Thinking Theater NYC

The Song of Lip and Tarantula Written by Aviva Pearl Ocean Creation Directed by Sasha Gheesling Presented by FRIGID New York NY, Big Beef Productions, and Kelley-Marie Van Dilla at UNDER St. Marks 94 St. Marks Place, Manhattan, NYC February 4-8, 2026 Raising a child is a hefty responsibility, especially within the attenuated care networks of heteropatriarchal capitalism. So just imagine what it would be like to raise 26 of them. That is the number mothered by the title characters of The Song of Lip and Tarantula , a new play from writer, comedienne, and educator Aviva Pearl Ocean Creation. While this number may sound like something from Greek mythology (or Titus Andronicus ), the more dreamlike elements of The Song of Lip and Tarantula are imbricated with verisimilar details rooting the play in the current political landscape, lived queer experience, and a granular, unsentimental evocation of New York City. When the play opens, Tarantula ( Airen Guevara ) is sitting, eyes closed, in ...

Clay Mommy Written by Aviva Pearl Creation Directed by Jael Scott Presented at UNDER St. Marks 94 St. Marks Place, Manhattan, NYC July 1-2, 2025 As a monster, the golem, a humanoid creature in Jewish tradition commonly created from mud or clay and animated via a word written on its forehead or on paper placed into its mouth, destabilizes normative boundaries and categories. A golem occupies the eponymous role of Clay Mommy in Aviva Pearl Creation's play of the same name, adding a complementary supernatural layer to the show's concern with such destabilizations, as well as with self-fashioning and mothering. With an all-trans-femme cast, Clay Mommy presents a nuanced narrative of one young woman's struggles to define and enact what it means for her to be a daughter and granddaughter, a prospective mother, a trans woman, and Jewish after she returns from New York City to the West Coast and her estranged mother. Clay Mommy is part of FRIGID New York's 2025 Queerly Festiv...

Mary & the Shelleys Created and written by L.X Moon Presented by FRIGID New York at UNDER St. Marks 94 St. Marks Place, Manhattan, NYC June 13 and 28, 2025 In the celebratory new single "Wearing Black," from Laura Jane Grace in the Trauma Tropes, trans punk musician Grace sings that her "pride's a riot" and that she will be "[w]earin' black to the Pride parade." If more than one element of that sentence resonates with you, then Mary & the Shelleys , which tells the story of its titular, reanimated Mary through original punk and postpunk songs, should be at the top of your to-see list. Of course, non-punk/horror/horrorpunk fans should also check it out; monstrosity in Mary & the Shelleys is, after all, tied to inclusivity. Mary & the Shelleys is part of FRIGID New York's 2025 Queerly Festival, " FRIGID’s annual celebration of all things artistic and LGBTQIA2S+ ," which is currently curated by co-artistic director Jim...

Seis Written by Federico Roca Directed by Pablo Andrade Presented by Teatro Círculo at the Chain Theatre 312 W 36th St., 3rd floor, Manhattan, NYC February 16-26, 2023 Photo courtesy of Teatro Círculo Seis , from award-winning playwright Federico Roca, is named for six trans women who were murdered in Roca's native Uruguay between 2012 and 2013. The violence propagated against these women, as Seis powerfully reminds us, represents a mere fraction of the global violence against trans and other queer people–rising, where queerness is not in fact legally punishable by death, to a kind of unofficial death penalty, as the play puts it–as well as one extreme on the spectrum of ostracization, pathologization, and discrimination faced by LGBTQIA+ individuals. Presented, in Spanish with English overtitles, as part of Teatro Círculo's CALLBACKseries2023, Seis shines a sometimes funny, frequently poignant spotlight on the persistence of homo- and transphobia while not neglecting instanc...