Photos: First Look At World Premiere RITES OF PASSAGE From Celebration Theatre

Celebration Theatre has shared its first look of Trans Lineage: Rites of Passage from director Nico Pang (A New Brain, Passion of the Cut Sleeve) and producer Petey Gibson (Joy Who Lived Festival, Them Fatale). Check out opening night photos below.

This year’s show, featuring world premiere pieces by three trans playwrights, explores rites of passage across centuries and cultures: a Black transmasculine griot reclaiming ancestral memory, a transfeminine nun confronting faith and isolation during the bubonic plague, and a gay Korean trans man trying to outrun aging and “twink death.”

After last year’s sold-out run, Celebration Theatre's beloved Trans Lineage project (fka Tales of the Transcestors) returns with brand new one-act trilogy Rites of Passage. Now in its fourth year, and co-produced with Greenway Arts Alliance, this program’s new works trace the moments and thresholds that shape us and our lineages—personal, cultural, spiritual, and historical.

Director Nico Pang, returning for a second year to helm this project, says, “I think about the moments that stretch us, make us strange or home to ourselves, and reveal who we are and who we might become. When trans communities create and reimagine our own rites of passage, ceremony becomes an act of remembering. An insistence on our futures. I’m thrilled to return to direct with this incredible team and share these stories that imagine new possibilities for becoming and forging our place in the world."

“There is something unbelievably healing about building this show at this moment in time,” adds returning Producer Petey Gibson. “To feel the warmth of my own trans ancestors uplifting the work, shining a light—it’s been a hug and a reminder that we are here, we’ve been here, we’re not going anywhere.”

Boasting a stellar all-trans/GNC ensemble including Alex Song-Xia (they/them, Netflix Is A Joke, Dropout TV, Tonight Show), Lee Baladejo (they/he, Nocturne Theatre), Olabisi Kovabel (they/them, Netflix, Hulu), Phi Kenzie (she/her, Netflix’ The Prom), and Shawn Christopher Lovell Nabors (he/they, Studio Theatre).

The three one-act plays that comprise Trans Lineage: Rites of Passage were developed at Celebration Theatre following an international call for writers. Selected writers Amari Amai, Dom Martello, and Oscar K., engaged with Director Nico Pang and Dramaturg Sarah Showich in a summer Writers’ Room to create these World Premiere works.

Featuring the inspired collaboration of a majority trans creative team, with lighting design by Niall Sulcer, sound design by Malick Ceesay (he/him), projection design by Jennifer Gonzalez, costume design by Leah Morrison, and prop design by Emme Standerford. The show is stage managed by Kimberly Sanchez Garrido, with assistant directing/dramaturgy by Sarah Showich, technical direction by Kathleen Jaffe and casting by resident Casting Director, Jami Rudofsky. Poster art by Krishani Pal.

Trans Lineage: Rites of Passage is co-produced by Celebration Theatre and Greenway Arts Alliance, and is supported in part by the California Arts Council, a state agency. Learn more at www.arts.ca.gov.

Celebration Theatre is Los Angeles’ premier LGBTQIA+ theatre since 1982, giving voice to the evolving experience of queer and trans culture. Learn more at celebrationtheatre.org.

For over 25 years, Greenway Arts Alliance has united communities through art, education, and social enterprise. Learn more at greenwayartsalliance.org

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