United Solo Concludes Fall 2025 Season With Closing Gala

United Solo, the world’s largest solo theatre festival, ended its nineteenth season with its annual Closing Gala at Theatre Row in Manhattan. This fall’s edition featured artists from around the world working across classical texts, contemporary narratives, performance art, and pieces exploring both intimate personal stories and global political themes.

“We are proud that for nineteen seasons we have provided a platform for freedom of expression, and that artists have trusted us with their work,” said Founder and Artistic Director Omar Sangare. “This is a time when we need theatre and the stories that unite us in an undivided spirit.”

The evening opened with Wendy-Lane Bailey performing Remembering My Dreams: The Michele Brourman Songbook, reflecting her longstanding artistic partnership with Brourman, who co-produced Bailey’s debut recording Breathing. Among this season’s honorees was Louise Sorel, recognized for her stage piece An Afternoon with Louise Sorel. Sorel, whose career includes decades of work on Broadway, was also acknowledged for her recent literary debut, If There Were No Dogs, a collection of poetry and essays.

United Solo’s Special Award, presented annually to an artist working outside the festival whose practice expands the boundaries of solo performance, was awarded to Saul Rubinek for Playing Shylock. The piece blends fiction and autobiography to explore art, identity, and cultural legacy. Widely known for his work in Frasier, The Last Tycoon, Unforgiven, True Romance, and Nixon, Rubinek is currently performing Playing Shylock in New York. In accepting the honor, he remarked that “solo performance is a singular act of bravery,” adding that the essence of the form lies in shifting the impulse “to get” toward the desire “to give.”

Rubinek now joins past United Solo Special Award recipients including Anna Deavere Smith, Patti LuPone, John Leguizamo, Fiona Shaw, Billy Crystal, James Lecesne, Staceyann Chin (with Cynthia Nixon), Michael Moore, Renée Taylor, Aasif Mandvi, Ian McKellen, Lee Roy Reams, Dael Orlandersmith, Charles Busch, and Flotilla DeBarge.

The festival also recognized numerous artists in areas spanning acting, direction, storytelling, design, new premieres, and audience engagement. Honors this season included Best Production for Puerto Rico es una Cama Twin performed by Anna Sophia Colon, Best International Show for Enemies of the People performed by Erika Marozsan, Best One Man Show for Backwards, Forwards, Back by L. James, Best One Woman Show for It Ends With Guinea Pigs by Diana Gitelman, Best Drama for In The Elevator performed by Ika Gogoladze, Best Comedy for Ten Times I Should Have Known I Was Autistic by Keith Varney, Best Musical for Flute Solo by Emily Van Den Blink, and Best Interactive Show for Sorel’s An Afternoon with Louise Sorel. Additional distinctions recognized autobiographical storytelling, cabaret, spoken word, fiction, classical performance, multimedia work, emerging playwrights, original music, lighting design, world premieres, New York debuts, festival debuts, and the Audience Choice Award, which went to Emerge by Paris Moon.

As United Solo closes its 2025 season, submissions are now open for the festival’s 2026 Spring and Fall editions at Theatre Row. Artists can apply at unitedsolo.org/apply/nyc-2026. Winners were selected by an independent panel of more than eighty theatre professionals, members of the United Solo Academy, critics at All About Solo, and online audience voters.