New Play THE WORLD MAY BE FLAT Examines Pulse Aftermath at Dr. Phillips Center

On June 14, 2026, the world premiere of The World May Be Flat will be presented at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts as part of Orlando's Pulse memorial weekend. The one-night theatrical event will serve as a benefit supporting Central Florida LGBTQ+ youth programs through the Rose Dynasty Foundation.

Drawn from survivor testimony and lived experience in the wake of Pulse, The World May Be Flat is an intimate two-character drama exploring survival-and everything that comes after. Rather than revisiting the tragedy itself, the play focuses on the emotional aftermath ten years later: survivor's guilt, grief, internalized shame, memory, and the increasing pressure to move on in a world that often expects silence.

Set entirely in an Orlando apartment, the play follows Noah, a survivor struggling to process unresolved trauma a decade later, and Jagger, his younger partner shaped by a different cultural and political reality. Through emotionally charged dialogue blending tension, humor, and vulnerability, the two clash over LGBTQ+ identity, politics, healing, and memorialization while confronting deeper truths about grief and isolation.

"This is not a reenactment. It is not a retelling of the tragedy, It is a story about survival-the kind of survival the world expects you to quietly move on from. This play is a vehicle for survivors to process, for their voices to be heard, and for the broader community to confront the needs of those most affected, whose pain has too often been brushed aside in favor of more structured, conventional forms of remembrance."

The production intentionally centers the years after tragedy rather than the event itself, asking broader questions about public remembrance, private grief, and who gets to shape collective memory. The work examines what happens when people most affected by tragedy feel excluded from the spaces meant to honor it.

The project also carries a uniquely local significance. In the days following Pulse, the Dr. Phillips Center became one of Orlando's major public gathering spaces for mourning and solidarity. Presenting the play there on the 10th anniversary weekend places the production within the same civic landscape that shaped the city's response to the tragedy.