Thinking Theater NYC

Syringe Written and directed by Francis Bogan Assistant Directors: Lauren Presley and Gabby Laurendine Producer: Eliza Spinna Presented at Chain Theatre 312 W. 36th St., 4th fl., Manhattan, NYC July 11-30, 2026 Art by Ryan Prehara. IG: @seminalspider  While most horror media ends with the survival–or not–of its protagonist(s), some, such as parts of the Scream franchise or Grady Hendrix's 2021 novel The Final Girl Support Group , considers what happens after that moment of survival. The one-act Syringe , from Brooklyn-based playwright Francis Bogan, joins this less typical strand of horror narrative with its darkly comic look at a group of friends who undergo a Saw -style ordeal. Deftly satirizing our era of true-crime proliferation and internet-driven self-commodification while asking what friendship should look like, Syringe is currently making its premiere at Chain Theatre's Summer One-Act Festival, running from July 9th through August 1st. Syringe is part of Block 18 in ...

Our Price to Pay Written by Frances Smith Directed by Emmie D'Amico Presented by Deepti Aravapalli and Frances Smith with FRIGID New York at UNDER St. Marks 94 St. Marks Place, Manhattan, NYC April 2-15, 2026 L to R: Nikki Cannon (Mrs. Jones), Louis Dean (Uncle Marcus), Avaana Harvey (Ellie), James Miller (Uncle Carl), Gail Tierney (Sylvia), Corinne Kaleta (Sophia), Margo Hera (Aunt Meghan). Photo by Rainer DeLalio. The zombie, from its Afro-Caribbean incarnation as a corpse enslaved by a zombie master, through its reinvention as a cannibalistic ghoul, to its increasingly common contemporary representation as a victim of viral infection, has long served as a figure of political critique; so the intersection of the zombies and queerness should come as little surprise. Some zombie narratives feature explicitly queer zombies; some scholars see all zombies as queer, due to, for example, their nonnormative reproduction and loss of gender markers as they decay; and some zombie narrative...

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...

Blood Orange Written by Abigail Duclos Directed by Vernice Miller Associate directed and choreographed by Amelia Rose Estrada Presented by Et Alia Theater at A.R.T./New York Theatres 502 W 53rd St, Manhattan, NYC September 11-27, 2025 Ana Moioli and Maria Müller. Photo by Delia Dumont.  Adolescence is an arduous time on its own, without its struggles and stresses being compounded by loss, abuse, or poverty, all among the additional pressures faced by the young women in Abigail Duclos's darkly intense new play Blood Orange . In a potent production from Et Alia Theater, a company which " uplifts multicultural, women+ centered storytelling ," Blood Orange examines the sometimes desperate lengths to which its characters will go to in pursuit of the love and agency lacking in their lives. On roughly (though not strictly) alternating days, one of the play's four roles is played by a different actor, and the actor who plays that role in one version of the cast moves to a ...

Point Loma Written by Tim Mulligan Directed by Ken Wolf Presented by Manhattan Repertory Theatre at the Chain Theatre 312 W. 36th Street, 3rd fl., Manhattan, NYC May 31-June 15, 2025 Parker Jenkins and Jessica Luhmann. Photo by Chris Bentley. In his recent book The Ethics of Horror (Lexington Books, 2024), Michael J. Burke argues for a distinction between traditional haunting films, in which specters seek some kind of restitution and ultimately, thanks to and along with the living protagonist(s), achieve closure, and a more recent strain that he terms phantom persecution films, in which the ethical debt to the spirit(s) can never be paid and closure remains forever out of reach. If we transpose these categories to the stage, Tim Mulligan's haunted-house play Point Loma , making its world premiere at the Chain this month, does not completely fit either–or maybe more precisely, shifts from one of them to the other–much to its advantage. Mulligan, also author of the World of Witchla...

The Scary - Improvised Stephen King Original concept by Nannette Deasy Directed by Robert Baumgardner Presented by IRTE at The Producers Club 358 W. 44th St., Manhattan, NYC January 31-February 22, 2025 L-R: Natalie Hunter and Evie Aronson. Photo: IRTE Stephen King has remained a cultural force over the nearly half a century since his debut novel, Carrie , became a bestseller. While a couple of King tropes have aged less well than others, the size and popularity of his corpus offers a lot to draw on for the improvised horror-comedy of The Scary , from IRTE (Improvisational Repertory Theatre Ensemble). Having made its award-winning debut in 2014, The Scary returns, reimagined, for some much-needed comic relief in a 2025 that is shaping up to be pretty scary itself. Taking inspiration from across the King canon, the show's talented cast stirs up buckets of blood-spattered fun. One doesn't have to be a connoisseur of King esoterica to thoroughly enjoy The Scary , though a passin...

Horror Helps Written and performed by David Lawson Presented by Something from Abroad and FRIGID New York at UNDER St. Marks 94 Saint Marks Pl., Manhattan, NYC October 17-26, 2024 How and why we watch horror films continues to be the subject of much discussion and analysis using a variety of approaches, from theories of identification and the spectatorial gaze to theories of embodied cognition to, on a larger scale, links to national trauma(s). One common claim, including in science communicator Nina Nesseth's book Nightmare Fuel (Tor Nightfire, 2022), is that horror provides a means to safely explore, confront, and work through various fears, anxieties, and feelings of endangerment. This view of horror is more or less the one adopted by David Lawson's scarily satisfying solo show Horror Helps , which references Nesseth's work in its exploration of the individual particularities of Lawson's love of horror cinema. Horror Helps is part of FRIGID New York's Days of...

