TOYS 101 Goes Online With Strange Sun Theater's Explorations: Digital Theatre Festival

Jonathan Alexandratos' one-person show, TOYS 101, is back as part of Strange Sun Theater's Digital Theater Festival, Explorations. The piece rounds out an all-free, all-online line-up that includes Jacqueline Goldfinger's Click: Virtual Edition and Maria Irene Fornes' Fefu and Her Friends. Performed previously in NYC's So-Fi Festival and then again on Facebook Live, TOYS 101 is part class, part playdate, and part personal exploration.

"The play is sort of an Antiques Roadshow through my soul," says playwright Jonathan Alexandratos, "I talk about my toys, and their history, but also my own history trying to unlearn toxic masculinity and then ultimately finding myself as a Non-Binary person." It's no surprise Jonathan chose toys as their subject. They have been a toy collector nearly all their life, even editing an academic essay collection on action figures and dolls titled Articulating the Action Figure: Essays on the Toys and Their Messages. With a series of toys that act as a timeline for Jonathan's life, they are able to trace their own Queerness through the ways in which those objects represent gender. But the show isn't just about Jonathan. "The hope is to find a safe toybox where everyone can play during this time where play, in the physical sense, so often isn't safe," says Alexandratos. Because of this, audiences are encouraged to bring along their own toys for an open discussion at the end of the show.

TOYS 101 is directed by Sean Leo. It is produced by Jessica Bashline for Strange Sun Theater. It will be performed at 6pm ET on Zoom. Tickets are free, but should be reserved here in order to ensure you receive the proper link to the show.

Photo Credit: Nate Gebhard at So-Fi Festival 2019