Thinking Theater NYC

American Blues: 5 Short Plays by Tennessee Williams Written by Tennessee Williams Directed by Jim Niesen Presented by the Irondale Ensemble Project at The Space at Irondale 85 South Oxford St., Brooklyn, NYC October 27-November 26, 2023 Shadenia Savid in Moony's Kids Don't Cry . Photo by Natasha Rotondaro In 1948, Tennessee Williams published American Blues , a collection of five one-act plays, and a remarkable new production of this collection by Brooklyn's Irondale shows that these works have lost none of their power to both entertain and challenge audiences in the intervening three-quarters of a century. Comprising plays written in the decade between 1936 and 1946 - Moony's Kids Don't Cry (1936); The Dark Room (1939); The Case of the Crushed Petunias (1941); The Long Stay Cut Short, or, the Unsatisfactory Supper (1946); and Ten Blocks on the Camino Real (1946) - American Blues represents the second part of Irondale's American Century, the first install...

Just in time for Valentine's Day, Unattended Baggage is remounting last year's production of The Love Letter Plays , a socially distant immersive experience. These sensual (and hilarious) letters are written by Jessica Chen (NYC-based TV writer, actress, and producer), Ena Da (iconic memer @park_slope_arsonist on Instagram), and Ruthy Ferrera (Bronx-born comedienne). This year's production includes a new exciting, hilarious, sensual, and interactive twist. Each letter is a self-contained story told through different mediums guaranteed to make you laugh (and maybe make you feel something a little spicy as well). Let’s just say these are the kind of Valentine's Day letters that would make Venus and Cupid blush. It should be unsurprising, then, that  The Love Letter Plays is recommended for ages 18+ and contains sexual language. Audiences will receive all three of their letters by Valentine’s Day 2023 (tickets must be reserved by January 20, 2023). The show is conceived b...

  Celine Dirkes as Jane Gibson. Photo by Jordan Cohen Thinkery & Verse ’s  Thou Shalt Not,  a site-specific play about the Hall-Mills double homicide, will begin a return engagement on September 14th, recognizing the 100th anniversary of the crime. Thou Shalt Not , written by J. M. Meyer, Karen Alvarado, and Tommi Byrne, and directed by Karen Alvarado and J. M. Meyer, will play a limited engagement in the Assembly Hall at the Church of Saint John the Evangelist (189 George Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901), the church most closely associated with the crime 100 years ago, as the home of the religious community that enabled and then covered up the homicides. Performances will continue through Saturday, October 8, and tickets are already selling out quickly.  For those not versed in early 20th-century true crime, what is the Hall-Mills double homicide? In 1922, near the banks of the Raritan River, a small-city priest and a choir singer were slaughtered in the mo...

Invulnerable Nothings, a US/UK theatre collective committed to intermedial stagings of poetic language as well as the theatrical activation of libraries and archives, presents an immersive production of Matthew Gasda's new play All the Mournful Voices,  opening on Friday, April 15 and coinciding with the 157th anniversary of President Lincoln's assassination, a major subject of the work. Chosen as a "Best Immersive Theatre Experience" by City Guide, NY , the site-responsive World Premiere runs through April 29 and is directed by the company's Facilitating Director C.C. Kellogg. April 17, 1865. Easter Sunday. The weekend of Lincoln's assassination. Three men reel and rage together in a tavern. A stranger's unexpected arrival sparks suspicion, reflection, and something mysteriously cosmic.  All the Mournful Voices  is a purgatorial bar play that focuses on the death of Abraham Lincoln and examines inherited cultural legacies of violence and loss. All the Mou...

Unattended Baggage presents the premiere of The Love Letter Plays , written by Austin Bowers and conceived by Sean Pollock, a socially distant immersive experience for a limited audience of 20.  The letters are an erotic fan fiction written in three parts by Austin Bowers ( Nathan For You ) and based on the characters Roman and Kenzie he wrote for the show (Season 3, Ep. 3: “The Movement”). Bowers says, “The Love Letter Plays are a trio of love letters starring my fictional lovers from my first time on the show: Roman and Kenzie! Those two hold a special place in my heart because of how many fans of the show expressed interest in the lives of those characters!”  This romantic comedy romp will be printed out and mailed to your home and will contain stickers, doodles, and Bowers’s autograph on every letter. Audiences will receive all three of their letters by Valentine’s Day 2022 (those looking for a Valentine's gift may want to keep this in mind).  TICKET IN...

