Breaking the Binary Theatre presents
a reading presentation of
SOLDIERGIRLS
Thursday, June 6th
at Classic Stage Company’s Lynn F. Angelson Theater (136 East 13th Street)
SOLDIERGIRLS
A new musical with book & lyrics by Emil Weinstein and music by Emily Johnson-Erday
Directed by Miranda Haymon
starring Murphy Taylor Smith (she/her) and Rad Pereira* (they/them)
Musicians: Nina Ross (they/them) and Storm Thomas (he/him)
Stage Directions Reader: Carmen LoBue (they/them)
Music Director, Arranger, and Orchestrator: George Luton (they/he)
Stage Manager: Rachel A. Zucker* (they/them)
Dramaturg: Ryan Adelsheim (they/them)
Copyist: Sophia Huf (they/them)
A1: Stephanie Carlin (she/they)
Lighting and Projection Designer: Zack Lobel (he/him)
*denotes a member of Actors' Equity Association. This presentation of SOLDIERGIRLS is an AEA Showcase.
A new two-person musical, SOLDIERGIRLS uses real letters and a collage of found and original text to look at love, liberation and lesbianism in the US Army’s Women’s Army Corps in World War II.
Emil Weinstein
Writer
Emil Weinstein is an award-winning writer/director for stage and screen. Recent work includes: adapting Comedy of Errors for The Old Globe, staff writing on A League of Their Own for Amazon, and directing four episodes of the final season of The L Word: Generation Q for Showtime. Emil's short film, In France Michelle is a Man's Name played at festivals around the world, winning Grand Jury Prizes at Slamdance and Outfest. Emil graduated Summa Cum Laude from Smith College, and received an M.F.A. from at Yale School of Drama where he directed the first workshop production of Jeremy O. Harris' Slave Play.
Emily Johnson-Erday (she/her)
Composer
Emily Johnson-Erday (she/her) is a queer theater maker raised in the old-time music community of North Carolina, and her happy place is the intersection of new works, folk music and queer narratives. Past work as an actor-musician includes How To Break (New Victory Labworks), The Stray (Rebel Playhouse), A Short Life of Trouble (Everyday Inferno Theater Company), Trial By Fire (Columbia Stages), and The Trial of Mrs. Surratt (The Wandering Theater Company). Emily co-wrote the music and lyrics for original musicals Harpies for the Dead (Thin Space Productions) and Welcome to the Doll Den (Electric Eye Ensemble). Currently, Emily tours with folk band The Starlight Darlins and serves as the music director for the viral, nerdy interactive show The Fantasy Tavern. She is also proud to be a second-year candidate in the BMI Musical Theater Writing Workshop! A thousand thanks to my family, community, and loves. @thebanjowitch
Miranda Haymon
Director
Miranda Haymon is a Princess Grace Award-winning director and writer. As a theater director, Miranda has developed and staged work with The Tank, NYTW, Roundabout, Ars Nova, Manhattan Theatre Club, The Public, Bushwick Starr, Signature Theater and more. Miranda has served as Visiting Faculty at Fordham, Dartmouth, Sarah Lawrence, Wesleyan, and Rutgers, with upcoming appointments at Harvard University and Bard College. Past fellowships/residencies include New Georges, Space on Ryder Farm, LCT Director’s Lab, Wingspace, NYTW 2050, Roundabout, Manhattan Theatre Club and Arena Stage. In the brand sphere, Miranda has directed projects with e.l.f., Progressive, Gucci, Garage Magazine, Dunkin’ and Spectrum. As a writer, Miranda most recently wrote Dylan Mulvaney’s “365 Days of Girlhood Live!” at the Rainbow Room. Currently, Miranda is a Resident Director at Roundabout Theatre Company.
