CULTUREBOT 2025 HIGHLIGHTS + 2026 RADAR
Looking back, looking forward, & an event announcement <3
A YEAR IN SHOWS
Our top 10 most provocative & singular pieces of writing this year
In no particular order :)
Plz Just Ask: TIDES by John Jasperse for La Mama Moves! Festival
by Joëlle Santiago
Joëlle utilizes her close connection to dancer and teacher Jodi Melnick to produce a deeply inviting piece of writing that both emphasizes process and shows off the acuity of her own mind. In the world of this piece, care and intellect are interwoven. -EB
A Collective Place: An interview with Rawya El Chab
By Miranda Jackel
A warm and rigorous interview spanning political and artistic histories of Lebanon, the hakawati storytelling genre, experiments with multimedia techniques, mythology, and the solidarity and universality of political theater. -LM
Becoming an American Choreographer
by Sophie Frizzell
This piece is a consummate example of intricate and patient dance writing. Sophie effortlessly examines a singular work of choreography as both an individual creation and emblematic of a larger artistic project. -EB
the present moment where temporalities converge
by Theo Armstrong
An artistic response to Shannon Yu’s …all knowing 瞭然 at Triskelion Arts, considering the bardo, the space between living and dying, an astral plane, DJ sets, LSD trips, and maps Yu’s metamorphosis from from bodybuilder to boyband star to Trisha Brown and back. A wild ride and an utter thrill! -LM
The Inheritance of a Second Face and Divine Monstrosity: Celine Song’s FAMILY at La Mama
by Tess Walsh
Tess rigorously engages with the play in question as well as the legacy of downtown experimental theater in NYC and the question of who constitutes an audience today. -EB
In A Devotion to Service, Kat Sotelo’s Lifetime(s) of Devotion
By Lucy Kudlinski
Lucy Kudlinski offers a complete and generous analysis of Sotelo’s carefully designed and complex critique of the performance industry, gender tropes, the practicalities and erotics of service. A platonic ideal of multi-layered discursive response. -LM
Anne Imhof DOOM: House of Hope at Park Avenue Armory
by Kevin Ritter-Jung
Kevin’s account of the hours before attending Anne Imhoff’s Doom: House of Hope at The Armory offers a compelling example of how the process of arrival is as ripe a source of discussion and engagement as a performance itself. -EB
Where Colors Have Meaning and Theatre Isn’t A Play: Julio Torres’ COLOR THEORIES
By Lindsey Walko
Lindsey offers a thoughtful meditation on post-genre theater while capturing the action and emotion of Torres’ part lecture, part stand-up routine, part psychological excavation at Performance Space New York. The piece’s meandering yet satisfying logic perfectly mirrors that of Torres’ kaleidoscopic world-building. -LM
When The Story Lies Between The Steps: Moment to Moment in THE SUITE by Julia Antinozzi
by Sophia Parker
In this piece, Sophia beautifully melds musings from a dress rehearsal with a discussion about artistic legibility. The nature of this piece very much epitomizes CULTUREBOT’s mission. -EB
Ultimately, I’m Only Writing For Myself: A Conversation with Playwright Kallan Dana
by Lee Folpe
Lee and Kallan discuss alt modes of collaborations, the state of the so-called “language play,” the cleansing humiliation of writing about high school, and how to approach counter-cultural subject matter. A revealing conversation about contemporary and emerging practice and how to create your own opportunities for artistic experience and growth. -LM
CULTUREBOT RADAR
Our top 10 most anticipated shows coming up in January 2026
In no particular order :)
What To Wear by Richard Foreman
A co-production of BAM and The Prototype Festival
Jan 15-18
Paul Lazar and Annie-B Parsons remount an Richard Foreman opera that hasn’t been staged in 20 years. As children of Downtown New York theater, I’m eager to see how their own sensibilities interact with Foreman’s in this act of artistic excavation. -EB
¿¡¡simon negs≈≈>:(:{{** (work-in-progress) by Miranda Brown & Noa Rui-Piin Weiss
Exponential Festival at JACK
Jan 15-17
An anxiously awaited follow-up to 2025’s !!simon says~~!:));)$$, about which Theo Armstrong interviewed the duo about productive disagreement, queer joy, and the profundity of generating surprise and delight. This year’s part two / alter ego strives to go down in history as “art under the rise of fascism in America” and we can’t wait to see what that looks like. -LM
In Honor of Jean-Michel Basquiat by Roger Guenveur Smith
Co-produced by Under The Radar Festival and New York Theatre Workshop
Jan 7-18
Ever since stumbling upon Ishamel Reed’s play The Slave Who Loved Caviar (2023), which reexamines the relationship between Andy Warhol and Basquiat, I’ve reconsidered Basquiat’s acceptance into the art world more cynically and sympathetically. I am interested to see how Smith’s account, as a close friend of Basquiat, contributes to my reimaginings. -EB
i’m going to take my pants off now by Ann Marie Dorr
Exponential Festival at Life World
Jan 3-17
Our friends Ann Marie Dorr, William Burke, Carolyn Mraz, Megan Lang, and Elizagrace Madrone’s sweaty interactive play about bodies, eating, vinyl, smells, fun words, not fun words, dark thoughts, and playlists. An Exponential Festival must. -LM
Watch Me Walk by Anne Gridley
Co-produced by Under The Radar Festival and Soho Rep
Jan 14-24
Anne Gridley is the epitome of a New York City actor and performer. She brilliantly commanded the stage in Jerry Lieblich’s The Barbarians as Fake Madame President, a person obsessed with power without the capacity for leadership. She was biting, ironic, funny, and sympathetic in her portrayal of this delusional person. In Watch Me Walk, she takes on the subject of her own physical disability. After such animated character work, I am eager to see Anne take on the role of herself in this solo performance. -EB
Friday Night Rat Catchers by Lisa Fagan and Lena Engelstein
Live Artery | New York Live Arts, co-commissioned by Under the Radar
Jan 14-17
This experimental dance maker / performer duo is not to be missed in 2026—intensely physical and visually maximal, the pair’s works are rooted in dance-adjacent physicality but reimagine what choreography can be used to accomplish theatrically. Dubbed purveyors of “The High Weird” by Helen Shaw. Say less. -LM
Times Four/David Gordon: 1975/2025 by Wally Cardona & Molly Lieber
Co-produced by LiveArtery 2026 and WCV Inc.
