Go See a Show‪!‬ Robert A. K. Gonyo

Listen in as director 김채송 Chaesong Kim (Alien Play), playwright Alex Beige (Blackpilled, A Blueprint), and director Dante Green (Light + House) of The Makers’ Ensemble’s Short Play Festival, discuss immigration stores, where love stories meet ghost stories, playwrights writing plays about playwrights writing plays, capturing suffering, growth over time, and taking care of your artists.

“…every play felt like it ended too soon, like it was just the beginning of a learning experience…inviting you into an aspect of the playwright’s world, and leaving you with just enough to understand that you’re not alone, in whatever experience you have…”



The Tank and The Makers’ Ensemble presents

Short Play Fest 2024

Alien Play

written by Carolina Đỗ

directed by 김채송 Chaesong Kim

Light + House

written by é boylan

directed by Dante Green

We Go East

written by Jaucqir

directed by Autumn Angelettie

Blackpilled, A Blueprint

written by Alex Beige

directed by Sam Morreale

March 20, 21, 24 at 7pm; March 23 at 3pm

The Tank

312 W. 36th Street

Manhattan

Listen in as playwright Kenneth Keng, director Annaporva Green, and actor & projection designer Chisom Awachie of Brought Up discuss lobotomized flesh puppets, encouraging participation and not “screaming and running away,” gratitude for designers, complicity and unthinking loyalty, Capri Suns, finding “a different way to do this shit,” and survival (with kindness) into the future.

“…it is about the visceral appeal of warfare, and all the equipment…the whiz-bang fighters, the big ships, the guns…things which I, for a long time, loved, and loved learning about, and loved imagining. It is also about the urgent, and near-impossible task of ending warfare. Recently, a lot of those things I loved have lost a lot of their appeal to me…”



The Performance Project at University Settlement presents

Brought Up

written by Kenneth Keng

directed by Annaporva Green

thru May 11, 2024

Speyer Hall

184 Eldridge Street

Manhattan

photos by Kelsey Cheng

Listen in as Push Party playwright Nia Akilah Robinson, along with Producing Artistic Director of The Hearth Julia Greer, discuss just what a “push party” is, high school drama, naming characters, showing unspoken love, enmeshment, making peace with what’s passed down to us, showing up, and how friendship remains.

“…something that The Hearth was born out of is, wanting to make plays for people that may be going to school…that maybe don’t see themselves in a play. How could you pick up this play, and do it with your friends, and it would be accessible to you…”



TheaterLab & The Hearth present

Push Party

written by Nia Akilah Robinson

directed by Chesray Dolpha

thru June 23, 2024

TheaterLab

357 W 36th St, 3rd floor

Manhattan

tickets: $29 and up, available via OvationTix photos by Travis Emery Hackett

Listen in as performers Sevrin Willinder and Emily Conlon and director Melissa Ingle, of Shakespeare Translate: The Complete Works, discuss translation order, opening up and exploring the box, post-COVID theatre, playing with the audience, the show’s resident ShakesPEER expert, connecting, and why liveness is so integral to being human.

“…it’s such a funny idea…but it proves the fallacy of technology, how it’s letting us down in some ways. But we still get to bring it into the room, and engage with it, and have fun with the miscommunications, which is very Shakespearean…”



Devon Loves ME! and the Down to Clown Festival present

Shakespeare Translate: The Complete Works

written by William Shakespeare

translated by Google Translate

directed by Melissa Ingle

thru June 1, 2024

The Vino

274 Morgan Ave., Suite 201

Brooklyn

tickets: $15, available via the Sour Grapes website







photos by Melissa Ingle

Listen in as members of the team that devised What Will the Neighbors Say?‘s Third Law—director Coral Cohen, designer Cosette Pin, and performers Sam Hood Adrian and James Clements—discuss their devising process, exploring audience agency, Kandinsky, testing your show with live participants, taking risks, and where theatre meets gaming.

“…it’s unlike any game that you have played. You are controlling physical bodies all around you, like real life VR…like reality, but you’re making a play right in front of you.”



What Will the Neighbors Say? presents

Third Law

devised by the ensemble & designers

directed by Coral Cohen

thru May 26, 2024

Culture Lab LIC

5-25 46th Avenue

Long Island City, Queens

tickets: from $28.52, available via EventBrite

photos by Paris Marcel

Listen in as Luis Feliciano, Kristen Hoffman, Penelope Deen, & Padraig Bond of Torch Ensemble’s The Climate Fables: Debating Extinction & The Trash Garden, winner of “Best Play” in the New York City Fringe, discuss playing with trash, constant improvisation, clowning, casting the audience, ouija boards, bringing play to tragedy, and making a connection.

“…for me as an actor, I really feel like this play is so much about, ‘what do you do when the world is ending?’ You just play some games with your friends, and hope you stay ok…”



Torch Ensemble presents

The Climate Fables: Debating Extinction & The Trash Garden

written by Padraig Bond

directed by Padraig Bond & Torch Ensemble

April 3–17, 2024

UNDER St. Mark’s Theater

94A St. Mark’s Place

Manhattan