Every day is opening night.

Press Contact:
Rick Miramontez / Kendall Edwards
rick@omdkc.com / kendall@omdkc.com
212 695 7400

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE

ADDITIONAL PROGRAMMING ANNOUNCED FOR
FOURTH ANNUAL
BREAKING THE BINARY
THEATRE FESTIVAL

PRESENTING SEVEN EVENINGS OF WORK
CREATED BY TNB2S+ ARTISTS FOR TNB2S+ ARISTS

OCTOBER 20-26, 2025

New York, NY (September 29, 2025) – Breaking the Binary Theatre (George Strus, they/them) announced today additional programming for the fourth annual Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival. The festival, which will continue the groundbreaking theater company’s mission of producing work created and developed by transgender, non-binary, and Two-Spirit+ (TNB2S+) theatre artists, will take place October 20 – 26, 2025.

As previously announced, the festival will open on Monday, October 20 with a one-night-only concert of The Drowsy Chaperone at the Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall featuring a star-studded all-trans and non-binary cast led by Laverne Cox, Alex Newell, Betty Who, Jonathan Van Ness, Dylan Mulvaney, and more. Tickets for The Drowsy Chaperone are on sale now at https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2025/10/20/THE-DROWSY-CHAPERONE-in-Concert-0800PM. All net proceeds will benefit Trans Lifeline, Black Trans Liberation, and Breaking the Binary Theatre.

The Festival will continue at Open Jar Studios from Tuesday, October 21 – Saturday, October 25 with ten readings of five new plays and conclude at The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center on Sunday, October 26 with the organization’s annual commissioning project with partners Concord Theatricals.

Tickets for the Festival presentations at Open Jar Studios and The LGBT+ CENTER are complimentary and will be available beginning Thursday, October 9^th at www.btb-nyc.com/25festival.  Casting will be announced at a later date. Festival casting is by The Telsey Office / Charlie Hano, CSA. Esmé Maria Ng serves as Festival Line Producer.

“After our huge(ly thrilling) opening in THE DROWSY CHAPERONE in Concert at Carnegie Hall, we are excited to root the remainder of our fourth annual Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival in community and center gathering in more intimate spaces supporting the new work being showcased. AriDy, Cheeyang, Dane, Jayne, and Genevieve’s pieces come together to create the most dynamic Festival line-up thus far (including our first new musical!) and this year, we have expanded each process so each of the five will be read twice, welcoming more attendees into the worlds of these works. To conclude the Festival, I am already looking forward to getting back into the rehearsal room with L Morgan for our fourth annual Finale collaboration, this year titled LIMITLESS,” stated Strus. “It is a gift to be creating as a trans non-binary artist in these times of disarray and despair; as this year’s audience members join us from October 20 – 26, 2025, I hope they feel the joy in these works that have served as a much-needed beacon of hope as we stumble along through the madness and come together as a community to build and dream.”

The additional festival programming includes:

Tuesday, October 21 at 3pm & 7pm:
Death Comes in Threes
By AriDy Nox (they/them)
Directed by Cooper Howell (they/them)
At Open Jar Studios (1601 Broadway)

In a bedroom on the edge of a meadow on the edge of a cliff on the edge of a shoreline, Me and Myself (im)patiently wait for Death, earnestly trying not to kill each other first.

Wednesday, October 22 at 3pm & 7pm:
Legendary
By Cheeyang Ng (they/them)
Directed by Emilio Ramos (he/they)
At Open Jar Studios (1601 Broadway)

Legendary is a solo ritual-musical that follows a queer Asian immigrant in the U.S. as they wrestle with inherited legacies and imagine new ones. Blending Chinese mythology, circle singing, and audience call-and-response, the Narrator transforms their search for identity and belonging into the creation of a brand-new myth: an act of collective healing, joy, and defiance.

Thursday, October 23 at 3pm & 7pm:
The Lady of M Street
By Dane Figueroa Edidi (she/her)
Directed by Sharifa Yazmeen (she/her)
At Open Jar Studios (1601 Broadway)

When Beth’s husband, Mac, has a chance to become the new Headmaster of a famous prep school in 1980’s DC, she is determined to do everything she can to help him achieve it, including murder.

Friday, October 24 at 3pm & 7pm
Hiraeth Or, When Pluto Was a Planet
By Jayne Deely (they/them)
Directed by Mack Brown (they/them)
At Open Jar Studios (1601 Broadway)

Kap’s reluctantly back in Queens for Sam’s wedding — but tying the knot isn’t the only thing on Sam’s checklist. With friends Ish and Mel along for the ride, the crew dives headfirst into a weekend of ’90s throwbacks, childhood flashbacks, and a few emotional landmines. But as old wounds resurface and one very unexpected guest shows up, their nostalgic trip down memory lane takes a sharp left turn.

