Thinking Theater NYC

CUMULO Created by Emily Batsford Presented by Emily Batsford and Concrete Temple Theatre at MITU580 580 Sackett St Unit A - Ground Fl, Brooklyn, NYC April 15-May 3, 2026 Photo by Ken Pao Studio If the image of a person riding a candy-studded cloud like a bucking bronco as they freefall from some unimaginable height sounds like your cup of creatively inspired, visually spectacular tea, CUMULO brews up a perfect storm of such moments. A world premiere from Brooklyn-based theater artist and access consultant Emily Batsford, CUMULO is a wordless puppet play that drops its protagonist into an unpredictable–and often vertical–journey through a preternatural world of candy floss clouds. CUMULO 's consistently inventive set mechanics and an expressive score by composer David Leon flawlessly complement exquisite work by puppeteers Emily Batsford, Camille Cooper , Gaby FeBland , Takemi Kitamura , and Justin Otaki Perkins for a captivating and enchantingly unique experience. Photo by Ke...

At the Barricades Written by James Clements and Sam Hood Adrain Directed by Federica Borlenghi Presented by What Will the Neighbors Say? at MITU580 580 Sackett St., Brooklyn, NYC June 12-29, 2025 The company. Photo by Pablo Calderón-Santiago It's not hard to see the timeliness of the exploration of antifascist struggle in 1930s Spain presented by James Clements and Sam Hood Adrain's world premiere play At the Barricades when the day we saw the show was also marked in the United States by political assassinations and by nationwide protests against our own openly corrupt, increasingly fascist government. That government, in fact, rescinded an NEA grant for At the Barricades (as it did for many other productions and arts organizations) for "not 'aligning with the president's priorities,'" forcing theater company What Will the Neighbors Say? to work with IndieSpace to secure a community loan so that the production could be mounted as scheduled. (L-R) Step...

  The Leg Conceived by Sophie Amieva and Katerina Marcelja Directed by Sophie Amieva Presented by notAmuse Theater at MITU580 May 23-June 7, 2025 Photo by Rebecca Marcela Oviatt (BECCAVISION)  The Leg , the latest performance work by notAmuse Theater, is a captivating experience of an off-kilter world which may in fact be our own. The well-balanced ensemble of performers not only play off one another but contend with their costumes–some with exaggerated straitjacket sleeves or yards of tulle–and a space continually reshaped by the inflation/deflation of impressive fabric set pieces amongst and above them. Photo by Rebecca Marcela Oviatt (BECCAVISION)   notAmuse Theater (under the direction of Sophie Amieva and production designer Katerina Marcelja) integrates a range of theatrical traditions from Butoh to Buffon to create works which address structures of social and political power. The Leg (choreography by Mark Bankin, with lighting by Jacqueline Scaletta and sound de...

Grownup Written and performed by Emily Stout Directed by Mary Rose Branick Presented by The Associates Theater Ensemble at MITU580 580 Sackett St., Unit A – Ground Fl, Brooklyn, NYC April 21-30, 2023 Emily Stout. Photo by Eileen Meny. If someone asked you to identify the moment when you became a grownup, what would your answer be? That imagined boundary–and its crossing–is one of the concerns of Grownup , a superb new solo show from Emily Stout, one of the founding members of The Associates Theater Ensemble. Stout reveals early on that even though she currently may not be good at many areas of being an adult (a lack of mastery to which, no doubt, many of us can relate), she dreamed of being grown up, which she associated with hardship, since she was a young child. While she fantasizes some such hardships as a child, some are also very real, such as a persistent insomnia that takes hold in elementary school (but also, in a nuance characteristic of the show, later, if somewhat inadverte...

This weekend, April 25-28, 2019, NYC company The Woolgatherers presents a limited run of Romeo and Juliet: A Party . Director Grace Herman-Holland describes  Romeo and Juliet  as "play about a teenage girl making radical choices,” and this version of the classic Shakespearean play, set in Gowanus and featuring live original music, asks guests to make their own choices, allowing them to explore the entire performance space and interact with one another and with the performers. These performances, of which no two will be the same, will examine teenage desire and rebellion, gender norms, escapism, and a society immersed in fear and violence in the course of their audience-driven unfolding. Directed by Grace Herman-Holland (Eyes of a Blue Dog, Dixon Place; Genesis 22; Governors Island; Revel’s End: A Tempest Dance Party, Cap 21).  Original Music by Julian Giaimo .  Production and Stage Management by Natalie Jones.  Dramaturgy by N...