Staff Picks No. 109
Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me : Eric Berryman, Jharis Yokley, Kate Valk, Elizabeth LeCompte, Eric Sluyter, Wooster Group
Joe’s Pub
August 13th-23rd 2025
A highlight of the Wooster Group’s repertoire are their record album interpretations; Eric Berryman has examined Black American culture through recorded media before in THE B-SIDE, and returns again to regale us with tall tales called Toasts. I saw this show at the Performing Garage the first time it was around, and reader, it is a delight. An hour of storytelling fun, of performance cleverness, of live drumming from Jharis Yokley, and genuine laughs and fascinating cultural work. You’d be missing out not to see the Joe’s Pub remount.
Staffer: Reuven Glezer
The House in the Round : Gwendolyn Knapp
Pageant
August 7th-8th 2025
I saw a promotional picture involving a weird lamp and immediately bought a ticket. So yeah.
Staffer: Leah Plante-Wiener
I have been a fan of Gwendolyn since Red Carrots, a brilliant dance performance piece that was part of The Exponential Festival in 2019. Gwendolyn is a person I would label - “Will see anything she does.”
Staffer: Theresa Buchheister
The Royal Pyrate : Chas LiBretto, Jason Landon Marcus, Emily Abrams, Lauren Molina
Waterfront Barge Museum
August 16th-31st 2025
I love site-specific theatre, and I love the Skivvies, so I'm overboard (pirates fun) about this Royal Pyrate with Lauren Molina. I always love a reason to go to Red Hook as well, so this show checks a lot of my boxes.
Staffer: Billy McEntee
Obvious bias alert, Chas is a friend whose writing I admire and I saw the original reading at the Waterfront Museum, so I am pleased as punch to recommend the full-damn thing back on the barge! Politics, pirates, pilfering the capitalist class, oh my! It’s a hoot and on the water and SHANTIES, GUYS. SHANTIES.
Staffer: Reuven Glezer
Jo Firestone Presents The First Annual Pie Tasting Festival : Jo Firestone
Littlefield
Sunday August 10th from 2-5pm 2025
I genuinely don't know a better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than eating pie with Jo Firestone. I keep trying to think of anything else I would rather do, and it is impossible. And now I am tired.
Staffer: Theresa Buchheister