Thinking Theater NYC

Anti-Gone Created by Sivan Raz Presented by Needs More Work Productions at FRIGID New York 's 5th Annual Little Shakespeare Festival at UNDER St Marks 94 St Marks Pl, Manhattan, NYC August 14-17, 2025 L to R: Elizabeth Fox, Emily Phelps, and Penelope Rose Deen, and Photo by Noah Simon Jampol Anti-Gone , created by Needs More Work Productions, is something like a reimagining of Sophocles’ Antigone , one of the most enduring tragedies of the Greek stage. Rather than retell the story in straightforward fashion, the company makes the audience a collaborator, placing us inside the questions of justice, memory, and communal responsibility that have haunted this text for centuries. Staged in the intimate confines of UNDER St. Marks as part of the Little Shakespeare Festival, the production opens with a bag at center stage, the body of Polynices within; players come and go; there is a bit of very fine crowd work, and the sound of a cello plucking and bowing. From the first moment, we are ...

UNSEX'd Written by Jay Whitehead and Daniel Judes Directed by Josh Bradley Presented by JB Theatricals at UNDER St. Marks 94 St. Marks Place, Manhattan, NYC August 10-17, 2025 The playful use of bardcore covers of contemporary songs in scene transitions encapsulates both the era-bending sense of humor in Jay Whitehead and Daniel Judes's Renaissance-set UNSEX'd and the continuities in the issues that the play raises between the early modern period and our own. In commercial theater in Shakespearean England, public self-exhibition onstage was frowned upon for women, so female roles were played by boys or young men, and UNSEX'd , with psychological acuity and enough bawdy humor to make the Bard proud, irresistibly draws us into the friendship and rivalry between two such specialists in female characters in Shakespeare's own company. In its run at UNDER St. Marks, UNSEX'd is making its U.S. premiere as part of the FRIGID New York 's 5th annual Little Shakespe...

The Mousetrap, or Prince Hamlet wrote a dumb play and now we have to do it… Written by Margaret Rose Caterisano Directed by Jackson Paul Walker Presented by Broomstick Theatre Co. at UNDER St. Marks 94 St. Marks Place, Manhattan, NYC August 2-14, 2025 If in William Shakespeare's England, plays were required to be approved by the Master of the Revels and playwrights would take care not to openly criticize the current monarchy, in today's United States, a major network has curried favor for a merger by canceling a show critical of the government, while the government itself takes time out to attack episodes of South Park that satirize its officials. In this environment of governmental attacks on the arts, The Mousetrap, or Prince Hamlet wrote a dumb play and now we have to do it… , from playwright and professor Margaret Rose Caterisano, takes up the question of the place of art in calling out those in power through a return to Hamlet and its play-within-a-play that dramatizes t...

As You Will Created by Conor Mullen, David Brummer, and George Hider August 3-16, 2025 As You Wish It...or The Bride Princess....or What You Will Written by Michael Hagins Directed by Kat Santomoreno and Michael Hagins Presented by Fork the Odds Productions July 31-August 9, 2025 Part of the Little Shakespeare Festival 2025 presented by FRIGID New York at Under St. Marks, 94 St Marks Place, Manhattan, NYC, July 31-August 17, 2025 For most American high school students, their experience with Shakespeare is with the tragedies, and surely this contributes to the sense of Shakespeare as the Bard, writer of elevated, high culture entertainment. Of course, in reality, in his own time, Shakespeare was anything but, which is beautifully captured in this year’s Little Shakespeare Festival, “Not Your English Teacher’s Shakespeare.” The unscripted, improvisational As You Will and the Shakespearean  Princess Bride  parody  As You Wish It are both poignant reminders that Shakespeare ...

