Black Trans Women at the Center- Things Unkonwn

Grantors

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Sponsors

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Donors

Tributes

Performers

Dezi Bing

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Riley

Samy Figaredo

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Sammy

N'yomi Allure Stewart

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Marsha

Setting

Songs & Scenes

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Production Staff

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Venue Staff

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Board Members

Student Advisory Board

Credits

Lighting equipment from PRG Lighting, sound equipment from Sound Associates, rehearsed at The Public Theater’s Rehearsal Studios. Developed as part of Irons in the Fire at Fault Line Theatre in New York City.

Special Thanks

ASL Interpretation provided by Pro Bono ASL.

Post-show discussion moderators: Imara Jones and Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi

Black Trans Women At The Center lovingly remembers beloved community member and legend Bubbles. Thank you for all you have done. May you rest well Diva.

*Appearing through an Agreement between this theatre and Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

“Actors’ Equity Association (“Equity”), founded in 1913, is the U.S. labor union that represents more than 51,000 actors and stage managers, Equity fosters the art of live theatre as an essential component of society and advances the careers of its members by negotiating wages, improving working conditions and providing a wide range of benefits, including health and pension plans. Actors’ Equity is a member of the AFL-CIO and is affiliated with FIA, an International organization of performing arts unions. www.actorsequity.org

United Scenic Artists ● Local USA 829 of the I.A.T.S.E represents the Designers & Scenic Artists for the American Theatre

ATPAM, the Association of Theatrical Press Agents & Managers (IATSE Local 18032), represents the Press Agents, Company Managers, and Theatre Managers employed on this production.

Invitation to Engage

Welcome to Black Trans Women at the Center!

This space can be one of reflection, one of revelation, one of discovery and one of affirmation.

You’re invited into this space, to be in this space, to help cocreate this space.

This is a communal space, one where the invitation of cultivating community is extended to all of you. You’re invited to fully engage in community with your fellow audience members. You’re invited to use the chat to say hello, to name who you are, to make new community.

This is an engagement space, a space of expression, a space for wonder, a space where you are welcome to find awe and love. You're invited to participate and respond. To use the chat to share your reactions to the performance and exercise the gift of affirmation.

We welcome expressions of joy or sadness, tears, laughter, the “Yaaasss” and “get it” and “mmm huh” and “bbbaaabbby” and other exclamations as the art moves through you.

This is a space of celebration. You are invited to use the chat to show the artist some love.

You are invited to stay after the show for a post-show discussion. To learn, to witness, to affirm.

This is a community space, a space of reflection, a space of discovery, a space of affirmation, a space where one can find awe.

Thank you for sharing this virtual space with us.

-Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi

About Partner Theatres

About Long Wharf Theatre

Birthed at the founding of America's regional theatre movement, Long Wharf Theatre opened on July 4, 1965 with Arthur Miller's The Crucible. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Jacob G. Padrón, our company continues to build on a legacy of more than 400 productions that represent the best of classic plays, beloved musicals and world premieres, including works by Anna Deavere Smith, Paula Vogel, Tracey Scott Wilson, Lloyd Suh, Tina Landau, Whitney White, Ricardo Pérez González, and Dominique Morisseau. We are internationally recognized for a commitment to commissioning, developing, and producing new plays that expands storytelling in, and storytellers for, the American theatre. More than 30 Long Wharf Theatre productions have transferred to Broadway and Off-Broadway, and we produced three winners of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama: D.L. Coburn's The Gin Game, Michael Cristofer's The Shadow Box, and Margaret Edson's Wit. In recognition of its artistic achievements, Long Wharf Theatre won a Regional Theatre Tony Award, among the first to receive this honor, and Connecticut Critics Circle nominations and awards in nearly every category.

Today, Long Wharf Theatre is in a bold new chapter, moving beyond its physical home of nearly 60 years to bring theatre to everyone. We are once again leading a national theatre movement that instigates a fresh, sustainable model for our industry while making professional live theatre more financially and physically accessible for our community. In 2023, Greater New Haven residents could experience Long Wharf Theatre productions in seven cities and towns, including seven New Haven neighborhoods, at free and affordable prices. 2024 continues this innovative journey, ranging from a production of Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge at Canal Dock Boathouse to a celebration of our 60th season. This is an invitation for all our neighbors to gather, bear witness to our shared humanity, and live connected, art-filled lives.

