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...

  Having had a workshop run downtown last June (you can read our review here  - short version: we recommend it!),  Mi Abuela, Queen of Nightmares , written by Christine Stoddard and directed by Fiamma Piacentini, returns further uptown, for a run from September 8-October 1 at The Tank (312 West 36th Street). Mi Abuela, Queen of Nightmares follows Maya, a young Salvadoran-American, who navigates trauma and family mythology through magic and folklore as she comes of age in Phoenix, Arizona. Her story explores mother-daughter relationships, mixed race identity, being the child of an immigrant, growing up without a father, and using fantasy as a coping mechanism, while featuring movement and dance. Owls, jaguars, and cacti also make dream-like and delightful appearances. The cast of Mi Abuela, Queen of Nightmares features Adriana Ascencio, Lupita Asto, Telba Cavero, Andie Fuentes, Addy Marsh, and Ash Patlan. Performances will take place on September 8th, 9th, 14th, 15...

Mi Abuela, Queen of Nightmares Written and directed by Christine Stoddard Presented by Quail Bell Productions at the Gene Frankel Theatre 24 Bond St., Manhattan, NYC June 15-26, 2022 Photo from MI ABUELA, QUEEN OF NIGHTMARES: A STAGE PLAY BY CHRISTINE STODDARD - Home (weebly.com) Family and culture, each in its own way, serve as sources of mythology, and Christine Stoddard's Mi Abuela, Queen of Nightmares brings together both varieties in a matriarchal meditation on intergenerational inheritances. Based on a 2018 chapbook of poems and winner of a national playwriting competition held by Table Work Press, which published the play in 2020 , Mi Abuela infuses folkloric elements into a young Salvadoran-American woman's reckoning with her past, a rendering of personal history in which her mother and grandmother loom large. The result is a magical-realist memory play that kindles a unique atmosphere while addressing traumas that are, for women (of color) particularly, all too com...