Thinking Theater NYC

apocaLIPSTICK Written by Seth Barnes Directed by Jennie Hughes Presented by Seth Barnes, Elena Cramer, the Players Theatre Residency Program, and Forager Theatre Company at The Players Theatre 115 MacDougal St., Manhattan, NYC November 6-23, 2025 L to R: Fara Faidzan, Ben Bogdan, Kathleen Salazar, Jordan Jackson, Clayton Matthews, Elena Cramer, Michela Richards. Photo by Samori Etienne. Anyone who frequents metal or punk shows knows that when someone falls in the pit, you pick that person up. That communal etiquette does not, however, extend to zombies, as we see in the opening scene of apocaLIPSTICK , a new play from Seth Barnes set in a United States reshaped by the zombie apocalypse. Following two members of a punk band called The Dammit Janets on their cross-country search for their friend and third member, with whom they had lost contact, apocaLIPSTICK integrates live music and zombie-attack action into a narrative that, similarly to Forager's December 2024 production of Th...

The Hand That Feeds You Written by Sarah Groustra Directed by Jennie Hughes Presented by Forager Theatre Company , the Players Theatre Residency Program, and Sarah Groustra at The Players Theatre 115 MacDougal Street, Manhattan, NYC December 5-22, 2024 L to R: Laurel Andersen, Juan Castro, and Jonathan Lorenzo Price. Photo by Kat duPont Veccio. Film critic and scholar Robin Wood described the monster as the return of the repressed, and if Wood is focused more specifically on social repression than individual psychology, his description is nevertheless a useful way to think about the dynamic at the center of Sarah Groustra's new play, The Hand That Feeds You . Seen symbolically, the monster in this winningly outlandish comedy horror manifests feelings about self and family that protagonist John Gerber ( Juan Castro ) would prefer to avoid and forget (some of which certainly link to larger social attitudes). In The Hand That Feeds You , the monstrous prompts us to wonder what might b...

An Axemas Story Music, etc. by Anthony De Angelis Lyrics, etc. by Patrick Spencer Book, etc. by Charlie O'Leary Music direction by Sara Linger Associate conducting by Buck McDaniel Direction and choreography by Mackenna Goodrich Presented by Cartwheels Theatrical at The Players Theatre 115 MacDougal St, Manhattan, NYC November 30-December 17, 2023 Isabel Julazadeh and John Jeffords. Photo by EJ DeCoske When An Axemas Story calls itself a "sappy" musical, it refers not to holiday schmaltz, which the show actively satirizes, but rather to the spilling of vital fluids as the non-deciduous residents of Tree Town meet their fates at the edge of a blade. This 1980s-slasher-inspired story of sentient trees on a Christmas tree farm is perfect for the kind of person who seeks out appropriately themed horror films for major holidays, enjoys self-aware wordplay ( Axemas Story features a veritable forest of tree-related puns), or just likes a wildly entertaining time at the theater...