Thinking Theater NYC

The 2020  FRIGID Festival  is now underway, with performances at the Kraine Theater and UNDER St. Marks in the East Village. In our coverage of this annual showcase for storytellers, solo shows, and short works, we will also be highlighting some of the productions on offer. Next up is  Story Time with Joey Rinaldi . Where: UNDER St. Marks Theater 94 St. Marks Place, Manhattan, NYC When: 10:30 p.m. on Friday, February 28 5:10 p.m. on Sunday, March 1 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 3 10:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 5 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 8 What:  1 Comedian. 5 Shows. 24 years of stories. FRIGID Festival presents Story Time with Joey Rinaldi , written and performed by Connecticut native Joey Rinaldi. Known for his long-form comedic narratives, Rinaldi offers in his new one-man show a glimpse into his endearingly cringey adolescence. From accidental incest to a brief period of illiteracy, each story captures the difficulty of growing up and that for some, i...

Laser Comedy Show Performed by Chris Fair Presented at UNDER St. Marks 94 St. Marks Place, Manhattan, NYC Wednesday, Feb. 19 at 5:30pm; Friday, Feb. 21 at 10:30pm; Saturday, Feb. 22 at 8:50pm; Saturday, Feb. 29 at 7:10pm; Tuesday, Mar. 3 at 7:10pm; Sunday, Mar. 8 at 1:50pm Tickets available here . Chris Fair. Courtesy of artist Many of you have probably been to an improv show before. But did that improv show involve... lasers? In Laser Comedy Show , Chicago-based comedian and artist Chris Fair ambidextrously wields a pair of lasers to illustrate the stories that he invents in real time, with a large fabric screen that reacts to lasers as his literal and comedic canvas (you can also buy a Laser Comedy Show t-shirt with this same fabric on the front, bundled with your own laser). The effect is something like a living comic book or, at times, almost approaching the kind of animation that you might see on Adult Swim. Fair is an amiable presence in front of the screen and a...

Photo credit: Maryanne Ventrice The 2020  FRIGID Festival  is now underway, with performances at the Kraine Theater and UNDER St. Marks in the East Village. In our coverage of this annual showcase for storytellers, solo shows, and short works, we will also be highlighting some of the productions on offer. Next up is Delirium . Where: The Kraine Theater 85 E 4th St., Manhattan, NYC When: Thursday, Feb 27th @ 5:30 pm Saturday, Feb 29th @ 1:40 pm Sunday, March 1st @ 3:30 pm Thursday March 5th @ 7:10 pm Saturday, March 7th @ 8:20 pm What: Renowned storyteller Martin Dockery will perform his raucous and cathartic one-man show Delirium at the Kraine Theater as part of the 2020 Frigid Festival in his hometown of New York City. Inspired by his grandfather’s book on the epic migration of the monarch butterfly, Dockery weaves a tale about the intersection of love and death. Traveling from Canada to Mexico, Dockery tackles the question of whether there is meaning and s...

Cetology Written and performed by Nelia Miller Directed by Michele Stine Presented at UNDER St. Marks 94 St. Marks Place, Manhattan, NYC Saturday, Feb. 22 at 5:30pm; Monday, Feb. 24 at 5:30pm; Thursday, Feb. 27 at 7:10pm; Monday, Mar. 2 at 5:30pm; Thursday, Mar. 5 at 8:50pm; Saturday, Mar. 7 at 10:30pm Tickets available here Nelia Miller. Image courtesy of Nelia Miller When the audience enters the theater for Cetology , a solo show written and performed by Nelia Miller, drifts of discarded pages, many crumpled, already adorn the stage space. When Miller's unnamed protagonist enters barefoot in a paneled dress to the strains of gentle music, she is tranquilly paging through a journal or notebook, which, it transpires, contains the letters that she has written that day. She reads us each one, tears it out, and buries—or, in one case, seems to plant—it. As the reasons for this habit and the import of the epistolary burial site at the seashore come into focus, Miller ex...

And the Rope Still Tugging Her Feet Written and performed by Caroline Burns Cooke Directed by Colin Watkeys Presented at UNDER St. Marks 94 St. Marks Place, Manhattan, NYC Thursday, Feb. 20 at 5:30pm; Saturday, Feb. 22 at 7:10pm; Sunday, Feb. 23 at 1:50pm; Monday, Feb. 24 at 7:10pm; Tuesday, Feb. 25 at 5:30pm; Wednesday, Feb. 26 at 10:30pm Tickets available here . Caroline Burns Cooke. Image courtesy of the artist. And the Rope Still Tugging Her Feet , the award-winning, incandescent solo show from U.K. artist Caroline Burns Cooke, begins with peals of thunder and Cooke falling flat amidst prayers in a storm. This moment will appear again near the end of the play, heartrendingly recontextualized. What we have seen in the meantime is one of the stand-out productions of the 2020 FRIGID Festival and a sobering yet hopeful reminder of what happens when women and their bodies are subjected to the control of institutionalized patriarchy.  When Cooke enters in the storm...

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...

Blockbuster Guy Written and performed by Mark Levy Directed by Kristen Keim Presented at UNDER St. Marks 94 St. Marks Place, Manhattan, NYC February 21st at 5:30 pm; February 28th at 8:50pm; March 1st at 3:30pm; March 4th at 10:30pm; March 7th at 2:10pm ( click here for tickets ) Mark Levy. Photo by Arin Sang-urai Right at the start of Mark Levy's solo show Blockbuster Guy , he announces that he always has been and always will be a movie nerd. Blockbuster Guy offers a humorous paean not only to how film can shape our lives but also to finding a sense of discovery and even community in the unlikely location of a now-defunct corporate retail chain. The show arrives in revised form at the 2020 annual FRIGID Festival after a 2019 run at SOLOCOM at the PIT Loft. Levy is no stranger to the festival, with All is Fine in Sunny Florida! (2016), Lenny Bruce is Not Afraid (2018), and CC: You in Hell! (2019; reviewed by us here) on his FRIGID resumé, and Blockbuster Guy see...