Thinking Theater NYC

Television Written and directed by Cameron Darwin Bossert Presented by Thirdwing at the wild project 195 E. 3rd Street, Manhattan, NYC April 6-22, 2023 Aprella Godfrey Barule in Television. Photo by Valerie Terranova. Mass media, for better and worse, helps to create what scholar Benedict Anderson termed imagined communities, which foster the perspective of belonging to a group, such as a nation, that includes many people one doesn't know and will never actually meet. Television , the new play from the reliably compelling Cameron Darwin Bossert, imagines what happens when the televisual media consumed by a community is produced by that same, actual community. Television is presented by Thirdwing, a hybrid theater and streaming company founded by Bossert with a subscription model offering new content every month, either online, in-person, or both, and tickets to the show are available on an individual basis or as part of a monthly subscription or a yearly subscription or non-subscr...

What Passes for Comedy Written by G.D. Kimble Directed by Rick Hamilton Presented by the Chain Theatre 312 W. 36th Street, 3rd Floor, Manhattan, NYC October 28-November 19, 2022 Andrew O'Shanick, Alain Pierre, Jordan Elman, and Rory Lance. Photo by Reiko Yoo Before ensconcing us in the pressure-filled writers' room of a popular late-night television show, the Chain Theatre's excellent world-premiere production of G.D. Kimble's What Passes for Comedy positions theatergoers as part of the live studio audience for that program, The Jackie Harrod Show . The year is 1963, and the faces of The Jackie Harrod Show , a successful enterprise that pulls big-name guests, are White host Jack Harrod (Michael Filisky) and Black bandleader Bunny Brown (Ryan Brooke Taylor). But it is an insult to another group during the show's live broadcast that precipitates a catalyzing crisis for the play's nuanced and powerful exploration of race, representation, and, of course, comedy. Mi...