Staff Picks No. 119
Blood Gala : Joanie Drago and Shawn Escarciga
Brick Aux
October 22nd-25th 2025
October is the queerest month of the year, scientifically. So, if you like science, you gotta go to this. And honestly, these two making a horror play together in Brick Aux is the best thing that has happened in 2025. Som if you like science AND to experience the best thing a year has to offer, you gotta go to this. I will be sipping a Mt Dew on a gas station bench, looking fondly into the Kansan sky, knowing the same moon that bleeds on them is bleeding on me.
Staffer: Theresa Buchheister
Guerrilla Theater Event : Guerilla Theater
Bogart Street, between Varet and Moore
Friday October 17th 2025
It’s public! It’s free! Crackhead Barney was in the last one and I got clinically severe FOMO from the footage! What’s not to love?
***Note from the editor - If you click on the Gimme More! button, there is a strobe-type flashing image.
Staffer: Leah Plante-Wiener
metamorphosis III episode 3 : Stacy Grossfield, Alexandra Albrecht, Nola Sporn Smith, Hannah Franzen, Gordon Wells, Dead Tooth
The Collapsable Hole
October 17th-18th 2025
If you were reading staff picks this time last month—or if you’ve spoken to me since—you know how I feel about this project. Anyways, here are some more reasons to see it:
1) A gaggle of teenage girls enlisted for ambient purposes.
2) Alexandra Albrecht and Nola Sporn Smith and THEIR WIGS. Miracles of nature and science are happening to keep them together.
3) Hannah Franzen doing some of the scariest work I’ve ever seen on a stage.
4) Dead Tooth covering Gang of Four’s Damaged Goods.
Grossfield is a damn rockstar. This is not to be missed.
Staffer: Leah Plante-Wiener
An Evening with Chris Thile : Chris Thile
92Y
Sunday October 19th 2025
Music will heal you… and specifically the virtuosic stylings of Chris Thile will scrub your soul inside and out. As a pop fan often in a silo, The Punch Brothers were a pivotal part of my expansion into other genres. Come & leave a folk music believer.
Staffer: Matthew Antoci
Adult Relationships : Ben Gassman, Tara Elliott, Jess Barbagallo, Lena Engelstein, Layla Khoshnoudi
The Collapsable Hole
November 1st-21st 2025
Jess Barbagallo and Lena Engelstein? Oof I'm seated. Ben Gassman's play starts at a wake and ends with a cough, and I expect some laughter of the dark comedy persuasion along the way. Very excited to see some places I love (The Tank, Collapsable Hole) teaming up with artists I also adore and whose work always perplexes and delights.
Staffer: Billy McEntee
Billy basically wrote what I was thinking, so I will just second this Staff Pick!
Staffer: Theresa Buchheister
Endgame : Samuel Beckett, Garry Hynes, Druid
Irish Arts Center
October 22nd-November 23rd 2025
I’m daring to recommend Beckett to you again! I dare! Because we’ve got a Beckett triple (checks notes, quadruple!) crown this season and you will never see me recommend a Broadway production on this site (press agents → invest in Staff Picks → profit???) BUT I think it’s very swell we’re getting a Druid production in NYC, at an organization that invests in longer runs of international work, AND of one of modern drama’s masterpieces. Garry Hynes is one of Ireland’s directing treasures, having brought her takes on RICHARD III and WAITING FOR GODOT to NYC before and kind of outclassing everyone in a fifty-mile radius. Go!
Staffer: Reuven Glezer
Henry Alper’s Statue : Henry Alper
East Village Basement
October 16th-18th 2025
Very little information is available about this “attempt at a piece of living sculpture” other than a content warning including extensive audience engagement and participation. This is enough for me, as nothing piques my interest more than a limited run with restrained branding. Very chic. Also, Alper’s last project was a 24-hour Hamlet (!), so do with that what you will.
Staffer: Leah Plante-Wiener
The New Flesh : Vape Kid Jr, Sweaty Eddie, Selena Surreal, Mx. Ology, Ezra Moth, Linda Felcher, Charkenya888, Must Be Nice
Purgatory
Sunday October 26th 2025
Looking for something to do with your pre-Halloween Sunday? How about a night of trans body horror curated by Vape Kid Jr? Vape Kids Cool Zone: The Lost Episode made me an admirer of the drag king puppeteer’s flavour of grotesquerie, and this lineup of drag and puppetry promises to be a freakishly foul time. “Abberate your anatomy with our menagerie of abominations.” Don’t mind if I do!
Staffer: Leah Plante-Wiener