SEVEN EVENINGS OF NEW WORK CREATED
BY TNB2S+ ARTISTS FOR TNB2S+ ARTISTS
AT 3 DOLLAR BILL AND IN THE PUBLIC’S SHIVA THEATER
OCTOBER 23 - 29, 2023
Coinciding with LGBTQ+ History Month, the annual Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival brings together seven teams of transgender, non-binary, and Two-Spirit+ (TNB2S+) playwrights, directors, dramaturgs, stage managers, and performers (yes, even in roles written for cis folks!) to develop and showcase new work created entirely by and for TNB2S+ artists.
PARADISE: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY REVUE
MONDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2023
7:30PM at 3 Dollar Bill
co-conceived by Noax (they/them) and George Strus (they/them)
featuring Be Steadwell (they/he/she/be), Bobby Pocket Horner (they/he), Dane Figueroa Edidi (she/her), Ernest Allen (they/them), justine lee hooper (they/she), Las Mariquitas, Mariyea (she/her), Murray Hill (he/him/showbiz), Noax (they/them), Qween Jean (she/her), and Sara Ramírez (they/them)
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 eleven stellar TNB2S+ artists of various disciplines: vocalists, drag artists, comedians, and more!
For more information on PARADISE, please click here.
MOON BEAR
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2023
7:30PM at The Shiva Theater at the Public
by Nina Ki (xe/she/they)
Directed by cara hinh (they/she)
Stage Manager: Angela Salazar
Dramaturg: Yasmin Zacaria Mikhaiel (she/they)
featuring Ashil Lee (pronoun inclusive), Che’Li (they/them), Clew (they/them), Futaba Shioda (he/him/his), Jojo Brown (she/her), Si Chen (she/they/她), and Wesley Han (they/them)
with Stage Directions read by Marshall Joun (they/he/she)
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.
For more information on MOON BEAR, please click here.
PLAY MAID
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2023
7:30PM at The Shiva Theater at the Public
Written and performed by Jesús I. Valles (they/them)
Directed by Liliana Padilla (they/them)
Stage Manager: Beatrice Perez-Arche
Movement Director: Ishmael Gonzalez (any pronouns)
Vocal Coach: Josh 'J' Feliciano-Sanchez Moser (they/them/elle)
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.
For more information on PLAY MAID, please click here.
‘TIA PRAY A SOUND
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2023
7:30PM at The Shiva Theater at the Public
by a.k. payne
Co-directed by abigail jean-baptiste (all pronouns) and Jaz Hall (they/them)
Clowning Consultant: Jay Délise (they/them)
Stage Manager: Shiku Thuo (any pronouns with love)
featuring a.k. payne, Alicia Pilgrim (she/they), Cristina Pitter (they/she), Joy-Marie Thompson (they/she), Maleek Rae (they/them), and N'yomi Allure Stewart (she/her)
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?
For more information on ‘TIA PRAY A SOUND, please click here.
YOUR MAXIMUM POTENTIAL
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2023
7:30PM at The Shiva Theater at the Public
by travis tate (they/them)
Directed by Dominique Rider
Dramaturg: Dezi Tibbs (they/she)
Stage Manager: Rachel April (they/them)
featuring Ashton Muñiz (they/he), b (they/them/b), Lío Mehiel (they/them), Omari K. Chancellor, and Reed Northrup (he/him)
with Stage Directions read by Vann Dukes (they/them)
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.
For more information on YOUR MAXIMUM POTENTIAL, please click here.
FIGHT CALL
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2023
7:30PM at The Shiva Theater at the Public
by Sarah Mantell (they/them)
Directed by Mei Ann Teo (they/them)
Associate Fight Director: Alex Might (her)
Dramaturg: Jeremy Tiang (he/they)
Stage Manager: Mars Juno Bartolome Neri (they/them)
Fight Director: Rocío Mendez (they/she)
featuring Diana Oh “Zaza D” (they/them), Jonny Beauchamp, Marquise Vilsón, Pooya Mohseni (she/her), Sagan Chen (they/he), and Susannah Perkins
with Stage Directions read by Andres Martinez (any pronouns with respect)
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.
For more information on FIGHT CALL, please click here.
BLISS: A COLLECTION OF COMMISSIONED SCENES AND MONOLOGUES
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2023
7:30PM at The Shiva Theater at the Public
co-conceived by L Morgan Lee (she/her) and George Strus (they/them)
directed by L Morgan Lee (she/her)
in partnership with Broadway Licensing
featuring new works by Dante Green (they/he/she), Dena Igusti, Esperanza Rosales Balcárcel, Haruna Lee (they/them), 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)
Dramaturg: George Strus (they/them)
Stage Manager: Kasson Marroquin (they/he)
featuring Indya Moore (she/her), Kyr Siegel (he/him), River Gallo (they/them), Sara Ramírez (they/them), and Temidayo Amay (they/he)
with stage directions read by Kathel Griffin (they/them/he/him)
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.
For more information on BLISS, please click here.
