Breaking the Binary Theatre Unveils 2023 Lineup for BREAKING THE BINARY THEATRE FESTIVAL

Breaking the Binary Theatre has unveiled programming for the second annual Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival: seven evenings of work fully created and developed by transgender, non-binary, and Two-Spirit+ (TNB2S+) theatre artists.  All tickets to Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival are complimentary and will be available in mid-October.
 
The Festival will officially launch with PARADISE: An Interdisciplinary Revue on Monday October 23 at 3 Dollar Bill (260 Meserole St., Brooklyn, NY 11206), and continue its run with six new theatrical works in the Shiva Theater at The Public (425 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10003) from Tuesday October 24 through Sunday October 29, 2023.
 
In February and March, Breaking the Binary Theatre launched their first open submission period. They received over 160 full-length works by TNB2S+ writers for consideration. “We were blown away by the artistry and craft showcased in the works we received,” said Strus. “It made the programming process a difficult one, but with many thanks to our Literary Manager, Bryar, and our team of over 20 TNB2S+ readers (who were all compensated in accordance with New York’s living wage, like all BTB artists), each work was read (in full) at least twice before the five core workshop processes making up this year’s Festival were selected.”   
 
The current festival lineup includes:
 

PARADISE: An Interdisciplinary Revue

Co-conceived by Noax (they/them) & George Strus (they/them)
Monday October 23, 2023 at 7:30 PM
3 Dollar Bill
 
PARADISE is Breaking the Binary Theatre’s first-ever interdisciplinary revue. Co-conceived by Noax (they/them) and BTB Founding Artistic Director George Strus (they/them), the special opening performance will showcase the talents of twelve stellar TNB2S+ artists of various disciplines: vocalists, drag artists, comedians, and more! All participants will be announced in October.
 

Moon Bear

By Nina Ki (xe/she/they)
Directed by cara hinh (they/she)
Tuesday October 24, 2023 at 7:30 PM
In The Shiva Theater at The Public
 
Silver and Richie are siblings without parents. As the two grow up, they cling to one another as each other's family, and help one another navigate their positions as social outsiders - Silver as a genderqueer weirdo, and Richie as a drug dealing gangbanger. In a parallel world, Bear is ousted from his tribe and through a gesture of filial piety, is turned by Hwanung, a gay Korean god, into a human woman. S/he is then coerced into being Hwanung's pregnant beard and has Hwanung's child. As family bonds begin to disintegrate, and the god-world begins to crumble, Silver and Bear must redefine home for themselves, to find power through the magic of stories.
 

PLAY MAID

By Jesús I. Valles (they/them)
Directed by Lilliana Padilla (they/them)
Wednesday October 25, 2023 at 7:30 PM
In The Shiva Theater at The Public
 
PLAY MAID is a spell, a pre-emptive mourning ritual for my mother, who will be taken from me too soon by the labor she's performed in the service of all the women she cleaned for, all the babies she was paid to raise. This play is a eulogy for Lupe Ontiveros, legendary for playing over 150 maids in her acting career. This play is me obsessing over my strange desire to become my mother, whose love has absolutely devastated me. This is my obsession with ending this place and the labor that is killing her. Structured as a series of monologues that interrogate the role of the maid as a sociological, theatrical, and pop culture figure, PLAY MAID is a confrontation with this house that never ends.
 

‘Tia Pray a Sound

By a.k. payne
Co-directed by abigail jean-baptiste (all pronouns) and Jaz Hall (they/them)
Thursday October 26, 2023 at 7:30 PM
In The Shiva Theater at The Public
 
sound and her mama, kendra, have lost a lot of memories. they gather on kendra’s back porch to try to put things back together. along the way, clowning elephants try to help sound along the journey and patriarchal shadows try to steal their dreams. can this Black mother and child witness one another by the end?
 

YOUR MAXIMUM POTENTIAL

By travis tate (they/them)
Directed by Dominique Rider
Friday October 27, 2023 at 7:30 PM
In The Shiva Theater at The Public
 
A gaggle of gay men are all out on their own journeys to enlightenment. In many different ways. Which leads them to lifestyle meetings led by the illustrious, social media queen, Uriel. Max wants happiness. Shail and Darren want a baby. Lucas wants a boyfriend. Well, maybe? The line between the internet and reality begins to blur as the group find their ways, by any means necessary, to their most desired wishes. YOUR MAXIMUM POTENTIAL is a play about what happens when the ambitious pursuit of desires becomes the only way to survive.
 

Fight Call

By Sarah Mantell (they/them)
Directed by Mei Ann Teo (they/them)
Saturday October 28, 2023 at 7:30 PM
In The Shiva Theater at The Public
 
How many ingenues can Emma play before she just completely loses it? FIGHT CALL is a time-bending story told through the fight calls for all of Shakespeare’s onstage female death scenes. 
 