Our efforts have garnered extensive feature stories in The New York Times, The Washington Post, American Theatre magazine, and "PBS NewsHour." For leading with courage and creating a theatre of possibility, Artistic Director Jacob G. Padrón was named among Town & Country's 2023 Creative Aristocracy, a national list of 70 "kings and queens of culture" who are keeping human ingenuity regally and outrageously alive, and 2023 Person of the Year by National Theatre Conference, joining the ranks of former recipients August Wilson, Lloyd Richards, and Joseph Papp.

About Breaking the Binary Theatre

Breaking the Binary Theatre is a new work development and community building hub wherein transgender, non-binary, and Two-Spirit+ (TNB2S+) artists come together to reclaim our artistic license and liberty through a number of initiatives and programs, including the annual all-TNB2S+ Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival each October. Founded and led by George Strus (they/them), since Breaking the Binary Theatre’s launch in July 2022, the organization has produced over twenty-five workshops and readings of new works by TNB2S+ artists, commissioned over fifty TNB2S+ artists, hosted over fifteen community events, launched a free educational Summer Intensive for emerging TNB2S+ performers, partnered with Playbill and BroadwayCon, been in-residence at Playwrights Horizons, Williamstown Theatre Festival and New York Stage and Film, and paid out paid out over $325,000 to over 300 TNB2S+ artists. This summer, they produced an off-Broadway run of the late Cecilia Gentili's Red Ink featuring Jes Tom, Angelica Ross, and Peppermint. This fall, they will co-produce the world premiere of Sarah Mantell’s In the Amazon Warehouse Parking Lot alongside Playwrights Horizons. Breaking the Binary Theatre is powered by Producer Hub. For more information, please visit www.btb-nyc.com or @BreakingtheBinaryTheatre on Instagram.

About The Theater Offensive

The Theater Offensive (TTO) is an organization whose mission is to present liberating art by, for, and about queer and trans people of color that transcends artistic boundaries, celebrates cultural abundance, and dismantles oppression. Established in 1989, TTO grew out of the queer guerilla street theater troupe, United Fruit Company, founded by Abe Rybeck and other activists in response to increasingly conservative national politics and the HIV/AIDS crisis. Since then, TTO has become the leading presenter of LGBTQ theater in New England, and an award-winning model for advocacy and creation of original works by queer and trans artists.

About About Face Theatre

About Face Theatre is a company in Chicago that advances LGBTQ+ equity through community building, education, and performance. Since its founding in 1995, About Face has been a national leader in producing theatre that highlights the voices of intergenerational LGBTQ+ artists that tell nuanced queer stories for general audiences. Through bold theatre and arts-based educational programs, AFT's work celebrates persistence and joy shining a spotlight on the social inequalities impacting LGBTQ+ people. For more information about our 30-year history, please go to: https://aboutfacetheatre.com.

About National Queer Theater

National Queer Theater is an innovative queer theater collective dedicated to celebrating the brilliance of generations of LGBTQ+ artists and providing a home for unheard storytellers and activists. Founded in 2018, National Queer Theater amplifies queer stories and experiences to increase visibility within the broader NYC community. By serving our elders, youth, and working professionals, NQT creates a more just future through radical and evocative theater experiences and free community classes. www.nationalqueertheater.org. @nationalqueertheater

About Portland Center Stage

Portland Center Stage’s mission is to create transcendent theatrical experiences and community programs that break down the barriers separating people. We support our community in celebrating the full scope of humanity, appreciating difference, and fostering belonging. PCS was established in 1988 as a branch of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and became independent in 1994. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Marissa Wolf, the company produces a mix of classic, contemporary, and world premiere productions, along with a variety of high-quality education and community programs. As part of its dedication to new play development, the company has produced 29 world premieres, many of which were developed at its JAW New Play Festival. PCS’s home is The Armory, a historic building originally constructed in 1891. After a major renovation, The Armory opened in 2006 as the first building on the National Register of Historic Places, the first performing arts venue in the country, and the first building in Portland to achieve a LEED Platinum rating. Portland Center Stage is committed to identifying and interrupting instances of racism and all forms of oppression through the principles of inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility (IDEA). Learn more at pcs.org/idea.

