Thinking Theater NYC

Rue De Pera Films (Producers; Aylin Çobanoğlu and Ayça Demirağ) and Sonder Project are proud to announce the upcoming production of HardLove , a raw and unflinching new dark comedy play adapted by Esin İleri and Miray Beşli from the original Turkish play by Anıl Can Beydilli and translated by Esin İleri. Directed by Jee Duman and starring Miray Beşli and Chandler Stephenson, this gripping two-character play plunges audiences into a volatile late-night encounter where magnetic attraction forces two strangers to confront their fears, their desires, and the fragile lines between connection and destruction. HardLove begins performances on May 23, 2025, at the Huron Club at Soho Playhouse. These New York performances will be followed by the play's world premiere at the Edinburgh Fringe in August 2025. HardLove introduces audiences to ChiChi (Miray Beşli), a raw, free spirit with a wild, fierce heart, and Theodore (Chandler Stephenson), the epitome of a well-mannered, intellectual gent...

Three Can Keep a Secret Written by Gregory Crafts Directed by Richard Piatt Presented by Theatre Unleashed and FRIGID New York at the wild project 195 E 3rd St., Manhattan, NYC April 15-19, 2025 Sonny (Ryan Dylan Wargnier) and Moose (Gregory Crafts). From 2024 Hollywood Fringe production. Photo by Matt Kamimura, Choice looms large in crime comedy Three Can Keep a Secret , from Los Angeles-based theater artist Gregory Crafts and one of 63 shows at the 2025 New York City Fringe Festival , which runs through April 20th across four venues in Manhattan and one in Brooklyn. With some "bad decisions" by one of the characters having set the plot in motion, not only must the rest of the characters reckon with a consequent series of choices and repercussions, but the audience too must decide at several points which path the show takes. For the characters, much of this decision-making reveals that they may not know those close to them as well as they thought, while for the audience, i...

Home Rule Written by Liam Gibbons Directed by Francis Pacae-Nunez Presented by Dragon Events LLC and FRIGID New York at UNDER St. Marks 94 St Marks Place, Manhattan, NYC April 2-11, 2025 As a setting, wartime highlights divisions, and Liam Gibbons's dark comedy Home Rule , which takes place in 1920s Ireland during the War for Independence, uses its politically divided setting to examine divisions of sexuality, gender, religion, and family. With ghosts real and figurative, Home Rule takes a comedic look at identity and the disjunctions among internal experience, external self-presentation, and expectations around both. Home Rule 's humorous story of possession is one of 63 shows at the 2025 New York City Fringe Festival , which runs through April 20th across four venues in Manhattan and one in Brooklyn. Home Rule begins with Finn (Adriel Jovian) and Riley (Taegan Chirinos), a young couple from the small coastal town of Doagh, deciding to finally have sex with each other, lea...

The End of All Flesh Written by Greg Kotis Directed by Avery Rose Pedell Presented by Theater of the Apes and FRIGID New York at the wild project 195 E 3rd St., Manhattan, NYC April 2-20, 2025 [UPDATES, 1 and 28 May 2025:  The production has been extended and will be presented as part of the “Monday Night Musicals” double-feature at The Magnet (254 W 29th St, New York, NY 10001) with performances on May 5 at 6:30 p.m., May 19 at 6:30 p.m., June 2nd at 6:30 p.m., June 9th at 6:30 p.m., June 16th at 6:30 p.m., and June 23rd at 8 p.m. Tickets $25 are available for advance purchase at www.magnettheater.com . ] Greg Kotis, Maithili Ginde, Sammy Pignalosa, and Ayun Halliday. Photo by Pam Rice.  As you may have noticed lately, the United States government seems set on accelerating, via a number of avenues, the climate apocalypse towards which humanity is already proceeding at quite a clip. Set in the postapocalyptic future that we seem so determined to bring about, The End of All F...

