WEDNESDAY

(image via Maude Gun / Facebook)

Maude Night #4
Wednesday, March 15 at Muchmore’s, 9 pm: $5-7 suggested donation

This is decidedly not the UCB showcase, but a queer/femme/POC space for variety performance and expression helmed by witchy, culty performance-art band Maude Gun. The lineup includes “Mountain Moving Witch of the West Coast” Carissa Matsushima, “Ritualistic Serotonin Poem Witch” Tara Jayakar, “Nose Bleeding Drama Queen Healer” Holly Simple, and a closing piece by Maude Gun themselves. Though it is the name of their band, they seem to be rather generous with the term “maude,” referring to their booked performers and potentially everyone in the room by the moniker. In the event description is a reminder: “let’s mind our pronouns! (call everyone a MAUDE if you’re lost)”

THURSDAY

(photo: Nick Benacerraf)

Home/Sick
Runs through March 25 at JACK, 7:30 pm (Sundays at 4 pm): $15-30

In a time that perhaps needs more intense activism and less signing of change dot org petitions, theater collective The Assembly will be remounting their play Home/Sick, about the radical student activism movement that sprung up during the Vietnam War in the 1960s. Written and devised by the entire group, Home/Sick cleverly represents collective action both in its creation and subject matter. With a particular focus on The Weather Underground, a student group that sought to overthrow the US government and saw violence as a means to peace, the show gives a look back on the power and potential consequences of radical activism. Perhaps you could learn a thing or two.

FRIDAY

poster by Edy Modica

Don’t Cum
Friday, March 17 at Cloud City, 8 pm: $5

This Saint Paddy’s Day, don’t stumble through the streets drooling a fine strand of green beer from your lips. Instead, stroll on over to Williamsburg’s Cloud City for a performance put on by none other than comedians Edy Modica and Brian Fiddyment. I met Brian and Edy over a year ago now while covering their show Body at The Annoyance, and have been glad to see them continue in both collaborations and solo performance efforts.

They will be uniting once again for this show, which includes but is not limited to cartoons, Robert DeNiro, the devil, something that is possibly a game called “the wheel of sauce,” rude snakes, and probably much more. On top of all that, any money Edy and Brian make from the show will be donated to the ACLU.

SATURDAY

Rae Goodwin, “constrain.” sterling silver spoon, 300 yards cotton thread, needles and shadow.18”x 10”x 1” (2005)

Regarding Female/Female Regards
Saturday, March 18 at Panoply Performance Laboratory, 8 pm: FREE

Panoply Performance Lab, fresh off ambitious monthlong performance project Embarrassed of the Whole, will be presenting this evening of performance art focusing on womanhood, notions of “femaleness,” and vaginas, because that sort of thing seems to be inevitable nowadays. Rae Goodwin and Sophie Merrison will be showing their collaborative and participatory work “Regarding Vaginas,” which makes me curious about what sort of participation is required. Kubik/Giera will be performing “Abbey of Misrule.” Lorene Bouboushian with “sounds from afar” by Jill Flanagan will have a piece called “MissDick Vibrocis,” and LJ Leach with Kaia Gilje will present an untitled work.

SUNDAY

(Photo: Pete Simpson, by Ásta Bennie Hostetter)

The Terrifying
March 12-April 2 at Abrons Arts Center, various times: $25

Bringing horror to a live performance, when it’s not a haunted house, can be tricky. When attempting this chilling genre on a stage, you inherently run the risk of scares coming off as predictable or cheesy, sometimes more so than in film. So, creators often turn to other tactics to get the job done. Minor theater, a NYC company serving as a vehicle for the work of playwright Julia Jarcho, will attempt some scares of their own with the aptly-titled play The Terrifying, opening on Sunday at Abrons Arts Center. Rather than sticking to a realistic creepy plot, Jarcho leans more toward storybook spine-chilling. The play follows “a creepy little village” in which a variety of people are being stalked by “a ravening monster.” It doesn’t quite imply they remain victims, however, as a description hints they combat their fears by “cultivating some dark appetites of their own,” whatever that may be.

Audiences are seated very close to the action in the theater, close enough that you may be able to feel the breath of a whisper brush your skin. A live, immersive sound design will be provided by Obie-winner Ben Williams, and the cast features downtown luminaries such as Jess Barbagallo, Kristine Haruna Lee, and more. Will The Terrifying live up to its name? Only one way to find out.