Thinking Theater NYC

  A Midsummer Night's Dream Written by William Shakespeare Directed by John Gordon and Ruby Rich Presented by  Smoking Mirror Theatre Company at  A.R.T./New York Theatres 502 West 53rd Street, Manhattan, NYC August 27-September 13, 2026 Above (L-R): Catherine Desciak (Mustardseed), Roslind Joyce (Peaseblossom), Caroline Feduccia (Cobweb), Samuel Andrews (Mote). Below: Ruby Rich (Titania). Photo by Jonathan Slaff. At the beginning of act 5 of A Midsummer Night’s Dream , Duke Theseus asks his master of the revels, “Say what abridgment have you for this evening, / What masque, what music? How shall we beguile / The lazy time if not with some delight?” While Theseus’s consideration of the various forms of entertainment for the evening’s recreation leads to the Athenian tradesmen’s comically terrible production of Pyramus and Thisbe , it also encompasses Smoking Mirror’s production of Midsummer itself, with its talented, versatile cast not only able to seamlessly move a...

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Written by William Shakespeare Directed by Esther Cohen and Sarah Stevenson Presented by Riverdale Shakespeare Players at University of Mount Saint Vincent , Riverdale Y , and Christ Church Riverdale August 27, 28, and 30, 2026 Photo by Alice Dupree. NYC may seem like it abounds in free Shakespeare in the summer, and to some extent it does—any number of high-quality productions are mounted in parks big and small, parking lots, and otherwise quiet school yards. And yet, this bounty does not always reach the outer boroughs, to say nothing of the outer limits of the outer boroughs. If Riverdale Shakespeare Players’ outstanding and extraordinarily well-attended inaugural production is any indication, the community is hungry for more Shakespeare, for opportunities for actors and audience members alike.  A new volunteer-run community theater company in the Riverdale neighborhood of the northwest Bronx, the Riverdale Shakespeare Players is a joint collaboration...

Photo by Ellie Gravitte. Following a celebrated, sold-out run at the Pier 40 Picnic House in 2025, Stairwell Theater’s The Comedy of Errors returns to New York City by popular demand. Transferring this summer to the Battery Park Showbox Stage, Stairwell's production will run September 17-27, bringing its crowd-pleasing story of twins, mistaken identities, and miraculous reunions featuring a 4-part jazz band and an ensemble cast of 15 performers. Stairwell Theater has been awarded a 2026 Manhattan Arts Grant from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) in support of the remount. The grant will fund hundreds of FREE tickets for New York audiences. Directed by Sam Gibbs, Founding Artistic Director of Stairwell Theater, the production continues the company's decade-long commitment to creating immersive classical theater in surprising spaces. "One of the greatest joys of site-specific theater is letting the story feed the setting and the setting feed the story," says ...

Amoeba Productions , a new performing arts nonprofit in New York City, is excited to announce  The Tempest - this time RIDICULOUS! The Tempest will take place on Friday, August 28th at 6pm and Saturday, August 29th at 2pm & 6pm at Denny Farrell Riverbank State Park’s Mainstage area, featuring an incredible lineup of artists. Amoeba’s The Tempest is a reimagining of Shakespeare's classic play — A magician says goodbye and has one last wacky, zany, shenanigan-filled adventure. BUT, before he goes out with a bang, he learns to forgive others and himself. Inspired by Charles Ludlam’s campy theatre of the ridiculous, this production seeks to fill-in the cultural gaps of the Shakespeare in the Park legacy. This non-union, outdoor developmental production is directed by Steven San Luis. The show's production staff includes: Steven San Luis as Director, Francie Brewster as Assistant Director, Morgan Haney as Dramaturg, Louisa Nickel as Costume Designer & Technical Director, A...

 A Comedy of Errors Written by William Shakespeare Adapted and directed by David Fuller Presented by Theater 2020 at The Great Room at A.R.T./New York 138 South Oxford St., Brooklyn, NYC June 12-27, 2026 L to R: Amelia Corrada, Robert J. Dyckman, KoDee Martin, Linda Elizabeth, David Arthur Bachrach, Eileen Glenn, Justino Brokaw, Sabrina Kalman, Francoise Traxler, Jenna Hochkammer. Photo: John Hoffman. Sometimes theater sheds light on enduring issues in society and human existence; sometimes it’s pure entertainment. We need both—to see anew the most challenging aspects of life and to laugh. Theater 2020’s charming 75-minute adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Comedy of Errors presents the classic tale of mistaken identity anew. With a cleverly streamlined script and a versatile, talented cast, Theater 2020’s A Comedy of Errors is a laugh-out-loud good time from start to finish. Life is hard; laughter is a priceless antidote that the best theater can provide to take away ...

Julius Caesar Written by William Shakespeare Directed by Jonathan Hopkins Assistant Director: Sundiata Fotso-Chinjé Presented by Smith Street Stage at Carroll Park President St., Brooklyn, NYC May 16-June 7, 2026 Photography by Sam Sulam Summer means Shakespeare in NYC, and of all of the productions to choose from, Smith Street Stage’s annual offerings in Carroll Park, Brooklyn are always a must-see. Even on an unseasonably cool and damp night, this year’s offering, Julius Caesar , has the power to captivate not only those who came to see it intentionally but also dog walkers and other passersby. If Shakespeare’s time seems remote from our own, the Romans who feature in this play were four times as removed from Elizabethan England as Elizabethan England from today. And yet, as Shakespeare made Julius Caesar speak to its contemporaries, so does Smith Street Stage for us today. Featuring both Smith Street Stage veterans and newcomers, the cast is extraordinarily versatile. Save fo...