Land Acknowledgement

We acknowledge that indigenous peoples and nations have for generations stewarded the lands and waterways of what we now call the state of Connecticut. We honor and respect the enduring relationship that exists between these peoples and nations and this land.

We are standing on the unceded territory of the Paugussett, Quinnipiac, and Wappinger peoples. We remind ourselves that along with stolen land came stolen people. It is our responsibility to the future to know our past.

Meet the Cast

Dezi Bing

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Riley

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Playwright

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(

Playwright

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Pronouns:

Dezi is an actress, writer, voice over artist, and keynote speaker whose recent work includes starring in Shatara Michelle Ford’s sophomore film “Dreams in Nightmares,” Wig Out, written by Academy Award™ Winner for Best Picture: Tarell Alvin McCraney, and working with Jackbox Games to voice ‘the host’ of one of their newest videos games: Roomerang. Dezi was recently published in “The Root Magazine,” a digital news publication with over half a million followers on Instagram. And she also completed a year long playwriting fellowship at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing arts where she wrote and workshopped her first play, “The Peculiar Awakening of Riley Parker.” So honored to have worked on this wonderful project!

Samy Figaredo

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Sammy

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)

(

)

Pronouns:

Samy Figaredo (he/him, they/them) is an actor, print model, consultant, and community organizer of over a decade. He recently season 3 of the HBO Max series The Other Two, and narrated the audiobook for the Lambda Literary award-winning novel The 30 Names of Night. Other recent appearances include Chonburi International Hotel & Butterfly Club (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Well-Intentioned White People (Barrington Stage Company), and Into the Woods (Ford’s Theatre). As a commercial and print model, he has participated in campaigns for CitiBank, Gilead Sciences, and JUST Water.

N'yomi Allure Stewart

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Marsha

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(

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Pronouns:

N’yomi “Omi” Stewart (she/her) is a interdisciplinary artist and community organizer based in Brooklyn, NY.

N’yomi is the first black trans woman to graduate from the prestigious University of North Carolina School of the

Arts Acting program receiving a B.F.A. and has since has worked at the Public Theater (Off-Broadway: Richard

III, A Raisin in the Sun) and other notable theater companies such as The O’Neil, Manhattan Theatre Club, The

Roundabout, NYTW, Playwrights Horizons, and The Old Globe.

Stamping herself in NYC as an artist on the rise, N’yomi has been an artist in residence with GALLIM (Moving

Artist Resident), New York Theater Workshop (Dartmouth & Adelphi), BTFA (Black Trans Femmes in the Arts),

and is now a 2024 recipient of the Toulmin Fund as a playwright co-commissioned by the The Geffen and

NYTW. Omi’s work is centered around her trans experience as it connects and relates to the world around her

through text, movement, and imagination.

Her recent project CATS: The Jellicle Ball was recently in performance at the Performing Arts Center (PAC NYC)

where she served as the Associate Director under Bill Rauch & Zhalion Levingston. Other directing credits

include the NYC workshop of American Eclipse written by Michel John LaChiusa.

Meet the Team

Dezi Bing

*

Playwright

(

)

Pronouns:

Dezi is an actress, writer, voice over artist, and keynote speaker whose recent work includes starring in Shatara Michelle Ford’s sophomore film “Dreams in Nightmares,” Wig Out, written by Academy Award™ Winner for Best Picture: Tarell Alvin McCraney, and working with Jackbox Games to voice ‘the host’ of one of their newest videos games: Roomerang. Dezi was recently published in “The Root Magazine,” a digital news publication with over half a million followers on Instagram. And she also completed a year long playwriting fellowship at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing arts where she wrote and workshopped her first play, “The Peculiar Awakening of Riley Parker.” So honored to have worked on this wonderful project!

Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi

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Curator

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)

Pronouns:

she/her

Dubbed the Ancient Jazz Priestess of Mother Africa, Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi is a Black Nigerian, Cuban, Indigenous, American Performance Artist, Author, Educator, a Helen Hayes Award-winning Playwright (Klytmnestra: An Epic Slam Poem), a 2021 Helen Merrill Award Winner, Advocate, Dramaturg, a 2x Helen Hayes Award Nominated choreographer (2016, 2018) and co-editor/co-Director of the Black Trans Prayer Book.

She is the curator and associate producer of Long Wharf Theater’s Black Trans Women At The Center: An Evening of Short Plays.

Her radio play, Quest of The Reed Marsh Daughter, can be heard on the Girl Tales Podcast. She wrote episode 1 of Untitled Mockumentary Project and acted on the series as well, was featured as Patra in King Ester and acted as a story consultant for the series, and wrote episode 9 (Refuge) of Round House Theater’s web series Homebound.

She also narrated The Netflix Docu-series Visions of Us.

Imara Jones

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Moderator

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Pronouns:

Imara Jones, whose work has won Emmy and Peabody Awards, is the creator of TransLash Media, a cross-platform, non-profit journalism and narrative organization, which produces content to shift the current culture of hostility towards transgender people in the US. She was named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People on the planet in 2023. As part of her work at TransLash, Imara hosts the TransLash Podcast with Imara Jones, which received the 2023 Outstanding Podcast Award from GLAAD ; as well as the investigative, limited series, The Anti-Trans Hate Machine.

L Morgan Lee

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Director

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)

Pronouns:

L Morgan Lee (she/her) is a Tony Award® nominated actress and storyteller known for her history-making turn in A Strange Loop on Broadway - a performance which also garnered her an Antonyo Award and a Drama League Distinguished Performance nomination. In London, she was seen playing famed artist Lili Elbe in a musical adaptation of The Danish Girl (currently in development). Other work includes well over a decade of Off-Broadway, Regional, International/National concerts and tours with artists from Paul McCartney to Our Lady J. In the studio, L Morgan was the voice of Ornate Williams in the Sugar Maple Series w. Fred Savage (Osiris Media) and can be found on Joe Iconis' album (Ghostlight Records), The Rainbow Lullaby Album (Broadway Records), and more. For more: @lmorganlee | lmorganlee.com

Joey Reyes

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Project Manager

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)

Pronouns:

they/them

Joey Reyes Project Manager (they/them) is a queer, Latine creative producer, consultant, and administrator originally from Southern California, now based in Chicago. Their professional journey spans collaborations with leading arts consulting firms, including AMS Planning & Research, Evolution Management Consultants, A. D. Hamingson & Associates, and CNTR ARTS. Through these partnerships, Joey has contributed to projects in executive searches, capital campaigns, audience development, and strategic planning & research. Independently, they are the Creator and Host of the Mx It Up podcast, a platform celebrating LGBTQ+ creatives of the global majority working across arts, culture, and entertainment.

Since 2020, Joey has been a key collaborator with Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, CT, where they work alongside Artistic Ensemble Member Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi to produce the annual Black Trans Women at the Center Virtual New Play Festival. This groundbreaking program is the only one of its kind commissioning Black trans women to write, star in, and direct original works. From 2019 to 2022, Joey served as Associate Producer for The Sol Project, a national initiative championing Latine playwrights in NYC and beyond. In this role, they supported the development and production of new works, co-produced the SolTalk podcast, and interviewed over 30 influential Latine artists, including Daphne Rubin-Vega, Robin de Jesús, and Luis Alfaro.

In September 2020, Joey was recognized as one of “19 Theater Workers You Should Know” by American Theatre Magazine in a special issue highlighting TGNC theatre practitioners. They are also a 2018 alum of artEquity’s National Facilitator Training. Joey holds an M.S. in Leadership for Creative Enterprises from Northwestern University and a B.A. in Theatre Arts with a minor in Business Administration from Azusa Pacific University.