TEXAS ANNIE: The Legend of the Moan Ranger Book by Jenn Howd & Roz Mihalko; music by John Woods, Stephen Goers, Roz Mihalko, and Jenn Howd; lyrics by Roz Mihalko, Jenn Howd, and John Woods; based on the song "Texas Annie" by The Wet Spots (John Woods & Cass King) Directed by Maggie Perrino Presented by Jenn Howd and Maggie Perrino and FRIGID New York at UNDER St. Marks 94 St Marks Pl, Manhattan, NYC April 8-18, 2025 Matthew Graham, Hope Pauly, Brooks Hope, and Royce Louden. Photo by Maggie Perrino. UNDER St. Marks is abuzz thanks to the defiant musical joy of TEXAS ANNIE: The Legend of the Moan Ranger , one of 63 shows at the 2025 New York City Fringe Festival , which runs through April 20th across four venues in Manhattan and one in Brooklyn. Set in a state where one can legally own more guns than sex toys, TEXAS ANNIE is inspired by the very real Texas law that once outlawed the ownership of six or more sex toys. Though the law was ultimately overturned in federa...

Love in the Time of Piñatas Written and performed by Baruch Porras Hernandez Directed by Richard A. Mosqueda Presented by FRIGID New York at the wild project 195 E 3rd St., Manhattan, NYC April 8-13, 2025 Baruch Porras Hernandez. Photo by Robbie Sweeny. When Baruch Porras Hernandez first takes the stage in his sparkling solo show Love in the Time of Piñatas –one of 63 shows at the 2025 New York City Fringe Festival , which runs through April 20th across four venues in Manhattan and one in Brooklyn–it is as one of the titular candy-filled papier-mâché containers (in a costume by Kipper Yanaga). As a piñata–something beautiful, Hernandez notes, in a world made to destroy pretty things–he leads the audience through a story of being being wrenched away from the life he'd known to be used at a little boy's birthday party, from which he escapes only to encounter abuse and finally achieve transcendence. The piñata's journey acts like a brief, fanciful version of the show as a wh...

Conceal Me What I Am Created and directed by Natalie Kane Presented by  FRIGID New York and  Ladies & Fools at The Chain Studio Theatre 312 W 36th St. 4th floor, Manhattan, NYC  April 4-19, 2025 Tia Cassmira, Chloe Chappa, and Maya Barbon. Photo by Natalie Kane. Taking its title from Viola’s famous declaration in Twelfth Night as she plans to cross dress, Conceal Me What I Am presents a charming tour through some of the most well- and lesser-known breeches roles in classical theatre. Interspersing scenes featuring various cross-dressing heroines with monologues about the history and function of this trope, the production is a charmingly acted tour of theater history. In the end, it raises more questions than it provides answers about the relationship between these roles and the exploration of gender in the plays in which they feature.  Conceal Me What I Am is one of 63 shows currently part of the 2025 New York City Fringe Festival , which runs through April 2...

Photo courtesy of Emily Owens PR FRIGID New York has announced the recipients of its annual New York City Fringe Festival Awards, which were bestowed to recipients on the closing night of the 2024 New York City Fringe Festival on Sunday, April 21. The New York City Fringe Festival (formally the FRIGID Fringe Festival), a proud member of the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals (CAFF) and the United States Association of Fringe Festivals (USAFF), is an open, lottery-based theater festival that gives artists an opportunity to let their ingenuity thrive in an environment that values freedom of expression and artistic determination. In true support of the Indie Theater Community, 100% of box office proceeds go directly to the artists whose work is being presented. This year's festival was the most financially successful and highly attended festival in FRIGID New York’s 15-year history. Over $125,000 in box office proceeds will be paid out to the 46 NYC Fringe Festival artists. Sel...

Emil Amok: Lost NPR Host, Wiley Filipino, Vegan Transdad Written and performed by Emil Amok Guillermo Presented at  UNDER St. Marks 94 St. Marks Place, Manhattan, NYC April 5-21, 2024 Emil Amok Guillermo. Photo courtesy of the artist. Weaving together biography with the twentieth-century history of American colonialism in the Philippines, Emil Amok: Lost NPR Host, Wiley Filipino, Vegan Transdad is part stand-up comedy, part pathos-infused monologue. In the production, Emil tells the story of his father’s immigration to the United States and subsequent exclusion from American society as well as his own life as a white-sounding first-generation American whose seeming successes in graduating from Harvard and in broadcast journalism are belied by more subtle but nonetheless very present racism and discrimination. Emil Amok is part of the 2024 New York City Fringe Festival, which features 46 plays over multiple venues and gives 100% of its ticket sales to its artists.  Additional...

