Thinking Theater NYC

Ectoplasm Written and directed by Sara Fellini Presented by spit&vigor at spit&vigor tiny baby blackbox theatre 115 MacDougal Street - 3C. Manhattan, NYC September 24-October 31, 2026 L to R, facing forward: Jesse Metz, Sara Fellini, Fedrico Mosttert. Photo by Giancarlo Osaben. In his book Haunted Media (Duke UP, 2000), Jeffrey Sconce observes that "the Spiritualist movement provided one of the first and most important forums for women's voices to enter the public sphere," which of course rapidly made it "a target of attack by the male-dominated paradigm of 'scientific rationalism'" (p. 12). Spiritualism's intersections with reformist politics, including women's suffrage, doubtless did little to mitigate such attacks. Sconce also notes that Spiritualism, which took hold in the United States in the mid-nineteenth century and involved contacting the dead at séances led by mediums who were most often women, was from the first bound up wit...

The Truth About Transylvania Written by Patricia Lynn Directed by Jacob Titus Presented at A.R.T./New York Theatres 502 West 53rd St., Manhattan, NYC October 24-November 1, 2025 Miles Purinton as The Concierge, Patricia Lynn as Millie, and Mark Weatherup Jr. as John. Photo by Al Foote III. The characters in Bram Stoker's novel Dracula spend a great deal of their time assembling and documenting proof of their encounters with the supernatural, collecting letters, diaries, and the fin de siècle stand-in for a podcast, a journal recorded on wax cylinders, as evidence of “a history almost at variance with the possibilities of later-day belief” (Stoker 1897). Patricia Lynn's The Truth About Transylvania , making its world premiere at A.R.T./New York Theatres in the run-up to Halloween, takes up this thread from the novel and presents a contemporary couple livestreaming their ex post facto testimony–and a paltry amount of physical evidence–in an attempt to set the record straight ab...

The Maid and the Mesmerizer Written by Patricia Lynn Directed by Jenn Susi Presented at the Jeffrey and Paula Gural Theatre at the A.R.T./New York Theatre Spaces 502 W. 53rd Street, Manhattan, NYC February 29-March 16, 2024 All ticket proceeds from the Wednesday 13 March show will be donated to the Schools Consent Project . Patrick T. Horn and Patricia Lynn. Photo by DLW Photography NYC. Language is a contract–we have agreed that letters, words, and sentences mean specific things–and semantics, The Maid and the Mesmerizer reminds us, matter. To this end, the title of Patricia Lynn's new play is not simply alliterative: the titular mesmerist's choice to refer to his stage act as mesmerism rather than hypnosis is deliberate. Hypnosis, he acknowledges, can be a scary concept, and as a successful former hypnotherapist and now stage performer, he can manipulate more than just language. The Maid and the Mesmerizer asks us to think about intimacy, manipulation, consent, free will, a...

Image from Broken Box Mime Theater Broken Box Mime Theater (BKBX) is a New York City-based collaborative theater company that performs original, contemporary short plays entirely through movement. Founded in 2011 and winners of New York Innovative Theatre Awards for Outstanding Movement/Choreography, Performance Art, and Ensemble, BKBX reimagines French pantomime through the lens of contemporary U.S. American theater. This week, Broken Box Mime will present special pop-up performances of BKBXKids! Asks Why running in rep with A BKBX Frankenstein . Performances will take place at the Theatre at the 14th Street Y (344 East 14th Street) from November 17-20, and tickets are available for advance purchase at www.brokenboxmime.com (with free admission to BKBXKids! Asks Why for anyone under 5 years old). BKBXKids! is a division of Broken Box Mime Theater that aims to inspire unplugged creativity and shared imaginative experiences in children and families by way of joyful, movement-based...