Thinking Theater NYC

The Brothers Orphan Written and performed by  Jamie Brickhouse Presented by The Great Griffon as part of the Incubator Festival at Pangea 178 Second Ave., Manhattan, NYC January 26, 2025 Jamie Brickhouse. Photo by Mikiodo Perennially powerful raconteur and more, Jamie Brickhouse dazzles in the debut of his new show, The Brothers Orphan , a one-man, three-sibling tale of brothers united in the name of having been orphaned … in middle age. Jamie’s stories take us from Beaumont, Texas to Times Square as this dark and funny-as-hell reunion takes shape. Ever the master of voice and storytelling, Brickhouse viscerally renders the collision of Texan brothers Ronny, Jeffrey and Jamie as we navigate, alongside Jamie, what it means to reconnect to family under such challenging circumstances. The Brothers Orphan is a part of Pangea’s “Incubator Festival,” running from January 13th through the 26th. This festival brings together a myriad of talents, as Pangea co-owner and entertainment direct...

La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in association with Third Ear Theater Co. and Immediate Medium has announced the premiere of The Barbarians , a new play from acclaimed dramatist Jerry Lieblich (they/them) directed by director, choreographer, and actor Paul Lazar ( We’re Gonna Die , Silence of the Lambs , Snowpiercer ). The play will premiere at La MaMa ’s Ellen Stewart Theatre (66 East 4th Street) on February 14, 2025 and will run through March 2, 2025. Countries are made of laws, and laws are made of words. So are plays. How strange. The Barbarians is an imaginative, word-drunk romp through that strangeness, a play about a description of a play about a group of scientists gumming up the linkage between language and political power (much to Madam President Fake President's chagrin). The Barbarians nestles in the valley between the word and the world, the declaration of war and the war itself — what if the President declared a war, but the...

  After an acclaimed world premiere in Edinburgh and an Off-Broadway debut at 59E59 in 2023 that was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for outstanding Unique Theatrical Experience, A Eulogy for Roman will return in a new uniquely immersive production that will be presented in churches and community centers in Manhattan and Brooklyn - the type of spaces where a real eulogy might be offered. Previews begin February 22 with opening set for March 6. Meet Milo, a nervous young man who shares the stage with an urn. But things aren’t as dark as they seem. Milo is trying to give a eulogy for his friend Roman, but the ceremony proves unexpectedly difficult, and attendees are voluntarily enlisted to help him complete the memorial. Together, they celebrate life, confront death, and make a promise of their own. A Eulogy for Roman  was written by Brendan George and conceived by Peter Charney. The new production stars Blaize Adler-Ivanbrook, Ryan Boloix and Richard Diamond alternating in th...

The predominantly queer-woman-led, immigrant, multigenerational, feminist theatre ensemble AnomalousCo presents (beyond) Doomsday Scrolling - an original part theater/part protest piece about women, war, displacement, and resistance. Collectively created over three years and directed by Kathryn Mederos Syssoyeva, (beyond) Doomsday Scrolling plays American Theatre of Actors from February 6-9, 2025. [UPDATE 13 Feb. 2025: The show's fun has been extended to include dates from February 14-23, 2025.] (beyond) Doomsday Scrolling traces a single day in the life of twelve women fleeing different wars, from different countries and eras, and taking shelter together in an abandoned theater: a microcosm of intercultural conflict, friendship, violence, and resilience. Embodying the war stories of their own female ancestors, twelve actresses from ten countries: Ukraine, Russia, Cuba, Poland, Iceland, Turkey, Moldova, China, Italy, and the USA, ( beyond) Doomsday Scrolling weaves through the ...

Bread & Puppet Theater in The Decapitalization Circus at Theater for the New City, 2010. On stilts: Peter Schumann. Photo by Lee Wexler/Images for Innovation. Theater for the New City's Emerging Playwrights Program will be beneficiary of the theater's 22nd annual "Love 'n Courage" benefit on Tuesday, February 18, 2025 at The Players, 16 Gramercy Park South. The evening honors Peter Schumann, Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Bread & Puppet Theater, and celebrates the theater's long relationship with that company. Theater for the New City (TNC) is a four-theater complex at 155 First Avenue. Its awards include the Pulitzer Prize, 43 Village Voice OBIE Awards, nine Audelco Awards, two Bessie Awards, five ASCAP Awards, ten Rockefeller Playwrights Fellowships, The Mayor's Stop the Violence Award, the Manhattan Borough President’s Award for Public Service and Artistic Excellence in Theater, and a NY City Council Proclamation awarded to TNC’s Street Th...