Titus Andronicus Written by William Shakespeare Directed by Jesse Berger Presented by Red Bull Theater at The Pershing Square Signature Center ’s Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre 480 West 42nd Street, Manhattan, NYC March 18-April 19, 2026 [extended through May 3, 2026] Anthony Michael Lopez, Anthony Michael Martinez, Patrick Page, Zack Lopez Roa. Photo credit: Carol Rosegg. William Shakespeare's early-career revenge tragedy Titus Andronicus (George Peele is a popular candidate for the argument that parts of the play were written by a second playwright) drops the audience immediately into the midst of a dispute over who will succeed the deceased Emperor of Rome, his eldest son, Saturninus ( Matthew Amendt ), or younger brother Bassianus (Howard W. Overshown). The opening stage direction specifies that the two brothers and their followers enter at opposite doors, while Tribune Marcus, shortly to provide a third option–the titular Titus, the people's choice–enters with others ...

Tempest Tossed Adapted from William Shakespeare's The Tempest Directed by Janina Picard Music Direction and original music by Flavio Gaete Presented by New Place Players at Casa Duse 16 Prospect Park West, Brooklyn, NYC March 5-26, 2026 L to R (foreground): Clara Tristan, Craig Bacon, Anna Bikales It can be challenging to convey to a contemporary audience the interactive, immersive nature of the early modern theaters where the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries were performed. The notion that the play is something taking place in a different universe from the audience, behind that “fourth wall” as it were, is deeply engrained. However, New Place Players’ chamber adaptation of The Tempest , Tempest Tossed , performed in the intimate townhouse parlor of Casa Duse, brilliantly bodies forth this key feature of the early modern theater in a production that is at once historical restoration and contemporary revision of what has often been regarded as Shakespeare’s farewell to t...

Two-Way Glass Productions, an independent production company that seeks to emphasize the ever-shifting relationship between spectator and spectacle, will present Walter Schlinger’s Romeo and Juliet , written and performed by Sean Gordon and directed by Dixie O’Connell. The production will be presented as part of the 2026 New York City Fringe Festival with FRIGID New York at The Rat NYC (68-117 Jay St, Brooklyn, NY 11201) with performances on Fri April 3 at 9:50pm, Sat April 11 at 8:40pm, Mon April 13 at 6:30pm, and Sun April 19 at 2:00 pm.  Former English undergraduate Walter Schlinger stands alone in a wide, infinite, green field. In this meta-theatrical solo performance, Walter reckons with the role our mentors play in our development and attempts to provide insight into the world's most famous love story. While desperately trying to share his work with anyone who will listen, he grapples with the notions of youth, tragedy, and validation. The creative team include...

Paul Shearman / The Last Audition Banjo & Bongo Productions, an independent theatre and screen production company dedicated to developing original, character-driven work, will present The Last Audition , written and performed by Paul Shearman and directed by David St John. The production will be presented as part of the 2026 New York City Fringe Festival with FRIGID New York at Chain Theatre Mainstage (312 W 36th St. 4th floor, New York, NY 10018) with performances on Wed April 1 at 7:40 pm, Sun April 5 at 12:20 pm, Thu April 9 at 6 pm, Wed April 15 at 6 pm & The Fri April 17 at 7:40 pm.  Under the glow of a single ghost light, a once-renowned Shakespearean actor rehearses for a final audition for King Lear . As memory falters and reality intrudes, the stage becomes both refuge and reckoning. The Last Audition is a darkly funny, deeply human solo play about identity, legacy, and the quiet, complicated love between those who perform and those who care for them. The creative...

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 ...

Polishing Shakespeare Written by Brian Dykstra Directed by Margarett Perry Presented by Twilight Theatre Co. in association with Kitchen Theatre Company at 59E59 59 East 59th Street, Manhattan, NYC July 10-August 10, 2025 A portion of the Shakespeare industry is devoted to products rooted in the idea that the Bard is just too hard for modern audiences. The No Fear Shakespeare line of books, for instance, promises the original text side-by-side with "modern English translations," despite the fact that Shakespeare's English is already modern English, the early modern and late modern English difference being, linguistically speaking, largely confined to vocabulary. One of the characters in actor, poet, and playwright Brian Dykstra's Polishing Shakespeare is bankrolling a similar project, except focused on theatrical productions, and over a fleet, funny, and fantastic 90 minutes, the show digs into the larger cultural and political implications of such ostensible conce...

The Tempest Written by William Shakespeare Adapted and directed by Kathy Curtiss Presented by Renaissance Now Theatre & Film at Chain Theatre 312 West 36 Street, Floor 3 & 4, Manhattan, NYC July 2-5, 2025 Carter McEwan, (Mariner), Ethan Freestone (Trinculo), Grace Fillmore (Boatswain), Seth Johnson (Ferdinand). Photo by Jonathan Slaff. The Tempest is one of William Shakespeare's plays most overtly concerned with art and its presentation, making it, in a metatheatrical sense, a particularly apt choice for Renaissance Now Theatre & Film's third season of Shakespearean plays adapted with additions of dialogue in contemporary prose, or "now speak," to highlight themes relevant to contemporary audiences. There exists a long tradition of interpreting sorcerer Prospero's magical "art" as an analogue for theater due to his managing of plot and spectacle throughout The Tempest , and while the "now speak" of this Tempest , courtesy of dire...