Indie Theater Thursday – August 21
It’s Indie Theater Thursday!
We share upcoming indie theater shows/productions happening in New York City. These are submitted by members of the IndieSpace community.
Do you have an upcoming show to share? Use the Show/Production Sharing Form to share the details of your show/production with IndieSpace so that we can share with the community.
Much Ado About Nothing
Location: El Barrio's ArtSpace PS109
Dates: August 14-24
Benedick and Beatrice have history. Big, messy, will-they-won’t-they, love/hate history. The best kind, am I right? And everyone knows it. So when Benedick, along with the regiment of soldiers he belongs to returns to Leonato’s four star resort in Messina, where Beatrice happens to be living, things are about to get fun. Oh, there’s also Claudio and Hero, who totally have the hots for each other but aren’t ever going to make a move- without a little help. And then there’s Don John, he’s gorg but likes to cause a little (well, a lot) of trouble. And all taking place at a beautiful beachside resort? It’s giving White Lotus- we just hope everyone makes it out alive.
After the smashing success of last summer’s A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, Tier5 is ecstatic to bring another of Shakespeare’s iconic comedies to life and put their signature twist on this classic about rumors, gossip, falling in love, and falling out of it.
So grab your suntan lotion, a big floppy hat, and join us at the beach (or El Barrio) for another summer of Shakespeare like you’ve never seen it before!
Checkmark's 2025 Summer Reading Series
Location: INTAR Theatre
Dates: August 21 and 22
Tickets are free!
Checkmark's presenting our second, annual Summer Reading Series of three new plays written and directed by artists of the global majority!
When we decided to reopen our doors, we knew the best way to do so was to welcome as many new artists into the Checkmark fold as possible. That’s why we began producing an annual, Summer Reading Series and, this year, we are workshopping three new plays by Abigail C. Onwunali, Megan Chan Meinero, and Esperanza Rosales Balcárcel.
Each piece is provided with rehearsal space, casting resources, and dramaturgical support, culminating in a public presentation for industry and community members alike. Most importantly, every artist involved is paid $26/hour so Checkmark can role model what equitable, community-driven new work development looks like for the industry at large.
Three Cis-ters
Location: The Tank
Date: August 21
In this modern, queer adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s classic play, Three Cis-ters follows the Prozorov family through their unfulfilled dreams in their provincial Russian town. Unhappy unions lead to clandestine affairs, clandestine affairs crash and burn, a gun goes off, and tragedy strikes.
The Clouds
Location: UNDER St Marks
Dates: August 21 and August 23
The Clouds is the SEVENTH of Padraig Bond's award winning series, “The Climate Fables”, to be staged at UNDER St Marks.
At the end of time, humanity is starving in the final city in the world, split between warring factions of police and protesters. A child who lives in the clouds lands on earth and must bring the rest of humanity back to the sky with them.
Written in 2020, this play speaks prophetically to the PREVIOUS time that the national guard was weaponized against American civilians, and the battle against authoritarianism in the climate crisis.
LIGHTS OUT AND AWAY WE GO
Location: Houghton Hall Arts Community Edwin Booth Acting Studio
Dates: August 21 and 22
This reading is FREE.
Riya, Morgan, and Frites are the only women on the pit crew for Scuderia Pirandello's Formula 1 racing team — actually, they're the only women in all of Formula 1 — and it's not quite how they imagined it. Over the course of the season they travel around the world, from race track to race track, feeding their desire to win (trophies! champagne!) and grappling with the inherent danger of being a woman in a man's world.
From Here (or, The Last New York Living Room Play) by Anastasia West
Location: New venue in Historic FiDi Loft, Address disclosed only to ticket holders
Dates: August 22-24 and 29-31
Use code "ihatebushwick42069" for 25% off tickets
Judd and Ada are old friends and native New Yorkers refuting change in their 20s in their unhealthy personal echo chamber. When Bex, a transplant, permeates their bubble, Ada begins to feel the weight of her popped codependency with Judd finally come crashing down on her. Things have changed, they can't go back, but seemingly, they can't move forward either.
Bedtime Stories: A Dreamy Experience
Location: The Hidden Jewel Box Theater
Dates: August 22 and 23
Tucked away in a hidden location revealed only to ticket holders, this immersive performance invites you into a living storybook. Dancers emerge from the trees, fairy tales and folklore are brought to life in an intimate evening of whimsy, beauty and enchantment.
Bedtime Stories is a love letter to the nights when the air feels heavy with wonder and heat, and every shadow holds a sexy secret. Come step into our dream.