Inside the Wild Heart Conceived by Andressa Furletti and Debora Balardini, based on the works of Claire Lispector Directed by Linda Wise Presented by Group .BR via gather.town November 27-December 20, 2020 [UPDATE 27 Jan. 2021: Performances continue Friday, February 12 through Sunday, March 28, 2021] Photo by Erika Morillo As we have settled into pandemic life, we have gotten used to theater, with a very limited number of exceptions, being something that takes place on YouTube or Zoom. And while some productions have made very inventive use of the features of these platforms, the current offering from Group .BR, New York's sole Brazilian theater company, takes virtual theater very literally somewhere new. Inside the Wild Heart , a celebration of the work of lauded Brazilian fiction writer Clarice Lispector (1920-1977), through gather.town, a browser-based service which allows for the creation of custom virtual spaces. Inside the Wild Heart , the title of which alludes to Lispector...

A Cocktail Party Social Experiment Created and Hosted by Wil Petre Assisted by Lane Halperin and Clinton Edward Sponsored by Barking Irons and presented at Chelsea Music Hall 407 W. 15th St., Manhattan, NYC Upcoming dates: February 17, March 16, and April 13, 2020 For notification of future dates, sign up here Photo by Karen May Down a flight of stairs below street level, under the red lights and a languorously rotating disco ball and amid the gentle clink of ice on glass within Chelsea Music Hall, individuals incongruously clad in white lab coats collect volunteers for an experiment. Eventually, those running the experiment gather its subjects and explain their hypothesis and methodology. Shortly after, they take their first cocktail order. A Cocktail Party Social Experiment , created and hosted by Wil Petre and co-hosted by Lane Halperin, aims to have a group of strangers get to know each other in a meaningful way (while the eight strangers who volunteer to particip...

Virgo Star Written by Daniel Diaz, Annabella Lenzu, Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte,  Agosto Machado, and Philip Treviño Directed by Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte Presented by Pioneers Go East Collective at La MaMa's Downstairs Lounge 66 E 4 St., Manhattan, NYC November 14-December 1, 2019 Daniel Diaz. Photo credit: Jon Burklund/Zanni Productions Queer cowgirls and boys. What could be more exciting than an experimental romp through a Manhattan basement with guns “firing,” men licking other men’s boots, getting blindfolded and made to listen to others’ sexual fantasies, and the cackling of a crazed Spanish-speaking madam resonating over the whole thing? Well, that’s exactly what you will get at Virgo Star , an experimental, interactive performance piece performed by Pioneers Go East Collective and running at La MaMa in the East Village through Dec 1. From the beginning, the performance frustrates definition and convention. The audience is asked to remain in th...

BLINDSPOT from Carmen Caceres on Vimeo . When: Friday October 25 at 7:30 pm Where: Mark Morris Dance Center, James and Martha Duffy Performance Space (3 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 111217) Cost: General Admission: $35 Artists/Students (with ID): $30 DanceAction will present BLINDSPOT , an immersive dance and multimedia performance based on George Orwell’s classic novel  1984 , at the Mark Morris Dance Center, James and Martha Duffy Performance Space (3 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217) on October 25th, 2019 at 7:30 pm.  It will feature DanceAction’s company dancers, live music, and media arts. In this work, making its premiere, the slogan of the party, “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength,” is translated into a movement narrative that includes live music and media projections to create an immersive multimedia experience for the audience. For tickets, visit  https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4326365 ...

Afterparty: The Rothko Studio Choreographed by Rachel Cohen; composed by Maria Dessena; adapted by Barry Rowell; story by S.M. Dale Directed by Ralph Lewis Presented by Peculiar Works Project at 222 Bowery, NYC June 27-30, 2019 Isabella Schiller, Jason Howard, Nathan Keiller, Caiti Latimer, Glenn Feinstein, Catherine Porter. Photo credit: Peculiar Works Project The raison d’être of Afterparty is the space where it’s staged: 222 Bowery. While it was built in the 1880s to house New York’s first YMCA, the building’s chief claim to fame is that artists like Mark Rothko, Fernand Léger, and the beat writer William S. Burroughs called it home. It was Burroughs who dubbed the building “The Bunker.” Rothko lived and worked in a studio on the 2nd floor in the 1950s, when cheap rent attracted a host of artists to Bowery lofts. The poet and artist John Giorno still lives and works there— The New York Times ran a sketch of him and his Bowery habitat back in 2015. Now Rothko’s stu...

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...