Hello! Happy Summer! I am melted, I am puddle.

I’m not usually much of a sports fan, but I do become one when my beloved Knicks are in the playoffs. And, like any sports fan, I know in my heart that me texting my dear friend Alec (producer of the Thicket & Bramble podcast!) the above on 4/29 helped my team to victory a month and a half later. That’s just how sports work.

What with Knicks in five and all these socialists running around, magic is in the air in my home state!

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Speaking of magic in the air! I’ve got some shows coming up.

The summer tour of The Bridge and the River and the Road, the first of The Courier Plays, starts this Friday.

Here are the dates:

• Pugsly’s Barbershop, 3 Main St, Kingston, NY — 7/10, 7pm, doors at 6:30

• The Lace Mill, 165 Cornell St, Kingston, NY — 7/17, 7pm, doors at 6:30

• Corning, NY, 7/24

• New Paltz, NY, 8/1

• Kingston, NY, 8/8

• Manhattan, 8/14

The ones without addresses posted are for the most part taking place in private homes. If you’ll be in the area and you know me and you’re interested in attending one of those, please let me know.

Admission for all shows is sliding scale $10 to $40, cash or Venmo. The money will help me get to the west coast and perform the show in LA this September.

(My LA babies! Hello, my darlings! I miss you. Hit me up if you want to come.)

Click here for more information on the show, including the content warning.

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God, I love this play. It freakin’ rocks. I’m so excited to share it with people.

I feel like growing up listening to hip hop taught me a rapper-like attitude about my own work. My shit is the shit and you should bump it. I’m like the phantom that’s flyin’ like the bird doin’ things you never heard plus I come from the suburbs.

This play is a continuation of stuff I’ve been exploring in my work forever. Paganism, revolution, community, ancestry, grief, queerness, the power of storytelling. And also it’s a new kind of story for me. It’s the first political thriller I’ve ever written. It’s meant to be tense and exciting and a little scary and the few people who’ve seen it so far seem to feel it is that.

It’s got a lot of Andor in it, a lot of Dream Askew by Avery Alder, a lot of Finder by Carla Speed McNeil, a little Mushishi, a little Deltron 3030 and, as always, it all goes back to Ursula K. Le Guin.

I was having a beverage with a new friend the other day and I described the play and the first thing they said was “It sounds like Ursula K. Le Guin.” and I was like 😭.

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Speaking of Ursula my beloved, I’ve been returning to this famous speech of hers in the moments around America’s 250th birthday. This speech is quoted a lot, for good reason. I’d highly recommend giving it a watch, as her presence and her manner of speaking are a big part of its magic. Also, do keep in mind that there was a table full of Amazon executives like 15 feet from her as she spoke it.

I do not love America. I do love this landmass on which I was born, and I do love all the beings who live here (yes, I mean it, all of them, love is not the same as like) but America feels like not quite the same thing.

The most-quoted part of the speech is: “We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings.”

This quote was on my mind this Fourth of July weekend. As much as I don’t love America, I can’t deny it’s a hell of a story. The king was reality, and these audacious mother fuckers wrote on a piece of paper “Actually if a government is hurting us we’re allowed to dismantle it and make a new one so you are not our king anymore bye” and it worked. It changed reality.

Another speech worth watching is Mamdani’s Fourth of July speech. I found it very moving. I don’t love America, but he does, and he loves New York City, and you can feel it, and I found that nourishing, as a child of New Yorkers.

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The website is different now. What do you think? Thank you to everyone who gave feedback.

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To everyone hosting a show this summer, and everyone interested in doing so in the future: Thank you for supporting local theater!!! What a gift. Thank you thank you.

The hosts just received the Courier Orientation document, which is designed to make clear what hosting a Courier Play entails. Feel free to take a look if you want.

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Okay everybodyyy. Thank you for being here.

Check in on your people. Both the people you think you don’t need to check in on, and the people about whom you go “I should really reach out to them soon.” Do it now, I say.

After that go cook up some antifascist pasta and dissolve some political bands. Also stay hydrated.

Until next time!

Gabriel Maria Rodriguez
they/them
Hudson Valley
7.5.2026
thicket-bramble.com