Thinking Theater NYC

Theater for the New City and Crystal Field proudly present the world premiere of A Shift of Opinion , a powerful new play by Vadim Astrakhan, directed by Joe John Battista. A Shift of Opinion is a historical drama that delves into timeless questions of identity, power, and resistance. It explores the story of Jacob Schiff, a Jewish American banker and philanthropist who confronts the Jewish Massacres in the Russian Empire. “The story of Jacob Schiff fascinated me, and I saw multiple similarities to today’s events: Russia at war with a smaller neighbor, the Jewish pogroms, the rise of anti-immigrant sentiments in America, and the need for the Jewish State. Additionally, I saw an opportunity to bring to life some of my favorite giants of American literature: Mark Twain, O. Henry, and Jack London,” says Astrakhan. Set between 1903 and 1917, A Shift of Opinion brings to life the untold true story of Schiff as he secretly funds the downfall of the Russian Empire in retribut...

Hari Bhaskar and Mark J. Quiles. Photo by Steven Pisano. The new play Oud Player on the Tel , by Tom Block, invites audiences to reflect on the absurdity and humanity behind one of the world’s most enduring conflicts. The World Premiere production will be presented at HERE Arts Center in SoHo, November 8 - 24. Opening night is slated for November 8. The limited engagement is directed by Jesica Garrou with an original score written and performed live on the oud by Rachid Halihal . Oud Player on the Tel is presented by the International Human Rights Arts Movement, a not-for-profit committed to amplifying critical voices from artists around the world. Set against the backdrop of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Oud Player on the Tel follows the story of Amir, a Palestinian olive farmer, who befriends Melke, the patriarch of a newly arrived Jewish refugee family in 1947. As the founding of Israel unfolds, the two families become entangled in friendship, rivalry, and love, highlighting t...

Observant Written by Pamela Weiler Grayson Directed by Shellen Lubin Presented by Red Lyric Productions in association with Adam Weinstock and Emerging Artists Theatre at  Chain Theatre 312 West 36th St., Floors 3 and 4, Manhattan, NYC September 12-28, 2024 L to R: Rebecca Hoodwin, Melissa Wolff, Arielle Beth Klein, Yair Ben-Dor, Arielle Flax, Fady Demian. Photo by Dallas Phelps, NYC. In Pamela Weiler Grayson’s timely and excellent new play, Observant , we spend shabbes (or shabbat in Hebrew, as the distinction is properly outlined during the next three scenes) in Scarsdale. In this seemingly bucolic New York village, three generations of a family – and the community and world writ large – will face the worst of what this (and last) century can issue against Jewish Americans, even in the suburbs. And yet, in order to confront the world without, this family must confront that which lies within and between the generations. Over the course of this holiday with the Gordon...

The Shylock and the Shakespeareans Written and directed by Edward Einhorn Presented by Untitled Theatre Company No. 61 at New Ohio Theatre  154 Christopher St., Manhattan, NYC (also available on demand) June 1-17, 2023  Jeremy Kareken and Yael Haskal. Photo by Richard Termine With the storied New Ohio Theatre slated for an August close, this summer, Untitled Theatre Company No. 61 (UTC61) takes to its stage to provide us with a pointed and timely look at the influence of theatre and the tropes therein on our own current cultural moment. The Shylock and the Shakespeareans is something like a retelling or reimagining of the Bard’s universally regarded and deeply problematic The Merchant of Venice . Writer and director Edward Einhorn updates the setting, while still keeping us deeply rooted in Shakespeare’s familiar climes. The action of the play undulates familiarly back and forth between the cosmopolitan world of Venice and gentile Belmont. Costumes blend the old and the new:...

Hidden Written and directed by Marc Weiner Presented by The Playwrights’ Gate at the Chain Theatre 312 W. 36th Street, 4th Floor, Manhattan, NYC May 11th-May 28th, 2023 Eileen Sugameli, Mark Friedlander, and Sean Edward Evans in Hidden . Photo by Shraya Kag Collective memory can be a pernicious thing in contemporary America. But to be a Jewish American has always meant living with a complex and inescapable relationship to the near past: to be like other Americans, only with the unique burden of bearing witness to the existential horrors of modern, systemic extermination. As the events of the Holocaust and the Vietnam War retreat further and further from contemporary American memory, the Jewish American voice has a unique capacity to continue to give voice to these events, to serve as a repository for an unyielding and uncompromising collective memory and in doing so, remind all of us of our moral obligation to, in fact, never forget. Marc Weiner’s is one such voice. Weiner's new pl...

Cabaret in Captivity: Songs and Sketches from Terezin Conceived by Edward Einhorn Developed and directed by Edward Einhorn and Jenny Lee Mitchell Musical direction, arrangements, and piano by Maria Dessena Presented by Untitled Theater Company No. 61  at different venues monthly January 28-April 16, 2023 (also available on demand) Photo courtesy of Untitled Theater Company No. 61 Many of those well-versed in 20th century history – even on this marking of Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27 – may not know the place name Terezin or have heard of the Theresienstadt ghetto. Established by the Nazis in November 1941 in German-occupied Czechia, this camp was – and in the contemporary imagination, remains – a contradiction: a place of great suffering and starvation; a way-station or transit point connecting the Jews of Europe to death in Auschwitz. And yet, this was a model camp – a camp good enough to convince the Red Cross that conditions in Europe’s concentration camps were just fine...

Photo Credit: Maria Baranova Baruch Performing Arts Center, in conjunction with Teatri ODA of Kosovo and the consistently excellent Blessed Unrest present the world premiere of Refuge , a devised physical-theater piece based on events in Albania during the Second World War, a time in which Albanian families, many of them Muslim, took in thousands of Jewish refugees. Refuge  follows the journey of a young Jewish woman to a remote Albanian village, where she discovers truths about her family history. Refuge , with text by Matt Opatrny and Florent Mehmeti and music by the Metropolitan Klezmer, and co-directed by Jessica Burr and Florent Mehmeti ,  plays at Baruch Performing Arts Center (55 Lexington Ave [25th St. between Lexington and Third], Manhattan, NYC) from April 29 through May 11, 2019. Visit  https://www.baruch.cuny.edu/bpac/  for dates and tickets, which range from $16-36.