Justin David Sullivan & More Join 2024 BREAKING THE BINARY THEATRE FESTIVAL

Breaking the Binary Theatre has revealed the complete casts for the third annual Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival. The festival, which will continue the groundbreaking theater company’s mission of producing work created and developed by transgender, non-binary, and Two-Spirit+ (TNB2S+) theatre artists, will take place October 21, 2024 – October 27, 2024.
 
The festival will open with TRUTH //: An Interdisciplinary Variety Show featuring  Alaïa, Anania Williams (they/she), Ari Notartomaso (they/he), César Alvarez (they/them), Jade Jones aka Litty Official (they/them), JMV (they/them), Justin David Sullivan (he/she/they), Nora Schell (they/them), ONE (Esco Jouléy), and more at Littlefield (625 Sackett St, Brooklyn NY).
 
The festival will continue on at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater at Playwrights Horizons and will feature Aja Lynn Downing (she/her), Jennifer Nikki Kidwell (she/they), Mariyea (she/her), Temidayo Amay (them), and more in PRUNIN, HOEIN, N CUTTIN GRAPES; Yaffa AS (they/she) in HARVESTING OLIVES: A COLLECTIVE IMPROVISATION; Blair Barker (they/them), Colleen Litchfield (she/they), Drae Campbell (she/they), Karoline (they/them), and Zo Tipp (they/them) in FIRESIDE DANCES; Akane Little (they/them), Mei Ann Teo (they/them), and Zaza Diana Oh (they/them) in A RARE BIRD; Clew (they/them), Marquise Vilsón (he/him), and Samora la Perdida (she/they) in LUPE FINDS ME IN THE GARDEN OF DREAMS; and b (they/them), Brigette Lundy-Paine, Carl Clemons-Hopkins (they/he), Che Kabia (they/them/theirs), Joslyn Defreece (she/her), and Lux Pascal (she/her) in // DARE: A COLLECTION OF COMMISSIONED SCENES AND MONOLOGUES.
 
Festival casting is by The Telsey Office / Charlie Hano, CSA.
 
Tony Award-winner Sara Ramirez (they/them) has joined their all-TNB2S+ Core Community Advisory Board. Sara previously performed in the 2023 Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival in both PARADISE and BLISS and co-produced the organization's production of Cecilia Gentili's RED INK in the summer of 2023, which raised over $35,000 for charity. They will be co-producing Yaffa AS' HARVESTING OLIVES in this year's Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival.
 
"Thank you to George Strus and everyone at Breaking the Binary for creating this space that not only affirms us in who we are, but recognizes us as so much more than an identity. Breaking the Binary recognizes our shared struggles and works to artistically connect us around our commonalities as well as our differences," Ramirez stated. "In a complicated world full of messy humanity, Breaking the Binary offers a respite, a salve, an incubator and so many other ways to build and grow in community. I am beyond excited to be on the BTB Core Community Board as well as co-produce our upcoming installation of HARVESTING OLIVES!"
 
The current festival lineup can be seen below:
 

Monday, October 21 at 7pm:

TRUTH //: An Interdisciplinary Variety Show
Co-conceived by Noax (they/them) and George Strus (they/them)
Featuring Alaïa, Anania Williams (they/she), Ari Notartomaso (they/he), César Alvarez (they/them), Jade Jones aka Litty Official (they/them), JMV (they/them), Justin David Sullivan (he/she/they), Nora Schell (they/them), ONE (Esco Jouléy), and more
at Littlefield, 635 Sackett Street, Brooklyn
 
Ari Notartomaso, Jade Jones aka Litty Official (they/them), and Nora Schell to the cast. Please keep the "and more" and if we have anyone else confirm for this today/over the weekend, we'll let you know.
 
Following last year’s presentation of PARADISE, Noax and BTB Founding Artistic Director George Strus are joining forces again to create TRUTH //: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY REVUE at Littlefield. This special opening performance will showcase the talents of twelve stellar TNB2S+ artists and acts of various disciplines: vocalists, drag artists, comedians, and more showcasing original performance pieces inspired by the prompt "truth // dare."
 

Tuesday, October 22 at 7pm:

PRUNIN, HOEIN, N CUTTIN GRAPES
By Nissy Aya (Nissy; she/ze/we)
Directed by Dominique Rider
Featuring Aja Lynn Downing (she/her), Jenn Kidwell (she/they), Mariyea (she/her), Temidayo Amay (them), and more
at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater at Playwrights Horizons
416 West 42nd Street, Manhattan
 
In the highly regimented xxxxx, we witness the lives and lessons of a community of femmes assigned to teach the tools of sexual pleasure to others. Led by Alpha and her right-hand, her beta, Bilinda, this proud community of hoes carries on just them and their chil'ren. But with the pressures of a Choosing looming, the community deals with an unexpected and daunting assignment.
 

