Set in the 1950s, upper-middle class couple Phil and Ruth are forced to confront the long-simmering fault lines in their troubled marriage. When the suppressed emotions of their grief-stricken union explode during a pivotal conversation, the strength of their love is tested. Will it survive or crumble under the weight of their pain? This never-before-seen Clifford Odets original explores the complexities of love, loss, and marriage and shines a light on the connections that grow when we courageously share our pain.

EPSG:4326

Guest Production: The Nursery

The Flea Theater

An alternative to Broadway's flash: Circle Theater Festival invites you to see theater in a new light. Spanning six weekends from September through November 2024, Circle Festival is a bold reminder that great theater doesn't require elaborate sets or extravagant costumes; just a powerful story and the courage to tell it. Contemporary themes and uncensored voices, artistic adaptation and gripping dramas, dark comedies, and psychological thrillers invite you to experience the power of authentic storytelling. Each weekend showcases a diverse lineup of theatrical talent, from emerging artists such as Scarlett Strasberg to seasoned professionals like lifetime members of the Actors Studio Suzanne DiDonna and Kirsten Russell.

Guest Production: Circle Festival

Learn about the scrappy, ambitious innovators who established America's motion picture industry - the inventors of the world’s first movie star Florence Turner, and the earliest narrative films, stop motion animation, movie magazine, and also the original fake news. Utilizing historical sources, immersive projections, live music, and sound, The Vitagraph Story brings to life these revolutionary artists whose discoveries continue to impact the daily lives of billions of people. Join us as we celebrate the spirit of adventure, creativity, and ambition that defined the original Golden Age of cinema. 

Guest Production: The Vitagraph Story: Chapter 1

Step1 Theatre Presents a staged reading of And the Trees Fall Down by Viviana Prado-Núñez directed by Janelle Zapata Castellano. Two months after Hurricane Maria, a brother, a sister, and a tree guy gather at Abuela’s house in Puerto Rico for a Thanksgiving dinner of vodka, birthday cake, and an elegiac kind of nostalgia. A heartbreaking, hilarious, and deeply human portrait of people and places left behind—of trees threatening to fall down, tractors ascending to heaven, the never-ending whirr of generators, the dull ache of aftermath, and how some people live with it (or don’t).

Guest Production: And The Trees Fall Down by Viviana Prado-Núñez

This event will include selections from "The Great Gatsby," "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao," and "The Latehomecomer." The evening will include a community conversation around the American Dream and what it means to the people of New York City.

Guest Production: Literature to Life: What Is The American Dream?

Join us for an evening (or afternoon, yes options!) of captivating readings by Black femme playwrights. Join us as we dive into the rich works of Jordan Powell, Camille Simone Thomas, Kamiah Vickers and Jerrica D. White, four incredible playwrights, shifting and molding Black performance art today. Their work through The Archive Reading Series offers our resident playwrights the opportunity to craft the stories we share, we've missed, and the ones that leave us grounded in the important role storytelling plays in being seen, being heard and recognized in this growing and changing world

Guest Production: The Archive

This downtown revival of an American Classic deals with self-determination during a massive crisis and the power of organizing for change.

Guest Productions: Waiting For Lefty

How far will a content creator couple go to save their relationship? Tiffany&Tucker just hit 5 million followers and they’re about to find out. Pretty Perfect Lives is a new speculative fiction play about identity in the age of technology, our obsession with image, internet addiction, and the dangers of turning your life into content. Starring Elizabeth Lail, Nic Ashe, and Zane Phillips, Pretty Perfect Lives is a fast-paced and funny, sexy and daring, razor-sharp representation of our modern digital world on a stage that has become a staple of downtown New York theater.

Guest Production: Pretty Perfect Lives

Guest Production: Tiffany&Tucker Live LLC

Orion and the Goatman is an intimate campfire story come to life. Two half-brothers go on their yearly camping trip, which they would normally take with their father. This time, it's to scatter his ashes. As Luke and Logan struggle to honor their dad’s memory and avoid their seemingly inevitable fracture, a surprise visit from a terrifying figure forces them to come together through ritual, vulnerability, and a little help from the stars above. 

Guest Production: Ice Berg Productions

When a high profile dating podcaster and Patagonia-clad finance bro collide in a Murray Hill coffee shop, they’re both surprised to feel a spark. Can they make a relationship work with two completely different lifestyles? A love/hate letter to dating in New York City. 

Guest Production: The Hudson Repertory Theater Company

A transdisciplinary opera and creative act of resistance. Born from the vibrant collaboration between composer Jonathan Berger, visual artist Enrico Riley and poet/librettist Vievee Francis, the work responds to the murder of Eric Garner and the ongoing theft of Black life at the hands of the State. Music, text, projected visuals, and movement interweave in a story centered on Garner’s daughter, Erica. Uplifted by a 75-person choir of singers, the project gathers us together as co-conspirers to breathe and keep breathing any way we can.

The Ritual of Breath is the Rite to Resist

Damrosch Park

At a time where Freedom for all seems so far away, join viBeCollaB artists Alicia Pilgrim, Geanina "Nina" Riley, Lei'anna Gladden, and Phanésia Pharel as they take you on a journey through four (4) paths: 

The death and birth of self to reach pure authenticity and self-love. The relationship between time, liminality, and emotional spectrums as we experience grief. 

Guest Production: viBe Theater Experience

Let Me Love You: Intersectional Love Stories is a show based on the concept of the five love languages: words of affirmation, acts of service, giving/receiving gifts, quality time, and physical touch. This event will showcase a diverse range of artistic talents, including singers, actors, dancers, and more. 

