Tectonic Theater Project has filled out the bill for A Tectonic Cabaret, its annual benefit, which plays one night only at the Edison Ballroom on Monday, October 26 at 6:30 PM. Jenn Colella hosts.
The lineup brings Tony Award winner Nikki M. James (The Book of Mormon) together with Tony Award nominees Robin de Jesús (In the Heights), Christiani Pitts and Sam Tutty, the last two both from Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York).
Also on the bill are the all-female percussive dance trio Soles of Duende, the pop, jazz and R&B choir New York Vocal Collective, and the cast of The Gorgeous Nothings by Travis Russ, which premieres at PAC NYC in the winter of 2027.
The evening honors Ruth Hendel with the James C. Hormel Spirit of Tectonic Award. Hendel has produced in New York theater for more than twenty-five years and, with Stephen Hendel, developed and produced FELA!, which played on Broadway, at London’s National Theatre and on tour. Hendel first worked with the company as a co-producer on 33 Variations and Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, and is a trustee of The Jewish Theological Seminary and vice chair of the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center.
Drama Desk Award nominee Emilio Ramos directs the evening, with musical direction by Julianne Merril. Ramos is associate director of Maybe Happy Ending and Hadestown on Broadway.
Proceeds go to Tectonic’s new play initiatives, which currently carry more than ten works in development, and to its Moment Work education programs in New York City public schools and elsewhere in the country.
Tectonic Theater Project was founded in 1991 by Moisés Kaufman and Jeffrey LaHoste and is led today by Kaufman and Matt Joslyn. The company developed Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, The Laramie Project, Doug Wright’s Pulitzer Prize-winning I Am My Own Wife and the Tony Award-winning 33 Variations. Its most recent play, Here There Are Blueberries, written by Kaufman with company member Amanda Gronich, was a 2024 Pulitzer Prize finalist and won the 2025 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Production.
A Tectonic Cabaret is at the Edison Ballroom on Monday, October 26 at 6:30 PM. Tickets and further information are at tectonictheaterproject.org.
