Listen in as Bread of Life playwright Frank Pagliario, director Leslie Kincaid Burby, along with the cast of Nikaury Rodriguez, Jesse Castellanos, Miguel K. Reis, Laura Fois, & Cameron Mark Russell, discuss Catholic School upbringing, charismatic cults, Biblical and modern language, vibrant colors, what Jesus asked us to do, and the wreckage that is left behind.

“…I just think it’s a really interesting way to look at…a charismatic cult leader, about what happens to women who are left behind when partners go off to do their adventure, and they’re left to somehow hold things together…”

UP Theater Company presents

Bread of Life

written by Frank Pagliaro

thru April 12, 2025

Fort Washington Collegiate Church

tickets: $25 ($15 students/seniors), available via EventBrite

photos by Edward Lopez

Listen in as Lilith in Pisces playwright Kayla Eisenberg, along with director Stephanie Cox-Connolly, discuss missed connections, revealing secrets, Jekyll & Hyde, starting from anywhere, campfire plays, designer collaborations, staging the unstageable, adjacency to horror, “a little bit of not-sympathy,” Stephanie’s recipe for making stage-ready mac & cheese, and things that are funny until they’re not.

“…I don’t know if it was the stars in the sky as we were reading this, or the fire started getting more fire-y, but there was a feeling with this that, THIS is a play we need to produce…I wanted plays that had that living room drama kinda feel…I like that kinda feeling of…just, ‘what is happening?’ that had theatrics in it that no one in their right mind would want to do…”

Drops in the Vase presents

Lilith in Pisces

written by Kayla Eisenberg

thru March 22, 2025

The Flea’s Siggy Theater

tickets: $45, available via dropsinthevase.com

photos by Kent Meister

Listen in as Anonymous playwright & director Nick Thomas, along with performers Adam Belvo (Michael) and Azumi Tsutsui (Diana), discuss sharing a character, letting the story pour out, the relief of the audience, “embedded” theatre, “rehearsal with a bunch of strangers,” going “full Australian business-bro,” finding a character that’s far from you, taking us back to the (awesome) 1990s, and the potential of anonymity.

“…it has a different feeling of freshness. Like, I can feel the people sitting beside me, and they don’t know what’s going on, but hearing the story for the first time…I can feel, people are feeling it…”

Spit & Vigor presents

Anonymous

written & directed by Nick Thomas

thru February 22, 2025

Tiny Baby Blackbox

tickets: $30 and up, available via Spit & Vigor’s website

photos by Giancarlo Osaben

Listen in as Dan Kitrosser, playwright and performer of HOMOS! A Solo Disaster Musical, Bitch, discusses eerie timing, controlling the audience, fun Tony Kushner references, integrating children’s theatre performing techniques, the need for clowns, finding where you fit in the world, and distilling down your large-scale musical to be done by yourself (because scheduling is hard).

“…for so many years, I was like, ‘okay, I do that kind of performance, then I have my plays,’ and those are two different things. And I realized that, that in and of itself creates an antagonistic structure…I’m interested in what happens if we redefine what theatre is…”

HOMOS! A Solo Disaster Musical, Bitch

written & performed by Dan Kitrosser

thru March 23, 2025

The Stonewall Inn

tickets: $25, available via OvationTix

Listen in as the Director of the shows in this year’s The Fire This Time Festival, Kimille Howard, along with Producing Artistic Director Cezar Williams, discuss finding balance, discovering musical talent, bringing together black voices in the theatre, finding new collaborators, figuring out the big game of scheduling Tetris, leaning into the practicalities, and making magic.

“…it’s a theatrical event…to amplify the career of black playwrights…we pull together an incredible team of artist…and it’s always a good time.”

