Staff Picks No. 18
United States v. Gupta: Deepali Gupta
JACK
November 9th - November 28th 2023
I always enjoy the way theater can act as a limbo between reality and expression (as much as that blur makes up our everyday life in our individual minds), and the project that Gupta has taken on here is one of great vulnerability, and also a wonderfully unique depiction on Desi culture.
Staffer: kanishk pandey
(untitled human composting play): Devon Wade Granmo, Stephen Bron
BRICK AUX
November 3rd - November 5th, 2023
Human composting - check. Puppets - check. Shadows - check. Songs - check. Collaborations that make me believe in looooooove - check. I cannot wait to see how this show has changed through continued experimentation and doing a gig on the west coast!
Staffer: Theresa Buchheister
Mary Lattimore @ Union Pool
Union Pool
November 3rd - November 5th 2023
If I were in charge of booking, every night at Union Pool would be Mary Lattimore night! I’ll settle for this week’s Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Nov 3-5, three night stand. Expect harp bathing and big drifting and soft dreaming and peacemaking and time expanding and some grieving and how sometimes when you’re alone shooting free throws at dusk the world falls away and there is nothing but you and the shimmer of things. Come through!
Staffer: Joshua Dumas
Sad Boys in Harpy Land: Alexandra Tatarsky
Playwrights Horizons
November 2nd - November 26th 2023
I went to the premiere of this show earlier this year and I think about it more days than I don't. I quietly quote moments of it to myself. I research new areas of history that I didn't know happened. It is so bonkers. It is so shocking. It is so funny. What does it mean, and what has it meant to be Jewish. You must see this.
Staffer: Travis Amiel
For me, it is hard to see shows right now with the awful backdrop of the violent world. But one that wrestles with—rather than looks away—from the questions and crises of the artist and making art in a moment that feels apocalyptic and hellish is Alex Tatarsky's Sad Boys in Harpy Land. Alex is expert at performing the clown as social critic role; unmasking what we take to be normal to reveal its ugly insides; begging the question, isn't there something better than this out there for us!? This show is a capstone on that role at a time when it is deeply needed.
Also: the show runs for the whole month of Nov. You can make it to D.C. on Saturday and not miss this Sad Boy.
Staffer: Lena Engelstein
Movement Research at Judson Church: Brendan Drake, Fana Fraser, and Liony Garcia
Judson Memorial Church
Monday, November 13th 2023
Inspired by horror cinema and cruising culture, part of this multi-bill dance work seeks to reveal correlations between folklore, queer history, and psychology. If each of these keywords could be the marshmallows in my Lucky Charms cereal, I'd be joyous with cavities.
Staffer: Billy McEntee
Brendan Drake is back in NY and I am so excited! They were one of those brilliant creative types that went off to grad school in CA during the start of pandemica but they have returned! If you do not know their work, check this out. If you do know, you KNOW. It is capital D dance aaaaaand it is also often some combination of sexy, salty, hilarious, pointed, surprising, challenging, and fun. If you don't like those things, I really don't know why you are reading Staff Picks.
Staffer: Theresa Buchheister
Faust (The Broken Show): Eric Dyer
The Brick Theater
November 2nd - November 19th 2023
A workshop performance of this piece was the first indoor theatre performance I saw in 2021, after more than a year away. I cried and laughed and marveled at the spectacle of a person on stage, in a beautiful world, telling a story I know quite well in a new way. I am so glad it is returning.
Staffer: Travis Amiel
KŌSA: Sankai Juku
The Joyce Theater
October 24th - November 5th, 2023
This show has been mentioned in so many group chats of mine, and the pictures look incredible. It closes on Sunday (Nov 5th) so if you're able to check it out, I think it'll be worth it!
Staffer: Hilary Gao
School Pictures: Milo Cramer
Playwrights Horizons
November 8th - December 3rd 2023
Everyone is talking about the children right now. The injustices being enacted on the innocent lives of kids who depend on adults to nurture them. School Pictures wheels out the question of the well-being of New York's children, like a rickety chalkboard, and Milo Cramer makes sure that no audience member will wriggle out of answering it. In a show that meditates deeply on learning and inequality, no excuses will get the city— or its upper class parents—off the hook in Milo's classroom... I mean show.
Also: this show runs all month too! So you can get to D.C. on Saturday and back for the rest of the run.
Staffer: Lena Engelstein