Walter Schlinger's Romeo and Juliet Written and performed by Sean Gordon Directed by Dixie O'Connell Presented by Glow-Worm Theatre Company at UNDER St.Marks 94 St. Marks Place, Manhattan, NYC August 4-16, 2024 Sean Gordon. Photo by Ezekiel Clare Contemporary American society often questions the value of studying the humanities. One way to view Walter Schlinger's Romeo and Juliet , a new solo show from actor, writer, and co-founder of Glow-Worm Theatre Company Sean Gordon, is as an argument for precisely such study, a display of the kinds of conversations that the humanities can prompt us to have with ourselves (and one another) and of how literary texts such as the works of Shakespeare can function not merely objects of admiration but as tools with which to think. Walter Schlinger's Romeo and Juliet is currently part of FRIGID New York's 2024 Little Shakespeare Festival, the theme of which is "Camaraderie and Community," and the play's compassionate ...

Fools in the Forest Created and directed by Natalie Kane, from text by William Shakespeare Presented by Ladies & Fools at UNDER St.Marks 94 St. Marks Place, Manhattan, NYC August 3-16, 2024 Amy Pan, Christine Vapsva, Rebecca-Anne Whittaker, Maya Barbon. Photo by Natalie Kane The character of Touchstone is the official fool, so to speak, in William Shakespeare's As You Like It , an instance of the courtly wise fool whose license allows him to satirize and question the society around him. In adapting As You Like It , creator and director Natalie Kane's Fools in the Forest adds to the number of (figurative) fools while subtracting much else, imagining a version of the play in which Celia and Rosalind never rejoin Duke Senior and his fellow exiles in the forest of Arden and which does not center heterosexual romance. Aside from Touchstone (Abby Kastenberg), Fools in the Forest retains from its Shakespearean source text only melancholy courtier Jaques (Maya Barbon), who is im...

My Own Private Shakespeare  Written by Justin Hay Directed by Mona Zaidi Presented by Modern Classic Theatre August 1-4, 2024 When My Cue Comes Written By Aaron Moore, B Carty, Gabriel Ethridge, Madeline Parks, Natalie DeBoer, Reid Watson, and William Shakespeare Directed by B Carty Presented by Hamlet Isn't Dead August 1-17, 2024 Both shows at UNDER St. Marks, 94 Saint Marks Pl., Manhattan, NYC Justin Hay. Photo by Mona Zaidi. While Shakespeare’s heightened poetic language and dramatic situations might suggest to the uninitiated that his plays cannot possibly be relevant to the banal struggles of everyday life, My Own Private Shakespeare and When My Cue Comes , part of FRIGID New York’s Little Shakespeare Festival, serve as poignant reminders that in fact the situation is quite the opposite. In both shows, Shakespeare’s works are not the untouchable monuments of staggering genius that they are sometimes regarded to be, but rather touchstones that enable us to withstand life’s ...

Beginning August 9, The Little Shakespeare Festival at FRIGID New York will present The Lark and the Nightingale , written by Mindy Mawhirter and Alyssa Cokinis and directed by Melody Erfani. The Little Shakespeare Festival is FRIGID New York’s annual celebration of independent theatre and performance that takes inspiration from the immortal bard, William Shakespeare. Each year, companies are offered a different theme or idea to help guide their work. This year the festival’s theme is Camaraderie and Community. The Lark and the Nightingale is a queer retelling of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Othello . Juliet and Desdemona, two characters canonically destined for tragic endings, break away from their scripts and attempt to find happiness in each other. Desdemona battles duty with love while Juliet struggles to let love consume her entirely. When confronted with their scripted ends, they must advocate for one another and prove that their love is worth fighting for. Mindy ...

Much Ado About Nothing , written by William Shakespeare and directed by Megan Lummus, will be presented as part of the 2024 Little Shakespeare Festival with FRIGID New York at UNDER St. Marks (94 St Marks Pl, New York, NY 10009) with performances on Fri August 9 at 9pm, Sat August 10 at 7pm & Sun August 11 at 2pm. Tickets ($25 in person, $20 streaming) are available for advance purchase at www.frigid.nyc. The performance will run approximately 90 minutes. The Little Shakespeare Festival is FRIGID New York’s annual celebration of independent theatre and performance that takes inspiration from the immortal bard, William Shakespeare. Each year, companies are offered a different theme or idea to help guide their work. This year the festival’s theme is Camaraderie and Community. Much Ado About Nothing is a classic Shakespeare tale of love, trust, and deceit. Claudio  is madly in love with Hero but is tricked into believing she is unchaste, and that is nearly...