Thinking Theater NYC

The Notebook of Trigorin Written by Tennessee Williams Directed by Jim Niesen Presented by Irondale Ensemble Project at The Space at Irondale 85 South Oxford Street, Brooklyn. NYC March 28-April 27, 2025 The Notebook of Trigorin . Photo courtesy of The PR Social As a twentieth-century American adaptation of a late nineteenth-century Russian play, Tennessee Williams's The Notebook of Trigorin already bridges places and times at significant removes from one another, and Irondale's new production enthralls while adding a few new lanes to that bridge. Williams's "free adaptation of Anton Chekhov's The Sea Gull ," as the play identifies itself, represented the achievement near the end of his life of, to borrow Allean Hale's phrasing, a "lifelong dream to interpret" this particular work by the Russian writer, of whom Williams had been an ardent fan since his early twenties. Hale's introduction to the 1997 New Directions edition of The Notebook o...

American Blues: 5 Short Plays by Tennessee Williams Written by Tennessee Williams Directed by Jim Niesen Presented by the Irondale Ensemble Project at The Space at Irondale 85 South Oxford St., Brooklyn, NYC October 27-November 26, 2023 Shadenia Savid in Moony's Kids Don't Cry . Photo by Natasha Rotondaro In 1948, Tennessee Williams published American Blues , a collection of five one-act plays, and a remarkable new production of this collection by Brooklyn's Irondale shows that these works have lost none of their power to both entertain and challenge audiences in the intervening three-quarters of a century. Comprising plays written in the decade between 1936 and 1946 - Moony's Kids Don't Cry (1936); The Dark Room (1939); The Case of the Crushed Petunias (1941); The Long Stay Cut Short, or, the Unsatisfactory Supper (1946); and Ten Blocks on the Camino Real (1946) - American Blues represents the second part of Irondale's American Century, the first install...

Irondale , now celebrating forty years of artistically ambitious, and cutting-edge theatre, invites longtime friend and collaborator Theater Grottesco to bring their proactive and funny and hilarious one-man show Consider This to The Space at Irondale September 28th and 29th at 7:30 p.m. Recognized globally for their audacious approach to live performances, Theater Grottesco masterfully weaves together classical and modern theatrical styles, embarking on a lyrical odyssey through culture and imagination. Consider This is a 60-minute romp through the very roots of Western theater which not only resonates with the company’s foundational ethos but also encapsulates the essence of their extensive artistic portfolio. The performance opens with a reflection and a question: There were times when theater artists were changing the world. Are they still? From the grandeur of Greek Tragedy to the playful artistry of Commedia dell’Arte, from the whimsical world of Clown to the enigmatic allu...

It’s William Shakespeare’s birthday next month, and Brooklyn’s Irondale Ensemble Project is planning a free birthday celebration fit for a (literary) king! An open mic sonnet marathon will take place on Saturday, April 1st at Cuyler Gore Park, one of the city’s oldest parks, inviting passersby to stop and read one of his 154 sonnets live from 2pm-5pm. Joined by members of the Irondale Ensemble, now celebrating forty years of artistically ambitious, cutting-edge theater, and members of the Irondale Young Company, this free event will continue through the evening, inviting the community into the ensemble’s Fort Greene theater for Shakespeare trivia, games, and improv from 6:00-9:00pm. The company held its first Shakespeare Sonnet Marathon over zoom on April 23, 2020. The 8-hour event welcomed over 100 participants from ages 9 to 90, including Academy Award nominee Ralph Fiennes; Grammy nominee Rufus Wainwright; comedian, actress and jazz singer Lea DeLaria; Tony winner Cady Huffman; Ton...

Image courtesy The PR Social Irondale , now celebrating forty years of artistically ambitious, cutting-edge theatre, presents live performances, excerpts, and discussion around their 2012 original production of Color Between the Lines with Behind the Scenes and Between the Lines , Saturday, February 4 at 7:30 p.m. A work created as part of In Pursuit of Freedom, a collaboration with the Brooklyn Historical Society and the Weeksville Heritage Center, this musical theater piece was devised by eight members of the Irondale ensemble and explores the abolitionist struggle in Brooklyn. The first major public history project to tell the unknown story of Brooklyn’s abolitionists, the work celebrates the unknown, ordinary people who did extraordinary things in perilous times. In honor of Irondale’s 40th anniversary, admission is free to all. In the decades after the Revolutionary War, the anti-slavery movement gained ground in New York City, and Brooklyn became home to one of the largest co...

Mom on Skype Based on the story collection Mom on Skype Directed by Oleg Oneshchak Director of U.S. tour: Mariia Oneshchak Presented by Irondale at The Space at Irondale 85 S. Oxford Street, Brooklyn, NYC August 13-14, 2022 Mom on Skype at the Irondale. Photo credit: Gerry Goodstein This weekend, The Space at Irondale hosts an extraordinary event featuring an extraordinary cast. Mama Po Skaipu was created by a group of young actors, none older than fourteen, from The School of Open-Minded Kids Studio Theater in Lviv, Ukraine, but the Russian invasion threw the nation into chaos not long before the play was meant to premiere. In the face of these overwhelming circumstances, the show made its delayed debut anyway, as documented in The New York Times , in April, in a bomb shelter. Directed by Oleg Oneshchak, a teacher at the Studio Theater who was now an active-duty soldier, the performance was one of the few events in what is normally a cultural center in Ukraine. Now, as Mom on Skype...

  Irondale , Brooklyn’s leading theatrical and artistically ambitious think-tank theater ensemble, has invited nine teens from Ukraine’s The School of Open-Minded Kids Studio Theater, located in Lviv, to present the United States premiere of Mom on Skype on August 13-14. Previously directed by an active-duty Ukrainian solider, Oleg Onechchak, and performed in a warehouse-turned-bomb-shelter in Lviv in April, the play features a range of stories about family separation as told from the perspective of children. The teens' time in NY will be a chance to tell their story without the threat and fear of war, and thanks to the Irondale Ensemble Project, they will have a safe theater to do it in and will spend time working alongside both the Irondale Ensemble and the Irondale Young Company. . The cast has arrived in the U.S. and are currently in Ivoryton, CT at a musical theater sleep-away camp with Young at Arts in partnership with Sing for Hope. When they return here to NYC, they w...