Khalil White

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Stage Manager

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Pronouns:

Khalil is thrilled to return to for this years Black Trans Women at the Center festival! Their previous credits include Lighting Designer (ArtsCentric)The Wiz, Little Shop of Horrors, LaCage, Snapshots, and DreamGirls at Baltimore Center Stage. Production Assistant (Baltimore Center Stage) The Hot Wing King, The Importance of Being Ernest.
Assistant Stage Manager (ArtsCentric) Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, For Colored Girls, The Scottsboro Boys

Media

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2021 National Touring Cast

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While You Wait

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DEAD OUTLAW Audible Original Is Out For Streaming

Emily Wyrwa

July 17, 2025

“But a wise man said” it’s time to put your headphones in. The audio recording of Dead Outlaw, Audible’s first-ever commissioned musical, is out now. The Audible Original showcases the entire original musical recorded in Dolby Atmos with immersive sound design.

Featuring music and lyrics by David Yazbek and Erik Della Penna, book by Itamar Moses, and direction by David Cromer, Dead Outlaw premiered Off-Broadway at Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre in 2024 where it won the Drama Desk New York Drama Critics’ Circle, and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Musical. It transferred to Broadway in April 2025 and was nominated for seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical.

The Audible Original was recorded and mixed by Dean Sharenow, and features the entire original cast, including Andrew Durand as Elmer McCurdy, Jeb Brown, Eddie Cooper, Dashiell Eaves, Julia Knitel, Ken Marks, Trent Saunders, and Thom Sesma. The band features Rebekah Bruce, Erik Della Penna, Hank Heaven, William B Smylie, and Spencer Cohen.

Dead Outlaw tells the true story of Elmer McCurdy, an early 20th century outlaw who died in a shootout whose corpse became an unlikely entertainment attraction for decades after. He’s carted to carnivals, roadside attractions, wax museums, and even a Hollywood film set. The dark comedy explores the absurdity of fame, the inevitability of failure, and the meaning — or utter meaninglessness — of legacy.

Michael Urie, Kumail Nanjiani, and Jenn Harris Join OH, MARY! August 4

Emily Wyrwa

July 16, 2025

Oh, Mary? More like oh, Michael! 2025 Emmy Award Nominee Michael Urie, Oscar and Emmy Award nominee Kumail Nanjiani, and Jenn Harris will join the cast of Oh, Mary! beginning Aug. 4 through Sept. 28. They will join the company alongside Jinkx Monsoon as Mary Todd Lincoln. Conrad Ricamora, James Scully, and Bianca Leigh, who originated their roles Off-Broadway at the Lucille Lortel and on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre, along with the current ‘Mary Todd Lincoln,’ Tituss Burgess, will play their final performances on Aug. 2.

Urie has previously been seen on Broadway in Once Upon a Mattress opposite Sutton Foster, Spamalot, Chicken & Biscuits, Grand Horizons, Torch Song, and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. He will play Mary’s Teacher. Nanjiani and Harris will be making their Broadway debuts as Mary’s Husband and Mary’s Chaperone, respectively.

Nanjiani is best known for The Big Sick, Marvel’s Eternals, and Obi-Wan Kenobi. He is a standup comic with a new Hulu special set to release this winter. Harris originated the role of Clarice Starling in Silence! The Musical, won a Lortel award for her performance in Modern Orthodox, and was in the revival of All In The Timing.

Written by Tony Award-winner Cole Escola, and directed by Tony Award-winner Sam Pinkleton, Oh, Mary! opened on Broadway on July 11, 2024 at the Lyceum Theatre, where it became the first show in the theater’s 121-year history to gross more than $1 million in a single week. The comedic play about Mary Todd Lincoln has since broken its own box office record twelve times, and became the first show of the 2024-25 Broadway season to recoup its investment.

Tickets for Oh, Mary! are currently on sale through Jan. 4, 2026. It runs at the Lyceum Theatre on West 45th Street in New York City. For tickets and more information, visit here.

Alex Newell, Laverne Cox, Betty Who, And More to Star In One-Night-Only Carnegie Hall Concert of THE DROWSY CHAPERONE

Emily Wyrwa

July 14, 2025

We’re “stumbling along” to Carnegie Hall! To kick off the fourth annual Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival, Alex Newell, Laverne Cox, Betty Who, and more will take the stage in a one-night-only concert of The Drowsy Chaperone at Carnegie Hall on Oct. 20, 2025. The concert will be directed by Tony Award nominee L Morgan Lee.

