Pangea to Launch New Pop-Up INCUBATOR FESTIVAL

A new cross-disciplinary festival, Pangea's “Incubator Festival,” is about to launch in the East Village.

An ongoing showcase for Pangea's most interesting new projects in theater, music, comedy and storytelling, the first “Incubator Festival” features Emma Sofia (Mon Jan 13), David Mills (Fri Jan 17), David Dean Bottrell (Sat Jan 18), Penny Arcade (Sun Jan 19), and Jamie Brickhouse (Sun Jan 26).

“We want to shine a light on new work that's hard to categorize sometimes, but that hits us in a deep place,” says Stephen Shanaghan, Pangea's co-owner and entertainment director.  “We will produce these festivals each time we see a wave of new work at a high level that we can help bring to full fruition.”

A hub for the burgeoning alt-cabaret movement, Pangea is known for introducing and nurturing an eclectic range of artists.  Its roster of notable resident artists has included Tammy Faye Starlite, David Cale, Salty Brine, Zachary Clause, Steve Hayes, Ben Cassara, Claywoman, Rachelle Garniez, Penny Arcade, Jack Bartholet, and Carol Lipnik.

For each pop-up “Incubator Festival” audiences will choose a Stand-Out Show. Anyone purchasing two tickets to any show in the festival will get half off the regular door price of all the other shows in the Festival.

All shows take place in Pangea's 60-seat jewel box Cabaret Room.  Pangea's co-owner and interior design director is Arnoldo Caballero y Cespedes.  Tickets, which range from $20 to $30, can be purchased at www.pangeany.com There is a $20 food and drink minimum per person.

THE LINE-UPBroadway veteran Emma Sofia (Wendy in “Finding Neverland” and Veruca Salt in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”) brings us the premiere of a high-fusion club act “Resurrection: A Look Back at My Jesus Year.” With special guests (and fellow Broadway performers) Colin Cunliffe, Claudia Mulet, and Nia Calloway, Emma finds unusual kinship with the carpenter from Bethlehem beyond her tender age of 33. Mon Jan 13, 7:30pm -- $30

In an updated version of his scathingly funny show, David Mills can be found in “Stay Lost.”  Featuring his rapier wit and incomparable way with song, David wrings every last drop of jaundiced humor from the current climate.  Reviewing the show in December, Gerry Geddes said he “follows in the line of great social comics [with] smart, brilliantly observed impressions of life (…) and a singer's ability to underscore, intensify, and provide counterpoint to the funniest, and most dire ideas and predictions.” With Jody Shelton on piano. Fri Jan 17, 7pm -- $20

A master of theatrical storytelling, David Dean Bottrell returns to Pangea with a new show, “Teenage Wasteland: Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen,” five painfully funny (and tragically true) tales of heartbreak, hard-ons, and hair.  Winner of the 2023 Bistro Award and the 2024 LA Stage Scene Award for Best Solo Performance, David, is a veteran television actor with guest star and recurring roles on shows like Frasier, Modern Family, Blacklist, Law & Order and Ugly Betty to name a few. But his heart (and hair) of course belongs to the live stage.  Sat Jan 18, 7pm -- $20

Downtown renegade Penny Arcade shares an intimate look at her performance process with collaborator Steve Zehentner as she presents new writing from her on-going nine-part musical memoir -- “Penny Arcade's The Art of Becoming.” Tonight's installment features new writing from “Episode 4: 1974-1981 – The Reluctant Recluse,” in which Penny -- underscored by Steve, who lays down an array of cool 1970's grooves -- regales us with stories of a adventurous teen bouncing between Europe and the States. Sun Jan 19, 7pm -- $25

Presented by The Great Griffon, the 6-time Moth Storytelling champ Jamie Brickhouse brings us “The Brothers Orphan,” in his Pangea debut.  The gripping and sometimes lurid tales of Texan brothers Ronny, Jeffrey and Jamie are brought to Technicolor life by this master of voice and character-driven observation who, in addition to recording dozens of voices on Beavis and Butthead, is the creator of the daily #storiesinheels Tik Tok videos with over 6M views and 75,000 followers. Sun Jan 26, 7pm -- $25

Since it began presenting live entertainment in 2015, Pangea “has vaulted to the forefront of the alt-cabaret scene!” according to Elisabeth Vincentelli of The NY Times.  The recipient of the prestigious Village Award (presented by Village Preservation in 2021) Pangea continues to uphold the East Village's tradition of producing rule-breaking, iconoclastic performance. Pangea is located at 178 Second Avenue (between 11th & 12th Streets). www.pangeanyc.com

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