Sonnets from a Sin-Eater Written and performed by Kara Hadden Directed by Jack McAuliffe Presented by La Trobe at  UNDER St. Marks 94 St. Marks Place, Manhattan, NYC April 4-19, 2024 Kara Hadden. Photo by Aaron Petykowski Demonstrating perhaps more than anything the hold the sonnet has on contemporary American poetry, Sonnets from a Sin-Eater is a one-person show highlighting the impact of social media, celebrity, canceling, and fad diets on present-day society, with the occasional light-hearted jab at the “woke agenda.” Kara Hadden deftly plays the roles of K, a recent college grad struggling from a break-up with her long-term girlfriend as well as the death of her family pet; Calgary, a musical artist perpetually getting canceled; and a poet-nun, writer of the titular sonnets. Sonnets from a Sin-Eater is part of the 2024 New York City Fringe Festival, which features 46 plays over multiple venues and gives 100% of its ticket sales to its artists. According to K, sin-eating is a...

Brokeneck Girls: The Murder Ballad Musical Written by Eve Blackwater Directed by Michael Hagins Presented at the wild project 195 E 3rd St., Manhattan, NYC April 6-19, 2024 L to R: Jeannie Skelly, Eve Blackwater, Kendra MacDevitt. Photo by Adrian Buckmaster. The 1890s-set Brokeneck Girls: The Murder Ballad Musical positions itself at a fertile crossing of several cultural currents, marrying–perhaps a bit of a loaded term here–historically and socially conscious theater with a dark folk scene including bands such as Bridge City Sinners and, more appositely here, American Murder Song and with the recent concept of the " Good for Her " subgenre, which itself emerged in the wake of #MeToo movement. The Brokeneck Girls of the title are a folk noir band based in NYC, comprising vocalists Eve Blackwater, who also wrote The Murder Ballad Musical , on guitar; Kendra Macdevitt on fiddle; and Jeannie Skully on banjo; and, within the world of the play, they function as the house band f...

A Little Less Than Kind Written by Gracie Rittenberg Directed by Slaney Rose Jordan Presented by Bluebird Theatre Company at UNDER St. Marks 94 St. Marks Place, Manhattan, NYC April 5-20, 2024 A Little Less Than Kind is not the first Hamlet adaptation to re-envision Shakespeare's Danish royal family as a powerful corporate clan (see, for example, the 2000 film starring Ethan Hawke), but it's probably the first to do so in tandem with some canny gender swapping that includes a 21-year-old bisexual protagonist and some fruitful ratcheting up of multiple characters' moral ambiguity. From playwright, filmmaker, and actor Gracie Rittenberg, A Little Less Than Kind , which adopts modern language and a satirical tone in addition to its Silicon Valley setting, highlights the way in which women's lived experiences, from love to grief to ambition, are misjudged and misnamed by a patriarchal culture with a vested interest in doing so without insulating certain of their behavior...

Solitary Written and directed by Seán Griffin Presented at UNDER St. Marks 94 St. Marks Place, Manhattan, NYC April 3-20, 2024 It is not controversial to assert that isolation is mentally and physically unhealthy for human beings. And while representatives of the carceral state may insist that isolation of individuals in the form of solitary confinement is a necessary tool, others more accurately view is as at best an injurious punishment and at worst, state-enacted torture (see Solitary Watch for reporting and other resources on this matter, as well as the ACLU on prisoners' rights more broadly). While organizations such as Social Workers & Allies Against Solitary Confinement are working to end this inhumane practice, it remains in widespread use across the United States. Seán Griffin's short play Solitary approaches the issue through a 30-minute real-time snapshot of one man in the midst of a stint in the eponymous confinement. Solitary is part of the 2024 New York C...

Climate Fables: Debating Extinction Written by Padraig Bond Directed by Padraig Bond and Torch Ensemble Presented by Torch Ensemble at UNDER St. Marks 94 St. Marks Place, Manhattan, NYC April 3-17, 2024 Penelope Deen and Kristen Hoffman. Photo by Terrell Lopez Geologists may have recently rejected the Anthropocene as a unit of geologic time, but even in doing so, they acknowledged its usefulness in thinking about what has brought the world to its current climate crisis. Playwright Padraig Bond's Climate Fables: Debating Extinction peers compellingly into the apocalyptic future of the Anthropocene and wonders not only whether the age of humankind will continue but also whether it should. Debating Extinction played the 2024 New York City Fringe Festival–which features 46 plays over multiple venues and gives 100% of ticket sales to the artists–in repertory with a second climate fable titled The Trash Garden , a comedic twist on Adam and Eve in which the two remaining human beings ...