This special event takes place at The Hidden Jewel Box, a clandestine speakeasy nestled snugly in Manhattan’s Theater District.
Tucked away in a secret corner of the Theater District, The Hidden Jewel Box is a space like none other, a bohemian haven mixing decorative elements drawing from Rococo paintings, Victorian boudoirs, 1970s discotheques and Grimm fairy tales. Get your tickets now and become part of the secret, only at The Hidden Jewel Box Theater. The location of the theater is strictly on a need-to-know basis and will be revealed only to those who have purchased tickets to a show. Exact location and instructions for theater entrance will be emailed upon ticket purchase.
Tickets are limited. Each ticket comes with 2 refreshments.
Vamos A Reir Un Poco (Let’s laugh a little)
Location: Teatro LATEA
Date: August 23
Note: This staged reading is free.
Rick goes on a funny and heartfelt journey reflecting on his childhood to fatherhood.
His vivid memories growing up in Brooklyn, New York and colorful characters, embraces the highs and lows of his life.
Rick is faced with the fears of becoming a father, while revisiting the anger and abandonment of not having his father around.
Wigs: The Play
Location: The Rat NYC
Date: August 27
Wigs! is a wild new Off-Broadway improv play where wigs drive the story and anything can happen. Each night, the audience (via Instagram) picks the genre — from murder mystery to rom-com — and a cast of quick, brilliant actors (in fabulous wigs) creates a brand-new, fully improvised tale on the spot. Created by Ava Monroe, Wigs! blends the chaos of improv with the heart of narrative theatre — no script, no rehearsal, just wigs, guts, and glitter.
WRITE CLUB Summer Playfest
Location: The Vino Theater
Dates: August 28, 29 and 31
WRITE CLUB presents its first Summer Playfest, a three-day festival showcasing original short plays by emerging playwrights and directors. Each night features a dynamic mix of stories brought to life by a talented group of NYC-based artists. Produced by WRITE CLUB and Isabelle Chirls.
This is not a workshop series. These are fully staged productions presented for a live audience. The Summer Playfest is a celebration of new voices and bold ideas in contemporary theater. Expect thoughtful, funny, and moving performances that reflect the diverse perspectives of a new generation of theater-makers.
Please note that each performance contains all six short plays, with an intermission.
Hamlet: Prince of Denmark
Location: 14Y Blackbox
Dates: August 29 and 30
Note: Tickets are pay as you can!
Hamlet: Prince of Denmark is an original adaptation of Shakespeare's Hamlet co-created by Cary Sasso and Ryan Dukes which reimagines the titular prince as a ftm transgender teenager.
Picking up on strong affinity queer teens have for Hamlet - he's something of an icon for trans youth - this adaptation asks the question: what if Hamlet was not a prince at all, but a transgender teenager using Shakespeare's text to cope with his grief and isolation, framing the people in his life as queens, kings, and lords and himself as the heroic Prince of Denmark as part of a desperate quest for meaning and dignity? As the story progresses and Hamlet begins to lose his grip on reality, the line between Hamlet's imposed Shakespearean narrative and the underlying reality begins to blur, leaving Hamlet alone with his hoodie, his taped-together paper crown which the other characters constantly try to destroy, and his faltering princely persona to navigate a hostile world of genuine royalty hell-bent on ripping away his sense of identity.
Reflection: Short Play Festival
Location: The Tank
Dates: August 29, 30, and 31
Welcome to Reflection, Epheverie Theatre Co.’s Inaugural 2025 Short Play Festival! This festival invites audiences to turn inward—challenge perspectives, confront biases, and re-examine self-concepts. Featuring six bold new works from a range of emerging voices, Reflection spans absurdist comedy to searing tales of loss—all grounded in a heightened reality. Each piece explores the transformative power of art to help us see what we’ve long avoided and encourages us to renew.
ASCO (disgust) by Yunior Garcia
Location: ATELIER at TheatreLab
Dates: September 1-4
Set in contemporary Cuba, “ASCO (Disgust)” is a powerful memory play that explores the emotional and psychological aftermath of personal and collective trauma. At its heart is Nara, a woman grappling with grief, guilt, and societal expectations after the tragic loss of her children.
To Feed the Roses
Location: Dream Up Festival, Theater for the New City
Dates: September 2, 4, 5, 7, 9 and 13
A romantic comedy about an older couple whose past secrets get in the way of their falling in love again.
This is an Equity Showcase -- Free for Equity members.
