Gold Featuring Adriana Ascencio, Jada Bennett, Nate Brown, Jeffrey Copeland, Andie Fuentes, Dylan Manning, Rob Penty, and Michal Serpe A Quail Bell production presented by Theater for the New City , Crystal Field, Executive Artistic Director, at Theater for the New City 155 First Ave., Manhattan, NYC September 6-14, 2024 Christine Stoddard and Aaron Gold Have you ever wanted to witness a coronation, but without standing in line for hours in the rain like our friends across the Atlantic have recently done? If so, then you're in luck: Christine Stoddard and Aaron Gold's deftly comedic The Coronation of Queen Jaguar positions audience members as titled guests at the eponymous investiture, using the ceremony as an umbrella under which to stage a series of improvisation-and-interaction-heavy segments that meld character-based satire and audience participation into a gratifyingly distinctive expe

Hurricane Season Written and directed by Sawyer Estes Presented by Vernal & Sere Theatre at  Theatre Row 410 W 42nd St, Manhattan, NYC August 23-September 7, 2024 L to R: Sam R Ross, Pascal Portney, Erin Boswell, Melissa Rainey. Photo by Richard Termine A storm is coming and there will be no shelter – no one will find quarter in Sawyer Estes’s visionary play Hurricane Season . This surrealist two-act marvel sees four lost souls drawn together by the digital drudgery of internet pornography only to collide in the corporeal: a journey from the Carolinas to Los Angeles/Amsterdam and then home again to what ultimately remains of the Carolinas. Though the titular hurricane would ostensibly hug the Gulf and Atlantic costs, the gyre widens, entropy inescapable, blowing across the globe. Tom (Sam R Ross) and Anne (Melissa Rainey) are a middle-aged couple in the doldrums of a loveless marriage surrounded by a world of crises and tumult. He seemingly fills his time occupied with dual intere

Kendyl Ito. Production photo from SOUND BITES XI Theatre Now  is accepting submissions for SOUND BITES XII, the 12th Annual Festival of 10-Minute Musicals, through January 3rd, 2025. 10 finalists will be selected for presentation on Monday, May 5, 2025 at Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center. There is no fee to submit, and there are no required fees for artist participation in the event. For more information and to submit a show, go to  www.tnny.org/soundbitessubmissions . SOUND BITES offers an opportunity for talented musical theatre creators to present their fully-staged work in front of audiences and industry professionals. Any 10-minute piece that can be performed live, has a story arc, and includes music qualifies. Theatre Now has produced over 80 short musicals and is looking for diverse pieces that are current, test the musical form, and communicate a well-crafted story. All styles and genres are accepted including foreign language and/or bilingual scripts. Submissions from histo

Brooklyn Art Haus will present the world premiere of  Snow Bird , written by Melina Nakos and directed by Em Hausmann, for a limited workshop run, with evening performances on September 21st and 22nd. Net proceeds from this production are being donated to the Indigenous Environmental Network. Snow Bird is a new play set in 2009 that follows the lives of five men living in an outpost in the Arctic Circle. Inspired by real-life scientists working at Station Nord in Greenland, Snow Bird ’s characters study the effects of global warming on the Arctic Sea ice by flying planes—affectionately nicknamed “snowbirds”—outfitted with measuring devices close to the Arctic ice. Led by a cast of trans-identifying actors, Snow Bird explores themes of masculinity, queerness, isolation, and duplicity through the framework of scientific discovery. What happens when a group of only men are locked in an ice box for 9 months straight? “ Snow Bird is an environmental play that desperately tries to escape i

roller rink death kink sex cult Written and directed by Skylar J. Beirne Assistant direction by Ryan Honey Presented by Theater for the New City , Crystal Field, Executive Artistic Director, in association with SeaTrain STudios at Theater for the New City 155 First Ave., Manhattan, NYC August 31-September 15, 2024 L-R: Daniel Oakley and Allie Donnelly. Photo by Dennis Beirne. "No kink shaming" has become a widely accepted maxim, but what if the fetish in question is, say, killing and eating someone? The "levels" of the titular cult in Skylar J. Beirne's roller rink death kink sex cult –handily enumerated on a square of paper placed on each audience member's seat before the show–do not explicitly include cannibalism, but neither do they rule it out. And the cult's leader claims that, with consent, even murder can be not only acceptable but transcendently beautiful. Sometimes funny, sometimes discomfiting, occasionally gloriously surreal, this penetrating

