TRANS VOICES CABARET Returns to The Duplex

After their sold out performance in February, Trans Voices Cabaret returns to The Duplex with an even bigger cast of transgender and non-binary performers on Saturday, May 5th, 2018 at 9:30pm with direction by Donnie Cianciotto and musical direction by special guest Anessa Marie.

"As we start to see more audition notices go out for trans and non-binary characters, we still often find those roles going to cisgender actors because they out-number us and we have a tendency to get lost in the room where it happens," says director and host, Donnie Cianciotto. "At Trans Voices Cabaret, we put the focus solely on trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming performers to elevate our voices and give us an opportunity to rise up and be heard." He adds, "All of those Hamilton references were completely coincidental, but also, please cast us in Hamilton."

Some of the cast's combined performance credits include 54 Below, Joe's Pub, The Met, NYMF, Steppenwolf, Laurie Beechman Theater, Carnegie Hall, The Cutting Room, The Public Theater, Musical Theater Factory, Lincoln Center, and several regional and community theater companies nationwide.

Trans Voices Cabaret delivers standard NYC cabaret fare with a twist in a show combining your all time favorite showtunes, new works, and original music. This is NYC's third installment of Trans Voices Cabaret, and the Chicago chapter will be launching over the summer. There will also be a special NYC Pride Week performance at The Duplex in June. Find more information at their brand new website: www.transvoicescabaret.com.

Returning cast members Maybe Burke, Andi Lee Carter, Donnie Cianciotto, Samy el-Noury, Sandy Gooen, Jordan Ho, Ian Fields Stewart, Kita Updike, and are joined by newcomers Christian Appel, Eamon Boylan, Lenni Eyes, Kat Griffin, Goldie Luxe, Trinity Satin Joy, and Sam Spadafore. Bios available below.

Trans Voices Cabaret is being held in the cabaret theater at The Duplex, 61 Christopher Street, NY, NY 10014 at 9:30pm on Saturday, May 5th. Tickets are available for $10 in advance through The Duplex's website (www.theduplex.com) or for $15 at the door. Advance purchase is encouraged due to limited seating and previous shows selling out. Limited industry comps available. Email: transvoicescabaret@gmail.com for more information.

Direct link to tickets: www.purplepass.com/tvc0505

BIOS

CHRISTIAN APPEL: Christian is a radical non-binary trans femme arts activist, performance artist, and musician. They co-founded The TransGenerational Theatre Project, a multigenerational devised theatre project for trans and gender non-conforming people, and they are proud to be facilitating the project for a third year in preparation for a performance in the Trans Theatre Festival. They are a graduate of the CUNY Masters in Applied Theatre program and work as the Women's Program and Arts & Culture Program Coordinator at the Edie Windsor SAGE Center. They create solo performance that explores trans rage, grief, and ritual, and have performed at Heels on Wheels and as part of Needing It (Brooklyn Arts Exchange). They took a seven year break from theatre before returning to the stage to portray Chelsea Manning in Won't Be A Ghost (The Brick).

ÉAMON BOYLAN: Éamon Boylan (they/them/theirs) is a New York City based director and creator whose recent and upcoming projects include When I Recall Her (Planet Connections, BAM studio), virgo (Fresh Fruit Festival), Cinderella in the Closet (Trans Theatre Festival/The Brick), Rooms (BAM studio), and The Rite of Spring (American Theater Company/CORE Series). Their trans-centered musical, Soft Butter, is looking forward to production at an exciting Off-Broadway venue this June after development at Musical Theatre Factory. Éamon is incredibly grateful to be performing in the Trans Voice's Cabaret, surrounded by such transcendent talent and transformative creativity! For more about them and their work, visit www.eamonboylan.com.

Maybe Burke: Maybe is a Theatre Artist and Trans Advocate who founded The Trans Literacy Project with Honest Accomplice Theatre. They are always interested in telling stories that haven't been told. Recent credits include Delicious Filth (The Brick), Red Emma & the Mad Monk (Ars Nova), T.B. Sheets (Buran Theatre), Tag You're Dead (Joe's Pub), ReconFIGUREd (Honest Accomplice Theatre). Solo shows: Love Letters to Nobody, or Insignificant Others (The Wild Project, The Brick), Accidental Trans Anthems (The Brick) BA Directing, Pace University. maybeburke.com @believeinmaybe

ANDI LEE CARTER: Andi (he/him/they/them) is a New York-based playwright, composer, lyricist, singer, and comedian. He is a first year student in the NYU Tisch Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. His first original full-length musical Rent A White Guy was dubbed "often very funny" by The New York Times. Andi performs regularly at the People's Improv Theatre with his sketch comedy troupe Adam's Summer Class. He is an Artistic Associate with Random Access Theatre performing in the hit series Drunk Restoration Comedy. He is a proud member of the Dramatist Guild of America and founding member of the Musical Theatre Factory and moderator of its monthly Women/Trans* Writers Representation Round Table. www.andileecarter.com