Cox will play the titular Chaperone, Newell will play Janet Van De Graaf, with Jonathan Van Ness as Man In Chair, and Betty Who as Robert Martin. Actress and trans activist Joslyn Defreece will play Underling, and RuPaul’s Drag Race icon Peppermint will play Mrs. Tottendale. The entire cast will be comprised of transgender and non-binary performers.

The Drowsy Chaperone features music and lyrics by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison and book by Bob Martin and Don McKellar. This concert marks the title’s first major New York presentation since the original 2006 Tony Award-winning Broadway production.

The musical tells the story of a Broadway fanatic — Man In Chair — who plays his favorite record of a 1920s musical in his living room. He brings the show to life in his apartment, providing commentary on its often-outrageous plot and revealing his personal insights. The show-within-a-show centers on the wedding of a showgirl, Janet Van de Graaff, to Robert Martin. Along the way, they face silly obstacles by a producer, gangsters, and, well, a drowsy chaperone.

Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival launched in July 2022. Its aim is to produce work created and developed by trans, non-binary, and Two-Spirit+ theatre artists. This year’s festival will take place Oct. 20 to Oct. 26, 2025.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I think we’d make it to Carnegie Hall, especially on this timeline,” festival founder George Strus said in a statement.

Tickets for The Drowsy Chaperone go on sale in August. The one-night-only concert will take place at Carnegie Hall will take place Oct. 20, 2025. For more information, visit here.

Theatrely News

EXCLUSIVE: Watch A Clip From THEATER CAMP Starring Ben Platt, Noah Galvin, and Molly Gordon

Theatrely News

READ: An Excerpt From Sean Hayes Debut YA Novel TIME OUT

Theatrely News

"Reframing the COVID-19 Pandemic Through a Stage Manager’s Eyes"

EXCLUSIVE: Watch A Clip From THEATER CAMP Starring Ben Platt, Noah Galvin, and Molly Gordon

By: Maia Penzer

14 July 2023

Finally, summer has arrived, which can only mean one thing: it's time for camp! Theater Camp, that is. Theatrely has a sneak peak at the new film which hits select theaters today.

The new original comedy starring Tony Award winner Ben Platt and Molly Gordon we guarantee will have you laughing non-stop. The AdirondACTS, a run-down theater camp in upstate New York, is attended by theater-loving children who must work hard to keep their beloved theater camp afloat after the founder, Joan, falls into a coma.

The film stars Ben Platt and Molly Gordon as Amos Klobuchar and Rebecca-Diane, respectively, as well as Noah Galvin as Glenn Wintrop, Jimmy Tatro as Troy Rubinsky, Patti Harrison as Caroline Krauss, Nathan Lee Graham as Clive DeWitt, Ayo Edebiri as Janet Walch, Owen Thiele as Gigi Charbonier, Caroline Aaron as Rita Cohen, Amy Sedaris as Joan Rubinsky, and Alan Kim as Alan Park.

Theater Camp was directed by Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman and written by Noah Galvin, Molly Gordon, Nick Lieberman & Ben Platt. Music is by James McAlister and Mark Sonnenblick. On January 21, 2023, Theater Camp had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.

You can purchase tickets to the new film from our friends at Hollywood.com here.

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READ: An Excerpt From Sean Hayes Debut YA Novel TIME OUT

By: Kobi Kassal

29 May 2023

Actor Sean Hayes is what we in the biz call booked and blessed. On top of his Tony-nominated performance as Oscar Levant in Good Night, Oscar, Hayes has partnered with Todd Milliner and Carlyn Greenwald for the release of their new YA novel Time Out.

Heralded by many as Heartstopper meets Friday Night Lights, Time Out follows hometown basketball hero Barclay Elliot who decides to use a pep rally to come out to his school. When the response is not what he had hoped and the hostility continually growing, he turns to his best friend Amy who brings him to her voting rights group at school. There he finds Christopher and… you will just have to grab a copy and find out what happens next. Luckily for you, Time Out hits shelves on May 30 and to hold you over until then we have a special except from the book just for Theatrely:

The good thing about not being on the team the past two weeks has been that I’ve had time to start picking up shifts again at Beau’s diner and save up a little for college now that my scholarship dreams are over.

