Indie Theater Thursday – May 08
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.
Now Circa Then by Carly Mensch
Location: Morningside Theater Co. Space
Dates: April 24 to May 11 – Thu and Fri at 7:30pm, Saturdays at 5pm, and Sundays at 3pm, (no show May 8th).
Two young tenement museum re-enactors unlikely romance goes off the rails in this delightful, time-traveling comedy.
Featuring Anna Lei Negrin and Daniel Yaiullo and directed by Luke Hofmaier, this poignant comedy is set in a beloved tenement museum on New York’s Lower East Side.
The Episodic Theatre Project Season 2 presents: Don’t Turn Around Now
Location: Frigid New York/Under St. Marks
Dates: May 8, May 15, and May 22 at 7pm
Join the Episodic Theatre Project for five binge-worthy episodes of “Don’t Turn Around Now,” our Season 2 show. Over the course of five weeks, the mysteries of Knife’s Point will unfold in a series of self-contained plays with one central, suspense-filled arc.
Within the walls of Knife’s Point’s popular diner, secrets are brewing faster than a pot of Maxwell House. If charismatic millionaire Manny has their way, a new Arts District on Main Street will become the next big arts hub, overrun with artists, deep-pocketed tourists, and magazine features (plus murder plots). While locals are excited that their sleepy town will soon be revived, a few characters from Manny’s past will stop at nothing to prevent the Arts District plans from coming to fruition. Can Knife’s Point withstand the burden of secrets, pot-stirring, and small-town backstabbing? Only time—and five tea-spilling episodes—will tell.
In Scena! Italian Theater Festival NY
Location: Multiple venues in New York
Dates: May 5 - 19
In Scena! Italian Theater Festival NY is a showcase of performances from Italy, presented in the five NYC boroughs with minimal tech and set design. All shows have English supertitles and are free admission to all, offering Italian theater to everyone in New York City!
We Do The Same Thing Every Week
Location: A.R.T./New York Theatres: Jeffrey and Paula Gural Theatre
Dates: May 2 – May 17
Dick and Jane are bored on a rainy Sunday afternoon. A six-foot tall cat shows up, and hijinks ensue. Later, elsewhere, Dick and Jane are bored on a rainy Sunday afternoon. A six-foot tall cat shows up, and hijinks ensue. Everywhere, space is a false vacuum waiting to decay. Try not to think about it while your boredom gnaws away at you. We Do the Same Thing Every Week is a one-act comedy about repetition, boredom, and the delicious, refreshing taste of Coca-Cola®.
Those Who Remained
Location: La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, The Club
Dates: May 8 - 10 at 7:30pm, May 11 at 3pm, May 15-17 at 7:30pm, and May 18 at 3pm
In this transformative multimedia solo show, Sophia Gutchinov explores the profound depths of love through a deeply personal lens of Indigenous ceremony and modern dating. Drawing from her unique Italian-Mongolian heritage, she weaves a narrative that bridges cultural divides, reflecting her background of a Buddhist father and Catholic mother.
The performance incorporates projections, comedy, and spoken word, creating an immersive experience that confronts personal roots and identity. Collaborating with artists from diverse backgrounds – including AAPI, Latin, Black, LGBTQ+, and Kalmyk tribal performers – Gutchinov examines her family’s complex history, including her grandparents’ escape from WWII, her parent’s nomadic journey to…New Jersey, and her recent journey to her father’s homeland, all viewed through an intersection of acting and neuroscience.
Doctor Faustus
Location: Staten Island Playhouse @ Empire Outlets
Date: May 9 & 10 at 8pm, May 11 at 2pm, May 16 & 17 at 8pm, May 18 at 2pm
In this atmospheric-horror reimagining of “Doctor Faustus”, Christopher Marlowe’s tale of ambition and damnation is thrust into the heart of the American Great Depression. Set against a backdrop of economic despair, Faustus, a brilliant yet disillusioned academic, is lured by demonic Mephistopheles, who takes on the role of a “puppet master,” guiding him into deeper moral corruption.
With every sin, Faustus becomes more entangled in Mephistopheles’ sinister puppet show, his every movement dictated by the decaying world around him. As Faustus descends further, the line between reality and nightmare blurs, and the Seven Deadly Sins—sinister marionettes who were once human, now acting as the devil’s “hand”—emerge from the shadows, their twisted forms locked in eternal torment.
This immersive production blends Marlowe’s original text with chilling visuals, occult traditions, puppetry, sound, and movement to evoke a world on the brink. Through the lens of Depression-era America, where survival is a ruthless game, the struggle between Faust and Mephistopheles takes on a terrifying new resonance, exploring psychological horror and existential dread.
Zig-Zag
Location: Pearl Studios (500 8th Avenue)
Date: Wednesday May 14 at 6pm
A dystopian Irish play that speaks to a world in ever-increasing conflict, Zig-Zag explores a near future in which the Irish border has been locked off. In search of her missing boyfriend, Keeva smuggles herself across the border and hides out in local Rowan’s pub cellar. Will one act of friendship be enough to inspire change, or will Ireland be forever divided?
Tiresias Presents Quantum Mysteriosa
Location: Ars Nova Theater
Date: May 14 at 7pm
Featuring some of the most visionary performing artists in New York City, Tiresias Presents Mysteriosa is a fantasia of short new works promising untold mystery and magic. Step inside, stay for a spell, and unspool the secrets of Mysteriosa. With SYNEAD | TRISTAN ALLEN | MIZUHO KAPPA | GOD COMPLEX | & TIRESIAS (PUPPETRY, DRAG, MUSIC, & PERFORMANCE ART)
Tiresias Presents Quantum Physique
Location: The Chocolate Factory (70 Scott Ave)
Date: May 14, 10pm-4am
Tiresias Presents Quantum Physique is an experimental art rave loosely inspired by the mind-bending (and queer) science of quantum physics, featuring world-class butoh, techno, sound and performance art all night long.
dhoka/Betrayal/
Location: JACK
Dates: May 15-17 at 7:30pm; May 17 at 3:00pm
With a heady, erotic pulse, the sacred energy of fire bubbles over in dhoka/Betrayal/, an intimate dance-theater duet that entangles Hindu goddess Kali’s ultimate power with ethnonationalism. This fire is one that South-Asian artists and physical practitioners have harnessed since ancient times, acting as a reminder of one’s own power and as a tool of resistance. dhoka reclaims this heat to reimagine Kali’s mythology with the eroticism, androgyneity, gore, and epicness that often gets written out of post-colonial South-Asian art. With audiences peering into a fraught ritual between Kali and her follower, dhoka uses these aesthetics to trace the line between salvation and corruption, looking at how religion is used as a tool for propaganda in India. Letting the epic and human dance together, dhoka challenges a Hindu culture that is rapidly masculinizing itself to better fit a world of violence, invoking the feminine with one cathartic cry and a terrifying, bloodied tongue.
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
The End of All Flesh
Location: The Magnet Theater
Dates: May 19, 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.
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