Donnie Cianciotto: Donnie is a NYC native and a transgender male performer who was recently seen in Prospect Theater's 2018 Musical Theater Lab, and as Jess in Mr. San Man at The Lark. Other credits include Sam in Southern Comfort at The Public Theater, and Charlie Brown in A Charlie Brown Christmas at The Secret Theatre. He has performed locally in several concerts & cabarets including Broadway Voices for North Carolina at The Cutting Room, Oh Broadway, Where Art Thou? at 54 Below, Concert For America at The Town Hall, My White List Cabaret at Symphony Space, and many more. Donnie has appeared in videos for NowThis and Buzzfeed, and is featured in Broadway for Orlando's What the World Needs Now dance remix music video. Donnie is an outspoken advocate for transgender visibility and equality, and is the subject of an Emmy award-winning documentary short film, "Donnie", highlighting his experience as a transgender man (dir. Ania Augustowska.) "Donnie" is currently in production to be re-released as a feature film. Donnie is the director and producer of Trans Voices Cabaret. Insta: thedonniecianciotto www.donniecianciotto.weebly.com

Samy el-Noury: Samy is an actor, aerialist, pianist, puppeteer, and vocalist. In addition to performing, he also works as the General Manager of the Baltimore Annex Theater; as well as a teaching artist for the Smithsonian Discovery Theater and the Young Playwright's Theater. An out (and outspoken) transgender activist, Samy is on the leadership team for the Baltimore Transgender Alliance. There, he functions as a public speaker, and works with various organizations on peer support, youth mentorship, and outreach for LGBTQ-identified individuals. In 2017, Samy published his first-ever op-ed piece in The Advocate, on the challenges of being a working transgender actor of color. He has since taken to Medium to publish new pieces. He aims to highlight the diversity of the transgender experience. Samy is a recent transplant to NYC. Find him online at www.samyelnoury.com!

LENNI EYES: Lenni Eyes (they/them/theirs) is a radical educator, college access counselor, singer-songwriter and applied theatre facilitator of the TransGenerational Theatre Project at SAGE. They were a high school theatre nerd and this is their first return to the stage in way too long.

SANDY GOOEN: Sandy (they/them or he/him) is a queer, transmasculine, Jewish, and neurodivergent writer/performer and peer advocate. Sandy is a rising senior, majoring in music at Barnard College. Writing: It Takes a Village at the Glicker-Milstein Summer Theatre Festival, In Circles with Scott Feiner at French Woods Festival, and the orchestrations for Ooh Kill 'Em at Columbia University. Sandy has performed domestically and internationally, but mostly in New York City, including David Geffen Hall, The Metropolitan Opera House, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and Carnegie Hall. Sandy's Twitter is @featSandyGooen.

KAT GRIFFIN: Kat (non-binary, she/they/he) is an actor/singer/creator living in NYC- recently they played Madelaine True in an immersive production of Lippa's The Wild Party in BAR New Haven, they have also performed in a few readings and workshops of new shows. Kat is about to hit their 2 year mark in the city and could not be happier to have found a group of like minded/identified people to sing with! Kat frequently performs in cabarets and short engagements in the city (54 Below, Laurie Beechman, Greenroom42) but performing with a group of trans/non-binary/gender non-conforming people, after a year of not being able to find that community in the theatre world is an amazing feeling. Thank you for supporting!

JORDAN HO: (xe/xem/xyr): Jordan is a NYC based gender flux actrex. Theatre credits include: Going South (Workshop Performance at Dixon Place), Salt Kid Watches Brooklyn Burn (Joe's Pub at The Public Theater), The Female Role Model Project (The Clemente), and i wrote on ur wall and now i regret it (The Wild Project). Xe is also a company member of Honest Accomplice Theatre and tours with their shows, The Birds and the Bees Unabridged and ReconFIGURED, sharing the narrative of cis women and trans people across the NorthEast. Also with Honest Accomplice, xe works as a facilitator doing devising workshops with colleges and other communities and also screenings of The Trans Literacy Project video series. Xe wrote and workshopped xyr play Choose Your Character at the 2nd Annual Trans Theatre Festival at The Brick. Xyr next project will be A Chip on Her Shoulder, a docu-musical focussed on women in STEM research, set to premiere in Autumn at The Tank! Stay connected: instagram:@leavanny, twitter:@skrelp mxjordanho.com

TRINITY SATIN JOY: (Actor, Singer, Dancer, Mime, Playwright, Musician) is returning to the musical stage after a 35 year retirement during which sh'e raised a family and lived as a stealth male trying to escape h'er trans identity. Sh'e transitioned 5 years ago and lives in multiple gender presentations and plays multiple gender roles on stage. Trinity's 2017 credits are Bernice in the Chonbury International Hotel and Butterfly Club, Savin in the same show subbing for Kate Bornstein (Playwrights Downtown), and Christine in (T)estosterone (The Civilians Investigative Theater). Sh'e is currently developing "Indictment"- an avant garde political mime piece in the style of the Warsaw Mime Theater about a homeless transwoman, at the Woman/Trans Roundtable at the Musical Theater Factory, with the goal of turning it into a one person theatrical show combining mime, dance, voice and acting, for touring. The concept piece, which sh'e wrote, directed and performed in, was filmed at the Gene Frankel theater and is on YouTube. Past credits for Trinity include 100 shows in the late 1970's and early 80's in all areas of the theater.

