Staff Picks No. 113
Let’s Talk About Anything Else : Anthony Anello, Dennis Corsi
The Flea
September 7th-28th 2025
There is a massive gap in the contemporary theater, a gap known as the horror gap. Not a place for slightly mystical ghost stories that maybe have one stupid hat trick at the end to feel scary. Horror. And there is no one I know better than Anthony Anello to fill that - not only have I seen his work before, handling subgenres like the slasher and others with grace, but I also know that he has an encyclopedic knowledge on horror. Catch this before it catches you.
Staffer: kanishk pandey
Kinkakuji : Leon Ingulsrud, Major Curda, Chiharu Shiota
Japan Society
September 11th-20th 2025
A very rare chance to engage with the work of Yukio Mishima in a way beyond the theoretical and in a production from one of SITI Company's co-founders! The Japan Society is one of my favorite places to catch international work (they usually partner with UTR for incoming productions in January) but this year it's a great mountain of work reckoning with Mishima, every edgy [REDACTED]'s favorite. Go see this, or go see some of the other unique offerings (including one of his Noh dramas!)
Staffer: Reuven Glezer
When the Hurlyburly's Done (ЯК СТИХНЕ ШУРУ-БУРЯ ЗЛА) : Richard Nelson, Yulia Sosnovska, Theater on Podil
The Public Theater
September 16th-21st 2025
I have a horrible confession to make….I like Richard Nelson. Not his Apple Family plays, (sorry), but his histories and pseudo-histories (THE GENERAL FROM AMERICA, CONVERSATIONS IN TUSCULUM, NIKOLAI & THE OTHERS) are kind of a gold standard for what history plays can be…and now, in collaboration with Kyiv’s Theater on Podil, a tale of Les Kurbas’s theatrical troupe in the days between the world wars. A really rare chance to see one of Eastern Europe’s finest theaters on a New York stage, for a very limited run. You may not get this chance again.
Staffer : Reuven Glezer
GALAS : Charles Ludlam, Eric Ting, Anthony Roth Costanzo
Little Island
September 6th-28th 2025
Yes we are deeply on the Anthony Roth Costanzo train from Reuven, but we are also on the “revive the works of Charles Ludlam” train, and go see ARC in Ludlam’s GALAS train, and maybe this will open us up to revivals of STAGE BLOOD and DER RING GOTT FARBLONJET and other such masterpieces train. Producers: we really, really don’t need another revival of that play. Yes, you know which one I’m talking about.
Staffer: Reuven Glezer
TV Buddha except on the internet : Glenn Potter-Takata, evan ray suzuki, Kimiko Tanabe
Kestrels
September 18th-20th 2025
In a write-up for the Summer Happenings Festival earlier this year, dance-spook-extraordinaire and festival curator Brendan Drake wrote: "Glenn Potter Takata and evan ray suzuki's performances feel as if Kazuo Ohno and Pina Bausch had a baby and then gave it to Chloe Sevigny to raise... inside a mosh pit." -- I can't write a more banger line than this, so offering it as a headlamp before I go spelunking into Glenn's "TV Buddha."
Staffer: Matthew Antoci
STENCH : Sarah Grace Goldman, Max Mooney, Ian Reid
The Tank
September 6th-13th 2025
STENCH has been on my radar since it was announced. We’re talking plastic-wrapped set (designed by Tank legend Pete Betcher), off-putting smells, and a seriously goofy plot. The last time I heard Sarah Grace Goldman’s writing, I was reduced to hysterics, and I have no reason to believe that won’t happen this time around.
Trove— The Tank’s company-in-residence, co-founded and currently helmed by Ian Reid—is a venture I’ve been lucky to see flourish over the past few years. Whether it’s mainstage productions or one-day workshops of emerging theatre artists’ experiments, Trove has cultivated a canon of witty, heartwarming, idiosyncratic work. Keep an eye on them!
