Staff Picks No. 96
EXAM : Buffy, MTHR TRSA, and many more!
LaMaMa
May 8th-11th 2025
My bet is that there will be lots of goo in this show. Buffy is here to examine the examination, bringing together a cast of transsexuals who are ready to dissect the system that insists on inspecting their bodies. Expect a high fashion art pop concert filled with the hottest people you've seen at the club (if you've been going to the right places).
Staffer: Noa Rui-Piin Weiss
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“Buffy’s EXAM is a performance art pop concert as anatomical theatre, stripping the tendons of America’s transsex-obsessed musculature and exposing its bones for sensory examination under the harsh glow of neon lights.”
“Composed as a suite of performances, three evenings and one afternoon of distinct productions can be attended as individual events or in sequence.”
Need I say more?
Staffer: Matthew Antoci
Love You More : Nikhil Mahapatra, N // Nicky Maggio, Jasmine Sharma
The Tank
May 29th-June 19th 2025
A play about siblings, as one of three, and with a dad who's one of five, will always tug at me. And this one has N // Nicky Maggio as a director and Jasmine Sharma in the cast. Yummy ingredients, and I'm excited to learn how an age-old dynamic gets revitalized in this new play. Check out this Tank Core production!
Staffer: Billy McEntee
Ooooh I am riffing off the other Staffers today… I am ALSO one of three siblings and MY dad is one of five. Make of that what you will! And go see this super dynamic and cool team’s show!
Staffer: Theresa Buchheister
Lincoln Bio : Adin Lenahan, Dmitri Barcomi
Brick Aux
May 14th-May 17th 2025
Split consciousness! Digital reality versus bodily reality! Online ideal versus physical ideal! The theatre is the form best suited to explore the digital in the most oxymoronic way.
Staffer: kanishk pandey
Ooooh I have been a fan and supporter of Dmitri for maaaaany years now and got to really work with Adin for the first time 2 years ago in ?!:New Works (a program recently determined not-good by the NEA, which feels right). I am so glad that they continue to pull the threads of performance, reality and oddity together. I will definitely astral project into the room for this one.
Staffer: Theresa Buchheister
Pageant Presents: Bacterial Vaginosis and the Germs : Noa Rui-Piin Weiss, Nina Guevara, Rae Su
Pageant
Thursday May 8th 2025
Go see Noa, fellow Staff Picker, shine as their drag persona Bacterial Vaginosis. If the title alone doesn't get you clicking for a ticket... I was lucky to see Rae Su's recent piece at ?! New Works with Paolina Gómez Gonzales -- a svelt and mischievous dance using baseball swings as the jumping-off point. I'm excited to see these artists together.
Staffer: Matthew Antoci
FAUST : Sara Holdren, Jacob Ashworth
Baruch Performing Arts
May 13th-25th 2025
I, like every theatermaker with issues needing many hours of therapy, have seen 1001 Fausts - Radiohole’s FAUST (THE BROKEN SHOW), a production of Mickle Maher’s “An Apology…by Doctor John Faustus” in a church crypt, the Wooster Group’s HOUSE/LIGHTS on Vimeo…but the time has come again. And this time, in a Heartbeat Opera production from Sara Holdren! Full disclosure, Sara was my directing mentor at the Mercury Store and a pal, but that will not preclude me from telling you to see what she’s done with theater’s favorite diabolic pact, from an exciting company that wonders what opera for the people, for the 21st century, looks like.
Staffer: Reuven Glezer
I second Reuven’s observation about Fausts… I even directed the A-text of Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus in the dorm theater when I was 19… over Easter weekend. The first time I saw David Greenspan perform live was in Target Margin’s Faust Part One in 2004 - he was Mephistopheles. I loved FAUST (THE BROKEN SHOW) so much and saw it multiple times during the run at The Brick. Anyway… I would absolutely LOVE to see Pulitzer-Fucking-Prize-Nominee Sara Holdren’s version. Since I cannot go, please go for me!
Staffer: Theresa Buchheister