The bad part is it’s the perfect place to see how my actions at the pep rally have rotted the townspeople’s brains too.

During Amy’s very intense musical theater phase in middle school, her parents took her to New York City. And of course she came back home buzzing about Broadway and how beautiful the piss smell was and everything artsy people say about New York. But she also vividly described some diner she waited three hours to get into where the waitstaff would all perform songs for the customers as a way to practice for auditions. The regulars would have favorite staff members and stan them the way Amy stans all her emo musicians.

Working at Beau’s used to feel kind of like that, like I was part of a performance team I didn’t know I signed up for. The job started off pretty basic over the summer—I wanted to save up for basketball supplies, and Amy worked there and said it was boring ever since her e-girl coworker friend graduated. But I couldn’t get through a single lunch rush table without someone calling me over and wanting the inside scoop on the Wildcats and how we were preparing for the home opener, wanting me to sign an article in the paper or take a photo. Every friendly face just made the resolve grow inside me. People love and support the Wildcats; they would do the same for me.

Yeah, right.

Now just like school, customers have been glaring at me, making comments about letting everyone down, about being selfish, about my actions being “unfortunate,” and the tips have been essentially nonexistent. The Wildcats have been obliterated in half their games since I quit, carrying a 2–3 record when last year we were 5–0, and the comments make my feet feel like lead weights I have to drag through every shift.

Today is no different. It’s Thursday, the usual dinner rush at Beau’s, and I try to stay focused on the stress of balancing seven milkshakes on one platter. A group of regulars, some construction workers, keep loudly wondering why I won’t come back to the team while I refuse proper eye contact.

One of the guys looks up at me as I drop the bill off. “So, what’s the deal? Does being queer keep ya from physically being able to play?”

They all snicker as they pull out crumpled bills. I stuff my hands into my pockets, holding my tongue.

When they leave, I hold my breath as I take their bill.

Sure enough, no tip.

“What the fuck?” I mutter under my breath.

“Language,” Amy says as she glides past me, imitating the way Richard says it to her every shift, and adds, “even though they are dicks.” At least Amy’s been ranting about it every free chance she gets. It was one thing when the student body was being shitty about me leaving the team, but the town being like this is even more infuriating. She doesn’t understand how these fully grown adults can really care that much about high school basketball and thinks they need a new fucking hobby. I finally agree with her.

[She’s wearing red lipstick to go with her raccoon-adjacent eyeliner as she rushes off to prepare milkshakes for a pack of middle schoolers. I catch her mid–death glare as all three of the kids rotate in their chairs, making the old things squeal. My anger fades a bit as I can’t help but chuckle; Amy’s pissed-off reaction to Richard telling her to smile more was said raccoon makeup, and her tolerance for buffoonery has been at a negative five to start and declining fast.

I rest my arms on the counter and try not to look as exhausted as I feel.

“Excuse me!” an old lady screeches, making me jump.

Amy covers up a laugh as I head to the old lady and her husband’s table. They’ve got finished plates, full waters. Not sure what the problem is. Or I do, which is worse.

“Yes?” I say trying to suppress my annoyance.

“Could you be bothered to serve us?”

Only five more hours on shift. I have a break in three minutes. I’ll be with Devin at Georgia Tech tomorrow. “I’m sorry, ma’am,” I say, so careful to keep my words even, but I can feel my hands balling into fists. “What would you—?”

And suddenly Amy swoops in, dropping two mugs of coffee down. “Sorry about that, you two,” she says, her voice extra high. “The machine was conking out on us, but it’s fine now.”

Once the coffee is down, she hooks onto a chunk of my shirt, steering us back to the bar.

“Thanks,” I mutter, embarrassed to have forgotten something so basic. Again.

“Just keep it together, man,” she says. “Maybe you’d be better off with that creepy night shift where all the truckers and serial killers come in.”

Honestly, at least the serial killers wouldn’t care about my jump shot.

It’s a few minutes before my break, but clearly I need it. “I’ll be in the back room.”

Right before I can head that way though, someone straight-up bursts into the diner and rushes over to me at the bar. It’s a middle-aged dad type, sunburned skin, beer belly, and stained T-shirt.

“Pickup order?” I ask.

