Thinking Theater NYC

Stupid Fucking Bird Written by Aaron Posner Directed by Jorden Charley-Whatley Presented by City Gate Productions at The Secret Theatre 10-10 44th Avenue, Long Island City, Queens, NYC  May 1-10. 2026 The ensemble. Courtesy of City Gate Productions. Before a line is spoken in City Gate Productions’ urgent staging of Aaron Posner’s Stupid Fucking Bird , directed by Jorden Charley-Whatley at The Secret Theatre, the audience is already inside the play’s unstable cosmos. Smoke hangs not only over the stage but through the entryway itself, a low sonic thud pulses through the theatre, and actors drift through the space before the performance has officially begun. When the audience is finally instructed to yell “start the fucking play,” the moment lands with both comic force and uncanny uncertainty. The evening does not begin for us so much as with us. That porous membrane between audience and performance becomes the governing logic of Charley-Whatley’s production. Posner’s “sort...

POTUS, or Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive!,  Selina Fillinger 's brilliant, Tony nominated, all-female farce will open City Gate Productions ' 2025 Season. The production will run from March 14-23 at The Secret Theatre (38-02 61st Street, Woodside, Queens). One four-letter word is about to rock 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. When the President unwittingly spins a PR nightmare into a global crisis, the seven brilliant and beleaguered women he relies upon most risk life, liberty, and the pursuit of sanity to keep the commander-in-chief out of trouble. POTUS, or Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive! , stars Marianne Goodell as Harriet, Erin Layton as Jean, Chanel Mack as Margaret, Farah Diaz-Tello as Stephanie, LaRelle Gee as Chris, Margaret Leisenheimer as Dusty, and Tania Kass* as Bernadette. The production team includes Director Christina Shea-Wright, Assistant Director Emma Reifschneider, Stage Manager Kerryclare G...