LOUD & WITH FEELING to Make Off-Broadway Debut at AMT Theater

Circle Theater Festival will present Loud & With Feeling by Spencer J. Vigil for a three-week Off-Broadway run October 26th through November 15th 2026 at AMT Theater. Loud & With Feeling is a musical based on a true-to-life experience about a group of Queer students in the first 24 hours of their sit-in protest. Their quest to fight for LGBTQ+ rights at their Private Christian University is stifled after their favorite professor is fired! Throughout the night, the group uncovers a lot of their own personal histories as they search for belonging, connection, and a collective future. With a pop-synth score and resemblances to shows like Rent, Fun Home, and Elizabeth Swado's Runaways. Loud & With Feeling showcases the Joy, Triumph, and Community that everyone longs to be a part of.

The Producing team, that also includes Shatter The Glass Productions and Connecticut Deaf Theater are ecstatic to highlight a Trans and Disabled-led show that exudes community care and discovering joy and identity in the most unlikely of spaces. This is the first time the show will be showcased since its first inception in 2023 at Berklee NYC.

Directed by Jules Dameron, whose directing credits include Meat Expectations (Gallaudet Theatre), The Laramie Project (Deaf Austin Theatre), Maple & Vine (New York Deaf Theatre), Caustic Effect (re:Naissance Opera), 100 Years of Darkness (Inside Out Theatre, Calgary), and Trash (Gallaudet Theatre). Also, with Music Direction by Joey Jubayr who is the Orchestrator and Arranger of the show. Loud & With Feeling features additional Music and Arrangements by Joshua Evan Eiger.

The cast includes Obie Award Winner Dickie Drew Hearts (Dark & Disabled Stories) and Adrian Rifat. The official casting announcement will be released in early August.

More About Spencer J. Vigil

Spencer (he/they) is a Trans DeafBlind theater maker here in New York. He's worked in theaters across the country for over twenty years. Through their work they strive to tell authentic stories that are restorative in nature. They are in the business of healing. In their work they always wish to hold on to what has made them fall in love with theater in the first place. Connection. Vulnerability. Access. Knowledge. Especially where the collaboration comes full circle and every sense is tested to each own interpretation. Theater is the closest they ever feel to God and Magic.

Spencer began Loud & With Feeling in December of 2020, but the musical drastically evolved when there was a sit-in protest at his alma mater, Seattle Pacific University, in the spring/summer of 2022. Spencer's time speaking up and advocating for LGBTQ+ folks on his conservative campus led him towards this story he wanted deeply to share with others. 'A lot of what's in the show are stories about my friends and I. I wanted to take this niche experience I had and show someone unlike myself that maybe we aren't all that different. I think fundamentally, all folks want is to feel safe, a sense of belonging and community, like they know themselves on a deep level. If I can do that- maybe I can create the type of change I'd like to see in this industry and this world for that matter.' Vigil shares.

In the fall of 2022 Vigil left for New York to continue this project at Berklee NYC. It's at Berklee where Spencer learned invaluable lessons. 'My time at Berklee really cemented for me that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I really had to fight everyday to keep focused and hold onto the goal; That this story needs to be told and it needs to be told by me.' Spencer credits his success to the many professors who invested their time in not only helping to shape his craft but helping him realize his inherent value as a person.

In the last few years the show has continued hitting development goals including a sold out 54 Below Show, as well as a concert reading at NYC Frigid's Queerly Festival in 2025. 'The last few years have held such high highs as well as some low lows. Throughout 2025 I was managing severe hearing loss and it wasn't until after the [Queerly] festival that I started noticing changes in my vision as well. It was terrifying. I kept thinking to myself what if Loud & With Feeling is the only show I ever get to write? I was faced with making really tough decisions, but being the stubborn person I am I still needed to continue. I still am not finished. I've barely just begun.' Vigil continues, 'I decided to fully immerse myself in the Deaf theater community and began to really understand the gap in accessibility within Broadway that prides themselves on being fully accessible. I've not been able to witness a Broadway show and maintain full access to information since becoming DeafBlind but I pay the same ticket price as someone who has full access. It's really unfortunate. How are we supposed to keep innovating and including new perspectives if all of the ASL interpreted shows are scheduled on the same day? How am I supposed to access a touch tour without any ASL, CN's, or PT interpreters present? How are Off-Broadway shows more accessible to me than a multi-million-dollar Broadway industry? In my rage I found purpose.' Spencer began using his everyday experiences to fight for change within the New York entertainment industry including advocating for the passing of INTRO 1307 which provides grants to productions that hire actors, crew members, and creative professionals with Disabilities. 'Disabled people are some of the most skilled, most hard working, and most passed over especially in this industry. People who don't know me think I have nothing to offer, infantilize me, believe I'm illiterate or less educated than them, pass me for fellowships because they can't imagine providing access for me, and refuse to see me as someone who is the future of Musical Theater.' Spencer continues, 'They've never been more wrong.'

Because of this, Spencer has been able to imagine more for Loud & With Feeling. 'We have a Deaf Trans Director! Jules [Dameron], who is a true collaborator and I'm already so thrilled for him to lead this team.' Vigil also expressed excitement about the use of dynamic captioning, 'Recently I was really inspired by Joey [Caverly] and Andrew's [Morrill] show Trash which I saw at PAC. Their use of captioning and haptics really blew me away.'

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