World Premiere of Justin Elizabeth Sayre's TO BUILD A SOUL to be Presented at La MaMa

La Mama Experimental Theatre Club will present the world premiere of To Build a Soul - a new solo work by downtown playwright and performer Justin Elizabeth Sayre - from Thursday, December 2 through Sunday, December 12, 2021. The new semi-autobiographical play, directed by Dusty Childers, is Sayre's second piece to debut at La MaMa, following their critically-acclaimed Love's Refrain in 2016. For tickets to To Build a Soul, please visit www.lamama.org.

To Build a Soul, in Sayre's words, is "an artistic autobiography, of myself and the artists who've guided me, a genre-blending piece that drives at the role of art in our modern age of digital artifice. As the online world is filled more and more with our images of the lives we thought we could live, what does it mean to be an artist creating art in the world? Written during the pandemic, To Build a Soul is a love letter to the theatre if I never made it back."

"For the last two years, like so many artists," Sayre continues. "I wondered if we would ever make it back. If I would ever be able to return to the magic trick of live performance, to which I have dedicated most of my life. If I had one last chance, if I had one more try to stand on a stage and tell my story, what story would I tell? What would I want people to know? To Build a Soul, is that. A sort of farewell, and a call to the future all in one. Plus laughs, because, my god, I think we all need them."

With To Build A Soul, Sayre launches a busy season of projects including a new play in The Public Theater's "Under the Radar" festival in January 2022, monthly shows at Joe's Pub at the Public, and a new piece at San Francisco's Sketchfest, which will move to the Edinburgh International Festival. 2022 continues in May with the publication of Sayre's new book From Gay to Z: A Queer Compendium from Chronicle Books, and in June the 10th annual presentation of the "Night of a Thousand Judys" Pride concert to benefit The Ali Forney Center.

La MaMa Experimental Theatre will present the world premiere of To Build a Soul from Thursday, December 2 through Sunday, December 12, 2021. Thursday, Friday and Saturday shows are at 8:00 PM. Sunday shows are at 4:00 PM. To Build a Soul will take place at La MaMa Downstairs, located at 66 East 4th Street, basement level New York, NY 10003. Tickets, which are $25 in advance and $30 day of show, can be purchased at www.lamama.org.