Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival
Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival is a theatrical development and community hub wherein transgender, non-binary, and Two-Spirit+ (TNB2S+) artists come together to create seven evenings of new work and reclaim our artistic license. Find out more here.
2022 Reading Presentations
10/10 @ 7:00pm
A reading of TRANS WORLD by Ty Defoe (he/we/ty)
When several trans individuals are picked to temporarily live in a house and get filmed non-stop for a new reality TV show, the lines between pretend and real drama become uncomfortably blurred. What happens when people stop being nice and start getting real. Celebrated theater artist Ty Defoe brings an abundance of heart and humor to this new playful piece.
By Ty Defoe (he/we/ty)
Directed by Dominique Rider
Dramaturgy by Josephine Kearns (she/her)
Stage Management by Sami Binder (they/them)
Featuring: b norwood (they/them/b), Carolina Đỗ (she/her), Futaba Shioda (he/him/his), Logan Rozos (he/him), Mariyea (she/they), Maybe Burke (they/she), MJ Rawls (she/her/hers), Samy Nour Younes Figaredo (he/him/they/them).
Stage Directions read by Zainab Barry (she/they)
10/11 @ 7:00pm
A reading of TWITCH by Liliana Padilla (they/she)
Doug Lemons goes missing. The rehab center is (still) under construction. Good Yelps. A VERY HAPPY marriage falls apart. Guitar for sale! Craigslist! Too good to be true! Isn’t true? Pam’s eye is twitching, is it God? A brutal trip to the pound… Doug would never treat his dog like that. Jill would like a friend? In this town no one trusts each other. Kidding! Try the directory.
By Liliana Padilla (they/she)
Directed by Jack Ferver (they/them)
Dramaturgy by Desiree S. Mitton (she/they)
Assistant Directed and Stage Management by Annika Prager (they/them)
Featuring Jojo Brown (she/her/hers), Marilee Talkington (she/they), Pauli Pontrelli (they/them/ze/zir), Rev. Yolanda (she/her), Spencer Weidie (they/them), and TL Thompson (they/them/T).
Stage Directions read by Meghan Piper Johnson (mpj) (they/them)
10/12 @ 7:00pm
A reading of HIDE AND HIDE by Roger Q. Mason (they/them)
Constanza is a recent Filipina immigrant, who moved from Marcos’ Philippines to America in search of the dream she saw in the movies. Billy is a white gay male rent boy, an escapee from a Christian conversion camp where something terrible happened. He moved to LA because that’s where the last bus stop was. Their lives collide in 1980 Los Angeles in this Homeric critique of the American Dream.
By Roger Q. Mason (they/them)
Directed by é boylan (they/them)
Dramaturgy by Gaven Trinidad (they/he/siya)
Stage Management by Mars Neri (they/them)
Featuring Ayla Sullivan (they/he) and Han Van Sciver (they/them)
Stage Directions read by Eliana Coe (they/she)”
10/13 @ 7:00pm
A reading of WORK HARD HAVE FUN MAKE HISTORY by ruth tang (they/them)
This play is not about Amazon, and certainly not about Jeff Bezos. It is also not about Elon Musk. It is an exhaustive catalog of all the possible kinds of phone calls that exist: customer service helplines, phone sex with familiar strangers, future children complaining about being born, and cold calls from prophets warning about events that are – oops – happening right now.
by ruth tang (they/them)
Directed by Kedian Keohan (they/he)
Dramaturgy by Lewis Fender (he/him)
Stage Management by Elyse Durand (they/she)
Featuring Morgan Sullivan (he/they), Sagan Chen (they/he), and Z Infante (they/them)
Stage Directions read by Marisa Budnick (she/they)”
10/14 @ 7:00pm
A reading of NANA by Aziza Barnes
NANA is a multi-generational play based on Barnes’ paternal lineage and their self-mythologies. Set in the Bronx in the late fifties, NANA explores colorism within a family unit, dysfunctional logics of attempts at loving one’s blackness before it was a trend, the ease of whiteness, and substance abuse as self-medication.
By Aziza Barnes
Directed by Rad Pereira (they/them)
Dramaturgy by Al Parker (they/them)
Stage Management by Joseph Distl (he/they)
Assistant Directed by Mia Sterbini (they/she)
Featuring Alex Lugo (they/she), B Alexander (they/them), Becca Blackwell (they/them), Ianne Fields Stewart (she/they), Lily Dominique, Mele Sabú (they/them) and more to be announced.
10/15 @ 7:00pm
A reading of THELMA AND LOUISE AND THE TIME MACHINE by Mara Vélez Meléndez (she/her)
Thelma loves Louise. Louise loves Thelma. And Louise built a time machine. Does that mean Thelma and Louise had a past? That they have a future? Can the time machine help them escape their present?
THELMA AND LOUISE AND THE TIME MACHINE is a romance through the multi-verse about all the possibilities and impossibilities of women loving women.”
by Mara Vélez Meléndez (she/her)
Directed by Sivan Battat (she/they)
Dramaturgy by Aydan Shahdadpuri (they/he)
Stage Management by Nat Kelley DiMario (they/them)
Assistant Directed by Pauli Pontrelli (they/them/ze/zir)
Featuring Alex Might (her), Che’Li (they/them),Nora Shell (they/them), and Tẹmídayọ Amay (they/them/friend).”
10/16 @ 3:00pm & 7:00pm
OVERHEARD: Fifteen Commissioned Monologues Written by TNB2S+ Artists for TNB2S+ Artists
In partnership with Broadway Licensing, Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival will present an evening of fifteen new monologues from TNB2S+ writers commissioned by BTB. Following the presentation, Broadway Licensing will publish and license the monologues with profit proceeds being donated back to BTB.
by A.A Brenner (they/them/he), Azure D. Osborne-Lee (he/they), Bianca Leigh, Else Went (they/she), Isaac Gómez (they/them), Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin (they/she), Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi (she/her), Liqing Xu (they/she), Mashuq Mushtaq Deen (he/they), Sam Hamashima (they/them), Sharifa Yasmin (she/her), Sylvan Oswald (he/him), Timothy DuWhite (pronoun inclusive), travis l. tate (they/them), and Victor I. Cazares (they/them).
Directed by L Morgan Lee (she/her)
Dramaturgy by George Strus (they/he)
Monologue prompt created by Dominique Rider and Josephine Kearns (she/her)
Assistant Directed by Mika Kauffman (they/them/ze/zir)
Featuring Basit (they/them), Bianca Leigh, Evie Schuckman (they/them), L Morgan Lee (she/her), yannick-robin eike mirko (they/he).”
Masks must be worn inside the building at all times.
Click here for more information about the steps we are taking to keep audiences healthy and safe.
All tickets are general admission- tickets will not print with a seat number.
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