Thinking Theater NYC

Paul Shearman / The Last Audition Banjo & Bongo Productions, an independent theatre and screen production company dedicated to developing original, character-driven work, will present The Last Audition , written and performed by Paul Shearman and directed by David St John. The production will be presented as part of the 2026 New York City Fringe Festival with FRIGID New York at Chain Theatre Mainstage (312 W 36th St. 4th floor, New York, NY 10018) with performances on Wed April 1 at 7:40 pm, Sun April 5 at 12:20 pm, Thu April 9 at 6 pm, Wed April 15 at 6 pm & The Fri April 17 at 7:40 pm.  Under the glow of a single ghost light, a once-renowned Shakespearean actor rehearses for a final audition for King Lear . As memory falters and reality intrudes, the stage becomes both refuge and reckoning. The Last Audition is a darkly funny, deeply human solo play about identity, legacy, and the quiet, complicated love between those who perform and those who care for them. The creative...

Footnotes Created, designed, and directed by Theodora Skipitares Music and lyrics by Sxip Shirey Presented by La MaMa and Skysaver Productions at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club 66 E 4th St., Manhattan, NYC February 27-March 15, 2026 A trio of philosophers. Photo by Victoria Forbes. Anyone who goes to see veteran artist and theatermaker Theodora Skipitares's world-premiere play Footnotes at La MaMa will have had to walk (which, as the play reminds us, might be defined in different ways) at least a little bit to reach a seat inside the theater. What emerges from the punningly titled Footnotes is a sort of wide-ranging collage that highlights the foot and walking as fundamentally binding humans–and non-human animals–together across time, place, and experience. This sweeping scope of this visually remarkable production stretches as far back as 3.6-3.7 million year-old footprints, through Classical Era myths, and all the way to contemporary academic disability studies and the curr...

Extraterrestrial Conscience will present Lunatic , written and directed by Elina Kaplun and performed by Elina and Uliana Kaplun, as part of the 2026 New York City Fringe Festival with FRIGID New York at Chain Theatre Mainstage (312 West 36 Street, 4 th Floor, New York 10018) with performances on Sun April 5 at 5:20pm, Mon April 6 at 7:40pm, Sat April 11 at 5:20pm, Sat April 18 at 2pm &; Sun April 19 at 5:20pm. Lunatic is a delightful mix of poetry, music and physical theatre (clowning). Absurdity and surreality, visions and images, despair and hope, sadness and happiness all come together in this performance as in our life. Lunatic is based on Russian poetry of the early 20th century: Daniil Harms, Alexander Vvedensky, Osip Mandelshtam, Anna Akhmatova, Marina Tsvetaeva, Sasha Chorny, and Alexander Vertinsky. The hundred years' gap, the half planet of distance, the different languages do not matter, as we all go through the same things n...