ArtsEmerson Presents BURGERZ, Written By and Starring Travis Alabanza

ArtsEmerson, Boston's leading presenter of contemporary world theater and film and the professional presenting and producing organization of Emerson College, will be presenting Travis Alabanza's Burgerz at the Emerson Paramount Center Jackie Liebergott Black Box from April 13 - 24, 2022. The solo performance, created and performed by Alabanza, explores how trans bodies survive and how, by reclaiming an act of violence, we can address our own complicity.

Directed by Sam Curtis Lindsay, Burgerz is a trans reclamation story; after transphobic slurs - and a hamburger - are thrown at theater artist Travis Alabanza, a newfound passion is ignited. They became obsessed with hamburgers: How they are made. How they feel and smell. How they travel through the air. How the mayonnaise feels on your skin. This show is the climax of their obsession. Alabanza presents a performance that is timely, unsettling, hilarious, and powerful.

"I'm so excited to be bringing my show Burgerz to Boston and ArtsEmerson," says Travis Alabanza. "I've had the immense privilege of touring the work around Europe and Brazil, and I'm so glad the show can continue in Boston. Having worked as a college student at Breakthrough Greater Boston during the summer, and previously performing at Harvard for their LGBTQ+ group in 2018, it is a real privilege to return to a city I love with my full show and team. Trans lives are continuing to be debated, when ultimately, we should be the ones speaking - and I'm glad Burgerz is part of that wider movement of trans art speaking back."

"We've been in conversation with Travis Alabanza, one of the UK's prominent trans voices, about Burgerz since it took the Edinburgh Fringe Festival by storm, and we are pleased to present this brilliant piece of theater," says ArtsEmerson Executive Director David Howse. "Burgerz is a passionate performance full of candor and care, and audiences will want to experience Alabanza's captivating piece in our intimate Jackie Liebergott Black Box."

Tickets for Burgerz may be purchased 24/7 at ArtsEmerson.org, or by calling 617-824-8400 (Tue-Sat from 12:00PM ET - 6:00PM ET). The Paramount Center Box Office (559 Washington Street, Boston) is open for walk-up service Thu-Sat from Noon - 6:00 PM ET. Groups of 10+ attending a performance save up to 30%.

Thanks to generous support from Rockland Trust, a limited number of $10 Mobile Rush tickets will be available at 10:00 AM ET each performance day on a first-come, first-served basis, exclusively through the TodayTix mobile app. For more information, please click on "General Public'' when you visit ArtsEmerson's Offers web page.

Registration is now open for ArtsEmerson's wildly popular Play Reading Book Club (PRBC) which will be studying Burgerz from March 28 - April 25, 2022. This pioneering theater literacy and community education program deepens the theater-going experience by offering unique and radical access to scripts, artists, and conversations featured at ArtsEmerson, while expanding the social networks of its participants.

Since 2014, ArtsEmerson's PRBC has gathered and formed a theater-going community throughout several Greater Boston neighborhoods to read, discuss, and analyze plays in the ArtsEmerson season prior to seeing them live on stage and then sharing their experience with their communities. The program will allow participants to explore Burgerz over the course of 4 weeks during in-person or online sessions and is facilitated by trained teaching artists from the Emerson College Masters in Theatre Education program and professional Boston theater artists. Participants are also offered the opportunity to special meet & greet conversations with the visiting artists.

ArtsEmerson marks the first return of its beloved Welcome To Boston Cast Parties since public gatherings were restricted, as Welcome To Boston: Burgerz is held on Tuesday, April 12 at 7:30pm at CROMA, located at the Arlington Street Church in the Back Bay neighborhood. To welcome and celebrate the arrival of the Burgerz company from the United Kingdom, ArtsEmerson will join with Ágora Cultural Architects to assemble local artists and performers who will share cultural offerings to celebrate and welcome with Travis Alabanza and Hackney Showroom.

Instead of making cast parties exclusive and exclusionary, ArtsEmerson has reinvented them as inspirational, inclusive gatherings that are free and open to all. At Welcome to Boston Cast Parties, visiting artists from around the country and the world are welcomed to Boston with special performances by local poets, vocalists, dancers, actors and entertainers before sharing a sneak peek of their own work. Rooted in the tradition of visionary arts leader, humanist, Roxbury native, and Emerson college alumna Ms. Elma Lewis, the cast parties are co-hosted by organizations around the city.