Thinking Theater NYC

  Due to the recent closure of The Connelly Theater, The Hearth will move their planned World Premiere of RACECAR RACECAR RACECAR , by Kallan Dana (2023-2024 Clubbed Thumb Early Career Writers' Group), directed by Sarah Blush ( Coach Coach at Clubbed Thumb Summerworks 2024; Redemption Story with The Associates Theater Ensemble; EVENTS at The Brick) to the Mezzanine Theatre at A.R.T./New York Theatres (502 W 53rd St, New York, NY 10019). The production will run as originally scheduled, from December 6-22, 2024. “The Connelly Theater announced last week that it would cease operations immediately due to a change in leadership at the Catholic Church, which led us scrambling to find a new venue on incredibly short notice,” said The Hearth’s Producing Artistic Director Julia Greer. “It is heartbreaking to lose such a valuable space to censorship and bigotry, but we were bowled over by the generosity and support of theaters big and small and are thrilled to be able to do our production...

Emily Sullivan in Loneliness Was a Pandemic . Photo credit: Danny Bristoll KOPCORP (Artistic Director Alex Kopnick, Co-Producer Kelsey Ballard) will host a series of talkback events alongside their World Premiere of Loneliness Was a Pandemic , a new science fiction drama by Olivia Haller which examines the loneliness epidemic in this country through the lens of AI (you can read our review here ). These post-show panel discussions aim to help audiences engage with the show in an enriching way and to bridge the gap between the show's narrative and the real-world implications of AI usage, especially in the arts. Saturday, November 9 at 3pm Guests for this post-show discussion include Dr. Cynthia Steinhardt, a postdoc research fellow at Columbia University, where she uses AI in her research of cochlear implants, Steve Klein, an Angel Investor, with an AI focus, Richard Rothenberg, the President of Global Algorithmic Institute, which utilizes AI for national policy and UN relief plannin...

Café Utopia Written by Gwen Kingston Directed by Ashley Olive Teague Presented by Notch Theatre Company at Hudson Guild Theatre 441 W 26th St, Manhattan, NYC November 2-23, 2024 Café Utopia featuring Julia Atwood, Al Piper, and Louis Reyes McWilliams. Photo by John Keon. Recently, there have been some high-profile strike actions by unions in the United States, from the Writers Guild of America and Boeing to, currently, tech workers at The New York Times . Nevertheless, union membership has been greatly diminished in this nation since its peak in the 1950s, and unions and the labor movement will undoubtedly face increasing assaults under the incoming administration. Café Utopia , from playwright Gwen Kingston, approaches union organizing in our contemporary climate of stark inequality and neoliberal exploitation by spending time with the staff of one NYC location of a chain of stores selling juice and snacks with sides of self-improvement and self-affirmation. Interspersing voices fro...

Cabaret: A Night with the Dead Presented by FRIGID New York , Something from Abroad , and Quemoción  at UNDER St. Marks 94 St Marks Pl, Manhattan, NYC November 2, 2024 Tonight at Cabaret A Night with the Dead , a celebration of the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead, or Dia De Los Muertos, we spend the evening in warmth and companionship, honoring the memory of our departed loved ones in this deeply immersive and interactive cabaret variety show. Skits, stories, songs, poems, dance, and burlesque are offered in respect and loving tribute to these souls joining us on St. Marks Place this November evening. The theatre space is beautifully appointed for the occasion, with papel picado , or traditional paper banners, adorning the room. A guitar player plays a gentle meandering melody as the audience members find their seats and the festivities begin. At the center of the stage is the ofrenda , a beautiful altar to the departed, adorned with photographs of lost loved ones and the objects t...

Loneliness Was a Pandemic Written by Olivia Haller Directed by Alex Kopnick Presented by Kopcorp at Theaterlab 357 W 36th St, 3rd floor, Manhattan, NYC November 1-24, 2024 Andrew Moorhead (Robot 1) and Emily Sullivan (Human 1). Photo by Danny Bristoll (@dannybristollphoto). From cave walls to food, human beings demonstrate a deep need to aestheticize their experiences. We categorize at least a subset of such acts under that slipperiest of terms, art. But what drives this need? And what qualifies as authentic art, or even authentic feeling? Olivia Haller's new play, Loneliness Was a Pandemic , currently making its world premiere at Theaterlab as part of its TLab Shares program, explores these and other questions through a sci-fi dystopia in which humanoid robots have thrown off their subservience and killed off most of humanity. In this exploration, Loneliness Was a Pandemic holds up an absorbing mirror to a world increasingly dominated by the illusion of connection, digital simul...

Feejee Mermaid Written by Clay McLeod Chapman Directed by Pete Boisvert Presented by Drops in the Vase at  The Flea 20 Thomas St, New York, NY 10007 October 19-November 2, 2024 Morgan Zipf-Meister & Niccolò Walsh. Photo by Kent Meister Under the auspices of the eve of the 19th Annual International Taxidermy Championships, Clay McLeod Chapman's new play, Feejee Mermaid , renders a Milwaukee hotel room a liquor-fueled crucible, taking the audience on an unlikely journey into the dark heart of competition, creativity, violence and taboo. Feejee Mermaid is a rare work, a resounding success: as poignant as it is funny, as heartfelt as it is unflinchingly brutal. The action is centered around one night in this hotel room, with the full weight of the previous year’s competition, and the interpersonal consequences therein, fueling the tension-soaked 75 minutes to come. The play opens in the hotel room, rendered perfectly anodyne and anonymous (emanating the essence of what is means to...

Tin Church Written and directed by Robyne Parrish Presented by off the WALL productions at Chain Theatre 312 West 36th St., Floor 3, Manhattan, NYC October 23-November 23, 2024 Lilly Tobin, Virginia Wall Gruenert, Christina Perry, Marguerite Stimpson.  Tin Church opens the doors into its Southern Gothic world with a gradual drawing down of the lights to the atmospheric strains of musician Adia Victoria 's " Where the Shadow Meets the Water ," finally leaving the set in shadowy relief, with a seated woman silhouetted behind a scrim. This woman, we will learn, is mother of three Mildred (Virginia Wall Gruenert), one node in the matrix of intergenerational trauma movingly traced by Tin Church , the first commissioned play and first full-length world premiere from actor, director, and playwright Robyne Parrish. Snatches of Victoria's song will recur, acting as one aural motif, with another a tap tap tap that, in addition to signaling other thematically significant link...