Diversionary Theatre Reveals 2024-25 Season Lineup

Diversionary Theatre has announced its 39th (2024-2025) season, which will feature a line up of premieres that will continue to honor the theatre's legacy of bringing LGBTQIA+ audiences new and exciting stories for, by, and about the community. The season includes: the West Coast Premiere of the musical Midnight at The Never Get (October/November 2024) by Sam Bolen, Max Friedman, and Mark Sonnenblick and directed by Stephen Brotebeck; the San Diego Premiere of we are continuous (February/March 2025) by Harrison David Rivers and directed by Kian Kline-Chilton; and the Regional Premiere of Merry Me  (May/June 2025) by Hansol Jung.

Tickets for Diversionary’s 2024-2025 season productions are currently available via a subscription purchase online at diversionary.org and by calling 619.220.0097. Subscription packages start at just $55. Discounted subscriptions are available for seniors, students, educators and military. 

About the curating Season 39, Interim Artistic Director Stephen Brotebeck says, "During the past year at Diversionary I have been able to have many exciting conversations with our community which have inspired the stories we are going to be telling in Season 39. Coming to light in these conversations was the desire to build bridges and connectivity between our community members and those we serve in San Diego. We feel that these three stories bring us together through a universal theme surrounding how we love and who we love. In Midnight at the Never Get, there is a line that encapsulates how we as an LGBTQIA+ community can coalesce around connection and love at this moment in time: 'Don't let the world shape your love. Let your love shape the world'."

Likewise, Diversionary is excited to welcome back we are continuous playwright Harrison David Rivers who has a long history with the company. About this production, Harrison David River says, "we are continuous marks my third collaboration with Diversionary Theatre – my plays When Last We Flew and This Bitter Earth were produced there in 2012 and 2021 – and I am so thrilled to be invited back, especially with this play, a love/hate/love letter to my mother!” He continues, "You know those people in your life who you go without seeing for years and then you run into them on the street or at a restaurant and it’s like no time has passed at all? You just pick up the conversation where you left off? That’s how I feel about Diversionary – like I’ve run into an old friend and we’ve picked up the conversation right where we left off the last time.”

Arts education programming will continue to be prominent throughout the 2024-2025 season, and Diversionary’s 39th season kicks off in July with the return of their Teen-Versionary program - a diverse cross section of queer youth - writing and performing a new play as part of San Diego’s Pride Festival, performing July 20 and July 21.  Admission is free. Diversionary’s annual program serving LGBTQIA+ senior citizens, the Stonewall Salon, will continue in the 39th season with dates to be announced soon. The group of LGBTQIA+ elders meet for six weeks to devise their own show based on their personal histories, culminating in free performances open to the public. The annual LGBTQIA+ themed touring production, D-Tours, will be going to schools in the San Diego Unified School District and community centers and other performance venues across San Diego County. Kid-Versionary continues its after school programming on-site at Alice Birney Elementary and Roosevelt Middle Schools. And Diversionary Werks continues with its periodic drop-classes.

The 2024-2025 season will celebrate the three-year anniversary of Diversionary’s Clark Cabaret. The Clark Cabaret welcomes its community five nights a week to enjoy drinks and live entertainment in a piano bar atmosphere complete with performances by beloved local favorites, up-and-coming artists, and local theatre companies. From drag kings and queens to stand-up comedy and hosted movie and game nights, Diversionary will continue to be a home for an eclectic assortment of queer-themed entertainment with an emphasis on non-profit groups and diverse artists, as well as serving as a hub for organizing and meeting. 

Diversionary will continue to open its Mainstage, New Play Development Center, and Arts Education Center to San Diego theatre makers and arts educators and a reduced and sometimes pro-bono rate, depending on the need of the artist or organization in the effort to help provide performance space to sister organizations in need of a place to call home. With limited theatre and arts education venues across our city, this vital community outreach strengthens Diversionary’s engagement with like-minded peer organizations and individual artists.

Diversionary Theatre is the nation’s third-oldest LGBTQIA+ theatre dedicated to amplifying queer voices through the performing arts in a dynamic, inclusive, and provocative environment that celebrates and preserves their unique culture, while contributing to an environment of diversity and inclusion throughout the broader community.  Since Diversionary’s founding in 1986, it has continually provided an inspiring and thought-provoking theatrical platform to explore complex and diverse stories of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning communities in the form of live entertainment that can be enjoyed by all. The Austin & Joann Clark Cabaret is a new space at Diversionary Theatre opened in fall of 2021, and features a full bar and a permanent historical display created in partnership with LAMBDA Archives of San Diego commemorating the space in the tradition of the iconic “Gay Bar” where the LGBTQIA+ community and movement coalesced. 

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