Thinking Theater NYC

The Truth About Transylvania Written by Patricia Lynn Directed by Jacob Titus Presented at A.R.T./New York Theatres 502 West 53rd St., Manhattan, NYC October 24-November 1, 2025 Miles Purinton as The Concierge, Patricia Lynn as Millie, and Mark Weatherup Jr. as John. Photo by Al Foote III. The characters in Bram Stoker's novel Dracula spend a great deal of their time assembling and documenting proof of their encounters with the supernatural, collecting letters, diaries, and the fin de siècle stand-in for a podcast, a journal recorded on wax cylinders, as evidence of “a history almost at variance with the possibilities of later-day belief” (Stoker 1897). Patricia Lynn's The Truth About Transylvania , making its world premiere at A.R.T./New York Theatres in the run-up to Halloween, takes up this thread from the novel and presents a contemporary couple livestreaming their ex post facto testimony–and a paltry amount of physical evidence–in an attempt to set the record straight ab...

In Their Footsteps Written and directed by Ash Singer Based on oral histories with Ann Kelsey, Judy Jenkins Gaudino, Jeanne "Sam" Christie, Lily Adams, and Doris "Lucki" Allen Presented by Infinite Variety Productions in partnership with Bronx Music Heritage Center at Bronx Music Hall 438 E 163rd St., Bronx, NYC October 16-26, 2025 L to R: Becca Jimenez, Esther Ayomide Akinsanya, Vianca Pérez, Amanda Corbett, and Eunji Lim. Photo by Natalia Arai  Whatever progress has been made, the organized mass murder and ecological devastation of war continues to be recognized as a valid political exercise, and women continue to be insufficiently recognized in the historical record. It is precisely at the intersection of war and women's experience that documentary theater piece In Their Footsteps delves into the individual histories of a quintet of women who served, in military and civilian roles, during the Vietnam War. In Their Footsteps comes to us from Infinite Vari...

The Maenads Written by Stephen Foglia Directed by Phillip Christian Smith Presented by Harborcoat Productions and The Tank at The Tank 312 W 36th St., 1st Fl., Manhattan, NYC September 18-October 12, 2025 L to R: Alex Stene, Keith Michael Pinault, DJ Davis, Charles Manning, and Thaddeus Daniels. Photo by Lyle Dickie. In their book Why Does Patriarchy Persist? (Polity, 2018), Carol Gilligan and Naomi Snider observe that patriarchy associates "masculinity with pseudo-independence (and the shielding of relational desires and sensitivities)," leading to "a loss of relationship: a loss of intimacy and connection" (22). It is in response to just such lack that the quintet of men in Phillip Christian Smith's hilarious and incisive play The Maenads find themselves on a mountain together, experimenting with an ancient–and female–identity. As they try to model themselves on the eponymous maenads, female followers of Dionysus in ancient Greek cultural narratives, audien...

The Glitch Written by Kipp Koenig Directed by Mark Koenig Presented by AEI Theatricals at The Jerry Orbach Theater at The Theater Center 210 W 50th St., Manhattan, NYC September 24-November 2, 2025 L to R: Danielle Augustine, Hannah Doherty (front), Jacquie Bonnet, Sunny Makwana. Photo by Shawn Salley What if you could preview your potential child the same way that you can use AR to preview how a piece of furniture would fit in your space before you click buy? That's the service offered by the startup in Kipp Koenig's sci-fi play The Glitch : the chance for prospective parents to meet a holographic AI version of the child they might have. Set in the near future, The Glitch engagingly blends humor and poignancy in its exploration of the rippling ramifications of one client's use of the service, touching on secrecy, guilt, generational trauma, and even metaphysical boundaries.  Jacquie Bonnet and Sunny Makwana. Photo by Shawn Salley The client in question, d...