Staff Picks No. 121
plot hole : evan ray suzuki, Amelia Heintzelman, Benin Gardner, Emma Lee, Sabrina Leira, Zo Williams, Leo Chang, Zo Roze
Pageant
November 6th-7th 2025
You had me at “David Lynch directs Spring Breakers with dance” as well as the blurb from Brendan Drake.
Staffer: Reuven Glezer
By Heart : Tiago Rodrigues
L'Alliance New York / Florence Gould Theater
November 3rd-4th 2025
I saw the original NY run of BY HEART back at BAM and let me tell you, what an experience. Ten members of the audience are invited to come memorize a poem, woven with Rodrigues' storytelling and direction, and leave....changed? A new carving on the corners of the spirit? Full disclosure: I was one of those ten audience members back then and I heartily recommend making yourself vulnerable to the act of learning in front of people. It's something else.
Staffer: Reuven Glezer
Crackhead Barney Lookalike Contest : Crackhead Barney, B. Weirdy, Bjorn Majestik, Bri Frei, Kyle b. co., Gwen Burton, Wonderful Cringe, DJ Miami Joe, Grem Lyn
177 Lafayette St
Wednesday October 29th 2025
NYC would not be what it is without Crackhead Barney. Few people perform the public service of harassing Andrew Cuomo and Eric Adams to the degree that she does. Celebrate our beautiful Barney at her lookalike competition this Wednesday, featuring a bountiful slate of performers (Wonderful Cringe!) and god knows what else.
Staffer: Leah Plante-Wiener
Burnt Toast : Susie Wang
Skirball
November 5th-8th 2025
First of all, in case you didn’t know, Susie Wang is not a person, but a Norwegian theatre company, which… LOL. But Burnt Toast is a darkly comedic tale of love and cannibalism set in a crimson hotel lobby in the American South, where “the everyday feels eerie and the grotesque feels strangely familiar.” In other words, a very obvious ploy to get money out of my pockets. Burnt Toast is so in demand that Skirball added an 11 pm (!) Friday performance. If your appetite is whetted by the thought of some late-night cannibalism, this one’s for you.
Staffer: Leah Plante-Wiener
Burn Book : JJ McGlone, Rory Pelsue, Erin Sullivan, Lily Guerin, Yichen Zhou, David Mitsch, Bailey Trierweiler, Tim White, Allison Jones, Leland Fowler, Daniel Liu, Julian Sanchez, split/decision
Performance Space New York
October 31st-November 14th 2025
Gay lads! Witchcraft! Boarding school! A new queer reimagining of The Crucible storms down to NYC just in time for Halloween. Kind of love that what seems like a huge, imaginative play has found a home in this big age of independent producing. And, as always, s/o to a powerhouse creative team.
Staffer: Reuven Glezer
Sugarcane (live scored) : Mali Obomsawin, Amber Morning Star
Roulette
Thursday October 30th 2025
One night only, Roulette presents “Sugarcane”, a 2024 documentary about the appalling atrocities perpetrated by Catholic Church leaders against First Nations children at an Indian residential school in Canada. Composer, bassist, vocalist Mali Obomsawin, who scored the doc, will livescore this screening. A conversation between Obomsawin and the film’s producer Amber Morning Star follows. Come through!
Staffer: Joshua Dumas
Concrete Boom Volume 4 : Concrete Temple, Cathy Shaw, Moira Zhang, Naughty Little No Good, Preston Wollner/Vander, The Goat Exchange, Duygu Bayar Ekren, Kasper Klop & Morwenna Spagnol, Gaby FeBland & Sammy Zeisel, Leah Levine, Renée Lavalle, Lim Mui, Must Be Nice, lumenbodies (Akane & Benja), Tau Bennett, J Hahn, Carlo Adinolfi, Camille Leigh Cooper
Dixon Place
November 3rd-5th 2025
Concrete Temple has set the table and we are EATINGGGGG. 3 days of puppetry and visually-driven theatre by this nutso lineup of artists await you at Dixon Place. This is the type of go-big-or-go-home multi-night multi-performer lineup I go crazy for. Take a chance by picking a night and going in blind!
Staffer: Leah Plante-Wiener
OPEN STUDIOS | curated by Empress Wu : Empress Wu, XSCN, Jessica Perez, Melanie Hoff
CPR
Monday November 3rd 2025
Guided by her background in leathersex, “multidisciplinary provocateur” (GREAT title) Empress Wu has curated an evening of multimedia works in development that explore sadomasochism of the self. On the docket: XSCN’s “(sketch for) trannymeatnoiseholeritualmachine” (masks required), Jessica Perez’s “Unblinking Interior,” and Melanie Hoff’s “Sex is the World Our Desires Produce.” Flesh, intimacy, confrontation, BDSM, negotiations of power, loud noises: I am drawn to this event like a moth to a flame.
Staffer: Leah Plante-Wiener