Murphy Taylor Smith (she/her)
Performer
Murphy Taylor Smith (she/her) is an actress and songwriter. Theatre: A TRANSPARENT MUSICAL (Centre Theatre Group, dir. by Tina Landau), DOLL/GIRL (Joe's Pub). Film: OH SUGAR! (dir. Gabe Dunn). She has written the music and lyrics for: WATCHDOG, an identical twin psycho thriller; ELEKTRIC, a trans woman-centered Oresteia; and RADIO: A MUSICAL GHOST STORY, a lesbian horror film. The RADIO original soundtrack and her latest single Monster are available to stream on Spotify and Apple Music. @msmurphysmith // MurphyTaylorSmith.com
Rad Pereira (they/them)
Performer
Rad Pereira (they/them) is an (im)migrant cultural worker building consciousness between healing justice, system change, reindigenization and queer futures from Pindorama (Brasil). Rad was most recently seen in Orlando (Signature Theatre), The Creator (20th Century Studios), Bad Things (AMC+), BETTY (HBO), High Maintenance (HBO). They have told stories on stoops, swamps, screens and stages including CBS, NBC, La Mama etc., Shakespeare Theatre, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, The Bushwick Starr and many more. They are a proud alum of EMERGENYC. They are building a two-spirit Haudenosaunee led food sovereignty project: Iron Path Farms. Their book co-written with Jan Cohen-Cruz, Meeting the Moment: Socially Engaged Performance, 1965-2020, By Those Who Lived It is available through New Village Press. Rad is grateful for continued fruitful collaboration with Breaking the Binary!
Nina Ross (they/them)
Musician
Nina Ross (they/them) is a Brooklyn based actor and musician. They go by Softee in their music, and their latest album Natural is out now everywhere. Selected theater credits: To Kill A Mockingbird (Broadway), The Iceman Cometh (Broadway), Shhhh (Atlantic Theater), The Hard Problem (Lincoln Center); TV/film: Bad Monkey (Apple TV), Red Oaks (Prime Video). They have a BFA in drama from Juilliard.
Storm Thomas (he/him)
Musician
Storm Thomas (he/him) is an intensely creative and rigorous thinker. A multi-hyphenate drummer, writer, composer, and educator; Storm has been combining music, theater, and social justice theory single-mindedly and is sought out not just as a skilled maker but as a teacher, dramaturg, and consultant on intersectional thought in the musical theater form. MFA in Theater, Sarah Lawrence College.
Carmen LoBue (they/them)
Stage Directions Reader
Carmen LoBue (they/them) is a Queer, Non-Binary, Afro-Philipinx American Filmmaker with a passion for social activism that is expressed through their work as a creator. Carmen’s early recognition includes Paper Magazine's "Paper Predictions: 100 people taking over 2019" and the Disruptor Foundation (Craig Hatkoff) and The Legacy Lab’s 2018 New Legacy Maker Honoree. LoBue directed Season One of the dramedy web series CHEER UP CHARLIE (Hollyshorts and Urbanworld Film Festival ‘19) Their work on Cheer Up Charlie also earned them a nomination for Best Director at TOWERFEST in 2019. Carmen’s producing and directing work continues with the documentary series HERassment; exploring harassment in various forms from survivor perspectives, centering marginalized people. Additionally, their episode of ‘Your Attention Please’ is currently available to watch on Hulu. This episode is a part of Hulu’s Initiative 29 series, and it’s entitled ‘Tao Leigh Goffe’.
George Luton (they/he)
Music Director, Arranger, and Orchestrator
George Luton (they/he) is a theatre composer, music director, and accompanist. OFF-BROADWAY: More Than This World (The York Theatre). Move Meant (Prospect Theatre Company). NYC (select): Grace and the Ghost (54 Below, Studio Cast Recording), On a Wing and a Chair (Greenroom 42), Alice, Of Sleepless Nights (The Tank), Truth Dare or Lesbian, Ghost Quartet (Off the Lane). REGIONAL: Mary Poppins, Once Upon a Mattress (Island Theatre Workshop). Hair, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Spring Awakening (Purple Summer Productions). Paradise Blue (Gloucester Stage). Nottingham: The Legend of Robin Hood (Moonlight Productions). Earhart, Stiltskin, Resting On Our Laurels (Stage 284). The Abolitionist's Refrain (Punctuate 4). George is a recipient of the NYPL 2024-2025 Across a Crowded Room Fellowship, a composer-lyricist with the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, and an improvisational pianist with the nationally touring comedy show Broadway's Next Hit Musical. Follow them @GeorgeLuton.music and learn more at www.GeorgeLuton.com
Rachel A. Zucker (they/them)
Stage Manager
Rachel A. Zucker (they/them) Is thrilled to be making their Breaking The Binary Theatre debut. Thanks, George & Miranda! Broadway: SIX, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, The Prom, True West, Pretty Woman, Farinelli and the King, Indecent. Select Off-Broadway: JOB (Soho Playhouse, The Connelly Theater); Scene Partners, Lessons in Survival: 1971 (The Vineyard Theater); Kinky Boots (Stage 42); Misty, HELP (The Shed); Tiny Beautiful Things, Twelfth Night, Plenty, Southern Comfort, Grounded (The Public Theater); Hamlet, Othello, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Troilus and Cressida, Cymbeline (Shakespeare in the Park); Working: A Musical, Roadshow (New York City Center); Lazarus (New York Theater Workshop); Curse of the Starving Class (Signature Theatre Company. Regional: Becoming a Man (A.R.T). MFA: Stage Management, Columbia University. Insta: @rzucker37.
