INSPIRED BY TRUE EVENTS World Premiere, SEE WHAT I WANNA SEE & More Set for Out of the Box Theatrics 2024-2025 Season

Out of the Box Theatrics has unveiled its 2024-2025 mainstage productions and additional programming for the company’s new home at 154 Christopher Street (formerly the New Ohio Theatre). 

OOTB will present the world premiere of Inspired By True Events, a new play by actor, writer and filmmaker Ryan Spahn, development director Michael Urie, and directed by Michael Herwitz (JOB); a revival of composer/lyricist Michael John LaChiusa’s See What I Wanna See, directed by Emilio Ramos (associate/assistant director for Broadway’s Parade, A Christmas Carol and The Light in the Piazza at Encores!), musical direction by Adam Rothenberg, and featuring an entirely AAPI cast; and the NY premiere of Call Me Abigail by Shelli Pentimal Bookler (The Shame Play, All the Dead Biddles).

OOTB will also present staged readings of Trash by James Caverly (“Only Murders in the Building”) and Andrew Morrill, and directed by Nathaniel Claridad; and Starstruck in partnership with Half Zip Productions by Tony Award nominee Beth Malone (Fun Home) and Mary Ann Stratton, with music and lyrics by Grammy Award winner Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls, and directed by Sherri Eden Barber, as part of the company’s Building the Box series.

MAINSTAGE PRODUCTIONS

Inspired By True Events

By Ryan Spahn
Developed by Michael Urie 
Directed by Michael Herwitz
Featuring Lou Liberatore, Jack DiFalco, Mallory Portnoy, and Dana Scurlock

Previews begin July 10, 2024
Opening Night: July 17, 2024

In the green room of a community theater in Rochester, the Uptown Players are getting Ready to Play to a full house after opening to rave reviews the night before. When their star actor arrives in a dangerously unhinged state, they must improvise on and off stage in ways they could not have imagined. By turns hilarious, harrowing, and horrifying, Inspired By True Events follows a tenacious group of show people who must determine at what cost the show must go on. 

Inspired By True Events received development workshops with New York Stage & Film, Vineyard Theatre and EST. 

See What I Wanna See

By Michael John LaChiusa
Music Direction by Adam Rothenberg
Directed by Emilio Ramos
Featuring Marc Kudisch and Marina Kondo 

Previews begin September 3, 2024
Opening Night: September 16, 2024

Based on three Japanese short stories by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (Rashomon), OOTB’s production of See What I Wanna See will feature Japanese puppetry and translations and an AAPI cast. Examining distinctly Western circumstances through a distinctly Eastern-inspired lens, LaChiusa’s musical adaptation is about the ineffable, unreliable, ephemeral nature of the truth and the responsibility that comes with knowing it.

Call Me Abigail

By Shelli Pentimal Bookler 

Previews begin January 20, 2025
Opening Night: January 27, 2025 

Call Me Abigail is a comedic drama about a father and daughter conflict based in politics and the adult entertainment industry. Though focusing on family conflict, obscenity is challenged in light of other scandals highlighted, giving a unique perspective of art and censorship. Call Me Abigail was previously produced by Out of the Box Theatrics and Jennifer Campos Productions in OOTB's 2022 Building the Box Reading Series. The 2022 reading starred Brenda Braxton and Marc Kudisch. 
 
BUILDING THE BOX SERIES

Trash

By James Caverly and Andrew Morrill
Directed by Nathaniel Claridad
ASL coaching by Kailyn-Aaron Lozano
Featuring: James Caverly, Andrew Morrill, Adelina Mitchell, Vishal Vaidya (Merrily We Roll Along), Chris Ogren, Chris Tester, and Joel Oramas.

Performances: February 5 at 7:00 PM, February 6 at 1:00 PM, February 8 at 3:00 PM 

Tim and Jake may be Deaf roommates sharing an apartment in the city, but they are polar opposites – each with very different worldviews on what it means to be Deaf in a hearing world. When it comes to taking out the trash, they take a comical and insightful dive into their trash and their perceptions of each other’s lives. 

Donation-based tickets are available here: https://ci.ovationtix.com/34781/production/1189124 

Starstruck

Music and lyrics by Emily Saliers
Book by Beth Malone and Mary Ann Stratton
Directed by Sherri Eden Barber

Workshop scheduled for May 2024

Where the universe meets Sawtooth, Idaho, Cyd DeBerg is on a mission to save her sliver of sky. She crusades for the first International Dark Sky Reserve in the United States, attracting the attention of NPR journalist Roxanne Cooley. Roxanne's magnetism knocks all of Sawtooth out of orbit, including Cyd’s right hand man, Chris. In Cyrano fashion, Cyd begins a courtship on his behalf. When words come too easily and feel uncomfortably true, Cyd is forced to concede the world as she knew it. Cyd and Roxanne are upended by the mysterious universe, truths hidden in darkness, and a collision course of love.

The season will also feature monthly community events, partnerships with other companies, educational workshops, and the company’s popular cabaret series. Events will be announced monthly at ootbtheatrics.com

Out of the Box Theatrics was founded in 2016 by Liz Flemming, a legally blind artist, to create space for artists who have been historically underrepresented and undervalued. The company stages innovative and site-specific productions of new and classic plays and musicals while challenging audiences to experience these works outside of their expectations. By casting without regard to gender, race, creed, ethnicity, or disability, OOTB seeks to create a more inclusive and equitable theatre industry. OOTB has earned recent attention for its critically acclaimed streaming co-production of Jason Robert Brown’s The Last 5 Years (New York Times’ Critics Pick, 2021 Drama League Nominee for Outstanding Digital Theater, 2022 Antonyo Award winner for Best Digital Theater Production), and its new production of the 1983 Broadway musical Baby (2022 Drama Desk Award nominee, Outstanding Revival of a Musical). 

Photo credit: Ryan Krukowski 

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