BY SCOTT STIFFLER | MONEY LAB | Art! Finance! Morality! They collide with unpredictable results, in Untitled Theater Company #61’s “Money Lab” — where the audience is required to purchase tokens whose value fluctuates during performances based on various fiscal scenarios. A rotating cast of four puppeteers, dancers, economists, musicians, and other creative types are on hand during any given installment of the 16-show run. They include Patrice Miller and cohorts dancing to jargon about the 2008 banking collapse; former economist Steve Zimmer spinning a story about the Fed; and (suckers beware!) Downtown performer Trav S.D. portrays P.T. Barnum, who reveals his secrets of “The Art of Money-Getting.” Also making a grab for your precious tokens: skilled conjurer Magic Brian frames his classic Monte hustle with questions about gambling and the stock market, while Tatiana Baccari and Hannah Allen’s fleshy dance theater piece parks itself at the intersection of money and stripping.
March 20 through April 11. Performance schedule varies. At HERE (145 Sixth Ave.; enter on Dominick, one block south of Spring St.). For tickets $20 (plus a required $5-$10 buy-in), call 212-352-3101 or visit here.org. Also visit untitledtheater.com.
LABYRINTH THEATER COMPANY’S 16th ANNUAL BARN READING SERIES
The Barn Series may evoke visions of scrappy kids putting on a show in a farmhouse setting to raise funds — but in the hands of Labyrinth Theater Company, it’s an annual reading series that retains the upstart scrap, trades the barn for its Bank Street Theater and welcomes the public free of charge. The featured works, all new plays written by or starring Company members, are: Alex Lewin’s “The Interview” (March 23), in which a potential Big Brother volunteer has a cat-and-mouse interview with a social worker; Cusi Cram’s “…in the fountain” (March 26) finds private school headmistress Kate Maxwell in picturesque Rome, molding young minds while confronting the dangerous behavior of her staff; and Mona Mansour’s “The Way West” (March 30) spins epic tales of pioneer life, as a modern-day California mom on the verge of bankruptcy distracts her squabbling daughters.
Free. All readings at 8 p.m. At the Bank Street Theater (155 Bank St. btw. West & Washington Sts.). Tickets available beginning at 6 p.m. on day of the reading only, released on first-come, first-served basis. For more info, visit labtheater.org.
WASHETERIA
Tribeca’s Soho Rep goes off-site and into another borough, with its first-ever theatrical experience created for “children and their adults.” This two-episode event (each the length of a single wash cycle) transforms a Brooklyn storefront into a fantastical laundromat where very different people have the same goal in mind.
March 21–April 5 at 321 Broadway in the South Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Subways: J, M, Z to Marcy Avenue, L to Lorimer St. or G to Broadway or Metropolitan Ave. For tickets ($10), call 212-352-3101 or visit sohorep.org (where you can access the full schedule of 11 a.m., 3:30 p.m. & 4 p.m. performances).
WHEN BLACK BOYS DIE
Writer and director William Electric Black returns to Theater for the New City with the latest drama in his gutsy and compelling “Gunplays” series, which addresses inner city violence and guns. “It’s no longer about black boys dying — it’s about them living — their hopes, their dreams,” says a character in “When Black Boys Die,” which follows a teenage girl’s determination to understand the circumstances of her brother’s death and the all-consuming effect it has on her mother.
Through March 22 at Theater for the New City (155 First Ave. at E. 10th St.). Thurs.-Sun. at 8 p.m. Sat./Sun. at 3 p.m. For tickets ($15, $12 for students/seniors, $10 each for groups), call 212-254-1109 or visit theaterforthenewcity.net. Info on the series at gunplays.org.
