Staff Picks No. 166

Im Dunkeln sieht man besser : Leonie Bell, Celia Krefter, Local Grandma, Karen Boyer, Jonathan Schatzberg, Forest Entsminger, Bailey Van Schepen, Akvinder Kaur, CHEEKS, Theodor Gabriel, Julliette Holliday, John R. Howley, Marcella Murray, Hanna Westi
The Brick Theater
October 1st - October 18th, 2026

Leonie Bell is one of my favorite artists (duh) and her works are madcap, fleshy, tinsel-smeared works about German-ness, replete with amazing costumes and playing with the weird and supernatural in ways most people could not conceive of! To understand how much I will be enjoying this, someone once told me my bellowing laughter during a stream of Leonie’s last show was “distracting” and “annoying.” Boo-fucking-hoo, join me 10/1 to be distracting and annoying with me.

Staffer: Reuven Glezer

the [home] project : Ethan Eva Karas, Jacob Leaf
Kathleen Chalfant’s Living Room
Wednesday October 7th, 2026

I cannot wait to see this project in this very special location (Thursday is also a different very special location). I have known about this project for a while, as I am a big supporter of Ethan Eva Karas, so to get to see it on a trip back AND during Prelude? What a gift! If I was not seeing this show, I would definitely be →, seeing the shows at The Wythe Hotel. So many artists between those two shows that I respect a great deal as people and swoon over as artists. No matter what, you gotta go check out something during Prelude!

Staffer: Theresa Buchheister

Good Cult : River Donaghey, Brittany Reeber
Studio 17
October 9th- October 11th 2026

I dare you to look at the website and not be intrigued!

Go for it.

Need more?

I have known River since 2020, when he was a collaborator on SoundLab, a very special and unique project that was conceived of before the pandemic yet still able to happen during it. Since then, I have been a voice actor for him, had many fascinating conversations with him and will always 100% encourage him to create and share. His perspective and experience combine to make a project truly only he could make - Good Cult. Due to evil timing, I will not be able to see one of the shows with audience, but I do get to go to a rehearsal!

Staffer: Theresa Buchheister

SOIL:FIELD of AWARENESS : Marina Heron Tsaplina
Penny Bridge site, Newtown Creek, Greenpoint
September 26th and Sunday September 27th, 2026

On Saturday September 26th and Sunday September 27th Marina Heron Tsaplina presents SOIL:FIELD of AWARENESS, a site-specific performance ritual on the edge of Newtown Creek, at Penny Bridge, Greenpoint, Brooklyn. It's the site of the largest underground oil spill in the US. From the 1940s through the 1970s an estimated 17-30 million gallons of oil and other chemicals leaked into Newtown Creek and its banks; remediation efforts continue to this day, not projected to finish until 2035. In SOIL, Tsaplina and a dozen performers use voice, music, Butoh, and puppetry in memorial, grief, celebration, and acknowledgement, to witness and mend our relationship to this water and this earth. Come through!

Staffer: Joshua Dumas

Devotion (The American Negro) | Music and Masturbation + Blasted : Nile Harris, Ethan Philbrick, Jim Fletcher, Katiana Rangel, Lucas Kane, Lori Goldston, Marie de Testa, Lili Dekker
The Wythe Hotel, Prelude Festival
Wednesday October 7th, 2026

This year’s Prelude festival (October 7th-October 10th) offers a true smorgasbord of multidisciplinary performance tightly packed in four days across multiple venues, all free to attend. On October 7th, the Wythe Hotel hosts a jaw-dropping two-parter in its hotel rooms: at 7 pm, a split bill of Nile Harris and Ethan Philbrick, then at 8:30, none other than Sarah Kane’s hotel-room-play-of-all-time Blasted, starring the inimitable Jim Fletcher. See both, then go to the lovely Bar Blondeau for a martini and a nighttime view of Manhattan. Many thanks to Alessandra Gómez-Misserian for this gorgeous act of curation.

Staffer: Leah Plante-Wiener

Split Bill: Cristina Moya-Palacios and Valentina Baché/VACA
Triskelion Arts, CollectiveGenius Festival
September 24th - October 3rd, 2026

I fell in love with Cristina Moya-Palacios’s work at the Governor’s Island CATCH, where we watched her—full-sized piñata on her head—whirl around with dizzying velocity to Hilary Duff’s “What Dreams Are Made Of,” ferociously dance to Jimi Hendrix’s Star Spangled Banner in frilly white bloomers, and eat a hot dog. Moya-Palacios is an artist who lurks in your subconscious long after the show has ended.

Staffer: Leah Plante-Wiener