Shakina Nayfack Brings New Show POST-OP to Joe's Pub Tonight

Tonight, September 22nd Joe's Pub and Musical Theatre Factory will present the highly anticipated premiere of Shakina Nayfack's sophomore solo show, POST-OP. This performance is a companion piece to Nayfack's autobiographical ONE WOMAN SHOW, which premiered at Joe's Pub in 2013, and subsequently played 54 Below, Sophie's @ Broadway, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Barrington Stage Company, and Musical Theatre Factory (MTF).

Featuring original music, POST-OP stars Shakina Nayfack as she shares her pilgrimage to Thailand to undergo gender confirmation surgery, which was crowd-funded by her groundbreaking "KickStartHer" campaign. An exploration of faith, sexuality, and gender identity, her stories are woven together with no-holds-barred monologues, slam poetry, and music written by founding members of Musical Theatre Factory including: Joel Waggoner, Zoe Sarnak, Michael R. Jackson, Julianne Wick Davis, Shaina Taub, Sam Salmond, Teresa Lotz, Lauren Marcus, Ty Defoe and Tidtaya Sinutoke. POST-OP will be directed by Sarna Lapine and music directed by Jacob Yates. POST-OP was developed through the Musical Theatre Factory Writers' Group, which Nayfack has been facilitating since the organization's inception.

"A big part of my transition has been rediscovering my voice as a performer, and premiering POST-OP on the one-year anniversary of my surgery is a major confirmation. I launched Musical Theatre Factory and "KickStartHer" at the same time, (the acronym MTF is intentional, it also stands for Male-to-Female in the transgender lexicon). Through the Factory I've been able to bring forward my truth-personally and artistically- with an amazing group of writers. And I couldn't be more proud. Ultimately, we're all trying to find our own voices. We're all supporting each other to become the best versions of ourselves. It's scary to go through that alone, but it's especially liberating with the support of your friends." -Shakina Nayfack

Shakina was last seen as Lady Liberty in NYMF's "Manuel Versus the Statue of Liberty" this past summer. In addition to her work as a performer and transgender spokesperson, she is also the founding Artistic Director of Musical Theatre Factory, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the development of new musical theatre. She was presented with a Lilly Award earlier this year for her contributions to the American Theatre, the first transgender woman to be recognized with the award.

POST-OP takes place on September 22nd at 9:30pm at Joe's Pub at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St, New York, New York. Tickets are $25 and are available at www.JoesPub.com

For more information on Shakina visit www.Shakina.nyc.

Musical Theatre Factory is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping musical theatre artists develop and present new work in a collaborative environment free from the pressures of critical or commercial success. For more information visit www.MTF.nyc.

To post a comment, you must register and login.