From November 1st to 3rd,  Moon Phase Theatricals  - a small theater company dedicated to reimagining musicals in a new light while elevating diverse voices on stage and eventually working towards producing new works created by diverse new writers - will present Carrie the Musical , an electrifying and immersive adaptation of Stephen King's iconic horror novel, uniquely staged at Stone Circle Theatre — a church. Set in an alternate universe during the late 1970s and early 80s, this production reimagines Carrie within a prestigious prep school, where she remains an outsider, struggling to fit into a system she doesn’t fully belong to. As the world around her thrives on self-assertion and dominance, Carrie’s quiet demeanor only deepens her isolation. The choice to perform in a church adds a symbolic depth to the story, highlighting themes of repression, judgment, and salvation. Carrie’s struggle against her strict, religious upbringing and her status as a societal outcast a...

The Witching Hour Curated by Andrew Agress Kudzu, written by Daniel Prillaman and directed by Hannah Katz Metamorphosis , written by Blues Bland and directed by Allyson Broyles Camping with Vlad , written by Brad White and directed by Andrew Agress Apex Predator , written by Rachael Carnes and directed by Randall Simmons The 5 Brendas of Murray County , written by Heather Meyer and directed by Michael Landes Presented by Something from Abroad and FRIGID New York at UNDER St. Marks 94 Saint Marks Pl., Manhattan, NYC October 24-25, 2024 October is a bit like Christmas for fans of horror and the Gothic, and FRIGID New York's annual Days of the Dead festival has a sackful of gifts on offer–even if that sack resembles the one in Audition more than the one toted by Saint Nick. The Día de Muertos-inspired festival, which runs from October 17th to November 2nd, features a range of shows themed around death and the afterlife, one of which is The Witching Hour, comprising a selection of...

Witchland Written by Tim Mulligan Directed by Ken Wolf Presented by Manhattan Repertory Theatre at the Chain Theatre 312 W. 36th Street, 3rd fl., Manhattan, NYC April 5-14, 2024 L to R: Dave Silberger, Mars Holscher, Geoffrey Grady. Photo by Jordan Schreiber It might seem odd (at least to non-horror fans) to describe a play featuring catastrophic illness, tragic loss, and a "dead baby cemetery" as great fun, but the socially conscious scares of Witchland certainly earn that designation. First performed in 2021, playwright Tim Mulligan's story of a family who moves to a contaminated town and a house across the street from a locally infamous neighbor now brings its blend of spookiness and humor to midtown for a new production at the Chain Theater. Infused with creepy imagery and inventive staging, Witchland entertainingly explores the sicknesses that threaten both a family and a community, its outsiders included. The titular Witchland is Mulligan's native Ric...

@make_us_scream Written and directed by Elisabeth Yancey, Courtney Stennett, and Kasey Connolly Presented by 3ofCups Productions at The Kraine Theater 85 E 4th St, Manhattan, NYC February 15-March 4, 2023 Courtney Stennett, Elisabeth Yancey, and Kasey Connolly. Photo credit: Dallas Riley The culture of live-streaming is by now well-established as a focus in horror film, with movies such as Cam (2018), Dashcam (2021), and Deadstream (2022) providing just a few recent, high-profile examples. With @make_us_scream , presented as part of the 17th annual FRIGID Fringe festival, Brooklyn theater and film collective 3ofCups transposes this subgenre to the stage in a satisfyingly sinister (yet not afraid to get silly) play about a live-streaming audition that ends up having some unforeseen complications. The play's title refers to a social media channel run by Cora (Kasey Connolly), Bree (Courtney Stennett), and–boasting a classic androgynous Final Girl name–Sam (Elisabeth Yancey). The...

Saturn's Return Written by Chance Muehleck Directed by Melanie S. Armer Presented by Nerve Tank Media Available on Nerve Tank's website and all major podcast apps Image from  Saturn's Return AD — Nerve Tank Media At the center of Saturn's Retur n, by Chance Muehleck, looms a present absence. This atmospheric limited series audio drama, adapted from Muehleck's 2021 stage play, which debuted at Tompkins Corners Cultural Center, is set in the town of Barthos, most of whose residents attribute the good fortune of the community and its people to a figure known as the Yellow King. The mythological Saturn ruled over a golden age of plenty, but The Yellow King, in his appellation and his function, additionally brings to mind both Robert W. Chambers's King in Yellow, a figure in a text that brings madness or death to those who read it, and the sacred kings of James Frazer's The Golden Bough , who ensure the fertility of the land (including by being sacrificed), but i...

Mother Leeds Presented by No Peeking Theatre at UNDER St. Marks 94 St. Marks Place, Manhattan, NYC Fri, Feb 21 at 8:50PM; Sun, Feb 23 at 6:50PM; Wed, Feb 26 at 5:30PM; Sun, March 1 at 1:50PM; Fri, March 6 at 8:50PM Tickets available here Image courtesy No Peeking Theatre It might sound like a cliché to say that what you can't see is more frightening than what you can, but Mother Leeds , from innovative artists No Peeking Theatre, demonstrates the truth in the truism. Audiences experience the play blindfolded, immersing them in the world of a very religious family in early 1900s New Jersey. That family is, of course, the family of folklore figure Jane Leeds, whose thirteenth child, local mythology holds, transmogrified into the monstrous creature known as the Jersey Devil and roamed the Pine Barrens. The resulting experience is a creepy and memorable highlight of this year's annual FRIGID Festival. Before the show proper begins, audience members are Invited to exam...