Indie Theater Thursday – May 29
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.
Burnt Toast Sketch Show
Location: Frigid NYC Under St. Marks
Dates: Thursday 5/29 - 7 pm; Friday 5/30 - 7 pm; June 1 - 7 pm
Burnt Toast Sketch Show is a high-octane, queer-run, absurdist take on sketch comedy. Past audience members have described our shows as "a real-live TikTok feed," which I guess we'll take-- we specialize in sketches that hit you hard and fast. Our hour-long shows usually have between 20-30 sketches in them, which is damn near a sketch a minute!
We start our writing process by doing improv, and then we take the best, weirdest, most out-of-the-box ideas from our jams and refine them until they are fully-written sketches. We do topical, we do timeless, we do clownish nonsense -- we do it all. And we do a lot of gay stuff. A disproportionate amount of gay stuff. Audience heckling is encouraged :)
Short Plays Where the Queers Win (mostly)
Location: WOW Cafe Theater
Dates: May 29-31 at 7:30pm, May 31 at 2pm (Matinee)
Seven new plays about the intimate “behind the scenes” of Queer relationships from LOM playwright Nolan Kennedy. These plays range from hook-ups to break-ups, from midnight murderers to garbage barge rides. Each piece hones in on the moments of joy, struggle, decision, and anticipation that prisms life for Queer people in the world today.
With a diverse cast and creative team comprised of some of the most promising Queer, Trans, and Womxn talents in NYC, this anthology of works triumphs over isolation and loneliness, mostly. Above all, they yearn for connection, validation, embrace, and humanity.
$15 ticket option for working artists!
Outraged Hearts - The Pretty Trap and Interior : Panic by Tennessee Williams
Location: Houghton Hall Arts Community
Dates: May 15 - May 30, 7:30pm
Following an acclaimed run in New Orleans and a NYC preview run at TORN PAGE, The Fire Weeds in association with Houghton Hall presents a limited run of OUTRAGED HEARTS - The Pretty Trap and Interior : Panic by Tennessee Williams, Directed by Jaclyn Bethany. Produced by The Fire Weeds.
The Pretty Trap and Interior: Panic explores early iterations of iconic works The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire. Seating is extremely limited. General Admission means general seating, VIP means front row reserved seat.
Please note this show has immersive elements, and audiences are encouraged to arrive at the show fifteen minutes before the curtain to enjoy the pre-show. For all shows this will be 7:15 PM. There is one ten minute intermission. The entire performance runs 90 minutes.
The Fire Weeds is a new, immersive, female-driven theatre company committed to producing and boldly exploring classic and new texts.
The cast includes Chris Ghaffari, Megan Metrikin, Jaclyn Bethany, Jacob Storms, Lauren Guglielmello and Sarah Schuler
Without God As My Lover
Location: spit&vigor's Tiny Baby Blackbox
Dates: May 22 – June 8, Thursdays-Saturdays 7:30pm, Sundays 2:30pm
Use ticket code OUTLANDER for 25% off
Without God As My Lover is a 90-minute two-hander about Teresa – a former Catholic turned atheist – who digs for the truth of her estranged father's last days by playing a game of cat and mouse with the priest who took her father's final confession.
Come experience this passionate, hilarious, and poignant new play up close and personal in an intimate production staged in the round with just 20 seats per performance and find yourself investigating your own relationship to faith, religion, and father figures.
The Leg.
Location: Mitu580
Dates: Saturday, May 24 through Saturday, June 7, running Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8pm
The Leg is an ensemble-based physical theatre performance that uses Butoh, Bouffon and Puppetry to explore the links between spirituality, pain, pleasure and politics. Drawing from the writings of Foucault and Preciado, this devised hybrid movement piece combines laughter and danger to explore the idea that we are all political fiction alive.
Use discount code LEG15 for $15 tickets
Sunset Diner
Location: The Rat NYC
Date: May 30 at 9pm
Newly-engaged couple Anita and David visit an upscale diner to celebrate their relationship milestone. As the evening unfolds, odd things begin to occur, and the date reveals to be more than it appears.
Sunset Diner, a new psychological thriller play by Kevin Cheng, will receive its world premiere at The Rat NYC on May 30 as part of the Unpolished Play Series produced by Aimée Lutkin and Bill DiPiero. The play will be directed by Alysia Homminga and star Jennifer Analise Roberts and Kevin Cheng.
