Mano a Mano at La MaMa

LA MAMA PRESENTS WORLD PREMIERE OF PAUL PINTO’S 

MANO A MANO:

 an operatic monodrama
FEBRUARY 12–22, 2026

Directed by Kristin Marting 

90 Minute Opera of Virtuosic Chants, Rants, Songs, and Spectacle Surveys Toxic Masculinity Throughout the Ages 

“Paul Pinto was captivatingly unhinged, his technique and lovely tone warped to frantically switch octaves and follow tunnels of complicated thoughts with a breathless, unbroken line.” – The New York Times

La MaMa is proud to present a thingNY production of MANO A MANO: an operatic monodrama, written, composed and performed by Paul Pinto, “one of the most exceptional composers in new music” (The Wire) who was featured on Broadway in Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812. 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 (66 E 4th St, Manhattan). Tickets are now on sale at www.lamama.org/mano-a-mano/.

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. 

The performance of MANO A MANO on Thursday, February 19 at 7pm will be live streamed for audiences nationally and internationally.

The anticipated running time is 90 minutes with no intermission.

General admission tickets are $35 and $30 for students or seniors with Support the Artists tickets starting at $50. Ten tickets to every performance are $10 each.

Please visit www.lamama.org/mano-a-mano/ for more information and to purchase tickets.

About the Artists

Paul Pinto is a Jersey City based opera-sermonizer and multi-disciplinary dabbler who makes music, new media, micro-theatres, video art and durational performance. He has performed and collaborated with his bands thingNY and Varispeed, as well as Meredith Monk, Robert Ashley, Kameron Neal, Joan La Barbara, Long Beach Opera, Dave Malloy, Yarn/Wire, The Rhythm Method and Quince. His music has been a part of The Industry, Perelman Arts Center, Prototype Festival, Big Ears Festival, The Fisher Center, American Opera Projects, Opera America, LaMaMa, WNET ALLARTS, Media Art Xchange, the Monheim Festival, and Louth Contemporary. Born in Queens, he lives in Jersey City with his wife, child, and vegetable garden. www.pfpinto.com
 
Kristin Marting is an award winning director & creative producer based in NYC. She has constructed 37 world premieres (15 hybrid, 9 opera/music-theatre, 9 adaptations of novels & 5 classics). Selected premieres: BAM, HERE, Ohio Theatre, Soho Rep. Selected touring: 7 Stages, Berkshire Festival, Brown, MCA, New World, Painted Bride, UMass, Moscow Art Theatre, Oslo. Selected workshops: Clubbed Thumb, New Georges, Playwrights Horizons, Public Theatre, Target Margin. Recipient of an 

Obie award for Lifetime Achievement and Proclamation from the NY State Assembly for steadfast leadership, two prestigious MAP Fund awards, a nytheatre.com Person of the Decade for outstanding contribution, a Leader to Watch by Art Table, and a BAX10 Award. She is the Founding Artistic Director Emeritus of HERE and co-founded/co-curated 13 editions of PROTOTYPE festival. https://kristinmarting.com/

About La MaMa

La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club is dedicated to the artist and all aspects of the theatre. La MaMa's 64th Season, LA MAMA NOW, focuses on creating solidarity and building community, exploring ways to build connections for cross-sector coalition and invite artists, activists, organizers and community members into the creative process

La MaMa has been honored with 30+ Obie Awards, dozens of Drama Desk, Bessie Awards, Villager Awards, the 2018 Regional Theatre Tony Award, and most recently a 2023 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Special Citation. We are a creative home to artists and resident companies from around the world, many of whom have made lasting contributions to the arts, including Blue Man Group, Bette Midler, Ping Chong, Jackie Curtis, Robert De Niro, André De Shields, Adrienne Kennedy, Cole Escola, Bridget Everett, Harvey Fierstein, Diane Lane, Charles Ludlam, Tom Eyen, Spiderwoman Theater, Tadeusz Kantor, Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, Meredith Monk, David and Amy Sedaris, Stephanie Hsu, Julie Taymor, Kazuo Ohno, Tom O'Horgan, Andrei Serban, Liz Swados, and Andy Warhol. La MaMa's vision of nurturing new artists and new work from all nations, cultures, races and identities remains as strong today as it was when Ellen Stewart first opened the doors in 1961.

Please visit www.lamama.org to learn more.

Funding Credits

MANO A MANO is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, and in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency. The project is also supported by New Music USA and Opera America.

MANO A MANO has received development support from Ancram Center for the Arts, ComPeung AiR, Con Vivo Music, Eastern Mennonite University, HERE, James Madison University, Mana Contemporary, Mount Tremper Arts, NACL, and Resonant Bodies Festival.

MANO A MANO has received marketing support from American Opera Projects, Experiments in Opera, and Opera on Tap.