Theaterlab to Showcase New Solo Works by August Honey, Jeremy Rafal, and Katie Zaffrann in 2026

Theaterlab has announced its selection of three New York City artists for THE GALLERY SERIES, as part of Theaterlab's 20th Anniversary season of programming.

Presenting highly experimental, combustible, and pliable work, those selected for Theaterlab's 2026 Gallery Series are August Honey, Jeremy Rafal, and Katie Zaffrann.

Each work will be developed in Theaterlab's signature short-form residency for solo performance, with audiences having two opportunities to witness each work at this early stage. All performances take place in Theaterlab's smallest theatrical space, its 20-seat Gallery, which provides up to 40 individuals the opportunity to explore this work with the artist before further development.

"Since 2006, Theaterlab has been the gathering place for inquisitive audiences who are eager to see what's next in live performance. The GALLERY SERIES champions the unique potential of the individual performer and challenges artists to craft ambitious explorations of the specific and intimate relationship between solo performers and theatregoers. As part of the 20th anniversary programming, we've chosen these three daring solo performers to help mark this milestone and set their work before its very first audience," said Founding Artistic Director Orietta Crispino.

Each artist will receive up to 25 hours of development, a dedicated Production Assistant or Stage Manager, and a $500 cash support for the residency.

About the Artists in Theaterlab's 2026 The Gallery Series

August Honey

Untitled (Skin and Salt)

August Honey is a multidisciplinary artist residing in Brooklyn. Through acts of citation, choreography, textile installation, and (anti)language, they create work that celebrates Queerdisabled ways of being. Honey's work honors rage, interdependence, and intimacy. They engage with these forces through Queer & Crip histories and languages, and sculpt them into works of performance.

Presenting a dance in a web of lace in "Untitled (Skin and Salt)", August Honey will use textiles to trace disabled lineages through a multimodal, movement-based, scholarly, and poetic installation. By extending the body beyond the bounds of flesh and connecting her work to the extended web of Disabled activists, artists, and scholars she pulls into her process, Honey will create a work in which she threads the audience together and to herself.

Jeremy Rafal

Schubert Was a Rice Queen

Jeremy Rafal is a Filipino-American actor, musician, writer, director, and educator based in NYC. He is a classical pianist who has performed widely and composed operas, including "Standing Above Pajaro", which is based on the 1930s Watsonville riots.

In "Schubert was a Rice Queen", Jeremy Rafal will take us back to Vienna in 1828. Composer Franz Schubert is dying, but not without throwing one last party. Re-introducing himself as an Aquarius, tea-spiller, and musical genius, he recollects the life of an artist in post-Napoleonic Vienna under Metternich, where anything erotic, foreign, or new is treated as a political threat. Souvenirs from the Orient become portals to imagined queer histories through piano performance, puppetry, and scandalous reminiscence, recasting Schubert as history's unwritten rice queen.

Katie Zaffrann

Matriline

Katie Zaffrann is an actor, singer, wife, mother, lover of the outdoors, and mindfulness meditation teacher at the intersection of drama + dharma. An artist and creator in her own right, she wrote and curated her one-woman show Marry Me a Little: a cold feet cabaret, about the terror, bliss, panic, and joy of getting married, called "an enchanting delight" by BroadwayWorld.

Matriline is a somatic ritual with a time-traveling mother and her laundry. In this moment when the world we have known is shifting before our eyes, and even the air we breathe is at risk, American mothers are at the front lines. It's a journey asking those who came before us: How did they survive the times of upheaval in which they lived? - and ask our children and grandchildren: how can we best guide them into a future we cannot see? Our immediate ancestors, perhaps, did not face the particular challenges we do. But others in history have seen similarly difficult, wild times. What could we learn from these women, if we knew their stories, about how to meet this moment for our own children?

ABOUT THEATERLAB

New York's home for performance innovation since 2006, Theaterlab is a not-for-profit arts organization in the heart of Midtown Manhattan, dedicated to supporting NYC's most daring artists and culture workers. Under the leadership of Founding Artistic Director Orietta Crispino and Managing Director Andy Lynn, Theaterlab creates essential space for artistic risk, serving as both an incubator for new work and a vibrant gathering place for audiences seeking transformative experiences.

Housed in a former Garment District factory and featuring three signature all-white performance spaces, Theaterlab offers a pristine creative canvas for work that defies categorization, with a distinct emphasis on amplifying diverse voices and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration. The organization is guided by a dedicated board including Jolene Noelle (St. Ann's Warehouse) and Nicolò Sbuelz (The Juilliard School, The Metropolitan Opera).

Theaterlab's artistic model balances full productions with vital developmental platforms. Its programming includes the Theaterlab Presents season of professional productions; the First Look Series for emerging artists and companies; the Hotel New Work residency; and the Space-to-Create rental program, which hosts New York's independent theater community for rehearsals, workshops, and readings. The theater also champions free community initiatives like Round The Block! and Every Body In The House, ensuring broad access to the arts.

Recent highlights underscore its impact: the 2025 season welcomed over 6,700 audience members to productions such as Lita Lofton's On The Harmful Effects of Tobacco and Other Substances, Lia Romeo's The Lucky Ones, the NNPN Rolling-World Premiere of Ariel Estrada's Full Contact, and the New York Times-noted production of NINA by Forrest Malloy. The theater has also hosted Bessie Award-nominated artist Yoko Murakami as an artist-in-residence.

As Theaterlab enters its 20th anniversary season, it continues to refine its role as a cornerstone of New York City's experimental arts ecosystem. Through deep community engagement and a steadfast commitment to the creative process, Theaterlab ensures that the city's most innovative artists have a home to develop, present, and connect.