Also presenting their new works at the Unpolished Play Series this month are Antonia Cruz-Kent, Bill DiPiero, Aimée Lutkin, and Alex Vara.
The End of All Flesh
Location: The Magnet Theater
Dates: June 2, June 9, June 16, and June 23. All shows at 6:30pm
The End of All Flesh is a rollicking, post-apocalyptic, cautionary bluegrass tale by Greg Kotis (Tony Award-winning co-author of Urinetown.) Join Ma, Pa, Boy, and Girl atop a distant mountain, where they sing about environmental collapse, changing gender norms, Hobbes, Rousseau, ancient Greece, questionable survivalist practices, and a glimpse of what’s to come.
Audacious Owl Theatre Festival
Location: Chain Theatre, FL 4
Dates: June 10-13 at 7pm, June 14 at 2pm and 7pm, June 15 at 1pm and 6pm
This is a brand new festival committed to producing bold work that investigates what it means to be alive. There will be a wide variety of 10 minute and 1 act plays, so come on through!
RIP Jabari, you would've loved the Apple Dance
Location: Factory Series at the Chain Theatre
Dates: Wednesday, June 11 at 7pm and Saturday June 14 at 7pm
RIP Jabari You Would've Loved the Apple Dance follows Chiara and Elijah, two best friends and roommates who win a contest from Bridgit Mendler's new space company. Their prize? The chance to test and interact with an AI robot modeled after their late best friend, Jabari. As they navigate this surreal experience, they grapple with grief, memory, and the strange intersection of technology and loss.
What begins as a high-tech reunion becomes a heartfelt journey about holding on, letting go, and the enduring power of friendship.
AT the Barricades
Location: MITU580
Dates: June 12 - June 29
Use the code INDIE for 20% off your ticket purchase
“At the Barricades” is a source-based history play about the international troops fighting in the Spanish Civil War, co-written by the What Will the Neighbors Say? Co-Artistic Directors James Clements and Sam Hood Adrain. The drama follows six different characters from the United States, Spain and Scotland, brought together, despite their varied backgrounds, by a shared desire to fight against Franco’s fascist coup. We join them on the outskirts of Madrid in January 1937 and witness, over the course of a year, how their political loyalties, personal relationships and understanding of themselves are strengthened, challenged and irrevocably changed by the tragedy and the carnage around them. Developed through a partnership with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives (ALBA), this prescient new play asks the question: how far would you go to protect the freedoms of others?
The project was developed at the Brooklyn Art Haus with the support of the Brooklyn Arts Council, and through a year-long residency at NYU’s Espacio de Culturas at KJCC with Director Federica Borlenghi and Script Supervisor Skye Pallo Ross.
The show will run approximately 100 minutes with no intermission.
These Are the Rules
Location: Brooklyn Art Haus
Date: June 12, 14 & 15 at 7:30pm
‘These Are the Rules’ is a two-play theatrical experience exploring the quiet ruptures and explosive reckonings inside the homes & relationships we think we know best. Debuting for the first time on stage, ‘This World Is Mine’ & ‘Game Night’ examine how unspoken rules—familial, societal, and self-imposed—shape our lives in ways we may not always see. Intimate, sharp, and deeply human, this evening of theatre invites you to listen closely to what’s being said—and, perhaps more importantly, what isn’t.
Once Upon a Time in NYC
Location: Reverie Room
Date: JJune 12, 14 & 15 at 7:30pm
Award-nominated creators Shared Manifest Entertainment debut their first live theatrical production, Once Upon a Time in NYC, on June 13th at 7 PM at Reverie Room (163 W 72nd Street, NYC). Tickets are $15 plus a $10 snack and drink cover.
In celebration of New York City's 400th anniversary, six original 10-minute plays reimagine classic fairytales with a distinctly New York twist, including subway wonderlands, drag queen fairy godmothers, and the city’s ruthless housing market.
Directed by Jessica Thompson and produced by Jackie Jorgenson, the cast features Tehilah Keturah, Sami Binder, Nick Gangone, Airen Guevara, Abigail Espinal, and Anthony Castellano in multiple lively roles.