Jan 11-13
I saw this performance this past October and was amazed at how the setting of the performance–541 Broadway–allowed audience members to reflect on a time in New York’s recent history that was friendly to artists. In addition to the secondary sociological effects, Wally Cardona and Molly Lieber are tremendous castmates, at one time in-sync and entirely in their own worlds. -EB
I want to hold onto something beautiful and empty by Hillary Gao
Exponential Festival at The Brick Theater
Jan 30-Feb 7
A dream team of makers and designers (Hilary Gao, Forest Entsminger, Hannah Bird, Ring Yang, and more) take on internet culture, ASMR, inspired by the pelagic School Process & Phenomenon Response Guidelines and developed as a part of Clubbed Thumb’s Early Career Writers’ Group ‘25 and workshopped/developed at The Bechdel Project. -LM
Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me by The Wooster Group / Eric Berryman
Under The Radar Festival presented at Joe’s Pub
Jan 11-12
This one-man cabaret tells the story of a character named Shine, the lone Black passenger on The Titanic who warns the captain of impending disaster. The title of the show becomes Shine’s credo. Told in the form of toasts, the narrative precursor to rap, I’m drawn to this piece for its subject matter and out of curiosity about a Wooster Group interpretation of a one-person performance. -EB
We the People: A Forum on Working Class Artists in America
Danspace Project, St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery
Jan 26
Not a show in the traditional sense—a forum for artists and arts workers to collaboratively create a more equitable arts landscape. Opportunity to discuss affordable housing models, childcare challenges and solutions, portable benefits models like those explored by the Freelancers Union, the need for safe, welcoming, and affordable spaces for rehearsal, presentation, and community connection, criteria for public and philanthropic funding, support and advice on fundraising, legal, and tax questions, & more. See you there! -LM
LIVE EVENT ALERT | JOIN US 01/24/2026
We are excited to announce that CULTUREBOT will be launching our live event series in 2026, kicking off with a conversation between the editors of CULTUREBOT and the dance writer and critic Marina Harss.
Marina Harss is a writer, journalist, and critic based in NYC, writing on all aspects of dance and performance. Currently the dance critic of The Hudson Review, Marina’s writing has appeared or is forthcoming in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The Nation, The Guardian, The Boston Globe, Ballet Review, Dance Magazine, Pointe Magazine, Playbill, BAMBill, Dancetabs.com, the Fjord Review, and others. Her book on the choreographer Alexei Ratmansky, The Boy from Kyiv: Alexei Ratmansky Life in Ballet, was published in October 2023 and was recognized by NPR and The New Yorker as a 2023 Book of The Year.
With Marina, we will discuss and attempt to demystify dance criticism: approaches to documenting an ephemeral art form, Marina’s career trajectory practice(s), as well as the state of the field and our hopes for the future of arts discourse.
Hosted in partnership with Pluto’s Loft: 60 Thomas Street, NYC
Saturday January 24
Conversation 4-6PM
Wine & lingering til 7P
Event revenue will directly support the future of CULTUREBOT! :)
SUPPORT CULTUREBOT
If you value our mission of providing a platform for meaningful, high-quality discourse about the performing arts; if you value our intentional emphasis on contemporary, experimental, new, and underrepresented artistic practice; if you value our critical role in sustaining a vibrant and engaged cultural ecology — please consider becoming paid subscriber and/or contributing to our very first support campaign. We need to raise a modest seed fund to cover our basic operating costs and jumpstart some initiatives for 2026. After 22 years of all-volunteer operation, we will establish a pay structure for writers and move towards a worker-owner, member-supported, independent cooperative model.
Your support goes a long way during this decisive moment in our project’s history <3
We appreciate your collaboration as we sustain and transform. More news on all fronts coming soon!
With love & gratitude,
Lydia Mokdessi + Eve Bromberg
Editors, CULTUREBOT