Staff Picks No. 28
The Fire This Time Festival: Taylor A. Blackman, Kamilah Bush, Leelee Jackson, Monique Pappas-Williams, Nia Akilah Robinson, Joël René Scoville
The Wild Project
January 18th - January 28th 2024
Celebrating its 15th anniversary, this Obie Award-winning festival features six playwrights and their ten-minute plays that all focus on Black women and the Black family. The festival moves to the Wild Project, a lovely home for a quick night of theater packed with vital new plays. Check it out from Jan 18-28!
Staffer: Billy McEntee
this house is not a home: Nile Harris
Under the Radar @ Abrons Arts Center
January 6th - January 14th 2024
We do not all get second chances in life, so when you get em you gotta take em! If you did not see this show over the summer GET YOURSELF THERE THIS WEEK. I have not stopped thinking about this show since July. And I am not mad about it. It dangerously balances vibes, mediums, tones and ridiculous props with intense skill and a real fuck you energy.
Staffer: Theresa Buchheister
The Eagle and the Tortoise: Sister Sylvester
Under the Radar @ BRIC
January 11th - January 21st 2024
My interest in book arts, sound art, and performance is totally piqued by Sister Sylvester’s “The Eagle and the Tortoise.” Part of the Under the Radar fest, it’s an interactive experiential reading performance lovely-looking-thing-that-I-don’t-understand-yet. Hands on paper, people together. I think the four most beautiful words in any language are: “Tell me a story.” Come through!
Staffer: Joshua Dumas
Terce: A Practical Breviary
HEATHER CHRISTIAN (CREATOR)
KEENAN TYLER OLIPHANT (DIRECTOR)
MONA SEYED-BOLORFOROSH (MUSIC CO-DIRECTOR)
JACKLYN RIHA (MUSIC CO-DIRECTOR)
Irondale
January 10th - January 14th 2024
Prototype is the "highly influential bastion of experimental opera" festival (as noted by the New Yorker) running concurrently with all the other dance, theater, dance-theater, theater-ish fests happening in Jan. I've heard that TERCE is the Protoype show to see, that Heather Christian's work is not to be missed, and as I always say "where Masha Tsimring has done the lights, one should look with their eyes." It's a new saying, I am working it out. The show is described as such, "radical rethinking of a monastic 9:00 AM mass and an adaptation that reimagines the face of the “Holy Spirit” through the lens of the Divine Feminine." PERIOD. I'll be there.
Staffer: Lena Engelstein
Natural Studies: thingNY
The Brick Theater
January 18th - January 20th 2024
I am very lucky that I got a sneak snack version of this show at NACL Deep Space Residency in November. I can tell you, it made me very excited for the full show. It has everything - a harp, foods being crunched and chewed, onomatology and a team full of odd impressive talents.
Staffer: Theresa Buchheister
Rose: You Are Who You Eat: John Jarboe
Under the Radar @ La Mama
January 10th - January 20th 2024
A couple of people whom I trust *a lot* implored me to see this show. So I'm passing that along here. Being someone who likes to enter a show knowing a little as possible, I'm not going to read the summary: but I know there's singing, it's queer, and something about womb??!
Staffer: Travis Amiel
Open Mic Night: Peter Mills Weiss & Julia Mounsey
Under the Radar @ Performance Space New York
January 5th - January 18th 2024
The little trailer revealed to me an exciting insight: a 3D rendered face. I feel like there's so much potential for this type of digital puppetry, and I'm excited to see it.
Staffer: kanihsk pandey
Faustine: Lydia Brinkmann, Sarah Norcross
The Spade Collective
January 18th - January 20th 2024
A one-woman musical about a PhD student having a mental breakdown, or what you may know as just a PhD student. Three nights only, this show is by Spade Collective and looks like it's in a garage in Bushwick. Check check check.
Staffer: Billy McEntee
Hubris Always Gets You In The End: Banana Bag and Bodice
Exponential Festival @ Target Margin’s The Doxsee
January 6th - January 20th 2024
In high school, I was obsessed with all the bits and pieces of Banana Bag and Bodice's work I could find online and from afar. I've never actually seen any of their work live in the flesh, so I am excited to head down to TMT for this retrospective that's part of the Exponential Festival. Having -spect-ed on very little of what will be retro-ed, I am excited to have no idea what's going on, an experience I'm constantly seeking :€
Staffer: Laia Comas