PROGRAMMING ANNOUNCED FOR FIFTH ANNUAL BREAKING THE BINARY THEATRE FESTIVAL
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Rick Miramontez / Kendall Edwards
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE
PROGRAMMING ANNOUNCED
FOR FIFTH ANNUAL
BREAKING THE BINARY THEATRE FESTIVAL
OCTOBER 5 – 11 AT
THE SUSAN & RONALD FRANKEL THEATER
AT THE ROBERT W. WILSON MCC THEATER SPACE
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New York, NY (September 18, 2026) – Breaking the Binary Theatre (George Strus, they/them) announced today the programming for the fifth annual Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival. As previously announced, the Festival, which will continue the groundbreaking theater company’s mission of producing work created and developed by transgender, non-binary, and Two-Spirit+ (TNB2S+) theatre artists, will take place from October 5 – 11, 2026 at The Susan & Ronald Frankel Theater at the Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space.
Programming will include staged readings of My H8 Letter to the Gr8 American Theatre by Zaza Diana Oh, directed by Miranda Haymon; Twitch by Liliana Padilla, directed by Jack Ferver, starring Joslyn DeFreece; The Magically Re-Imagined History of J.K. Rowling by Jaime Jarrett, directed by Emilio Ramos; Glitz, Glamour, Girls: A Variety Show featuring the dolls from Cats: The Jellicle Ball, directed by Noax; Red Ink by Cecilia Gentili, directed by Nic Cory, starring Qween Jean; as well as readings of four new plays including our chronicle by DJ Hills directed by Will Davis; Boids by reid tang, directed by Kedian Keohan; Before Then, There’s Now by Ianne Fields Stewart, directed by N’yomi Allure Stewart; Spin by Jake Brasch, directed by Sivan Battat; and an annual finale co-conceived by L Morgan Lee and George Strus. Full programming details can be seen below.
Additional casting, timing, and ticket information will be announced later this month. For more information, please visit www.btb-nyc.com/26-festival.
Monday, October 5
My H8 Letter to the Gr8 American Theatre
by Zaza Diana Oh (they/them)
directed by Miranda Haymon (they/she)
Creative Consultant: Mei Ann Teo (they/them)
Zaza Diana Oh’s My H8 Letter to the Gr8 American Theatre centers on a writer, musician, and actor who confronts the Gr8 American Theater. Through ranting, laughing, singing, pleading, evoking history, making fun of, calling out, and deeply loving, our protagonist gives us a play-by-play critique of theatre – its diversity panels, fundraising galas, playbills, white leads, Shakespeare, and more. It is a fierce, joyful, relentless h8-filled love-fest that generously invites all of us to take a look at the institution to which we’re so devoted. Following Zaza Diana Oh’s passing last year, Breaking the Binary Theatre is proud to present this reading in their honor.
Tuesday, October 6
Twitch
by Liliana Padilla
directed by Jack Ferver
starring Joslyn DeFreece (she/her)
Pam searches obsessively for her missing son, accompanied by a twitch no one else can see. Searching for her son, Pam follows clues to the pound, computer store, a missing person’s group, airport, and other crevices of her splitting psyche. In tracking her son’s vanishing steps, she also chases hope. Twitch was previously developed as part of the inaugural Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival in 2022. This new, solo version of the piece premiered at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where it was named “a show worth seeing” by Vogue.
Wednesday, October 7
The Magically Re-Imagined History of J.K. Rowling
Book, music, and lyrics by Jaime Jarrett (they/he)
directed by Emilio Ramos (he/they)
music directed by Anessa Marie Scolpini (she/her)
In the turbulent summer of 2020, Oliver, a transgender man, and his eleven year old daughter, Georgie, have been in lockdown in their tiny apartment for three months. The only thing holding the two of them together? Harry Potter. So when J.K. Rowling publishes an essay spreading dangerous rhetoric about the transgender community, Oliver cannot imagine taking the books away from Georgie— or himself. He magically travels into Rowling’s past: first in an attempt to prove the author’s morality, and then to attempt to alter her history— and transform her into the brave person he desperately needs her to be. With songs that explode events from Rowling’s life, and a book that incorporates verbatim text from her interviews, The Magically Re-Imagined History of J.K. Rowling explores the interconnectedness of art, artist, and audience, and the consequences their entanglement brings.