Show Up, Kids! Written by Peter Michael Marino and the kids Directed by Michole Biancosino and the kids Presented at Q.E.D. 27-16 23rd Ave, Astoria, Queens August 17-September 28, 2024 Denisse Estefany Mendoza. Photo by Mikiodo The creation of Peter Michael Marino, Show Up, Kids! relies on the stellar improvisation skills of one performer (Denisse Estefany Mendoza 8/17-9/14 and Kento Morita 9/21-28) and the natural tendency of young children to participate enthusiastically in nearly any new experience. Based on the premise that the performer is too nervous to show up, the host (Mendoza or Morita) recruits the kids in the audience to put on the show, allowing them to choose every aspect of the production. The result is an experience just as enjoyable for the grown-ups as the kids. Billed for ages 3-10, the show is perhaps best suited for the younger end of that range, although even the older kids in the audience quickly moved past their pre-teen tendency to scoff at that deemed too “

Pray , choreographed by Tina Bararian, featuring Monica Plaza and Lorenzo Guerrini. Photo by Reza Mirjalili. Vincent Van Gogh’s ghost, dancing subway riders, and Gloria Swansong’s drag follies will converge on stage during Emerging Artists Theatre’s (EAT) bi-annual Spark Theatre Festival NYC. Over the course of 3 weeks, 60 new works will be showcased. The festival features a wide range of programming that is sure to entertain and delight New York City theatergoers, including new musicals, plays, dance, solo shows, drag follies, and sketch comedy in various stages of development. The fall 2024 Spark Theatre Festival NYC runs September 9th - 29th. Award-winning EAT, now in its 32nd year of presenting exciting and diverse new work, is proud to announce that the festival has moved to its new home at The Chain Theatre, located at 312 W 36th Street, 3rd Floor, New York, NY, 10018. During the festival, shows run nightly, with multiple shows on the weekend. Most productions receive one perform

The Climate Fables: The Collapse of the Hubbard Glacier Written by Padraig Bond Directed by My Le Presented by Torch Ensemble and FRIGID New York at UNDER St. Marks 94 St. Marks Place, Manhattan, NYC August 29-31, 2024 A man, fleeing political fallout, takes to the seas with his daughter, Miranda. No, this is not Shakespeare's Tempest ; we are in the world of playwright Padraig Bond's The Climate Fables , and unlike Prospero's illusory storm, the disaster here is both real and beyond human control. The Collapse of the Hubbard Glacier is Torch Ensemble's first production of a residency at FRIGID New York and the third of The Climate Fables produced so far in a planned twelve-play cycle–the standard number of chapters in epics–spanning 1,000 years. With three further plays in the cycle set for UNDER St. Marks this fall, The Collapse of the Hubbard Glacier takes us to the beginning of it all, laying a mythic, tempestuous foundation for the long arc of the cycle. F

Matt, James and Ben in Lord Finnington Bus in The Positively Puzzling Case of the Purloined Pelvis: At Vicar's Gate Written by James Sweeney and Matt Tanzosh Directed and designed by James Sweeney, Matt Tanzosh, and Ben Fletcher Presented by Theater for the New City , Crystal Field, Executive Artistic Director, at Theater for the New City 155 First Ave., Manhattan, NYC August 25-September 2, 2024 Ben Fletcher and Matt Tanzosh. Photo courtesy of the artists. Classic British detective fiction, of the Arthur Conan Doyle/Michael Innes/Agatha Christie/Dorothy L. Sayers variety, popularized tropes that are still inescapably familiar today (think, for example, of the investigator climatically gathering everyone together in a drawing room to make a bit of a show of explaining their solution to the crime). Matt, James and Ben in Lord Finnington Bus in The Positively Puzzling Case of the Purloined Pelvis: At Vicar's Gate takes these tropes, supercharges them, gives them a hilariously NS

