Paul Pinto MANO A MANO Comes to La MaMa

La MaMa will present a thingNY production of MANO A MANO: an operatic monodrama, written, composed and performed by Paul Pinto. Developed with and directed by Obie-winner Kristin Marting, MANO A MANO is an operatic monodrama about toxic masculinity plucked from the tradition of the medieval storytelling bard. Presented in association with Amanda+James, Anti-Social Music and MATA and running February 12–22, 2026, performances take place at La MaMa’s Ellen Stewart Theatre.

Staged in the round with the audience immersed in the action, MANO A MANO needles Anglo-Saxon epics with personal anecdote, pseudo-history, Antonio Banderas movies, tangents about the Romans, boxing, and stories about New Jersey. Over the course of ninety minutes, writer and performer Paul Pinto embodies multiple characters across a five-octave range of timbres: sweet, throaty, and viscerally guttural.

In MANO A MANO, Pinto poses the question, “What if Sir Gawain, a character in the Arthurian legend, and Beowulf, the legendary Scandinavian hero, were fighting over killing the same dragon?” He answers with an all-encompassing performance of virtuosic chants, rants, song, and spectacle – bobbing and weaving between passages of puckishly quick verbiage and aching melancholia. 

The action of MANO A MANO takes place on an epic circular platform evoking King Arthur’s Round Table with some audience members seated as guests. They, along with Pinto, are surrounded by a mix of wild saxophone and percussion improvisation performed by Erin Rogers (sax), Zach Herchen (sax), and Dennis Sullivan (percussion).

The creative team for MANO A MANO: an operatic monodrama include Obie-winner Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew (lighting and projection design), Philip White (sound design and mixing), Alex deNevers (associate lighting design), Amanda+James (line producers), Erica Schnitzer (production manager), Ben Elling (technical director), and Katie Scibelli (production stage manager).

Nine performances of MANO A MANO will take place February 12–22, 2026, at La MaMa’s Ellen Stewart Theatre, located at 66 E 4th Street in Manhattan. Critics are welcome as of the first performance, February 12, which serves as the official opening. The performance schedule is Thursday through Saturdays at 7pm and Sundays at 2pm with an additional performance at 7pm on Monday, February 16.