Great Small Works

Spaghetti Dinners

For the past quarter century, Great Small Works has been the proud host of these regular cabaret events featuring vegetarian spaghetti, an eclectic mixture of cutting edge performance, music, dance and an affordable cash donation bar. Not to mention delicious pugliese bread, donated by the Grandaisy Bakery. For many years housed at P.S. 122 in Manhattan, Spaghetti Dinners are now presented 3 to 4 times a year in venues such as Judson Memorial Church, Teatro SEA, St. Ann’s Warehouse, Flushing Town Hall and other performance spaces across the CIty. These one-time-only evenings are curated around a theme, and feature new material presented by guest artists as well as Great Small Works’ own developing work. Spaghetti Dinners have ranged from a collaboration with Chinese Theater Works spotlighting new work in the realm of shadow puppetry; to outdoor Iftars (the meal which breaks the daily Ramadan fast) including a Turkish shadow puppet show, live scored films, poetry and music from many Moslem traditions; a Carnival season collaboration with Something Positive Dance Theater’s Caribbean Mas dancers/musicians; and our annual year-end celebration with a Punjabi-Klezmer dance orchestra, the legendary “Crowtations,” and performances large and small by immigrant artists, activist puppeteers, LGBTQ performance artists, multi-generational actors, storytellers and choreographers.

Spaghetti Dinners are cabaret evenings where the company builds rootlike systems between communities. In breaking bread they deepen friendships. This feeds the art and the ongoing effort to fight for justice.

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