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 “