As part of their commitment to fostering artistic growth, In Scena! Italian Theater Festival NY , in collaboration with The Tank, will offer a Mentorship Program for Emerging Directors, as part of their In Scena! Playwright Award (formerly the Mario Fratti Award). In Scena! is offering this new mentorship program in addition to its translation and adaptation mentorship, already offered in collaboration with Hystrio. This second mentorship is a unique opportunity for an emerging director to showcase their talent, refine their skills, and bring a compelling Italian play in translation to life on stage in New York City. The selected director will have the opportunity to direct a play chosen from among the winners of the In Scena! Playwright Award, while receiving mentorship from a seasoned director and an experienced producer. The program also includes a production budget to cover production expenses such as creative artists and crew, access to The Tank’s 56-seat theater for 6 performanc...

The 16th Annual The Fire This Time Festival Ten-Minute Play Program Out , written by FELISPEAKS Pound Cake , written by Brittany Fisher Security Watch , written by TyLie Shider Immanentize the Eschaton , written by Garrett Turner Just One Good Day , written by Jeanette W. Hill …But Not Forgotten , written by D.L. Patrick Directed by Kimille Howard Presented in collaboration with  FRIGID New York at wild project 195 E. 3rd St., Manhattan, NYC January 23-February 2, 2025 Anita Welch-Smith and LaDonna Burns in Out . Photo by Dante Crichlow The time has arrived once again for one of our most anticipated annual theatrical events, The Fire This Time Festival Ten-Minute Play Program. In its 16th season, the Obie Award-winning Fire This Time Festival, which provides a platform for playwrights of African and African-American descent, has adopted the theme of "Taking Space" and has put the Ten-Minute part of things into quotation marks, loosening the time restriction to allow each ...

Coyote Oughta Eat That Salesman! Written by Padraig Bond Directed by Luis Felicano Presented by Torch Ensemble and FRIGID New York at UNDER St. Marks 94 St. Marks Place, Manhattan, NYC January 23-25, 2025 L to R: Kristen Hoffman, Samson MacDermot, Nolan Donahue, Danny Gomez, Jess Lauricello. Photo source at this link .    With the hottest year on record just having ended and with a U.S. government newly (re)committed to now doing worse than nothing about the unfolding climate catastrophe, the debut of the newest installment of The Climate Fables arrives bearing a burlesque of and a call to self-reflection regarding our arrogantly anthropocentric determination to destroy the world ecology which enables our existence. The Climate Fables , written by playwright Padraig Bond, will ultimately comprise a classical-epic-length twelve plays, and the latest production in Torch Ensemble's residency at FRIGID New York, The Climate Fables: Coyote Oughta Eat That Salesman! , marks the...

This show is bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S. Jack & Zoe Comedy , the comedic duo comprising Jack Grossman and Zoe Wohlfeld, have announced an upcoming performance of A Night of Drama , an outrageous theatrical experience that invites audiences to toss out polite reactions and obligatory applause and embrace authenticity—encouraging raw, visceral reactions, and even the tossing of fruit scraps. Messy, unpredictable, and hilariously freeing, the production offers a stark contrast to the overly polished and decorum-laden performances that dominate modern theater. A Night of Drama harkens back to the Elizabethan tradition of staging plays in intimate, communal spaces like inns and taverns, bringing theater directly to the people – and will do just that on Saturday, February 1 at 9:00pm at The Cobra Club, 6 Wykoff Avenue in Bushwick. It is a 21+ venue. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-night-of-drama-tickets-1141421284789?aff=oddtdtcreator Created and directed by Grossman and produced by Wohfeld ...

  The She-Wolves Written, directed, and conceived by Kate Mueth Choreographed by Kate Mueth and Violet Spann Presented by The Neo-Political Cowgirls at The 14Y Theater 344 E 14th St., Manhattan, NYC  January 10-February 1, 2025 The cast. Photo by Owen Benfield. Currently in repertory at the 14th Street Y as part the Femme Collective’s three-company collaboration, The Neo-Political Cowgirls’ The She-Wolves voices one of Shakespeare’s silent women, the sorceress Sycorax, mother of The Tempest ’s Caliban. Though she doesn’t appear on stage, Sycorax (voiced by director and playwright Kate Mueth) precipitates the play’s action by initiating a pageant-like competition for her successor among eight of Shakespeare’s most famous female characters. The resulting production brilliantly highlights the challenges women face even when given the opportunity to break out of their narrowly prescribed societal roles. Sycorax’s announcement of the competition seems to reanimate the eight ...

Co-founders David and Edward Einhorn On Sunday January 26, at 5pm, Untitled Theater Company will celebrate 30 years of production! Founded by David and Edward Einhorn in 1995, the theater company has produced over 50 shows, festivals such at the Václav Havel Festival and the Ionesco Festival, and many other readings and special events. Untitled Theater Company No. 61 (UTC61) is a Theater of Ideas: scientific, political, philosophical, and above all theatrical. UTC61 has been performing independent theater in New York for over 25 years and  will be awarding this year's David A Einhorn Playwriting Prize, established in David Einhorn's memory in 2022 for a playwright over 30 with a history of self-production, to Daniel Damiano. Based in Brooklyn,  Damiano is an award-winning playwright, acclaimed actor, poet, and novelist, and  Co-Founder/Co-Artistic Director of  fandango 4 Art House.  The award was judged based on a one-act in the tradition of theater of the absur...

