The alternative-theater jaunt

Ohio Theatre, home of the Ice Factory festival

Fri
True theater aficionados can cover a lot of satisfying ground in a summer weekend without so much as a glimpse of Broadway. First, set out for P.S. 122 (150 First Ave at 9th St; 212-477-5288, ps122.org) for Rinne Groff’s Orange Lemon Egg Canary (Wednesday 12 through July 30). Then groove across East 9th Street to Veselka (144 Second Ave at 9th St, 212-228-9682) and eat borscht at the same table where “poor theater” guru Jerzy Grotowski’s students used to kvetch at each other in bad Polish in the ’60s.

Sat
Begin in the Village at the Ohio Theatre (66 Wooster St between Broome and Spring Sts, 212-966-4844), where the impeccably curated Ice Factory festival chills out through August 12 (call 212-868-4844 for tickets; for more info, go to sohothinktank.org). You can catch one show,  if you like, before departing for a bite. Just a few blocks downtown, you’ll find Café Noir (32 Grand St at Thompson St, 212-431-7910), whose cous-cous will help you get in touch with your inner Casablanca (so you can be dramatic, if not theatrical).

Sun
Bounce out of bed bright and early the next day for the Summer Play Festival (spfnyc.com; through July 30). With shows up simultaneously in all the Theatre Row spaces (410 W 42nd St between Ninth and Tenth Aves; 212-279-4200, theatrerow.org), you could easily see more than one. Escape all that nonstop talent in the cool confines of The Drama Bookshop (250 W 40th St -between -Seventh and Eighth Aves, 212-944-0595, dramabookshop.com).

BONUS ITINERARY Those with their loins firmly girded will be holding out for the Fringe Festival August 11–22. Once you’ve found a copy of the enormous guide (try Borders bookstores; see borders.com for locations), amp yourself up on espresso at Caffe Reggio (119 MacDougal St at 3rd St, 212-475-9557)—which was good enough for Tennessee Williams. And get a room at the eminently stagy Carlton Arms (160 E 25th St between Park Ave South and Third Ave, 212-679-0680); if you’re going to watch 11 days of zany theater (sample title: The Prostitute of Reverie Valley), you should probably stay at the one place in town that thinks its rooms should look like Egyptian sarcophagi.—Helen Shaw