L Morgan Lee Joins Creative Team for BREAKING THE BINARY THEATRE FESTIVAL - Playing This October

Tony Award nominee L Morgan Lee (she/her, A Strange Loop) will direct the final evening of Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival - an evening of 15 newly commissioned monologues created by members of the TNB2S+ community - on Sunday October 16 at 7:00pm at Theatre Row's (410 W 42nd St, New York, NY 10036) first floor space, Theatre One.

"There is a growing interest in narratives that include or center trans, nonbinary, and gender expansive people," said L Morgan Lee. "What we continue to see, however, is those stories - more often than not - being told through the lens of cis people. We can both celebrate forward motion and also take note that without trans people in the room helping to build these pieces, there will always be something missing. Specificity is regularly an issue. This is because there is not nearly enough trans representation for cis people to understand our lives on a level deep enough to develop projects without us being present. That is one of the big reasons festivals like, Breaking the Binary, are important. In these spaces we are more than simply transition stories, coming outs, and constant comparisons with cis gender expectations. It is here that we get to celebrate, to breathe, to love, to live, to dream, and to explore the wide variety of experiences that decorate our lives. When we are given both the opportunity and the resources to enrich the environment where these works are being made, both the experience of creating and the storytelling itself has the potential to in turn be made that much more authentic and thrilling."

The evening will feature new work by A.A. Brenner (they/them/he, Emily Driver's Great Race Through Time and Space), Azure D. Osborne-Lee (he/they, Crooked Parts), Bianca Leigh (BUSTED), Else Went (they/them, Degenerates), Isaac Gómez (they/them, La Ruta), Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin (they/she, Tiger Beat), Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi (she/her, Yemaya's Daughters), Liqing Xu (they/she, Yellow Dream$), Mashuq Mushtaq Deen (he/they, Draw the Circle), Sam Hamashima (they/them, American Spies), Sharifa Yasmin (she/her, The Devils Between Us), Sylvan Oswald (he/him, Pony), Timothy DuWhite (pronoun inclusive, Neptune), travis l. tate (they/them, MotherWitch), and Victor I. Cazares (they/them, american (tele)visions). Founding Artistic Director George Strus (they/he) will serve as dramaturg.

Following this presentation, Broadway Licensing will publish and license the monologues, with all profit proceeds being donated back to BTBTF. More information on the published monologues will be announced shortly.

Also newly announced is the addition of the four new artists to the Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival lineup: Rad Pereira (they/them, LIFEDAY, part of Dispatch to the Future: A theatrical journey through Central Park), who will direct NANA by Aziza Barnes (BLKS); Al Parker (they/them, The Parsnip Ship) who will serve as dramaturg on NANA by Aziza Barnes (BLKS); Desiree S. Mitton (she/they, Mine) who will serve as dramaturg on TWITCH by Liliana Padilla (they/she, How to Defend Yourself); and Lewis Fender (he/him, The Parlour: A Digital Graveyard) who will serve as dramaturg on Work Hard Have Fun Make History by ruth tang (they/them, FUTURE WIFE).

L Morgan Lee and Tomás Matos (they/them, "Fire Island") will also join the company's Core Community, a voluntary advisory board of prominent TNB2S+ theater artists working to further its outreach and impact.

They join the previously-announced roster of Core Community members, including 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 Artistic Director Chris Burney (he/they), Princess Grace Award Honoraria recipient and director David Mendizaìbal (they/he, Notes on Killing Seven Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Board Members), Guggenheim Fellow and writer Jen Silverman (they/them+, The Moors), 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), Jane Chambers Prize and Helen Merrill Award-winning writer MJ Kaufman (he/they, Masculinity Max), Antonyo Award-nominated costume designer and activist Qween Jean (she/her, soft), Co-Director of A.R.T./New York Risa Shoup (they/them), Grammy Award-winning interdisciplinary storyteller Ty Defoe (he/we/ty, Straight White Men), and Princeton Arts Fellow and Helen Hayes Award-winning director Will Davis (he/him, California).

Co-curated by George Strus (they/he), Dominique Rider and Josephine Kearns (she/her), Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival will feature seven evenings of work created and developed by TNB2S+ theatermakers. Coinciding with National Coming Out Day and LGBTQ+ History Month, the festival will run from Monday October 10 through Sunday October 16, 2022 in Theatre Row's (410 W 42nd St, New York, NY 10036) first floor space, Theatre One. Tickets to Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival are free and can be reserved on Monday September 26. To sign up to receive more information, please visit www.btb-nyc.com.

Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival's opening, TRANS WORLD by Ty Defoe (he/we/ty) is generously sponsored by Salman Al-Rashid (he/him).

Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival defines a "TNB2S+ artist" as any artist who does not correspond with the male and female binary and is transgender, non-binary, Two-Spirit, gender non-conforming, genderqueer, agender, gender expansive, bigender, gender fluid, or otherwise lives outside of the cisnormative gender binary.

The festival will bring together TNB2S+ playwrights, directors, dramaturgs, and stage managers to collaborate with a team of TNB2S+ performers (yes, even in roles written for cis folx!) to develop a piece over the course of approximately 29 hours, culminating in a public reading presentation over the week of October 10 - 16, 2022. Artists include Aziza Barnes, é boylan (they/them), Gaven Trinidad (they/he/siya), Jack Ferver (they/them), Kedian (they/he), Liliana Padilla (they/she), Mara Vélez Meléndez (she/her), Sivan Battat (she/they), Ty Defoe (he/we/ty), Roger Q. Mason (they/them), and ruth tang (they/them). For the full festival lineup, please visit www.btb-nyc.com/homepage/#schedule.

Logo design is by Kit Wallace (he/they) and website design is by Jesse Ye (they/them). Casting by The Telsey Office / Charlie Hano, CSA.

For more information, visit www.btb-nyc.com. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter at @btbtfnyc.

Additional casting and information will be announced shortly.

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