(Flyer via the Exponential Festival)
While you still have a staggering amount of Manhattan performance festival shows going on this week, don’t be afraid to take a break from sifting through show schedules in order to check out some of these other options.
The Exponential Festival
Jan. 13 through 30 at The Bushwick Starr, Silent Barn, Cloud City, and The Brick Theater. Various times, various prices. Full schedule here.
Oh, you thought after last week there would be no more performance festivals happening, didn’t you? Well, at least for this one you don’t have to leave Brooklyn.
Four unique and largely-multidisciplinary Brooklyn venues team up to present their riff on the January festival. Offering a healthy mix of premiere showings (like musician Jason Trachtenburg’s musical Dr. Glassheart, featuring several members of popular immersive experience Houseworld) and encores of earlier successes (like Toilet Fire, Eliza Bent’s humorous and heartfelt ode to digestive troubles), you’re sure to find something to tickle your fancy.
WEDNESDAY
Another F*cking Show In January
Palisades, 906 Broadway, Bushwick. Wednesday Jan. 13, at 8 pm. Tickets: $5.
Well, at least they’re aware of it. For those who want to spend less than the average ticket price to one of those performance festival shows but still see some “bold new work” by a whole slew of performance artists, look no further than good ole Palisades. For just five bucks, you get not one but 11 performances by artists like Animals Performance Group, Joe Castle Baker, and Carroll Simmons. The offerings range from music to dance to comedy and even performance art—whatever that term means nowadays.
THURSDAY
Love At First Swipe: A Tribute To Duane Reade
Annoyance Theater, 376 Bedford Avenue, Williamsburg. Thursday Jan. 14 at 9 pm, tickets: $10.
If you’re like me and became emotional at this post about a small child’s CVS-themed birthday party, then this is the show for you. It happened once in 2015, but that was so last year. This week, Eliza Hurwitz brings back her comedy love letter to everyone’s favorite convenience store. Another offbeat example of the satisfying fusion of comedy and theater that has become a speciality of The Annoyance, it features Hurwitz as the store’s best customer and a slew of comedy favorites as supporting characters. Convenience isn’t just convenient, it’s funny, too.
FRIDAY
Matchstick Series: Strange Tongues
The Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe, 236 East 3rd Street, East Village. Friday Jan. 15 at 7 pm. Tickets: $18.
Pipeline Theater Company, the folks who brought you last year’s spooky play The Gray Man, present their second annual evening of seven short plays showcasing work by their Playlab group. All seven pieces this year have been inspired by works of poetry, so it’s only appropriate that they’re showing them at the Nuyorican. Unlike a typical theater writer’s group showing, these aren’t just readings of new plays but fully-staged and designed performance pieces. And they do say seven is a lucky number…
SATURDAY
Bizarre Bushwick’s 3-Year Anniversary
Bizarre Bushwick, 12 Jefferson Street, Bushwick. 8pm. Tickets: $5 from 8-10pm, $10 after.
Beloved home for weirdo performers (and frequent bouts of onstage clothing removal of all sorts) Bizarre Bar turns three, and a hearty bunch of performers, bands, and more join forces to celebrate the fact that this odd little haven is still going strong.
Performers and hosts from the many shows Bizarre has welcomed through the years will be there in droves to represent, including Bushwick Burlesque’s Darlinda Just Darlinda and Fancy Feast and Bordello’s Madame Vivien V. So you don’t miss anything, acclaimed New York photographer Meryl Meisler, who has published two photography books through Bizarre Publishing, will be there to document it all.
SUNDAY
Black Out: An Auditory Experiment
Over the Eight, 594 Union Avenue, Williamsburg. 8pm. Tickets: Free.
Comedian Ana Fabrega hosts a new, unique comedy show every Sunday at Over the Eight. Only this week, you won’t be seeing anything. Over the Eight’s back room space will be flooded in darkness, but that doesn’t mean the laughs will disappear. How does what’s funny change when you can’t see who’s telling the jokes—or anything at all? Well, Fabrega has rounded up James Allister Sprang, Anna Drezen, Steven DeSiena, Alec Lambert, and Lorelei Ramirez to find out.