WEDNESDAY
producer Catherine Woodard, playwright Stefani Kuo, and director Theo Maltz (image courtesy of Corkscrew Theater Festival)
delicacy of a puffin heart
July 25-August 5 at Paradise Factory, various times: $24 (pay what you can on July 28)
Presented as part of the second annual Corkscrew Theater Festival, a festival of new plays and readings showcasing up-and-coming artists, this play by writer, poet, and performer Stefani Kuo tackles the weighty topic of how female friendship and love perseveres in the midst of loss, lies, and decades of time. It does so by telling two stories: one of a lesbian couple trying to conceive in 1990s San Francisco, and one of their daughter 20 years later living in that same apartment and coping with illness. It can be hard to be a person who is consistently both living life and loving people, and this play seems to serve as a reminder of that.
THURSDAY
(image via James Dwyer / Facebook)
The BIG FUCK
Thursday, July 26 at A Boat, 8 pm: $10 suggested donation
You may have noticed this comedy show’s location is “a boat.” That is not a new basement bar or coyly-named DIY venue, but an actual boat. Yes, one that is meant to sail the open waters or what have you. One might ask where one finds/docks a boat in New York City. I cannot tell you, because the location is a secret (well, it’s in Bushwick, I can tell you that), to be revealed only to those who RSVP for the show. So, if you want to see Jo Firestone, Bowen Yang, Rachel Pegram, The Greys, and even more tell jokes while on a true blue boat (I don’t know if the boat is actually blue) at a show called, for some reason, The BIG FUCK, Thursday is your chance.
FRIDAY
(photo: Richard Termine)
Symphonie Fantastique
Now through September 2 at HERE Arts Center, 8:30 pm (weekends at 4 pm): $35+, 1 complimentary rush ticket each available to full-time students with ID (subject to availability)
Puppets sometimes get a bad rap, often thought to only have a place in children’s shows, toy stores, or on the hand of that one weird guy you went to high school with. The truth is, puppetry has just as vast a potential as any other art or performance medium, and one of the best examples of this is the work of Basil Twist. The MacArthur Genius Grant winner debuted his Symphonie Fantastique at HERE Arts Center 20 years ago, and now it is back with a live pianist, 1,000 gallon water tank, and of course, plenty of intricate puppetry. The show has been extended multiple times, but must close at the beginning of September. Plus, if you go on a Saturday night, your ticket will come with a free cocktail.
SATURDAY
(image via Vital Joint / Facebook)
Busted!
Saturday, July 28 at Vital Joint, 8 pm: $5
There are a lot of drag shows to see in the city, but this is “New York’s only drag show,” so do what you will with that information. Hosted by Chase Montavon, who once did an absurd character at one of my shows involving a girl who wants to regain her virginity to be allowed to ride the bus she was previously kicked off of due to lewd conduct, the show appears to feature a mix of comedians and comedic-leaning drag performers. The lineup includes rapping drag queen Adele Computer, and comedians Andrés Govea, Edy Modica, Lena Einbinder, Eliza Kimberly, Maya Sharma, and Anthony Schepis. Will the drag performers do comedy? Will the comedians do drag? One might argue the two can be one in the same. But as always, there is only one way to find out.
SUNDAY
(image via The Dirty Blondes / Facebook)
Beta Reading Series: I’m Very Online
Sunday, July 29 at BAM, 6 pm: FREE
If you are reading this, you are probably pretty online, at least enough to be on a web page. Maybe you’re even very online, to the extent that your IRL friends have forbidden you from discussing Twitter drama anywhere near them because you’re so deep in it and they value their mental stability too much to have you explain. Whatever degree of online you may be, you have to venture into the real world to attend this staged reading of Ben Ferber’s new play, I’m Very Online. The play centers around what happens when “two people from the most extreme parts of opposite ends of the Internet” meet face-to-face and, curiously, become friends. The event is free, but RSVP is required.