“You should be ashamed,” he sneers at me. He has a really strong Southern accent, but it’s not Georgian. “Think you’re so high and mighty, that nothing’ll ever affect you? My kid’ll never go to college because of you and your lifestyle. Fuck you, Barclay Ell—”

And before this man can finish cursing my name, Pat of all people runs in, wide-eyed in humiliation. “Jesus, Dad, please don’t—”

I pin my gaze on him, remembering how he cowered on the bench as Ostrowski went off, how he didn’t even try to approach me. “Don’t even bother,” I snap.

I shove a to-go bag into his dad’s arms, relieved it’s prepaid, and storm off to the break room.]

Amy finds me head in my arms a minute or two later. I look up, rubbing my eyes. “Please spare me the pity.”

She snorts and hands me a milkshake. Mint chocolate chip. “Wouldn’t dare.” She takes a seat and rolls her shoulders and neck, cracks sounding through the tiny room. “Do you want a distraction or a shoulder to cry on?”

For more information, and to purchase your copy of Time Out, click here.

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Reframing the COVID-19 Pandemic Through a Stage Manager’s Eyes

By: Kaitlyn Riggio

5 July 2022

When the COVID-19 pandemic was declared a national emergency in the United States in March 2020, Broadway veteran stage manager Richard Hester watched the nation’s anxiety unfold on social media.

“No one knew what the virus was going to do,” Hester said. Some people were “losing their minds in abject terror, and then there were some people who were completely denying the whole thing.”

For Hester, the reaction at times felt like something out of a movie. “It was like the Black Plague,” he said. “Some people thought it was going to be like that Monty Python sketch: ‘bring out your dead, bring out your dead.’”

While Hester was also unsure about how the virus would unfold, he felt that his “job as a stage manager is to naturally defuse drama.” Hester brought this approach off the stage and onto social media in the wake of the pandemic.

“I just sort of synthesized everything that was happening into what I thought was a manageable bite, so people could get it,” Hester said. This became a daily exercise for a year. Over two years after the beginning of the pandemic, Hester’s accounts are compiled in the book, Hold Please: Stage Managing A Pandemic. Released earlier this year, the book documents the events of the past two years, filtering national events and day-to-day occurrences through a stage manager’s eyes and storytelling.

When Hester started this project, he had no intention of writing a book. He was originally writing every day because there was nothing else to do. “I am somebody who needs a job or needs a structure,” Hester said.

Surprised to find that people began expecting his daily posts, he began publishing his daily writing to his followers through a Substack newsletter. As his following grew, Hester had to get used to writing for an audience. “I started second guessing myself a lot of the time,” Hester said. “It just sort of put a weird pressure on it.”

Hester said he got especially nervous before publishing posts in which he wrote about more personal topics. For example, some of his posts focused on his experiences growing up in South Africa while others centered on potentially divisive topics, such as the 2020 election and the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Despite some of this discomfort, Hester’s more personal posts were often the ones that got the most response. The experience offered him a writing lesson. “I stopped worrying about the audience and just wrote what I wanted to write about,” Hester said. “All of that pressure that I think as artists we put on ourselves, I got used to it.”

One of Hester’s favorite anecdotes featured in the book centers on a woman who dances in Washington Square Park on a canvas, rain or shine. He said he was “mesmerized by her,” which inspired him to write about her. “It was literally snowing and she was barefoot on her canvas dancing, and that seems to me just a spectacularly beautiful metaphor for everything that we all try and do, and she was living that to the fullest.”

During the creation of Hold Please, Hester got the unique opportunity to reflect in-depth on the first year of the pandemic by looking back at his accounts. He realized that post people would not remember the details of the lockdown; people would “remember it as a gap in their lives, but they weren’t going to remember it beat by beat.”

“Reliving each of those moments made me realize just how full a year it was, even though none of us were doing anything outside,” he adds. “We were all on our couches.” Readers will use the book as a way to relive moments of the pandemic’s first year “without having to wallow in the misery of it,” he hopes.

“I talk about the misery of it, but that’s not the focus of what I wrote... it was about hope and moving forward,” Hester said. “In these times when everything is so difficult, we will figure out a way to get through and we will move forward.”

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