Mano a Mano by Paul Pinto // LA MAMA, NYC
Date: February 22, 2026
Time: 2:00 pm
MANO A MANO: an operatic monodrama by Paul Pinto – February 12-22
A thingNY Production // Presented in association with Amanda+James, Anti-Social Music and MATA
Plucked from the tradition of the medieval storytelling bard, MANO A MANO is an operatic monodrama about toxic masculinity, needling Anglo-Saxon epics with personal anecdote, pseudo-history, Antonio Banderas movies, tangents about the Romans, boxing, and stories about New Jersey.
Writer/performer Paul Pinto embodies all the characters across a five-octave range of timbres: sweet, throaty and viscerally guttural. Posing the question “what if Sir Gawain and Beowulf were fighting over killing the same dragon?” he answers with ninety minutes of virtuosic chants, rants, song and spectacle, as he bobs and weaves between passages of puckishly quick verbiage and aching melancholia. Director Kristin Marting stages it in the round with the audience immersed in the action, surrounded by a mix of wild saxophone and percussion improvisation.
Written, Composed and Performed by Paul Pinto
Developed with and Directed by Kristin Marting
Lighting and Projection Design by Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew
Sound Design and Mixing by Philip White
Associate Lighting Design by Alex deNevers
Performed with Erin Rogers (sax), Zach Herchen (sax), and Dennis Sullivan (percussion)
Line Produced by Amanda+James
Production Managed by Erica Schnitzer
Technical Directed by Ben Elling
Stage Managed by Katie Scibelli