BLISS: A Collection of Commissioned Scenes and Monologues

Co-conceived by L Morgan Lee (she/her) & George Strus (they/them)
By Celeste Yim (they/them), Dante Green (they/he/she), Dena Igusti, Esperanza Rosales Balcárcel, Kit Yan (they/he/she), L Morgan Lee (she/her), Nazareth Hassan, Noax (they/them), Preston Max Allen (he/him), R. Réal Vargas Alanis (they+), Rob Madge (they/them), and Shualee Cook (she/her)
Sunday October 29 at 7:30 PM
In The Shiva Theater at The Public
 
Following last year’s presentation of OVERHEARD: Fifteen Commissioned Monologues Written BY TNB2S+ Artists FOR TNB2S+ Artists, BTB Core Community member L Morgan Lee and Founding Artistic Director George Strus are partnering with Broadway Licensing once again to create BLISS: A Collection of Commissioned Scenes and Monologues. The twelve commissioned works will be crafted together and brought to life by a cast of five TNB2S+ performers to close the 2023 Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival. The works will then be published and licensed by Broadway Licensing in 2024.
 
Breaking the Binary Theatre is hosting a virtual open call through Friday September 15 at noon ET, seeking New York actors from the TNB2S+ community interested in performing in BLISS: A Collection of Commissioned Scenes and Monologues. For further details, and to submit, please visit www.btb-nyc.com/bliss-auditions.
 
Additionally, following last year’s presentation, OVERHEARD: Fifteen Commissioned Monologues Written BY TNB2S+ Artists FOR TNB2S+ Artists, will be available for purchase and licensing in mid-October via Broadway Licensing, with profit proceeds being donated back to Breaking the Binary Theatre. 
 
Bryar Barboka (they/them) is the Literary Manager, Esmé Maria Ng (they/she/he) is the Associate Producer, and Samuel Morreale (they/them) is the Cultural Consultant. Casting by The Telsey Office / Charlie Hano (he/him), CSA.
 
Casting, ticketing information, and additional details will be announced in October. For further details, please visit www.btb-nyc.com/23festival.
 
 
Breaking the Binary Theatre is a new work development and community building hub wherein transgender, non-binary, and Two-Spirit+ (TNB2S+*) artists come together to reclaim our artistic license and liberty through a number of initiatives and programs, including the annual all-TNB2S+ Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival each October.
 
Founded and led by George Strus (they/them), since Breaking the Binary Theatre’s launch in July 2022, the organization has produced over fifteen workshops and readings of new works by TNB2S+ artists, commissioned over twenty-five TNB2S+ artists, hosted over ten community events, launched a free educational Summer Intensive for emerging TNB2S+ performers, partnered with Playbill and BroadwayCon, been in-residence at Williamstown Theatre Festival and New York Stage and Film, and paid out paid out over $145,000 to over 150 TNB2S+ artists.
 
*Breaking the Binary Theatre uses the term “TNB2S+” in hopes to encompass any person who is transgender, non-binary, Two-Spirit, gender non-conforming, genderqueer, agender, intersex, gender expansive, bigender, gender fluid, or any identity within the umbrella transgender community.

Breaking the Binary Theatre is counseled by its Core Community, a voluntary advisory board of prominent TNB2S+ theater artists working to further its outreach and impact. The board includes Tony Award-nominated designer Adam Rigg (they/them, The Skin of Our Teeth), Kleban Prize and Jonathan Larson Award-winning writer César Alvarez (they/them, Futurity), New York Stage and Film’s former Artistic Director Chris Burney (he/they), Princess Grace Award Honoraria recipient and director David Mendizaìbal (they/he, The Bandaged Place), Guggenheim Fellow and writer Jen Silverman (they/them+, Spain), Tony and Obie Award-winning actor and writer John Cameron Mitchell (he/they, “Shrill” on Hulu), Tony Award-winning multi-hyphenate KO who was formerly known as Karen Olivo (they/them, In the Heights), Kleban Prize and Jonathan Larson Award-winning poet Kit Yan (they/he/she, Interstate), Tony Award nominee L Morgan Lee (she/her, A Strange Loop), Jane Chambers Prize and Helen Merrill Award-winning writer MJ Kaufman (he/they, A Transparent Musical), Antonyo Award-nominated costume designer and activist Qween Jean (she/her, Primary Trust), Co-Director of A.R.T./New York Risa Shoup (they/them), Tomás Matos (they/them, “Fire Island”), Grammy Award-winning interdisciplinary storyteller Ty Defoe (he/we/ty, Straight White Men), and Artistic Director of Rattlestick Theater Will Davis (he/him).

Breaking the Binary Theatre is powered by Producer Hub. For more information, please visit www.btb-nyc.com or @BreakingtheBinaryTheatre on Instagram.
 

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