(No) Refunds
Location: Theaterlab
Dates: September 5, 11, 19, and 26
Use ticketcode IndieSpace25
Originally developed as a First Look Series production at Theaterlab (May ’25) – before winning over hearts across the pond at Edinburgh Fringe (@ Just the Tonic | Aug ’25) – this fall she’s baaaaaaack baby and more delightful than ever. Catch Tiffany Gold’s charm this September as THEATERLAB PRESENTS the best interactive game show in Manhattan.
(No) Refunds is an interactive gameshow-play hosted by the dazzling, delightful, and only occasionally maniacal Tiffany Gold, an old-school American gameshow host and model presenter all-in-one – who quite literally depends on your entertainment.
One premium ticket holder, dubbed the “Star Player” for the evening, will compete in three games designed to amuse the audience and showcase their talents. Although at least a partial refund is guaranteed for our Star Player, will they accept it when they understand the implications of their choice?
(No) Refunds is a play about the real-world costs of being a working artist in our contemporary world, disguised as the most fun you’ve ever had at the theatre.
Performed by: Katy Murphy and Grant Kennedy Lewis
Produced by: Olivia Winn | For The Fun LLC
Stage Managed by: Francesca Pecchi
The Matriarchs
Location: Theaterlab
Dates: September 10-28
It’s Shabbas. And six squabbling teenage girls at a weekly Talmud lesson negotiate snacks, sex, their souls and everything in between.
Loosely based on the underwritten women of the Torah, THE MATRIARCHS by Liba Vaynberg charts the journey of six friends as they grow up and out of the orthodoxy, grappling with fertility and faith. Developed with the Civilians and winner of the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, this is a play about girls, gods, mothers, and other creators: for anyone and everyone who doesn’t know what to believe in.
This Theaterlab Presents production is produced by Anna & Kitty, Inc., with generous support from the Bronx Cultural Visions Fund, ART/NY Creative Opportunity Fund, and the Venturous Theater Fund of the Tides Foundation.
(un)conditional
Location: Soho Playhouse
Dates: September 18 - October 26
Fantasies are harmless, right? But what happens when your spouse wants to take a dark fantasy from the realm of imagination firmly into your bedroom? For two couples, the boundaries of compromise, communication, and unconditional love are tested to their breaking point, and seven-year-old Mia is getting caught in the crossfire.
Dinner Party
Location: 3AM Theatre
Dates: September 18-21
Dinner Party is a multidisciplinary cross between a dance and a play. Text and movement intertwine to convey intimate storylines that touch on everyday and challenging topics. Growing out of Michelle Thompson’s interest in the choreographic structure of the duet, the work builds as a series of conversations between couples, highlighting the ways in which the conflicts and closeness of these intimate relationships reveal themselves in more public settings.
Thompson, in collaboration with Scott Illingworth of Society Theatre Company, has partnered with playwrights, actors, and dancers to bring you multiple storylines that will collide at the same dinner party. Original music by Michael Wall intertwines through these storylines to guide and enhance the journey of the characters. The individual characters on stage are unaware of the struggles and baggage that each relationship holds but ultimately the storylines start to collide and cause the party to implode. Come see the stories unfold at 3AM Theatre in Queens September 18th-21st.
Spirit of a Baton Twirler
Location: Emerging Artists Theater Company's SPARK FESTIVAL at the Chain Theater
Date: September 22
"Spirit of a Baton Twirler," a one-woman show born from the loss of my mother to stage 4 lung cancer in 2014. Her final words have echoed in my mind ever since, prompting deep reflection on our life together, my childhood, and the complexities of our relationship.
This project is deeply personal, but it’s also universal. It speaks to anyone who has navigated the challenges of growing up in the 1960s-70s, dealt with divorce, moved between schools, faced step-family dynamics, or experienced the pain of losing a loved one. The show explores the journey from the safety of childhood through the confusion of adolescence and into the uncertainty of adulthood, touching on joys, regrets, forgiveness, and the things left unsaid. My hope is to spark laughter, reflection, and meaningful conversations—encouraging people to reach out to their loved ones while they still can.
Tree Confessions
Location: Site-specific audio play for a tree on Governors Island
Dates: Anytime! It is self-scheduled audio play: scan the QR code, find a tree, and press play on the audio!
It is free for the entire summer on Governors Island.
See poster with QR code! Audiences can scan the QR code, which leads them to the play.
Trees talk! In a landmark study, a scientist learned everything about how trees communicate. — Or did she? One tree tells the story of what really happened, reminding us that human beings and plants live in one interconnected ecosystem.
Presenting the world’s first play told entirely from the point of view of a tree. To experience this site-specific audio play, find a tree near you, sit under it (or nearby), press play, and listen to the tree’s confessions.