Ryan Adelsheim (they/them)
Dramaturg
Ryan Adelsheim (they/them) is a new play dramaturg, producer, and lecturer in theater, dance, and performance studies at Tufts University. Their current research focuses on queer and trans theater and performance, with writing appearing in Theater magazine, and forthcoming in Routledge’s Dramaturgy and History: Staging the Archive anthology. An active artistic collaborator, recent credits include co-adaptor for Affinity based on the novel by Sarah Waters with director Alex Keegan, dramaturg and researcher for soldiergirls by Emil Weinstein, producer on Emerging Playwrights Commissions with Audible Theater, and dramaturg for The New Harmony Project annual conference. They are the recipient of the John W. Gassner prize for critical writing and research awards from the Fund for Lesbian and Gay Studies (FLAGS) at Yale. Ryan received their MFA from Yale Drama where they are a doctoral candidate in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism.
Sophia Huf (they/them)
Copyist
Sophia Huf (they/them) is a bass trombonist hailing from Minnesota. Proficient in a multitude of musical genres, they have performed in many places and ensembles in orchestral, jazz, chamber, solo recital, and opera settings. Sophia is an outspoken advocate for female and queer participation in the brass community, having performed in drag on multiple occasions for queer audiences. They also have a passion for providing accessible music education to youth in rural areas, having participated in coaching, masterclasses, and private instruction in northern Minnesota and rural Wisconsin. Sophia holds a bachelors of music performance from University of Minnesota Duluth. They are currently pursuing a masters in music performance at Montclair State University, taught by many experts including Derek Bromme, Richard Gaynor, Jennifer Wharton, Weston Sprott, John Rojak, and Thomas Ashworth.
Stephanie Carlin (she/they)
A1
Stephanie L. Carlin (she/they) is a composer, writer, sound designer and orchestrator based in New York City, NY. She is currently developing Spectrum, a queer neurodiverse musical comedy, which was presented at New York Theatre Barn’s 17th Annual New Works Series and will be developed with the Fire Island Pines Arts Project. As a sound designer, she recently designed for Until Dark, Fry Bread Queen, and co-designed Twenty-Sided Tavern at Broadway Playhouse in Chicago. As a composer, she has scored “Two Anxious Bisexuals” which was selected for the 2022 Cannes Short Film Festival. She is an alum of The BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop and Berklee College of Music. She is always willing to discover, write, and create shows that everyone can enjoy.
Zack Lobel (he/him)
Lighting and Projection Designer
Zack Lobel (he/him) is a video and lighting designer. His work has been seen across theaters, museums, and nightclubs. He recently designed the premiere of Omari Wiles’ award-winning New York Is Burning (Guggenheim, The Joyce, ADF), along with the Underground Uptown Dance Festival at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall. He is a resident video designer at the historic Webster Hall, and one of the original lighting designers at 3 Dollar Bill. Upcoming: This is My Favorite Song (Playwrights Horizons). Select Theatrical Designs: The Public, HERE Arts, JACK, The Brick, LaMama, Ma-Yi, McKittrick / Sleep No More, Abrons. Associate Designs: Roundabout, Berkeley Rep, NYTW, Target Margin. zacklobel.com @zacklobel