Thinking Theater NYC

Mahogany Brown and the Case of the Disappearing Kid Written by Gina Femia Directed by Janelle Zapata Castellano Presented by Step1 Theatre Project  at The Tank 312 W 36 St., Manhattan, NYC July 8-11, 2019 Alisha Espinosa and Lara Fox. Photo from step1theatreproject on Instagram Looking is an important throughline in Gina Femia's genre-bending play Mahogany Brown and the Case of the Disappearing Kid , and the production fittingly makes an immediate and striking visual impression with the entrance of its first character, Jimmy Jones (Xavier Rodney). Jones enters clad in black and white from head to toe, including black gloves and white face paint. As other, similarly monochrome actors (Lara Fox, Sylas Barrett, and Rachel Weekley) emerge and mime a variety of New York City pedestrians behind him, Jones talks about the innumerable "blind" and "zombie" eyes of the city, made deliberately unseeing as people go about their business in order to shut out ...

The Virtuous Fall of the Girls from Our Lady of Sorrows Written by Gina Femia Directed by Blayze Teicher Presented by Spicy Witch Productions at The Flea Theater 20 Thomas St., Manhattan, NYC May 17-June 1, 2019 Shava Clarke, Alia Guidry, Renita Lewis, and Pearl Shin. Photo credit: Phoebe Brooks In each of its seasons, Spicy Witch Productions pairs contemporary and classical plays in repertory in order to explore gender and identity. The themes of previous seasons have included gender presentation, gendered violence, and the construct of relationships as a form of ownership. This season, Spicy Witch’s seventh, focuses on rebellion and revolution and puts a production of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure into thought-provoking conversation with new play The Virtuous Fall of the Girls from Our Lady of Sorrows . In addition, putting its money where its theme is, Spicy Witch will donate a portion of sales of merchandise, available in the lobby, to Planned Parenthood. We ...

Playwright Gena Femia. Photo credit: Jody Christopherson T he fourth annual Women in Theatre Festival , presented by Project Y Theatre Company , will run June 5-30, 2019 at the Jeffrey and Paul Gural Theatre at the A.R.T./New York Theatres , located at 502 W 53rd St. in Manhattan, NY. The Festival will feature ten productions, each with at least fifty-percent female representation among the artists.  Productions include:  Three Musketeers: 1941 A commissioned World Premiere by Megan Monaghan Rivas Co-Directed by Michole Biancosino & Andrew W. Smith June 5-29  Inspired by characters from Alexandre Dumas’ classic adventure novel, this new play is set in the occupied Paris of World War II. The Third Reich has hung every balcony in the City of Light with swastika banners and filled the streets with the tramp of goose-stepping boots. While the French police pander to Nazi occupiers, in a secret room five brave women struggle to keep ho...