Thursday, October 8
Glitz, Glamour, Girls: A Variety Show
starring B Noel Thomas (she/her), Garnet Williams (she/they), Kya Azeen (she/her), Leiomy (she/her), and “Tempress” Chasity Moore (she/her)
directed by Noax (they/them)
Come one, come all! Join Breaking the Binary Theatre as we celebrate the five dolls of Cats: The Jellicle Ball –B Noel Thomas, Garnet Williams, Kya Azeen, Leiomy, and Tempress Chasity Moore –as they reunite for the first time since the show’s closing for a dazzling variety show not to be missed.
Friday, October 9
Cecilia Gentili’s Red Ink
developed and directed by Nic Cory (he/him)
starring Qween Jean (she/her)
God won’t give up on Cecilia Gentili. Unfortunately, neither will the devil. Follow a young trans girl as she navigates the hilarity of rural Argentina in the 1970’s. Part stand-up, part camp, and (almost) all true, Cecilia Gentili’s Red Ink is an irreverent romp in the search for faith while trans. Red Ink was awarded a Special Recognition at the 26th GLAAD Media Awards. This performance of Red Ink marks the debut performance of Tony Award-winner Qween Jean in the role of Cecilia.
Saturday, October 10
our chronicle
by DJ Hills (they/them)
directed by Will Davis
Structured as a short story collection for the stage, our chronicle follows two brothers on an epic river journey, as they age from 14 to 92, intercut with scenes from their lives that shape the people they become.
Boids
by reid tang (they/he)
directed by Kedian Keohan
Five men go to men’s group to be taught how to be a proper man—by a woman. Fortunately, gender isn’t real. Boids is a Breaking the Binary Theatre commission.
Before Then, There’s Now
by Ianne Fields Stewart (she/they)
directed by N’yomi Allure Stewart (she/her)
Five years from now, during the last hour and a half before the nationally mandated Tigerpox lockdown, seven Black Trans people find comfort and safety in a new home and each other. A sweet utopic relationship blossoms against the backdrop of our world’s terrifying future. In this new home, some want to nest, some want to run, and one of them, Leo, is trying to hide. As they set the foundation for their final home, Leo’s grief becomes unavoidable. In Act Two, we flash back to NOW as Leo is on a porch in the Deep South. With the help of Them, she faces what hurts and heals because Before Then, There’s Now.
Spin
by Jake Brasch (he/they)
directed by Sivan Battat (she/they)
What do a birthday party clown, an ornithologist, a rabbi, a park ranger, a grief counselor, a goat cheese enthusiast, and a flock of critically endangered Barn Owls have in common? Turns out a hell of a lot! Jumping wildly through time, Spin charts the lives of a group of lost souls, slowly revealing the strange, invisible threads that bind them together.
Sunday, October 11
Celebrate: A Collection of Commissioned Scenes and Monologues
co-conceived by L Morgan Lee (she/her) and George Strus (they/them)
directed by L Morgan Lee (she/her)
Since the inaugural Festival in 2022, Tony Award-nominee L Morgan Lee and BTB’s Founding Artistic Director George Strus have joined forces to commission over 50 short scenes and monologues. These pieces have been published in partnership with Broadway Licensing/Concord Theatricals to create more material specifically for the TNB2S+ community. Join us for the grand finale of the fifth annual Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival to celebrate this year-long collaboration by highlighting some of the greatest hits from the four published collections: Overheard, Bliss, Dare, and Limitless.
In addition to the yearly week-long festival, the organization will also present a one-night-only concert of The Danish Girl taking place at Lincoln Center’s David Rubenstein Atrium to celebrate Transgender Day of Remembrance on Friday, November 20, 2026.