The Waiting Room Written by Vel Grande Directed by Dennis Oliveira Presented by Theater for the New City , Crystal Field, Executive Artistic Director, at Theater for the New City 155 First Ave., Manhattan, NYC August 25-31, 2024 L to R: Heather Alzapiedi, Brett Fox, and Jake Declan. Photo by Dan Morales  To say that life is often illogical if not outright nonsensical certainly qualifies as an understatement. Making its world premiere this month, The Waiting Room , a comedic one-act from Utah-based playwright, novelist, and short story writer Vel Grande, joins the venerable tradition of theater exploring the search for meaning amidst the absurdity of existence. Expertly blending metatheatrical and existential comedy, The Waiting Room is currently part of the 2024 Dream Up Festival  at Theater for the New City (TNC). The new works festival, in its twelfth iteration this year, runs from August 25th to September 15th and is dedicated to discovering new authors and challenging, non-traditi

Layover at Reagan National Written and directed by Kate Katcher Catch Written by Jeryl Brunner Directed by Sara Thigpen Presented by Jesse Eisenberg, Anna Strout, and Barbara Toy Banshee Written by John Patrick Shanley Directed by David Zayas Jr. Hangmen Written by Kyle C. Mumford Directed by Matt Giroveanu Soured Milk Written and directed by Annie Raczko Presented by Chain Theatre 312 West 36th St., Floors 3 and 4, Manhattan, NYC August 8-September 1, 2024 The Chain Theatre's summer 2024 One-Act Festival gathers a wealth of short-form theater, offering 14 separate programs each comprising two to five plays, with a livestream option available for select dates. In four of the five plays that make up Program 14 in the festival, characters confront mortality, to different degrees and in different ways, in several cases through chance encounters, while the fifth presents a life-changing revelation in a slightly different vein. In scenarios and settings ranging from the everyday to th

EPIC Players is launching its Eighth Season of Accessible Classes for Neuro-divergent Artists, taught by Industry Professionals, including an inclusive program for Neuro-divergent and Disabled teens: EPIC Junior. Tuition is free for all company members and only $15 for non-members. For more information, visit https://www.epicplayersnyc.org/classes . Knowledge is Power. EPIC works to empower its artists through access to skills based and professional development classes in the performing arts, so they may grow in their craft, their careers, and their community. All classes are FREE for EPIC company members and range in topics from performing arts, design, and professional development. EPIC classes are designed and led according to our “BE EPIC” method for adaptive, inclusive and individualized instruction. Each class features a lead/co teaching artist, a class supervisor and at least two EPIC Mentors, who serve as friends and coaches to provide individualized support as needed. EPIC off

Forty-Second Street Forever Written and directed by Peter Rowan Pastiche Written and directed by Kayla Hense Over My Dead Body Written and directed by Esther Caporale Presented by Chain Theatre 312 West 36th St., Floors 3 and 4, Manhattan, NYC August 8-September 1, 2024 The Chain Theatre's summer 2024 One-Act Festival gathers a wealth of short-form theater, offering 14 separate programs each comprising two to five plays, with a livestream option available for select dates. Program 12 presents a trio of plays that find characters confronting, resisting, or pursuing change. From Forty-Second Street Forever 's considerations of personal, familial, and neighborhood histories to the funny but probing philosophical musings of Pastiche and the dark family comedy of Over My Dead Body , this set of one-act shows takes us through a series of entertaining liminalities. Forty-Second Street Forever , written and directed by Peter Rowan and played on a bare stage, finds architect Sean (Tom

The Heat Written by Andrew Donnelly-Yunga Directed by Giovanna DiSanto Power 1996 Written by Rishi Chowdhary Directed by Tyler Riley Memoryville Written and directed by Philip Cioffari The New Year Written and directed by Max Rosenblum Closed Opening Written and directed by Robert Cantillon Presented by Chain Theatre 312 W. 36th St., Floors 3 & 4, Manhattan, NYC August 8-September 1, 2024 Chain Theatre's summer 2024 One-Act Festival , which features more than 50 new plays and runs through September 1st, brought Program 2, composed of five short plays, to its feet last Sunday, a welcome respite from the muggy summer heat. In fact, the first play of the 5 PM program was entitled The Hea t, written by Andrew Donnelly-Yunga. Director Giovanna DiSanto stages a restaurant shift-break conversation between newbie chef Martin (Ethan Alexander Horbury) and Dante (Sam Sinnott), the old-hand chef. Horbury plays his role vulnerably and with a palpable innocence, until his secret isn't