Staff Picks No. 23
Despair Sanctuary: Jack Holloway, Chronic Rites, Willie the Genius
Old First Reformed Church
Saturday December 16th 2023
Jack Holloway & co have found a really special way of holding shared pain: their "vigil for all who are weary" features a bed of metal drone over which poetry, performance, and a space for rage spread. This is sure to be a unique, healing, and collective experience.
Staffer: Billy McEntee
Ladybug Land's Cozy Catskills Holiday Revue: Camellia and Odetta Hartman
Tusten Theatre
December 16th - December 17th 2023
If you can get away on the weekend of the 16th and 17th, you should! This holiday revue will be such a sonic treat and a rollicking good time. There will be some buddies from Brooklyn and from upstate guest starring! My goal is to make it possible to attend next year... but for this year, I am telling everyone I know to go if they can!
Staffer: Theresa Buchheister
Heart Stop: Franky D Gonzalez
The Club at La Mama
December 16th - December 17th 2023
Okayyy--my bias here is that I am the Literary Manager at The Workshop Theater. HOWEVER, I am a fan of Franky's work and want to let everyone know what's good! Franky wrote and performs in his solo show about his journey with his obesity x his mental health after two major health crises. Check out this workshop production and be the one to say you saw it first!
Staffer: Marissa Joyce Stamps
Kali Malone & Drew McDowall // François J. Bonnet & Stephen O'Malley
Pioneer Works
Wednesday, December 13th 2023
I, of course, did not have these words, then. But I remember a childhood sensation of uncertainty and melancholy, like an abstracted mourning for an unknown thing. Like a sense that ghost-drifting time, unconcerned with my curiosities and desires, would slip pass unbeknownst, my hand reaching too late to grasp it. Totally same with Kali Malone’s compositions for organ. Here she performs a duo set with noise-crafter Drew McDowall. Come through!
Staffer: Joshua Dumas
SOLO DOLO: Arielle Lembeck, Angel Acuña, Ariana Speight
International Human Rights Art Festival @ The Tank
Friday, December 8th 2023
Three incredible baddies team up for a night of solos, each totally distinct in presence and style. They come together under the umbrella of the self—the hard to love, metamorphosing, second-to-none self. And from there they depart into their delightful distinctness. Not to be missed.
Staffer: Lena Engelstein
The Nativity: Patrick Lazour, Daniel Lazour, Mark Sonnenblick
121 Pierrepont St
Friday, December 15th 2023
I've been on a tear promoting queer holiday shows, and the streak continues! If you haven't heard the Lazours' or Mark's jingles, you may be on the Naughty List this yuletide. Resolve that: these are some of the most promising and idiosyncratic songwriters in town, so go to church next Friday for a cuppa cheer to hear talent whose cup runneth over.
Staffer: Billy McEntee
Art for Ungrateful Men - Gallery Pop Up: Christiana Jackson
The Living Gallery
Saturday, December 9th 2023
Whenever there's Black women and femmes stepping into their sensual and sexual power, please count me in. Christiana Jackson's gallery pop-up features erotic self-portraits in conversation with captioned commentary, alongside a Q+A towards the end of the event. So often, Black women and femmes are shamed or excluded from celebrating our intimate power, that this in itself is an act of liberation for Christiana's that we get to take witness to, support and share in.
Staffer: Marissa Joyce Stamps
Skedaddle Bar + Laughing in Los Angeles: Joey Merlo and Jess Barbagallo
Adult Film @ Luv Story Bar
November 29th - December 9th 2023
I LOVE JOEY. I LOVE JESS. A night with the two of them? Done. All I know is that these short plays are about east coast beast coast and west coast best(questionable) coast.
Staffer: Marissa Joyce Stamps
O Come Let Us Adore Them: Kiki & Herb
Town Hall
Thursday, December 7th 2023
If you don't know Kiki & Herb, you should know that they in a way invented a new genre of performance: cabaret that was angry, political, pastiche, elegant-while-implosive, hysterical, gut-wrenching, and capital "Q" Queer. They do not perform often together, and it is special to have the opportunity to experience their thunderous shows.
It looks like there are a bunch of tickets available, so I'd recommend grabbing one from the box office to avoid the ludicrous fees.
Staffer: Travis Amiel
LOVE SONGS: a new staging of early vocal works by Arnold Schoenberg (1874 - 1951) by George Miller
Performed by Sophie Delphis, Kevin Zambrano, and Sienna Blaw / Choreographer: Kevin Zambrano / Featuring new arrangements for voice and radio-electronics by Ben Babbitt
PAGEANT
December 14th - December 15th 2023
I met George in the BAC lobby in Manhattan on a Saturday afternoon and, of course, within minutes we found we knew the same people and that, of course, he had an upcoming show at PAGEANT, and that, of course, I'd go to the show. An LA opera director comes to me in the middle of HELL Kitchen with a show soon to be in my neck of the woods...I like when it feels like fate is determining my schedule rather than the simple fact that the density of shows produced by the insular, experimental performance community could easily fill ones days. But I do think George's work feels like fate for this moment. So go.
Staffer: Lena Engelstein