Staff Picks No. 164
BREAK : Lindsay Carpenter, SB Tennent
Atelier @ Theaterlab
September 11th-14th, 2026
I have had the great fortune of knowing Lindsay and her work for a long time now, around 8 years at this point. I took for granted, when we first met, her bravery and brilliance in regards to experimenting with the form of playwriting. As I've grown older and more experienced, however, I've come to understand how rare her work is. Lindsay is a brilliant writer, always broaching a unique concept with fascinating structure, and a sense of dramaturgy that goes beyond the normal American playwright. Please run to see. It's going to be fucking great. (Actually I know it is - because BREAK is such a good play, I'm being so for real right now).
Staffer: kanishk pandey
Henry Alper’s Statue : Henry Alper
Green Lung Studio
October 2nd-3rd 2026
Over the last few months, I have watched Henry Alper cover Eminem accompanied by a five-part jazz band, leave the theatre in his underwear to return with a Citibike in tow, throw himself off a ladder, do handstands in the dark, and make the scariest use of glo-tape I have ever seen. Alper is an artist who endears, thrills, trolls, and stupefies, all from a place of earnestness and existential anxiety. Last year, I Staff Picked the first rendition of this show out of sheer curiosity. Now, I Staff Pick it as a resounding endorsement of Alper as the future of unhinged white guy solo performance.
Staffer: Leah Plante-Wiener
The Third Annual Evil Laugh Competition : Mera Caulfield
Life World
Saturday October 3rd, 2026
It’s an evil laugh competition. I don’t think I have to sell anyone on this. If you think you may be the owner of a generational cackle, you can sign up to compete until September 30th!
Staffer: Leah Plante-Wiener
MANAQUEEN! : Annie Vaxxer, Sourdoe, David Kahawaii IV, Lulu Fairclough-Stewart, Avery Wood
C’mon Everybody
Friday September 11th, 2026
“Two drag queens whose plans to rob a department store are foiled by a pair of evil, talking mannequins” NEED I SAY MORE?
Finally back after a sold out run this spring, MANAQUEEN crashes into the towers of our hearts & wallets this Friday and I couldn’t be more devastated to miss it. Go for me? Also, for anyone deeply done with the summer weather unpredictability, C’mon’s AC has been Matthew-approved 😝
Staffer: Matthew Antoci
Damocles : Das Besties (Calpurnia, Travis Amiel)
Ars Nova
Wednesday September 16th 2026
So nice we had to put it on Staff Picks twice! According to Google Translate, "Ein neues Theaterstück von 'Das Besties'? Was könnte man sich mehr wünschen?" By the time this goes live, they'll probably be sold out. Waitlist is your friend, along with buying tickets for things the first time they're on Staff Picks :)
Staffer: Ethan Eva Karas
The Dykes and Their Enemies Between Insurrections : The Lactopod Players, Grace Caiazza, Kerosene Jones, Rebecca Teich, Shawn Escarciga, Connor Goerk, Stevie Knauss, A. Monti, Kat Sotelo
The Poetry Project
Friday October 2nd, 2026
“Loose collective of literary perverts” The Lactopod Players presents a riff on The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions, wherein “three wicked sisterwives” are “banished to a Compersion Therapy Camp in the enchanted woods of MILF Briar.” Consider me charmed! I am also excited about this featuring Shawn Escarciga and Kat Sotelo, whose perverse queer fantasias I am very fond of.
Staffer: Leah Plante-Wiener
The Invention of Love : David Greenspan, Zachary Elkind, the MAP Theater, Sam Bolen, Annabel Capper, José Espinosa, Leland Fowler, Abrar Haque, Daniel Liu, Alyssa Korol, Yaron Lotan, Spencer Lutvak, Rebecca Hanai Malamud, Bridget Lindsay, Paige Seber, Julian Hornik, Maya Shore, Laurie Bashford, John Wyszniewski/Everyman Agency
Theaterlab
September 17 - October 3, 2026
This WILL sell out. One, this is possibly Tom Stoppard’s greatest play. Two, it will be an intimate staging at Theatrelab. Three, the talented and goodly chap Zachary Elkind is directing. Four, David Greenspan plays A.E. Housman. This is homosexual prestige theater at its finest.
Staffer: Reuven Glezer
I got my tickets as soon as I got notice that this was happening. Do it now. Don’t hesitate. I feel really lucky to see David Greenspan in this show.
Staffer: Theresa Buchheister
CATCH! 82 : LIZN’BOW, Vape Kid Jr., Rudi Goblen, Rawya El Chab, Malcolm-x Betts, Poncili Creación, Karinne Keithley Syers, Peter Jacobs & luciana achugar, Big Dance Theater/Annie-B Parson, CATCH (Andrew Dinwiddie, Caleb Hammons, Jeff Larson, Matt Romein & Leah Plante-Wiener)
The Chocolate Factory
Saturday September 19th 2026
Fall is upon us, and CATCH is back! Browsing the lineup, and it's a truly exciting spread of disciplines on this bill. We've got puppetry! Drag! Dance! Big Dance (Theater)! A grab bag of goodies to bring in the Autumn season. As always, CATCH is the place to be to see your favorite artist's favorite artist perform. Be the cool friend who gets to say you already saw a piece when it was in a sweltering warehouse space in Queens!
Staffer: Ethan Eva Karas
CATCH! is one of the best times you can have and I always try to, er, catch CATCH! A lot of amazing artists in every line-up, some big old personal highlights for me here Vape Kid, Jr., Rawya El Chab, Malcolm-x Betts, Big Dance!! But all of these artists are worth your time and the entire hodgepodge is yours for a cool $25 at the door.
Staffer: Reuven Glezer
Arias with a Twist : Basil Twist, Joey Arias, Eliot Douglass, Jean-Francois Houle, Daniel Brodie, Greg Duffin, Ayumu “Poe” Saegusa, Alex Gifford, Thierry M. Mugler, Neelam Vaswani, Jessica Scott, Matthew Leabo, Ash Winkfield, Maria Camia, Ben Elling, Rosa Elling
HERE
September 17th-November 1st, 2026
Basil Twist & Joey Arias’ puppetry-and-music unclassifiable hybrid of glamorous proportions opens HERE’s season. Need I say more?
Staffer: Reuven Glezer
The Earth Is Flat and Other Facts : Adam Chase, Johnathan Appel, Charu Sinha, Nikolai Vanyo
CAVEAT
Friday September 11th 2026
Adam Chase is one of my faves from the Vital Joint years. I would stock cranberry juice just for him because he did not drink booze or carbonated drinks! He would visit on his breaks from school and do the only good Power Point comedy in Brooklyn! Many other adventures and kindnesses later, Adam is doing really fascinating stuff. I wish I was in town to find out what conspiracy theory he deep dives! Please go and let me know!
Staffer: Theresa Buchheister