GOLDIE LUXE: Goldie Luxe is a Brooklyn-based artist, composer, and musician originally from North Carolina. She holds an M.A. in Performance Studies form NYU. This September she'll be releasing her first studio album, "The Debutante" and her single "Tribute to My Girls" will be out later this month. Her favorite perfume is Coco by Chanel. She can be found at goldieluxe.com or on Insta @goldie__luxe

Anessa Marie: Anessa is a composer/lyricist, music director, pianist, orchestrator, actress, and singer based in New York City. Her original musicals currently in development include A Glimpse of the Rainbow (book, music, and lyrics), Come From Terminal C (book and lyrics by Charles Baran, music by Anessa Marie), The Imperfect Hour (book by Michael Stang, lyrics by Kim Hawkey and Anessa Marie, music by Assaf Gleizner and Anessa Marie), and City of Runaways, a song cycle based on the lives of New Yorkers. Anessa works as a music director in the theatre community of New York City. NYC credits include City of Light (directed by Tony Award winner Cady Huffman as part of SHENYC Summer Theatre Festival), Lysistrata Jones (Ophelia Theatre Group), An Intolerant Vaudeville (The Secret Theatre). Off-broadway credits include Frankenstein, Fancy Nancy Splendiferous Christmas, Stinky Kids the musical, The Bully, and Twinkle Tames A Dragon. Regional Credits include: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Parade, Fiddler on the Roof, 42nd Street, West Side Story, The Last Five Years, Songs for a New World, The Wild Party (Lippa), Sweet Charity, La Cage Aux Folles, and Ragtime. Anessa has also served as music director for various cabaret shows, and has graced the stage at Carnegie Hall, Feinstein's/54 Below, Green Room 42, and The Duplex, among countless others. Anessa's debut album will be released in early 2019. Anessa teaches private voice and piano lessons out of her studio in Astoria, Queens. She also is sought after as an audition coach, helping students develop confidence in their audition book. Anessa plays various auditions throughout New York City, and works closely with Theatre Resources Unlimited helping to develop new work. Available for commissioned work, Anessa specializes in composition for musical theatre, along with arrangements and orchestrations for all genres.

SAM SPADAFORE: Sam could not be more excited to be part of Trans Voices Cabaret. He is a senior musical theatre major at Nazareth College of Rochester, but has expanded his interests to directing and choreography. Some of his favorite performance roles include Katie in the play Bachelorette and Bee Doyle in Floyd Collins. He is hoping to move to the big apple after graduation, and what a better way to kick off that transition than performing with these talented individuals!

Ian Fields Stewart: (pronouns: they/them/their) is a black, queer, and transfeminine New York-based storyteller working at the intersection of theatre and activism. A native of Birmingham, AL, their work centers in creating radical stories that shift social narratives around the lives and experiences of marginalized people. As a performer, Ian has worked consistently in productions at NYC venues such as Manhattan Rep, NYC Fringe Festival '16, Shapiro Theatre, and more. In the spring of 2017, Ian performed an excerpt of their one-person show, On the Train to Nowhere in Particular, at the legendary Joe's Pub. Ian can also be seen on Buzzfeed LGBT, the You Had Me at Black podcast, the #Safewordsociety podcast, and the Is it Transphobic Podcast. When they're not in the theatre or studio, Ian serves on the council of the group @Salon which is a monthly discussion group that invites thought-leaders to introduce LGBTQ-centered topics through personal narrative. One of Ian's most transformative experiences occurred in the summer of 2017 when they were selected out of over 500 applicants to be one of the 15 US Fellows for Humanity in Action's 2017 John Lewis Fellowship. For the month of July, Ian shared space with and learned from various historic and current civil rights leaders in Atlanta, GA in order to better understand the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement and develop strategies for implementing effective change in contemporary political and social movements. To Learn More Please Follow Them At: https://www.ianfieldsstewart.com.

Kita Updike: Kita is happy to be back performing over the last couple years. Recent credits, theater: Fat Kid Rules The World (Ollie, staged reading, NYC), Reckoning (Cassie Bryant, staged reading, Public Theater), Trinkets (Trinket, Gene Frankle Theater), Chonburi International... (Van, reading, NYC) Film: The Misandrists (Isolde, Feature Film, Germany), Difficult People (Oona, Tv Series, Hulu). She would like to thank her manager and everyone else involved in helping her find her place again in the theater!

 

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