The Mushroom
Created by Normandy Sherwood and Nikki Calonge
Jan 16, 2027, Jan 17, 2027, Jan 22, 2027, Jan 23, 2027, Jan 24, 2027, Jan 29, 2027, Jan 30, 2027, Jan 31, 2027
Soissons Landing - Soissons Landing - LMCC's Arts Center
Created by Normandy Sherwood and Nikki Calonge, The Mushroom is a radial play with spokes pointing outward that transforms the Arts Center at Governors Island into a world of growth, decay, wonder, and transformation. Blending pageantry, dance, incantation, and surreal theatrical spectacle, this immersive work explores fungal movement and the porous boundaries between bodies, landscapes, and forms of life.
The Mushroom is an enchanted and enveloping experience made by hand to evoke a tender awe. Featuring costumes that become scenery with successions of lacy meshes, The Mushroom invites audiences into a theatrical experience that unfolds in one of New York City’s most distinctive cultural settings while asking provocative questions: How do we reenchant the world? What knows it is alive?
Performance Schedule:
Thursday, January 14 | 4pm & 7pm
Fridays, January 15, 22, 29 | 4pm & 7pm
Saturdays, January 16, 23, 30 | 2pm & 5pm
Sundays, January 17, 24, 31 | 2pm & 5pm
Runtime is 75 minutes with no intermission. Seating is general admission.
Presented by LMCC and New Georges in partnership with Governors Island Arts and Under the Radar.
Gorgeously textured, totally trippy
Sara Holdren, Vulture
Creators: Normandy Sherwood & Nikki Calonge
Co-Directors: Normandy Sherwood, Nikki Calonge & Sarah Blush
Choreographer: Nikki Calonge
Writer, Production Designer: Normandy Sherwood
Lighting Designer: Christina Tang
Sound Designer: Johnny Gasper
Performers: Nicolas Noreña, Laurel Atwell, Alei Russo, Emma Wiseman, Stephanie Jean Lane & Susannah Millonzi
Creative Producer: Caitlin Adams
Production Manager: Jack Woods
Stage Manager- Madelyn Barkocy
Associate Stage Manager: Tabirah “Tabby” Muhammad
Nikki Calonge is an educator and artist whose past credits include performing in the Tony Award-winning Life of Pi on Broadway, the Obie-award winning Psychic Self Defense at HERE Arts Center, Lincoln in the Bardo at the Metropolitan Opera and Clown Show by Geoff Sobelle. Her work has been developed by Object Movement Puppetry Festival and in a New Georges Audrey Residency. Nikki teaches movement at Playwrights Horizons Theater School at NYU Tisch. She has a B.F.A. from NYU Tisch and an M.S. from Pratt Institute in Dance and Movement Therapy.
Normandy Sherwood is a writer, a director, and designer for theater. Recent work includes her curtain spectacular PSYCHIC SELF DEFENSE (2024 OBIE Award, HERE Arts Center’s HARP resident); Scenography and Co-creation of Theater in Quarantine’s Phantom of the Opera (2025) and Nosferatu (2023), presented by NYU Skirball; scenic and/or costume design for projects at NYLA, HERE, Target Margin and more. She was a co-artistic director of The N.T.U.S.A. (2001-2017, R.I.P.) and more recently of The Drunkard’s Wife. She has been an artist in residence at HERE, MacDowell, Yaddo. Normandy is a Clinical Professor in Expository Writing at NYU with an MFA in playwriting from Brooklyn College.
LMCC’s Arts Center at Governors Island
110 Andes Road, NY, NY 10004
Accessible via Governors Island Ferry from the Battery Maritime Building (10 South Street in Lower Manhattan).
Access the Ferry by Subway:
1 to the South Ferry stop
4/5 to the Bowling Green Stop
R/W to Whitehall Street Stop
Venue Access
The Arts Center at Governors Island is accessible on the first floor entrance located next to Soissons Landing. Restrooms are located on the first floor. Access to the second floor and Upper Gallery is available via the elevator on the first floor in the cafe.
The ferry at the Battery Maritime Building is accessible via the entrance at Slip 6 (Note: Due to construction, you may see an accessibility sign at Slip 7, but the correct entrance is Slip 6). Subject to change by January 2027.
A roundtrip ferry ticket for the Governors Island Ferry is included with admission to the performance.
Access Notes
ADA Accessible but production requires audience members to move between spaces. This show uses theatrical haze.
Appropriate Age Range
Appropriate for all ages.
The Mushroom would like to thank Foundation for Contemporary Arts Creative Research Fund; A.R.T./ New York Fund for Small Theaters, Creative Opportunity Fund and Design Enhancement Fund; New York State Council on the Arts; New Georges Audrey Residency; Mercury Store; IndieSpace; the Exponential Festival; and Materials for the Arts for their support of this project. The Mushroom is presented In Collaboration with New Georges, supported by Venturous Theater Fund.
Related
See below for past programs and events on Governors Island.