The Brick's Trans Theatre Festival 2018 Begins July 9

Running virtually simultaneous with the celebrated Fresh Fruit Festival is the innovative Trans Theatre Festival July 9 - 22, 2018

The Caffe Cino Fellowship Award winning Brick Theatre, located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, was founded in 2002 by Robert Honeywell and Michael Gardner and has been home to many critically acclaimed premieres. Winning such honors as NYIT and ITBA Awards and Time Out New York's Top Ten Plays, The Brick hosted some of downtown theater's most innovative artists, including Annie Baker, Young Jean Lee, The Debate Society, Thomas Bradshaw, and Nick Jones. The Brick is overjoyed to continue its annual Trans Theater Festival celebrating the power and the art of Trans artists.

This year's line-up includes

A FEATURED SHOWING OF PASS/FAIL

Directed by Donnie Cianciotto
Tuesday, July 17 @ 7pm; Wednesday, July 18 @ 7pm; Saturday, July 21 @ 3pm

Featuring Sydney Ronis, Marc David Wright, Hannah Roze, Rebecca Cianciotto, Emily Mervosh, Jane Marie Price, Jacob Michael, Jonathan Hernandez, Emily McNally

Pass/Fail is a new play by Sandy Gooen, whose Twitter is @featsandygooen. A play about friendship, belonging, and, well, passing. The story follows Johnny, who is a transmasculine student at a women's college, and his best friend Noah, who is a cis gay man at the Ivy League across the street.

[photo by Jody Christopherson]

Other productions in the festival include

Blood and Water: Saturday, July 14 @ 5pm

Blood and Water is an ensemble-driven absurdist piece-centering immigrant, queer identity. The soul of a refugee is stuck in God's "Theatre of Lost Souls", and she is tired of playing the Cleaning Lady. As she escapes back to Earth, she experiences a premonition of the mother and father she forgot she had, and perhaps, another part of her soul that might not be a "her" at all. Through clowning, epic myth, live music, and an array of kitchen appliances, Blood and Water explores the narratives we cling to and at what cost to the individual and national consciousness.

Cinderella in the Closet: Wednesday, July 11 @ 7pm

What if Cinderella were not bound by the stroke of midnight? Confronting the fable's linear narrative, Cinderella in the Closet explores non-linear transformation by centering trans identity, celebrating the infinite potentiality of self. We do not hide within the closet; we dance.

Crucifixion Sun: Monday, July 16 @ 7pm; Tuesday, July 17 @ 9pm; Saturday, July 21 @ 5pm

Drawing influence from Medieval Passion plays and the amoral cinematic deserts of the Western genre, Crucifixion Sun explores points of contact and conflict between religious and theatrical performance. The play disturbs well-worn narratives of queer youth homelessness, offering a story of both religious exile and religious revelation.

double yolk moon: Tuesday, July 10 @ 7pm; Sunday, July 15 @ 1pm; Sunday, July 15 @ 7pm

double yolk moon is a performance that explores the complexity, absurdity and revelation of Sophia and Bex being often mistaken for each other. As queer transmasculine chinese people, we wonder about the positioning of east asian masculinity being-at once- threatening, harmless, and interchangeable. How does an asian community build intimacy and power if they are identical?

Late Night with EV and Puppets - The Freeks: July 13, 2018

Written and Directed By: EV Fitzgerald Starring: EV, Illyana, Julee, Janee, and Egg. Come join the late night show featuring a mermaid, a ballerina, a very rambunctious 12 year old, and a bird. We will talk about dreams, desires, and good old fashion community love. It's the show that's sweeping the nation! (at least in the host's mind). http://thefreekstheater.wixsite.com/freeks

SCOWL: Fight For Your Right: Saturday, July 14 @ 1pm; Saturday, July 21 @ 7pm

Featuring Jesse Rose Krebs, Gabriel Spector, Gladys Hendricks, Sylas Barrett, Joe Conway, Rachel Weekly, and Ashley Lauren Rogers. How far would you go to fight for your rights? To stand up to insurmountable odds? To refuse disrespect? When The Riarchy Corporation bought out the majority shares in SCOWL they instituted rule after rule, seeming to punish those most in need of support. Pushed to the edge it's up to former SCOWL champion April Rain and a motley crew of trans and nonbinary warriors to defeat the Riarchy Corporation in a best of three competition. If they win Riarchy Corporation owner Pat Riarchy will give up his shares in SCOWL and dissolve the Riarchy corporation. But if she loses, April, and all members of the SCOWL roster will have to present and compete as their sex assigned at birth or leave SCOWL. SCOWL: Fight For Your Rights is an action packed theatrical presentation combining stage combat choreography, acrobatics, and mixed media to create queer and trans inclusive theatrical performance with a sports appeal.

To the Binary and Beyond! Tuesday, July 10 @ 9pm; Saturday, July 14 @ 7pm; Sunday, July 22 @ 6pm

Non-binary trans people often face erasure, and this can be especially difficult for non-binary performers. In a world filled with binary roles, directors aren't sure what to do with us. This cabaret is an opportunity to showcase a broad range of non-binary talent, depicting the way music and theatre can transform when the boundaries of binary gender are subverted or removed completely.

Included in the festival is

Transgenerational Theatre Project 2018:
Monday, July 9 @ 9pm; Thursday, July 12 @ 7pm; Thursday, July 19 @ 7pm

Transverse: An Autopsy of Gender:
Sunday, July 15 @ 9pm; Friday, July 20 @ 7pm; Sunday, July 22 @ 8:30pm

A live presentation of Ashley Lauren Rogers' "Is It Transphobic?" Podcast, focusing on festival artists.

A panel discussion about Trans theater in the Me Too era.

The Brick Theatre is located at 579 Metropolitan Ave in Brooklyn.