Wednesday, October 23 at 7pm:

HARVEST OLIVES: A COLLECTIVE IMPROVISATION
By Yaffa AS (they/she)
Developed in collaboration with Rad Pereira (they/them)
Co-produced by Sara Ramirez (they/them)
Featuring Yaffa AS (they/she)
at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater at Playwrights Horizons
416 West 42nd Street, Manhattan
 
Drawing from Mx. Yaffa’s books of writing and poetry as a trans Palestinian death worker and community organizer, we invoke utopias, spiral through grief and jump between realms through a collective improvisation. We hold a container for chaos, intimacy, restorative devastation, falling apart, and space to commune with ancestors through oral history and experimentation. HARVEST OLIVES is adapted from Desecrated Poppies, Blood Orange, Inara with guidance from ancestors, community members, and guides.
 

Thursday, October 24 at 7pm

FIRESIDE DANCES
By MJ Kaufman (he/they)
Directed by Aya Ogawa
featuring Blair Barker (they/them), Colleen Litchfield (she/they), Drae Campbell (she/they), Karoline (they/them), and Zo Tipp (they/them)
at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater at Playwrights Horizons
416 West 42nd Street, Manhattan
 
When 16-year-old Em decides to move from a farm in rural Oregon to Portland in order to go high school, she lands in the home of distant relatives: lesbian moms Greta and Annie and their overachieving 8-year-old Kaitlyn. Cultures clash between rural and urban queer lifestyles, class differences and politics but Em and Kaitlyn vow to stay sisters no matter what.
 

Friday, October 25 at 7pm

A RARE BIRD
Written and directed by Zaza Diana Oh (they/them)
featuring Akane Little (they/them), Mei Ann Teo (they/them), and Zaza Diana Oh (they/them)
at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater at Playwrights Horizons
416 West 42nd Street, Manhattan
 
A RARE BIRD is an interdisciplinary Play, Live Physical Intimacy, and Quiet and Honest Sex Show. One could say that it is the birth of a new genre of extreme slow porn. A Rare Bird captures Skye and Gabriel’s date on the carpeted floor against the couch of a studio apartment where neither is willing or able to make the first move. For Skye (ahem, the extrovert) and Gabriel, (ahem, the introvert) are stunted by their own respective shortcomings. We watch the date in real time with a VoiceEther (ahem, from Skye's POV) running. A RARE BIRD blends, defies, and subverts Erotic Thriller Cinema, Narrative Play, Stage Sex Show, and finally the Quiet and Slow Sex Education so many of us long for. This is an ode to Introversion, (loud) pauses, and letting less be.
 

Saturday, October 26 at 7pm

LUPE FINDS ME IN THE GARDEN OF DREAMS
By Esperanza Rosales Balcárcel (she/they)
Directed by Adin Walker (they/them)
featuring Clew (they/them), Marquise Vilsón (he/him), and Samora la Perdida (she/they)
at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater at Playwrights Horizons
416 West 42nd Street, Manhattan
 
Estrella, a young trans playwright, is at a spiritual crossroads. She becomes the Old Hollywood actress Lupe Velez on the last night of her life to find the answers to her questions, and the two people who hold them are Anna May Wong and Gary Cooper, her lifetime's greatest relationships. LUPE FINDS ME IN THE GARDEN OF DREAMS spans years in cinematic history to raise the question: what are the costs to being a queer artist of color in today's industry, and what would happen if we found a way of creating ourselves and our work outside of it?
 

Sunday, October 27 at 7pm

// DARE: A COLLECTION OF COMMISSIONED SCENES AND MONOLOGUES
Co-conceived by L Morgan Lee (she/her) and George Strus (they/them)
Featuring new works by D.A. Mindell, Dillon Yruegas (he/él), Esmé Maria Ng (they/he/she), Ianne Fields Stewart (they/she), Imani Russell (they/them), Jayne Deely (they/them), Jen Silverman (they/them), Jordan Ramirez Puckett (they/them), Nikhil Mahapatra (any pronouns), Nora Brigid Monahan (she/they), Sasha Velour (she/they) and Sophie Sagan-Gutherz (they/them)
Featuring b (they/them), Brigette Lundy-Paine, Carl Clemons-Hopkins (they/he), Che Kabia (they/them/theirs), Joslyn Defreece (she/her), and Lux Pascal (she/her)
at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater at Playwrights Horizons
416 West 42nd Street, Manhattan
 
Following OVERHEARD and BLISS, BTB Core Community member L Morgan Lee and Founding Artistic Director George Strus are partnering with Broadway Licensing for the third year in a row to create // DARE: A COLLECTION OF COMMISSIONED SCENES AND MONOLOGUES. The twelve commissioned works inspired by the prompt "truth // dare" will be crafted together and brought to life by a cast of five TNB2S+ performers to close the 2024 Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival. The works will then be published and licensed by Broadway Licensing in 2025.
                  

Tickets are complimentary and are now available at www.btb-nyc.com/24festival.