BREAKING THE BINARY THEATRE FESTIVAL Announces Inaugural Lineup Featuring Work by TNB2S+ Theatermakers

Founding Artistic Director George Strus (they/he) has announce the line-up for the inaugural Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival. Curated by Strus, Dominique Rider
and Josephine Kearns (she/her), Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival will feature seven evenings of work created and developed by TNB2S+ theatermakers. Coinciding with
National Coming Out Day and LGBTQ+ History Month, the festival will run from
Monday October 10 through Sunday October 16, 2022 in Theatre Row's (410 W 42nd St, New York, NY 10036) first floor space, Theatre One. Tickets to Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival are free and can be reserved beginning in September. To sign up to receive more information, please visit www.btb-nyc.com.

Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival

defines a "TNB2S+ artist" as any artist who does not correspond with the male and female binary and is transgender, non-binary, Two-Spirit, gender non-conforming, genderqueer, agender, gender expansive, bigender, gender fluid, or otherwise lives outside of the cisnormative gender binary.

The festival will bring together TNB2S+ playwrights, directors, dramaturgs, and stage managers to collaborate with a team of TNB2S+ performers (yes, even in roles written
for cis folx!) to develop a piece over the course of approximately 29 hours, culminating in a public reading presentation over the week of
October 10 - 16, 2022.

The current festival lineup includes:

Trans World

By Core Community member Ty Defoe (he/we/ty)

Directed by Co-Curator Dominique Rider

Dramaturgy by Co-Curator Josephine Kearns (she/her)

Monday October 10, 2022 at 7:00 PM

When several trans individuals are picked to temporarily live in a house and get filmed non-stop for a new reality TV show, the lines between pretend and real drama become
uncomfortably blurred. What happens when people stop being nice and start getting real. Celebrated theater artist Ty Defoe brings an abundance of heart and humor to this new playful piece.

Twitch

By Liliana Padilla (they/she)

Directed by Jack
Ferver (they/them)

Tuesday October 11, 2022 at 7:00 PM

Doug Lemons goes missing. The rehab center is (still) under construction. Good Yelps. A VERY HAPPY marriage falls apart. Guitar for sale! Craigslist! Too good
to be true! Isn't true? Pam's eye is twitching, is it God? A brutal trip to the pound... Doug would never treat his dog like that. Jill would like a friend? In this town no one trusts each other. Kidding! Try the directory.

Hide and Hide

By Roger Q. Mason (they/them)

Directed by é
boylan (they/them)

Dramaturgy by
Gaven Trinidad (they/he/siya)

Wednesday October 12, 2022 at 7:00 PM

Constanza is a recent Filipina immigrant, who moved from Marcos' Philippines to America in search of the dream she saw in the movies. Billy is a white gay male
rent boy, an escapee from a Christian conversion camp where something terrible happened. He moved to LA because that's where the last bus stop was. Their lives collide in 1980 Los Angeles in this Homeric critique of the American Dream.

Work Hard Have Fun Make History

By ruth tang (they/them)

Directed by Kedian (they/he)

Thursday October 13, 2022 at 7:00 PM

This play is not about Amazon, and certainly not about Jeff Bezos. It is also not about Elon Musk. It is an exhaustive catalogue of all the possible kinds of
phone call that exist: customer service helplines, phone sex with familiar strangers, future children complaining about being born, and cold calls from prophets warning about events that are - oops - happening right now.

Nana

By Aziza Barnes

Friday October 14, 2022 at 7:00 PM

NANA
is a multi-generational play based on Barnes' paternal lineage and their self-mythologies. Set in the Bronx in the late fifties, NANA explores colorism within a family unit, dysfunctional logics of attempts at loving one's blackness before it was a trend, the ease of whiteness, and substance abuse as self-medication.

Thelma and Louise and The Time Machine

By Mara Vélez Meléndez (she/her)

Directed by Sivan Battat (she/they)

Saturday October 15, 2022 at 7:00 PM

Thelma loves Louise. Louise loves Thelma. And Louise built a time machine.

Does that mean Thelma and Louise had a past? That they have a future? Can the time machine help them escape their present?

THELMA AND LOUISE AND THE TIME MACHINE
is a romance through the multi-verse about all the possibilities and impossibilities of women loving women.

An Evening of Commissioned Monologues

By 15 TNB2S+ Writers
To Be Announced

Dramaturgy by Founding Artistic Director George Strus (they/he)

Sunday October 16 at 7:00 PM

In partnership with Broadway Licensing, Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival will present an evening of fifteen new monologues from the TNB2S+ community commissioned by BTB. Following this presentation, Broadway Licensing will publish and license the monologues with profit proceeds being donated back to BTB. Further details on this evening, including the line-up of writers, will be provided at a later date.

"Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival centers the voices and stories of artists in the trans, non-binary, and Two-Spirit+ communities by carving out space and providing
resources to explore new works, all the while building community and reclaiming our stories and artistic license."
George Strus (they/he) says, "TNB2S+ theatermakers have long been misrepresented and underpaid for their work in the American theater; in supporting and amplifying over 100 TNB2S+ theatermakers, it is vital that every creative decision be made by a member of the TNB2S+ community and each artist compensated equitably for their time and labor (making no less than New York's living wage of $21.50 an hour). Additionally, tickets for each of the presentations will be complimentary to ensure the works are available to anyone and everyone interested in joining or supporting the BTB community."

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