Staffer: Leah Plante-Wiener
Mutual Obliteration 5 : William Sydney, Celia Krefter & Kate Purdum
The Collapsable Hole
Friday September 12th 2025
To the Hole! This month’s Mutual Obliteration features some Friends of Object Collection (FOOC?) that I’ve been lucky enough to work with. (Also: some lighting design by my one and only, Laia Comas.) I have no idea what we’re in for, but Mutual Obliteration is categorically always a good time. It’s also the type of event where you run into everyone you know in the experimental world, so if you’re due for some socializing, get your ass over there.
Staffer: Leah Plante-Wiener
If you have not been Mutually Obliterated yet, you have another chance! Chance 5! You never know if there will be a 6th, so go! And also, what in the world will these artists cook up and how will they share a vibe? I am intrigued, to say the least.
Staffer: Theresa Buchheister
The Degenerate Lab (Faggot/Terrorist, Up Your Ass, Next Up) : Adam M. Kassim, Malena Dayen, Anthony Vaughn Merchant
Target Margin
September 18th-October 5th 2025
Target Margin's labs are legendary - short runs of artists making work around a central theme, writer, context with some of the best & weirdest taking a whirl at it. And this year - DEGENERACY! You've got a smorgasbord to choose from, whether it's building a new work from the writing of David Wojnarowicz, or a revival(? remix?) of Valerie Solanas' legendary UP YOUR ASS, or the punks leading the way once again, you've got choices, baybeee. And some of my favorite people are making this Lab unmissable! Start your fall off strong, freaks.
Staffer: Reuven Glezer
In another weird miracle of timing, I am thrilled to attend Adam Kassim’s Lab presentation. I really stoked to experience Adam’s ideas onstage! Also, I have been going to Labs for over a decade and every single time I experience the feeling of discovery, which is probably one of the best feelings in my Feelings Book.
Staffer: Theresa Buchheister
CATCH 79 : lily gold, Noah Latty, Shiloh Blue, Edgar Oliver, Alex Tatarsky, Dominic Yarabe, Maria Baranova, Garrett and Scout, Gabriella Gonzalez, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Nature Theater of Oklahoma, James Harrison Monaco & Avi Amon
The Chocolate Factory
Saturday September 13th 2025
Plain and simple, I’m a CATCH fiend. This quarterly pilgrimage is one of my favourite NYC rituals. You see old friends, you make new friends; you spy on the audience, then namedrop to the buddy you dragged to Long Island City with you; you bear witness to some of the most exciting work this city has to offer, and fall in love like it’s the first time. CATCH is a magical thing.
Even as temperatures finally cool down, this month’s lineup is hot as ever. I’m excited to see some dear friends perform and to finally catch artists that have been recommended to me time and time again. Also, Maria Baranova is bringing back her installation from her Chocolate Factory residency, which I was lucky to see this spring. This is not a night to be missed.
Staffer: Leah Plante-Wiener
FINALLY. Mutual Obliteration and CATCH are on different days, so you could technically go to both. DO IT. For me. I can’t. And that makes me really sad. What would help me feel less sad, you ask? If you want to both of these incredible variety nights this month.
Staffer: Theresa Buchheister
Holes in the Shape of My Father : Savon Bartley, Adam Coy
The Tank
September 4th-October 12th 2025
Featured at the Under the Radar Festival, this solo show gets a new life at The Tank and blends verse and poetry and rhythm for a singular experience. How do boys become men? What are some lesser-seen shades of masculinity that can be theatricalized on stage? Savon Bartley considers all of these in his bluesy show where no drop of vulnerability is sacrificed.
Staffer: Billy McEntee
Protect the Protectors : Elena Freck, Clara Livingston
Brooklyn Art Haus
September 11th-14th 2025
Freck has written an exciting play that both sheds a light on the developing world of military technology and forces the audience to remember the human lives that provide the labor for those institutions to exist. This play does a good job asking the question HOW to live, when living demands the sacrifices of others - and how easy it is to exist when you ignore those sacrifices.
Staffer: kanishk pandey