Guest Production: Let Me Love You

An activation day to celebrate Juneteenth at DuYe Moves' lawn space on Colonels Row on Governors Island. Designed to synergize performance, participation, and expression, the day begins with Kathryn Davis offering QiGong for Liberation. She will guide participants through a QiGong set that frees the mind and relaxes the body. These moves will serve DuYe Movers long after the day’s lesson in their everyday lives. Poet Derick Cross will perform and hold space for guided open mic expressions of Personal Liberation. Angel Kaba’s Afro’Dance New York will bring joy and happiness through a class suitable for all body types and levels, along with a performance. Throughout the day, Danie Herard will offer her Soul Art making workshop, guiding students through a process to create beautiful works of art with pen & ink and watercolor.

Liberation Play

Join an afro-futuristic griot on a Juneteenth walk exploring our city through the lens of black love and queer liberation. Co-led by Talu Green with his commanding Djembe drumming, The Worthy is a performance that will take you through the African Burial Ground National Monument, past civic buildings and through the streets of lower Manhattan as we celebrate the intrinsic worth of Queer Black folks. The walk will conclude at The Flea.

The Worthy

African Burial Ground Monument

Our American Queen delves into the real-life drama of the 1864 Presidential election, where Secretary of the Treasury Salmon Chase daringly challenges President Lincoln for the Republican nomination, while his daughter Kate deftly navigates her ambition and societal expectations. Despite the constraints placed upon her as a woman of her time, Kate's strategic prowess earns her the revered title of Our American Queen. Yet, as she weighs marriage proposals from wealthy suitors and grapples with her affection for one of her father's political rivals, Kate must confront the true price of power. Will she sacrifice love for ambition, or choose a path that leads to both personal fulfillment and political legacy in a nation teetering on the edge?

Guest Production: Our American Queen

Vegan Chitlins and the Artist Formerly Known as the N-word (Vegan Chitlins) is a theatrical love story told from the perspective of a shapeshifter called BLACK. BLACK travels through portals of blackness byway of a black vortex tethered to and with only to emerge as black as black can be chanting the incantation What will they see? Will they see? What will they see? Why cant they see? You dont see me. This darkie-town testimonial post-colonial conceptual revival, conceived and performed by Trebien Pollard, is a visual narrative of the black experience traverses through documentation and symbols of reality existing beyond articulation as a state of nonexistence.

Trebien Pollard presents Vegan Chitlins and the Artist Formerly Known as the N-word

Join NYC’s legendary DJ2FACE and special guests for pop up performances and a dance party you won’t want to miss. The Flea will transform into an immersive club where all things bizarre, electric and sexy converge.

Closing Tea Dance

Experience the captivating rhythms of Lulada Club, an electrifying all-women salsa band setting the New York City music scene ablaze. Through meticulous curation, vocalist and director Andrea Chavarro has assembled a cohort of accomplished and brilliant New York-based musicians, each with unique merits. Infused with an irresistible blend of vibrancy and skill, these remarkable women command the stage, welcoming salserxs of all levels and ages. Gender-neutral salsa lesson for all included at the performances!

Lulada Club

Once upon a time in a galaxy not far away, there lived two kings. Each was the ruler of his own deliciously glorious planet. The first king, Manchildblack, was well known throughout the cosmos for his ethereal vocals, celestial sonics and earthy musical messages. The other king, Monstah Black, was a star in the solar system for his gravity defying performances, gender bending fashions and spacey disposition. One magical night, an inexplicable ultra-magnetic pull forced the two planets to collide. A technicolored explosion occurred, turning night into day, with a feast of aural and visual delights. It was then that the universe was changed forever. Manchildblack and Monstah Black united and became The Illustrious Blacks!

The Illustrious Blacks

Sizzle and Funk first rose to fame as the child stars of the prime-time series The Incredible Drunkertons. Although their show was a mega-hit, they were unexpectedly canceled after five seasons and were legally barred from recording or performing publicly for 20 years. Now that the non-compete clause has expired and their protracted legal battle with the [redacted] network is behind them, they are ready to take their place at the top, once again!

A Very Special Evening with The Incredible Drunkertons

Join NYC’s legendary drag queen Pixie Aventura and DJ2FACE for the opening night launch of WERK! The Patio Sessions. “El Camerino with Pixie Aventura” showtime 7:30, dance party + drinks to follow. Space extremely limited!

WERK! The Patio Sessions

On the eve of the 19th Annual International Taxidermy Championships, four experts of the trade gather in a hotel room. Fueled by competitive tension and a whole lot of alcohol, they spend the night vying for supremacy. Who can master the act of creation, and achieve perfection? By the end of the night, one of them proves they are willing to push the boundaries of their craft further than anyone ever thought possible. Preview performance.

Guest Production: feejee mermaid

Who did you love? • Get It Together follows Mary Hewitt, an aspiring poet from Philadelphia on the cusp of her life, as she falls for and rages against Harold Kruger, her Main Line paramour she just can't figure out. Set across two nights two years apart, the comedy follows the pair through heartbreak, grief, and anxious desire as they question: What the hell is wrong with my family? Do cheaters ever quit? And who will understand me, if not you?

Guest Production: Get It Together

Make Lemonade Productions Proudly Presents Into the Woods. One of Stephen Sondheim's best known tales, Into the Woods is a rare modern classic. Come experience our telling of this iconic show.

The Flea Theater

Oct 16 - Nov 2, 2024

Guest Production: feejee mermaid

7 - 17 Nov, 2024

Guest Production: Get It Together

15 - 17 Nov, 2024

Guest Production: Into The Woods

11 - 12 Oct, 2024

Guest Production: The Nursery

5 - 12 Oct, 2024

Guest Production: Circle Festival

The Flea Theater