Would you rather spend a short evening watching stuff in a bar or dedicate your whole day to the wildest and most visceral of performance art? This week, you can do both.
WEDNESDAY
Where The Wild Things Are 8
At Bizarre Bushwick, 12 Jefferson Street, Bushwick. 9pm; $7-20 suggested donation. More info here.
Party moguls Brooklyn Wildlife present the eighth edition of their evening variety show at Bizarre Bar, home to all shapes and sizes of variety show. At any given moment, you can catch “aggro” raps by Stonehenge Parnhashnakovsky, beats by Star Falcon and Rob Interface, performance art poetry by Terminal Intrusion (Nyssa Frank, owner of The Living Gallery), burlesque, and more. The event asks attendees to wear a costume from a childhood story, a mascot outfit, or just to come half naked. So, suit up. Or down.
THURSDAY
The 7th Annual FGP Playgroup Festival
Continues Wednesdays and Thursdays through December 17 at Cloud City, 85 N 1st Street, Williamsburg. Readings start at 7pm; pay what you can at the door. More info here.
New work incubator Fresh Ground Pepper—which for several years now has offered vibrant events featuring performance works-in-progress built off creative themes—occupies Williamsburg space Cloud City for a nice medley of brand new play readings (also, a novel and storytelling project) from members of Playground Playgroup, their writers group. There are too many to list here, but expect such stuff as tales of Echo Park (you know, the suburb of an interstellar colony), The Fresh Prince meeting Euripides’s Medea, and rich white gay men. It certainly won’t be boring.
FRIDAY
Macbeth: Things Bad Begun
Continues through December 13 at NY Distilling Company, 79 Richardson Street, Williamsburg. 7pm; tickets are $35 and can be purchased here. More info here.
Innovative production company FoxWolf Productions have brewed up a wintry version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth that is being performed within a distillery. The design and tone of the show is inspired by the copper and oak of the space, and the team has worked with NY Distilling’s barman to craft custom cocktails specifically for the show, which will be served as part of an open bar to audience members at adjoining bar The Shanty once the show has concluded. Check out an interview we did with the producers here.
SATURDAY
Non Grata’s Diverse Universe Festival
at the Gowanus Ballroom, 55 9th Street #61, Gowanus. 10am-2am; prices vary, tickets can be purchased here. More info here.
Estonian performance art collective Non Grata teams up with NY-based performance duo Wild Torus (we’re big fans of their goo-filled ways) to present a massive, all-day mishmash of art. There’ll be performance art workshops, a free visual art exhibition, severals hours of performance art from 30+ artists all over the world, and an audiovisual experience that goes late into the night. You should expect the highest level of weirdness (in a good way) and probably wear clothes you don’t mind getting mysterious substances on.
SUNDAY
(photo: Eileen Meny)
Continues through December 19 at HERE Arts Center, 145 Sixth Avenue, Tribeca. 8:30pm (Sunday shows at 4pm); tickets are $18. More info here.
Have you ever thought to combine Tarot cards, theater, The Donner Party, and a loft party? Yeah, me neither, but these people definitely have. This visceral and psychedelic performance piece by AntiMatter Collective blurs the line between historical fact and hallucination in an attempt to reveal a “vision of adolescent America.” If that didn’t seem like enough, there will also be puppets.