Staff Picks No. 12
Helen.: Caitlin George
La Mama
October 13th - October 29th 2023
A story you know told in a way you don't: "Helen." has a period, and to that I say exclamation mark! The show promises three things I love: top-speed language, irreverent humor, and dynamic physicality. Go and enjoy some nimble theatricality?
Staffer: Billy McEntee
Julianna Barwick at National Sawdust
National Sawdust
Thursday, September 21st 2023
In 2011, while recovering from an accident and relearning to walk, I spent countless soft hours in the sonic embrace of Julianna Barwick’s "The Magic Place." Later, her 2020 LP "Healing is a Miracle" held me during the worst months of quarantine. Barwick’s bright wisdom has been a balm in times of solitude and mending, and now I’m so stoked to experience it live, in community! Come through!
Staffer: Joshua Dumas
Dance Die Crucify: William Sydney
The Brick Theater
September 21st - September 23rd 2023
I am going to tons of shows in many different places, but I have already Staff Picked those! So, while this one is at my home space, The Brick, and I try to not over-Pick Brick shows, I gotta just tell the damn truth - I am really shitting my pants to see this show. I do not say this too often, but William is trying some stuff I have never seen. And he is an evil little writer of great skill.
Staffer: Theresa Buchheister
Gestating Baby Vol. 6: Mia Martelli and Justin Maxwell
September 21st - September 23rd 2023
Brick Aux
I am unfortunately not in NYC during this but I really wish I was!!! The Gestating Baby series is a wonderful way to see new works by exciting artists, and the combination of Mia Martelli and Justin Maxwell is for sure one that's going to be dynamic and interesting.
Staffer: Hillary Gao
Kinderkrankenhaus: Jessi Bender, Nola Latty
The Brick Theater
September 28th - September 30th 2023
Plays involving the complexities (and oppressions) of language always excite me, though they seem to be far and few between nowadays.
Staffer: kanishk pandey
Family Acid Trip: Hannah Mitchell and Nathan Repasz
Philly Fringe
September 21st - September 22nd 2023
REPOST: Family Acid Trip loads into the Toyota Camry LE and heads to Philly. I saw it last week at Life World (officially RIP) and it was an anxiety-making beautiful musical (is that what the makers would say?) that has you at once cringing, relating, aw-ing, and rejoicing. DON'T MISS DUHHHHHH!
Staffer: Lena Engelstein
The Great Lesbian Love of Eve Adams
The Tank
September 14th - September 24th 2023
Real-life Jewish immigrant Eve Adams was “Queen of the Third Sex” in 1920’s New York. Need I say more? This queer force opened Eve’s Tearoom, a lesbian speakeasy on MacDougal Street, and publishing Lesbian Love, a collection of stories based on interviews with the downtown lesbian community. Okay, sold.
Staffer: Billy McEntee
Prelude Festival 2023: Maya Sharpe, The Exponential Festival, Andy Boyd, Syd Island, Philip Santos Schaffer, Karuna Shinsho, M. Can Yasar, Lianne Elsouki, Rawya El Chab, HanJie Chow, John Phillip Faienza and so many more!
Multiple venues
October 7th - October 28th 2023
Sound the trumpets! Prelude 2023 is going big and wild and I am so stoked for a return to the festival that blew my mind when I first attended as a youthful bloke of 23. I saw Radiohole for the first time at Prelude! And Mac Wellman! And 31Down! And the lead singer of Nervous Cabaret performing with a puppet group! Check out the full line up on their website, but I am definitely attending Aaron Landsman and Will Eno on the 11th, James LaBella's on Oct 12 (my birthday!), Maya Sharpe on the 16th, The Exponential Panel on the 17th, the VISA panel on the 19th and Andy Boyd/Syd Island/Philip Santos Schaffer on the 20th!
Staffer: Theresa Buchheister
Prometheus Firebringer: Annie Dorsen
Theatre for a New Audience
September 15th - October 1st 2023
When I was in college I took a performance art class and watching Annie Dorsen's A Piece of Work forever changed the way I thought of my own work. I am such a fan and I soooooooo badly want to see her take on the story of Prometheus (after Aeschylus).
Staffer: Hillary Gao
The Human Musician: Magda San Millan
Philly Fringe
September 24th - September 28th 2023
Magda San Millan comes back to the east coast with another hilarious and profound character study of herself. And this time, she's doing the bravest thing a woman can do onstage: be a woman. A woman who indulges in womanly ways. "Part concert, part clown show, part banter-gone-eternal: this show is all transcendence and abandon." Magda continues to inspire and deeply move me through these self-caricatures. Every time she takes herself to the chopping block, bloody truths about all of us are what's left behind.
Staffer: Lena Engelstein
Sad Boys in Harpy Land: Alexandra Tatarsky
Philly Fringe
September 28th - September 30th 2023
DUHHHHHHHHHH!! If you missed it in NYC this March, now is your chance to see a magnum-opus of Tartarky: 90 mins of clowning, cabaret, and truly expert screaming about an "extended crisis of meaning." It's said to take place in the "hellscape of the mind," but as I recall, I was smiling, singing, and clapping alongside my fellows in the audience.
Staffer: Lena Engelstein