The Fire This Time, in collaboration with FRIGID New York, presents

The Fire This Time, Season 16 (2025)

featuring plays written by FELISPEAKS, Brittany Fisher, TyLie Shider, Garrett Turner, Jeanette W. Hill, & D.L. Patrick

thru February 2, 2025

The Wild Project

tickets: $25, available via firethistimefestival.com

photos by Dante Crichlow

Listen in as The Last Days of Judas Iscariot director Bernard Bosio, along with performers Elena Lozonschi, Camila Melgar, Claude Choukrane, Ted Thompson, & Phil Williams, discuss the culture of Heights Players, the importance of understudies, the sound of real New York dialogue, despair and hope, vibe shifts, inspiring conversations, relying on your collaborators, and the brilliance of Stephen Adly Guirgis.

“…people do make mistakes, and some of them are catastrophic…but are all of them irredeemable?”

The Heights Players presents

The Last Days of Judas Iscariot

written by Stephen Adly Guirgis

thru January 19, 2025

Heights Players

tickets: $20 / $18 (students/seniors), available via OnTheStage

photos by Andrea Bernardo

photo by Joe Pacifico

Listen in as Racecar Racecar Racecar playwright Kallan Dana, director Sarah Blush, and producer/performer Julia Greer, discuss the open road of a script, symmetry & palindromic structures, complicated father relationships, creating breaks, emergency relocations, and taking road trips with your collaborators.

“…I’m a person who tries to talk and talk until I can get to what I mean, and I’m always failing. The words are always failing you. And so I think that feels like a really emotionally true thing for me, and that was part of the fun for generating the language in this play…”

The Hearth presents

Racecar Racecar Racecar

written by Kallan Dana

thru December 22, 2024

A.R.T./NY Mezzanine Theatre

tickets: $29/$45, available via TicketTailor

photos by Travis Emery Hackett

Listen in as Ana Mari de Quesada (Producing Artistic Director) & Tom Escovar (Producing Director) of The Wild Project discuss venue stability, sustainable architecture, providing opportunities for exciting new work, hoping to find an angel, infamous signage, why this incredible space needs to remain open in the East Village, and how you can help. #savewildproject

“We’re home to many downtown artists…especially since the pandemic […] the number of independent theaters that can house independent artists, give them free space or subsidized space, is shrinking. We really just want to solidify our home, for all the artists that we serve in this community…”

The Wild Project

Producing Artistic Director Ana Mari de Quesada, photo by Paul Logston

The Wild Project, photo by Anthony Misiano

Listen in as performers Fareeda Pasha & Dylan Lesch, and Hana Fatima Dehradunwala, playwright of The Last Word, along with Amani Meliyah, director, and Aliyah Curry, playwright of Receptors, both plays in The Science in Theatre Festival, discuss responsibility, “doing the research” and having access to those who *did* the research, standing on the shoulders of giants, last words, making social media explode onstage, the insanity of being a human being, and the bleeding edge between theatre and science.

“There’s something wrong with the world…[we should be] treating this country we live in as a community, we’re all responsible for each other…”

Transforma Theatre presents

The Science in Theatre Festival

thru November 26, 2024

Brooklyn Art Haus

tickets: $30, $25 students/seniors, available via Stellar Tickets

photos by Dinara Khairova

Listen in as Boomerang Theatre Company Artistic Director Tim Errickson, producer of the world premiere of Gina Femia’s Mercutio Loves Romeo Loves Juliet Loves, discusses joy in hindsight, speeches that won’t let you rest, upending the madness, giving some distance to put things into perspective, and turning a tragedy into something celebratory.

“…I think that’s what the play is really trying to capture, is this idea that, unlike Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, who don’t get that moment, because theirs is cut off at the end of the play…our characters get to move forward, and grow and change and experience what it means to have that as part of their history, and their journey…we often see LGBTQ-themed stories on stage that tend to center around some sort of tragedy, violence, bigotry, hatred…and I know that Gina wanted to be able to celebrate the things that are also in the LGBTQ experience, and to show them as powerful, and joyful, and life-changing, and heartfelt, and highly relatable…”

Boomerang Theatre Company presents

Mercutio Loves Romeo Love Juliet Loves

written by Gina Femia

thru November 24, 2024

The Jeffrey & Paula Gural Theatre at A.R.T./NY

tickets: $30 (general), $50 (GA plus drinks), or $80 (VIP), available via OnTheStage

photos by Isaiah Tanenbaum