2023 Breaking the Binary Theatre Staff:
Bryar Barborka (they/them)
Literary Manager
Bryar Barborka (they/them) is a Chicago-based nonbinary Latine theater artist. They are the Literary Associate at Seven Devils New Play Foundry and the Literary and Casting Associate at Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Bryar has also worked with: Second Stage Theater, The Playwrights' Center, Goodman Theatre, Victory Gardens Theater, Teatro Vista, Definition Theatre, Interrobang Theatre Project, and the Ojai Playwrights Conference among others in various capacities. They are passionate about work that expands theater audiences and reaches those that have historically been left out of the American theatre.
Charlie Hano (he/him)
Casting Director
Charlie Hano, CSA (he/him). Charlie is a casting professional and creative consultant based in New York and Chicago. Some of his previous credits include MUD (Mabou Mines, winner of a 2020 Obie Award for best director), Work In Progress: Season 2 (PR Casting, Showtime), The Life! (Encores), Camelot (The MUNY), The Wolves (Actors Theatre of Louisville), soft (MCC), and John Proctor Was The Villian (Studio Theatre in DC). In addition, he is a member of the team at The Telsey Office. For more information, visit www.hanocasting.org. Charlie is a proud member of the transgender community and is thrilled to be part of this festival.
Esmé Maria Ng (they/she/he)
Associate Producer
Esmé Maria Ng (they/she/he) is an early-career theater maker who loves heartbreak, new plays, and laughing through the pain. As a playwright, Esmé has been honored as a 2023 Lambda Literary Playwriting Fellow, and a semi-finalist for the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, the Premiere Play Festival at Kean University, and the Van Lier New Voices Fellowship at Rattlestick. As a dramaturg/arts administrator/script evaluator Esmé has worked with several notable theaters including Manhattan Theatre Club, Ma-Yi Theater Company, Breaking the Binary Theatre, The Playwrights Realm, and Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. Esmé is currently the Outreach and Engagement Associate at Classic Stage Company, a member of the American Theatre Group’s BIPOC PlayLab, and a freelance dramaturg in New York city. @esmemariang esmemariang.com
Marc Ella Roy (they/them)
Graphic Designer
Marc Ella Roy (they/them) is a butch nonbinary graphic designer, multimedia artist, and recent graduate of Hunter College's Emerging Media program, currently working on unceded Lenape land / the NYC metro area. They have crafted illustrations and visual identities for a range of touring musicians, small businesses, academic publications, and nonprofits. In their work, they hope to reveal the web of connections that unite seemingly disparate disciplines and social issues. @marcplusella
Nazareth Hassan
Sound Designer
Nazareth Hassan is an interdisciplinary artist working in performance, writing, music, video, and photography. Recent performance works include Untitled (1-5) at The Shed (text published by 3 Hole Press), VANTABLACK at Theatretreffen Stuckemarkt in Berlin, #2112 at Center for Performance Research in Brooklyn, and Memory A at Museo Universitario del Arte Contemporaneo in Mexico City. Their first collection of poetry and photography Slow Mania will be published in 2025 by Futurepoem. They have released 4 singles, available on all platforms. They were the 2022 resident dramaturg at the Royal Court Theatre in London. They are a 2023-25 Jerome Hill artist fellow and a current resident of the Vineyard Theatre.
Sam Morreale (they/them)
Cultural Consultant
Sam Morreale (they/them) is currently the Associate Producer at Soho Rep, and is thrilled to join BTB again this year as the Cultural Consultant. With facilitation at the core of their practice, they've had a blossoming career as a creative producer working with many companies including Baltimore Center Stage, Long Wharf Theater, New York Stage and Film/Powerhouse, The Prelude Festival, Mixed Blood Theater, Penumbra Theater, and Theater Communications Group. In addition, Sam has developed a portfolio of consulting work in strategy planning, institutional alignment, and cultural change with arts organizations such as Center Theater Group, The New Harmony Project, Ars Nova, Boston Court Pasadena, ART/NY, New Georges, and The Acting Company. Sam is also nurturing their artistic practice in rehearsal rooms as a dramaturg, director, and culture shaper constantly seeking to break down dissonance between artist and institution. B.A. Wesleyan University, Theater and Science in Society.
2023 Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival Readers:
A.A. Brenner (they/them/he), Alex Lee Reed (he/they), Ander Shunneson (they/them), Aydan Shahdadpuri (they/he), Charlie Hano (he/him), Christian Lewis (they/them), Declan Zhang (they/them), Desiree S. Mitton (she/they), Esmé Maria Ng (they/she/he), Eulália Comas (they/she), Jarvis D. Matthews (he/they), Kedian Keohan (they/he), Libby Carr (they/them), Liv Garcia (they/them), Maxwell Friedman (they/them), Megan Carpenter (they/them), Nadya Naumaan (she/they), Pauli Pontrelli (they/them/ze/zir), Sagan Chen (they/he), Sam Morreale (they/them), and Sarin Monae West (they/she)