Staff Picks No. 123
Osni the Flare : Tristan Allen
La Mama
November 20th-23rd 2025
I adore Allen's haunting and hopeful compositions. Paired with enchanting puppetry, you'll be enchanted and awestruck. And the opening act is Tiresias! Sick!
Staffer: Travis Amiel
I could not agree with Travis more! I was very fortunate to be the lighting and sound person for Tristan when they did The Exponential Festival, and I got to see Tin Iso and the Dawn many times. It moved me to tears every.single.time. And mostly because of the absolute beauty and incredible skill involved (partially because of the content), which is a great reason to cry.
Staffer: Theresa Buchheister
A Devotion to Failure : Kat Sotelo
CPR
Thursday November 20th 2025
I think this will be fantastic, awe-inspiring, and jaw dropping. What more can you ask for in a performance? I wish I could go but because I can't, you definitely should!
Staffer: Hillary Gao
The Leads aka Glengarry Glen Faggot : Charles Quittner, Jesse Morgan Young, Matthew Sherbach, Nick Auer, Becca Blackwell, Theresa Buchheister, Adam Feldman and More!
LifeWorld
Sunday November 16th 2025
For those who remember and miss the days of the Boscoe Barles Backyard for the Performing Arts (a venue as cozy as its title is expansive), the medley of artists who made that al fresco space sing will be back, this time indoors for a riff on a certain famous Mamet play. Fun is surely in store.
Staffer: Billy McEntee
I get to be Blake.
Staffer: Theresa Buchheister
PINCH : Sacha Vega, Neva Guido, Sophia Halimah Parker, Tina Bararian, James Gentile, Zack Kelley-Onett, Kyle Driggs, Cole Stapleton, Logan Kerr
3AM Theatre
Friday December 12th 2025
A piece of dance theatre "where we twitch through our learnings," drawn from real-life safety drills in real-life settings. What an absolutely baller premise. This seems like a really silly but maybe really frightening time. Myths of preparedness! Mechanisms of control! Wigs!
Staffer: Leah Plante-Wiener
Blast! : Ruth Childs
The Chocolate Factory
November 12th-14th 2025
A new dance work from Ruth Childs, sculpted from "bodies that embody a terrible violence" and the subsequent sounds and movement resulting from that...........I think this will be the kind of work that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Worth the trip to Queens, no doubt!
Staffer: Reuven Glezer
INITIATIVE : Else Went, Emma Rosa Went, Olivia Rose Barresi, Marisa Brau-Reyes, Brandon Burk, Greg Cuellar, Harrison Densmore, Carson Higgins, Andrea Lopez Alvarez, Jamie Sanders, Jose Useche, Christopher Dylan White, Mikiko Suzuki MacAdams, Kindall Almond, Susan Hilferty, Christopher Akerlind, Angela Baughman, S. Katy Tucker, Dan Renkin, Laura Hackman, Sarah Lunnie, Janelle Caso, Tessa Bagby
The Public Theater
November 4th-December 7th 2025
Rarely do I get to see a show AND THEN recommend it on the Picks, we usually need to be forward-looking on this platform, but I had the very good luck to catch Else Went's 5-hour act of love that is INITIATIVE over at the Public, and let me tell you, there won't be something like this again anytime soon. I haven't wept at the theater very often but the ending of this long-gestating premiere got me good. Roll for endurance.
Staffer: Reuven Glezer
I Do Nine-Tailed Fox : Sojung Jun
Performa Biennial at Asia Society
Sunday November 16th 2025
Do yourself a favour and read the text provided for this on Performa's website. There's too many interesting layers for me to try to distill into a snappy little blurb, but we're dealing in ecofeminism, sound archeology, opera in nonlinear chapters, traditional Korean instruments, speculative futures, and culture enduring after ethnic cleansing. Also worth looking at is the entire Performa Biennial lineup!
Staffer: Leah Plante-Wiener
Avant-Garde Ads: Part 1 : Too many to name
Anthology Film Archive
November 15th-December 16th 2025
My dirty little secret is that I think I'd be really fucking great at writing commercials. That's why I'm the perfect audience member for Anthology Film Archive's upcoming series, which spotlights decades of advertisements and other sponsored works made by experimental filmmakers. Anthology, if you're reading this... comp me?
Staffer: Leah Plante-Wiener
Full Service Top : Becca Blackwell, Madeleine George, Oliver Butler
Joe’s Pub
Thursday November 20th 2025
Becca Backwell - funny human, downtown treasure, I once reached my hand deep into a puppet vagina they wore on their person for some candy during SNATCH ADAMS at Soho Rep. Seeing a new show from Becca is like a baptism by queer comedy, so go dunk your head in the [REDACTED]. Conceived with Madeleine George and directed by Oliver Butler, bonus!
Staffer: Reuven Glezer
Dream of Wires : Bunny X, Polly Vinylchord, Mask Girls
Purgatory
Friday November 14th 2025
A night of glittering synthpop including the one and only Mask Girls, freak multimedia brainchildren of Chloë Roe and Ava Grace. If you don't know the Mask Girls yet, let yourself be dazzled IRL by their utterly charming earworms, then watch their (now complete!) webseries!
Staffer: Leah Plante-Wiener
The Seven Bridges : CHAiroiPLIN
Japan Society
November 15th and 16th 2025
A rare chance to see Japanese troupe CHAiroiPLIN's new work as part of the Japan Society's Mishima retrospective. These artists claim to "obliterate" the dilenations between dance and theater, and I want to see what that fucking means! More dynamite thrown at the walls of form! More slapstick!
Staffer: Reuven Glezer
The Harmnf : Kevin Laibson, Parker Denton
Caveat
Sunday November 30th 2025
I saw this back at !? 2024 and was, to my surprise, giddy in my seat watching what I can only describe as Chekhov meets formal virtual meltdown and now it's back! Do yourselves a favor and see what happens when form meets "content."
Staffer: Reuven Glezer
I ALSO saw this back in ?!:New Works and looooooved it. Kevin Laibson makes things that nobody else could make. And that fills me with admiration and joy.
Staffer: Theresa Buchheister