Thinking Theater NYC

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...

Edu Díaz. Photo by Carlos Dimas The acclaimed solo show A Drag Is Born , a nonverbal celebration of diversity created and performed by Edu Díaz in which a man accidentally becomes a drag queen onstage, was selected for PhysFestNYC 2025, New York City’s only festival dedicated to physical theater. Hailed as ‘A Wonderfully Whimsical Tour de Force’ ( Orlando Weekly ), this Fringe miracle blending clown and drag has captivated audiences at five festivals and garnered five awards, including Best Solo Actor (LATA Awards), Best Solo Show Specialty (Orlando Fringe 2024), and Best Solo Clown (NYC Fringe 2024). You can read our review here . Edu Díaz is a multi-awarded Fulbright Alumni artist from The Canary Islands (Spain) based in New York City. His creations include Fantastic Mr. S (Theatre Row, 2022), the upcoming Pulse (The Chain Theatre, February 2024), and PETRUS , a show in preproduction. The creative team behind A Drag Is Born includes director Rachel Resnik, assistant director and c...

Photo credit: Mike Durkin Freestyle Rep returns to Brooklyn for the 15th year with their legendary brand of spontaneous, comedic theater in Theatresports , NYC’s only interactive, family-friendly, improv competition show for 5–15-year-olds and their grownups. The show plays on Sundays at noon, January 19 and 26 at The Gallery Players, 199 14th Street, Brooklyn 11215. Freestyle Repertory Theatre is focused exclusively on programs for children and families. Every year, on-site performances introduce thousands of students to the excitement of live theatre at their schools and community centers. Hundreds receive in-depth improv instruction in their classrooms through residency programs. FRT’s Family Performances for the general public bring children and parents into neighborhood theatres. FRT’s Teen Edition is dedicated high school groups, teaching lessons in collaboration and saying “yes” to their own ideas, providing them with the tools to learn to perform their own improv shows. With Th...

Photo by Morgan McDowell Drawing on their own upbringings in military families and being taught that the USA was the greatest country in the world, New York City-based writer/performer company of two Xhloe and Natasha are off-Broadway bound, delving into the idealized American childhood and the boys it left behind. A Letter to Lyndon B. Johnson or God: Whoever Reads This First  sees them playing two boy scouts in the 1960s, idolizing their president, soldiers and war. Xhloe and Natasha have become firm favorites of Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the biggest arts festival in the world, and A Letter To Lyndon B. Johnson won them their third consecutive Fringe First, the prestigious award from national newspaper The Scotsman . They have been selected to perform at SoHo Playhouse as part of the International Fringe Encore Series, which showcases some of the best plays presented at Fringe festivals internationally. A Letter to Lyndon B. Johnson is an absurdist two-hander influenced ...

 Viktor Tauš, the avant-garde Czech director recognized for his visually experimental storytelling, is bringing 30 child actors from the Czech Republic—many of whom grew up in foster care and orphanages—to New York City in January 2025. These children are actors in his groundbreaking production titled Snowflakes , a multidimensional performance that also serves as a “live trailer” for Tauš’s new film, Girl America . This innovative “live trailer” combines elements of documentary and musical theater, fashion, and choreography, integrating the actors’ personal narratives into the performance, making for a truly unique audience experience. Snowflakes has been recognized as the Best New Play of 2024 by the prestigious Theatre Newspaper in the Czech Republic. The travelling ensemble has an upcoming show set at the Bohemian National Hall in Manhattan on January 9th at 7:00pm, but they also plan to carry out guerilla-staged performances in public spaces around NYC such as Central Park, F...