Broken Thread Written by D-Davis Directed by Miles Sternfeld Presented by Eden Theater Company at The 14Y Theater 344 E 14th St., Manhattan, NYC January 9-February 1, 2025 L to R: Laura Lee Botsacos, Ella Raymond, Alyssa LaVacca (rear); Jenna Krasowski and Sydney Kamel (front). Photo courtesy of Kampfire PR Sometimes the thing we love, even need, the most can become at the same time a kind of trap; for the characters in playwright D-Davis's Broken Thread , this is true of both family and, for one family member, art. Playing music provides the talented Adeline ( Jenna Krasowski ) one of her deepest sources of joy and one of her best means of expression, including for feelings and experiences that she can't otherwise articulate, but simultaneously and inseparably acts as a vehicle for intense pressure by her mother, Therese (Laura Lee Botsacos). How this duality affects Adeline and her relationships with her mother and three sisters over multiple decades forms the core of this p...

Where We're Born Written by Lucy Thurber Directed by David Garelik Presented by Jamie Coffey and Adult Film at a private studio in the Ridgewood area January 16-February 2, 2025 L to R: Trevor Clarkson, Michael Darby, Jamie Coffey, Taylor Petracek, & Michelle Moriarty Lucy Thurber's play Where We're Born was published in 2008, the period of financialized capitalism's most recent national and global meltdown, but the resentments expressed by some of its white working-class characters about being looked down upon by people who think they're better and about racialized Others having it easier than "real Americans" have if anything intensified–or at least been amplified–in the intervening years. Adult Film's fabulous new production of Where We're Born , one of five works that make up Thurber's award-winning cycle The Hill Town Plays , fittingly comes at a historical juncture in which such grievances have helped to usher in what promises to b...

54 Below, a recipient of the 2022 Tony Awards® Honor for Excellence in the Theatre and a non-profit organization with a mission to preserve the music of Broadway and expand the art of the cabaret while growing opportunities for diverse communities of emerging and established artists, will present Best of Broadway Puppetry on Monday, January 27 at 9:30 PM. The show, produced by Julia Schemmer ( Puppetry on Broadway ), with Show Direction by Peter Charney ( A Eulogy for Roman) , Puppet Direction by Jake Bazel ( Winnie the Pooh: The New Musical Adaptation ), and Musical Direction by Joshua Turchin (Netflix’s 13 the Musical ), celebrates puppetry by putting the spotlight on the puppeteers who bring puppets to life 8 times a week! Hosted by the Bad Idea Bears of Avenue Q (Rick Lyon and Jennifer Barnhart), the show brings together puppeteers and performers from shows featuring puppetry, from the past and the present. “We’re so excited for people to se...

  Climate Fables: Coyote Oughta Eat That Salesman! , the sixth installment of Padraig Bond’s award-winning canon, The Climate Fables , will be presented by FRIGID New York at UNDER St. Marks (94 St Marks Pl, New York, NY 10009) on January 23, 24, and 25, 2025.  Written by Padraig Bond and directed by Luis Feliciano, Coyote Oughta Eat That Salesman! is a witty and thought-provoking theatrical journey where the mythical trickster, Coyote, takes on a cunning pesticide salesman whose toxic products are poisoning the land, animals, and people. As farmers fall victim to the Salesman's slick promises, Coyote must outwit him to save the world from destruction. But in this interactive production, the audience plays a crucial role in determining the fate of the earth—will they side with the charming Salesman or with Coyote’s call to protect nature? With a split ending that hinges on audience choice, this play is both an entertaining and urgent environmental allegory for our times....

My Mother's Funeral: The Show Written by Kelly Jones Directed by Charlotte Bennett Presented by Paines Plough , Belgrade Theatre Coventry , and Mercury Theatre Colchester at SoHo Playhouse 15 Vandam Street, Manhattan, NYC January 4-25, 2024 Debra Baker and Nicole Sawyerr. Photo by Nicola Young Death is commonly said to be the great leveler, Hamlet's "fine revolution" of fortunes. But are all of us really born astride the same grave? What if we can't even afford one? In My Mother's Funeral: The Show , a socially and psychologically incisive new play from London-based playwright and performer Kelly Jones, Abigail (Nicole Sawyerr), who is, like Jones, a working-class playwright, must confront not only the emotional but also the financial cost of her mother Linda's (Debra Baker) death, both of which are considerable. The marvelous production of My Mother's Funeral currently at SoHo Playhouse is part of the venue's 2025 International Fringe Encore The...