Based on the award-winning book by David Ebershoff, the new musical features book and lyrics by Nora Brigid Monahan, an original score by Alex Parker, and direction by Georgie Rankcom. The production, which held its first private workshop earlier this year, is being developed by Strus’ commercial producing venture, Benson Drive Productions. Information on casting and tickets will be announced in the coming weeks. All tickets are complimentary and General Admission. For more information, please visit https://lincolncenter.org/series/lincoln-center-presents/the-danish-girl-in-concert.
Following this year’s festival and concert, George Strus will step down as Artistic Director of Breaking the Binary Theatre in December 2026. New leadership and succession plans will be announced later this year.
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.
Launched in July 2022 and founded and led by George Strus (they/them), the organization has produced over fifty workshops and readings of new works by TNB2S+ artists; produced an all-TNB2S+ concert of The Drowsy Chaperone at Carnegie Hall led by led by Jonathan Van Ness, Betty Who, Dylan Mulvaney, Alex Newell, and Laverne Cox, which earned a Special Recognition Award at the 37th Annual GLAAD Media Awards; produced a three-week run of Cecilia Gentili’s Red Ink off-Broadway starring Jes Tom, Angelica Ross, and Peppermint, raising over $35,000 for charities; co-produced the world premiere of Sarah Mantell’s In The Amazon Warehouse Parking Lot with Playwrights Horizons, commissioned over fifty TNB2S+ artists; hosted over thirty community events; launched a free educational Summer Intensive for emerging TNB2S+ performers, a New Musicals program to develop musicals written by and featuring TNB2S+ performers, and a BTB Across America program for TNB2S+ artists outside of New York; published three collections with Broadway Licensing; partnered with Playbill, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Signature Theatre, Roundabout Theatre Company, and BroadwayCon; been in-residence at Playwrights Horizons, Williamstown Theatre Festival and New York Stage and Film; and paid out over $1,000,000 to over 600 TNB2S+ artists!
*Breaking the Binary Theatre uses the term “TNB2S+” in hopes to encompass any person who is transgender, non-binary, Two-Spirit, gender non-conforming, genderqueer, agender, intersex, gender expansive, bigender, gender fluid, or any identity within the umbrella transgender community.
Breaking the Binary Theatre is counseled by its Core Community, a voluntary advisory board of prominent TNB2S+ theatre artists working to further its outreach and impact. The board includes Tony Award-nominated designer Adam Rigg (they/them, The Skin of Our Teeth), Kleban Prize and Jonathan Larson Award-winning writer César Alvarez (they/them, Futurity), New York Stage and Film’s former Artistic Director Chris Burney (he/they), Princess Grace Award Honoraria recipient and director David Mendizábal (they/he, The Bandaged Place), Guggenheim Fellow and writer Jen Silverman (they/them+, Spain), Tony and Obie Award-winning actor and writer John Cameron Mitchell (he/they, “Shrill” on Hulu), Tony Award-winning multi-hyphenate KO who was formerly known as Karen Olivo (they/them, In the Heights), Kleban Prize and Jonathan Larson Award-winning poet Kit Yan (they/he/she, Interstate), Tony Award nominee L Morgan Lee (she/her, A Strange Loop), Jane Chambers Prize and Helen Merrill Award-winning writer MJ Kaufman (he/they, A Transparent Musical), Antonyo Award-nominated costume designer and activist Qween Jean (she/her, Primary Trust), Tony Award-winner and activist Sara Ramirez (they/them, “Grey’s Anatomy”), Co-Director of A.R.T./New York Risa Shoup (they/them), Tomás Matos (they/them, “Fire Island”), Grammy Award-winning interdisciplinary storyteller Ty Defoe (he/we/ty, Straight White Men), and Artistic Director of Rattlestick Theater Will Davis (he/him).
Breaking the Binary Theatre is powered by Producer Hub. For more information, please visit http://www.btb-nyc.com or @BreakingtheBinaryTheatre on Instagram.
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