Thinking Theater NYC

In Their Footsteps Written and directed by Ash Singer Based on oral histories with Ann Kelsey, Judy Jenkins Gaudino, Jeanne "Sam" Christie, Lily Adams, and Doris "Lucki" Allen Presented by Infinite Variety Productions in partnership with Bronx Music Heritage Center at Bronx Music Hall 438 E 163rd St., Bronx, NYC October 16-26, 2025 L to R: Becca Jimenez, Esther Ayomide Akinsanya, Vianca Pérez, Amanda Corbett, and Eunji Lim. Photo by Natalia Arai  Whatever progress has been made, the organized mass murder and ecological devastation of war continues to be recognized as a valid political exercise, and women continue to be insufficiently recognized in the historical record. It is precisely at the intersection of war and women's experience that documentary theater piece In Their Footsteps delves into the individual histories of a quintet of women who served, in military and civilian roles, during the Vietnam War. In Their Footsteps comes to us from Infinite Vari...

At the Barricades Written by James Clements and Sam Hood Adrain Directed by Federica Borlenghi Presented by What Will the Neighbors Say? at MITU580 580 Sackett St., Brooklyn, NYC June 12-29, 2025 The company. Photo by Pablo Calderón-Santiago It's not hard to see the timeliness of the exploration of antifascist struggle in 1930s Spain presented by James Clements and Sam Hood Adrain's world premiere play At the Barricades when the day we saw the show was also marked in the United States by political assassinations and by nationwide protests against our own openly corrupt, increasingly fascist government. That government, in fact, rescinded an NEA grant for At the Barricades (as it did for many other productions and arts organizations) for "not 'aligning with the president's priorities,'" forcing theater company What Will the Neighbors Say? to work with IndieSpace to secure a community loan so that the production could be mounted as scheduled. (L-R) Step...

(beyond) Doomsday Scrolling Collectively created by the members of AnomalousCo Directed by Kathryn Mederos Syssoyeva with Jeremy Goren and Diana Zhdanova Presented by AnomalousCo at HERE 145 6th Ave, Manhattan, NYC February 16-26, 2023 Photo by Jarrett Robertson The war in Ukraine, which will have stretched on for a year as of late next week, looms large in (beyond) Doomsday Scrolling , a formidable new devised theater piece from feminist performance collective AnomalousCo, but the full scope of the show's consideration of women in wartime is much more capacious. (beyond) Doomsday Scrolling imagines women from different eras and locations coming together to shelter in a theater, a space which has historically played various important roles during times of conflict. The result is what AnomalousCo founding Co-Artistic Director Kathryn Mederos Syssoyeva characterized to Thinking Theater NYC as "one part theatre, one part protest," with naturalistic scenes "ruptured b...

Photo: Jarrett Robertson Beginning next week,  AnomalousCo , a predominantly queer woman-led, nearly all immigrant, feminist, transdisciplinary performance collective, will present  (beyond) Doomsday Scrolling  from February 16th to 26th at Manhattan's HERE Arts Center . The show is set in an imagined theater in which women from different periods and places come together for shelter from war. By means of this setting,  (beyond) Doomsday Scrolling  centers women in its consideration of war, displacement, and resistance. Described as a dramatic cabaret, the production is multilingual and multigenerational, performed by twelve women and one man. The cast members hail from Ukraine, Poland, Iceland, Georgia, Moldova, Russia, Scotland, Italy, Cuba, and the United States, and the show's live band is headed by Ukrainian musician and anti-war activist Lesya Verba. (beyond) Doomsday Scrolling incorporates songs from different cultures, eras, and genres, as well as te...