Staff Picks No. 11
The Odyssey: Book 3 in Ancient Greek: Joseph Medeiros
TheaterLab
September 16th - September 17th 2023
Those who have heard lore of the guy who performs books of "The Odyssey" in Ancient Greek, but who have mourned that it's impossible to get a ticket when the shows are for an audience of three in the actor's living room, can delight in knowing that Book 3 is now in presentation mode. Head to TheaterLab this week; no Duo Lingo is needed, with Medeiros as interpreter and actor, your head will spin not from listening to a foreign tongue but from his unbridled theatricality.
Staffer: Billy McEntee
BRICKS: Charlene Jean and Franklin Rankin
Hi-ARTS
Saturday, September 16th 2023
Anything Charlene Jean is an absolute G I F T to all of us. We're talking spiritual technologies and the ancestors with phenomenal music and lyrics (I've had a lil sneak peek of) that are truly going to change the landscape of what musicals can be. T R U S T.
Staffer: Marissa Joyce Stamps
Heart of Brick: serpentwithfeet, Wu Tsang, Raja Feather Kelly
The Joyce Theater
September 15th - September 22nd 2023
I love to watch the chaotic choreography in nightclubs: people peering, swaying, vibrating, smushing together. Raja Feather Kelly creates beautiful choreography and I am excited to see how he depicts love in a Black gay nightclub. And live music by serpentwithfeet? What a treat.
Staffer: Travis Amiel
Things in the World: Jade Manns, Kalliope Piersol, Owen Prum, and Noa Rui-Piin Weiss
September 14th - September 16th 2023
PAGEANT
PAGEANT founder Jade Manns is presenting a dance piece that, from the photos, looks extremely formally pleasing. Your eyes will rest on the shapes this gorgeous cast makes lightly like a bubble landing on one's arm. Maybe!? Or perhaps there is are some dangerous elements which threaten to pop said bubble lurking beneath the promotional veneer? Must go to find out.
Staffer: Lena Engelstein
Marble Rooftop, Emma has Church: Eliana Theologides Rodriguez
AMT Theater
Tuesday, September 26th 2023
I had the absolute thrill and pleasure of sharing a workshop space with Eliana—she is such an authentic, generous, specific playwright and this play breaks my heart. The genre of ‘young women in a competitive, all female space with little to no supervision’ feels like its everywhere, and Eliana is really defining her own method for telling this kind of story. I will be there laughing and crying. AND ITS FREE! (rsvp required)
Staffer: Laia Comas
Solve et Coagula: BINT
Center for Performance Research
Friday, September 15th 2023
On Fri Sep 15, sound, performance and visual artist BINT facilitates/performs/creates an immersive audio-visual ritual evoking alchemical transmutation. Drone, voice, space, field recordings, fuzz and loops twine Arabic and classical Hindustani music traditions with American minimalism in a mystic post-genre global. Deep zones. Come through!
Staffer: Joshua Dumas
Legitime: Zachariah Ezer + Dominique Rider
Fault Line Theater (at ART/NY Spaces@520)
Thursday, September 14th 2023
I don't really know much about classic Greek plays, but I am suddenly interested in them with Zachariah Ezer's adaptation of Electra. I'm a big fan of Zach's and his use of theoretical quandaries in his work, so I'm very curious!
Staffer: Marissa Joyce Stamps
Richard Perez presents: I Have To Do This
The Bell House
Friday, September 15th 2023
If you haven't checked out Richard by now, I'm feeling like I can't help you. THIS PERSON IS FUNNY. And this show is a comedy hour being lauded by acerbic theater people and comedians alike. I suspect it will run off-broadway next year so don't you want to be in the in-crowd who saw it back at the Bell House when it was just.... a comedy hour? Before it was.... an obie-award winning one man play?!
Staffer: Lena Engelstein
FAMILY ACID TRIP: Hannah Mitchell and Nathan Repasz
Life World
Wednesday, September 13th 2023
It's the last week of Life World so you should just be going there every night, leaving roses and beers, shedding your last tears and smoking your final cigs out front of the cannery. But if you're curious what will be in the theater if you show up tonight, it would be a psychedelic night of performance featuring two of the funniest performers I know: renowned clown Hannah Mitchell and musical/vocal savant Nate Repasz. Come celebrate, come mourn.
Staffer: Lena Engelstein
Penguin in Your Ear: Eliza Bent, Jess Barbagallo
The Brick Theater
September 13th - September 17th 2023
Recently, I was at a bar after a show and a friend said get out your calendar. He said you need to see Eliza Bent. That I would love her. And right then and there, I got my ticket to an evening of "jokes, puns, uncanny accents. Philosophical stories, plus anecdotes that go absolutely nowhere, about new chapters, academia, relationship status, family, IBS, and America’s favorite narrative: Second acts" AND THEN I realized the brilliant Jess Barbagallo directed it.... and I thought, my aren't I lucky, armed with good friends who lead me to beautiful places.
Staffer: Lena Engelstein