Ten readings, a variety show and a closing celebration across seven nights in October, a free Lincoln Center concert in November, and a change of leadership at the end of the year.
Breaking the Binary Theatre has announced the full program for its fifth festival, which runs from October 5 to 11 at the Susan & Ronald Frankel Theater, inside the Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space. Seven nights, ten readings and a closing celebration, all of it made by transgender, non-binary and Two-Spirit+ artists.
The week opens with My H8 Letter to the Gr8 American Theatre by Zaza Diana Oh, directed by Miranda Haymon, with Mei Ann Teo as creative consultant. Oh died last year, and the company is presenting the reading in their honor.
Tuesday brings Twitch by Liliana Padilla, directed by Jack Ferver and performed by Joslyn DeFreece. The piece was first developed at the inaugural festival in 2022; this solo version premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe earlier this year.
On Wednesday, Jaime Jarrett brings The Magically Re-Imagined History of J.K. Rowling, for which they wrote book, music and lyrics, directed by Emilio Ramos with music direction by Anessa Marie Scolpini. It follows a transgender father and his eleven-year-old daughter through the summer of 2020, and builds its book partly from verbatim text of Rowling’s own interviews.
Thursday is Glitz, Glamour, Girls: A Variety Show, directed by Noax, which reunites the five dolls of Cats: The Jellicle Ball for the first time since that production closed: B Noel Thomas, Garnet Williams, Kya Azeen, Leiomy and Tempress Chasity Moore.
Friday belongs to Cecilia Gentili’s Red Ink, developed and directed by Nic Cory, with Qween Jean playing Gentili for the first time. The show took a Special Recognition at the 26th GLAAD Media Awards.
Saturday stacks four new plays: our chronicle by DJ Hills, directed by Will Davis; Boids by reid tang, directed by Kedian Keohan, a company commission; Before Then, There’s Now by Ianne Fields Stewart, directed by N’yomi Allure Stewart; and Spin by Jake Brasch, directed by Sivan Battat.
The festival closes on Sunday with Celebrate: A Collection of Commissioned Scenes and Monologues, co-conceived by L Morgan Lee and founding artistic director George Strus and directed by Lee. Since 2022 the two have commissioned more than fifty short pieces, published in four collections with Broadway Licensing and Concord Theatricals; the finale pulls from all four.
Casting, times and ticket details are due later this month at btb-nyc.com.
Beyond the festival week, the company will stage a one-night concert of The Danish Girl at Lincoln Center’s David Rubenstein Atrium on November 20, marking Transgender Day of Remembrance. Adapted from David Ebershoff’s novel, it has book and lyrics by Nora Brigid Monahan, a score by Alex Parker and direction by Georgie Rankcom, and is being developed by Strus’s commercial venture Benson Drive Productions. All tickets are free and general admission.
The announcement carries one other piece of news, tucked at the end: Strus will step down as artistic director in December, after this year’s festival and concert. The company says new leadership and succession plans will follow later in the year.
Breaking the Binary was founded in July 2022. In three years it has produced more than fifty workshops and readings, commissioned over fifty artists, run an all-TNB2S+ concert of The Drowsy Chaperone at Carnegie Hall, co-produced the world premiere of Sarah Mantell’s In The Amazon Warehouse Parking Lot with Playwrights Horizons, and paid out more than a million dollars to some 600 artists.