Saturday, October 25 at 3pm & 7pm
Punch Back
By Genevieve Simon (he/they)
Directed by Kedian Keohan (they/he)

Seven trans college students fall in love and secretly distribute HRT while learning how to box in the red state of Ohio.

Punch Back is presented in association with Ten Toes Theater Collective.

Sunday, October 26 at 5pm
Limitless
Co-conceived by L Morgan Lee (she/her) and George Strus (they/them), featuring 12 commissioned monologues or short scenes created by TBA TNB2S+ artists
At The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center (208 W 13th St)

Following Overheard, Bliss, and Dare, BTB Core Community member L Morgan Lee and Founding Artistic Director George Strus are partnering with Concord Theatricals/Broadway Licensing for the fourth year in a row to create Limitless: A Collection of Commissioned Scenes and Monologues. The twelve commissioned works inspired by the prompt “LIMITLESS: What does it mean to be free? What does it feel like to fly?” will be crafted together and brought to life by a cast of five TNB2S+ performers to close the 2025 Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival. The works will then be published and licensed by Concord Theatricals in 2026.

To download headshots, click here.
Breaking the Binary Theatre is a new work development and community building hub wherein transgender, non-binary, and Two-Spirit+ (TNB2S+*) artists come together to reclaim our artistic license and liberty through a number of initiatives and programs, including the annual all-TNB2S+ Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival each October.

Launched in July 2022 and founded and led by George Strus (they/them), the organization has produced over fifty workshops and readings of new works by TNB2S+ artists; produced a three-week run of Cecilia Gentili’s Red Ink off-Broadway starring Jes Tom, Angelica Ross, and Peppermint, raising over $35,000 for charities; co-produced the world premiere of Sarah Mantell’s In The Amazon Warehouse Parking Lot with Playwrights Horizons, commissioned over fifty TNB2S+ artists; hosted over thirty community events; launched a free educational Summer Intensive for emerging TNB2S+ performers, a New Musicals program to develop musicals written by and featuring TNB2S+ performers, and a BTB Across America program for TNB2S+ artists outside of New York; published three collections with Broadway Licensing; partnered with Playbill, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Signature Theatre, Roundabout Theatre Company, and BroadwayCon; been in-residence at Playwrights Horizons, Williamstown Theatre Festival and New York Stage and Film; and paid out over $750,000 to over 500 TNB2S+ artists!

*Breaking the Binary Theatre uses the term “TNB2S+” in hopes to encompass any person who is transgender, non-binary, Two-Spirit, gender non-conforming, genderqueer, agender, intersex, gender expansive, bigender, gender fluid, or any identity within the umbrella transgender community.

Breaking the Binary Theatre is counseled by its Core Community, a voluntary advisory board of prominent TNB2S+ theatre artists working to further its outreach and impact. The board includes Tony Award-nominated designer Adam Rigg (they/them, The Skin of Our Teeth), Kleban Prize and Jonathan Larson Award-winning writer César Alvarez (they/them, Futurity), New York Stage and Film’s former Artistic Director Chris Burney (he/they), Princess Grace Award Honoraria recipient and director David Mendizábal (they/he, The Bandaged Place), Guggenheim Fellow and writer Jen Silverman (they/them+, Spain), Tony and Obie Award-winning actor and writer John Cameron Mitchell (he/they, “Shrill” on Hulu), Tony Award-winning multi-hyphenate KO who was formerly known as Karen Olivo (they/them, In the Heights), Kleban Prize and Jonathan Larson Award-winning poet Kit Yan (they/he/she, Interstate), Tony Award nominee L Morgan Lee (she/her, A Strange Loop), Jane Chambers Prize and Helen Merrill Award-winning writer MJ Kaufman (he/they, A Transparent Musical), Antonyo Award-nominated costume designer and activist Qween Jean (she/her, Primary Trust), Tony Award-winner and activist Sara Ramirez (they/them, “Grey’s Anatomy”), Co-Director of A.R.T./New York Risa Shoup (they/them), Tomás Matos (they/them, “Fire Island”), Grammy Award-winning interdisciplinary storyteller Ty Defoe (he/we/ty, Straight White Men), and Artistic Director of Rattlestick Theater Will Davis (he/him).

Breaking the Binary Theatre is powered by Producer Hub. For more information, please visit http://www.btb-nyc.com or @BreakingtheBinaryTheatre on Instagram.

BIOGRAPHIES

ARIDY NOX is a multi-disciplinary black femme storyteller with a variety of forward-thinking creative works under their belt including the historical reimagining of the life of Sally Hemmings Black Girl In Paris (2020), the ancestral reckoning play A Walless Church (2019), the cross-generational magical realism Freshwater Play (2020) series and many others. Their tales are offerings intended to function as small parts of an ancient, expansive, awe-inspiring tradition of world-shaping created by black femmes and with black femmes at the center.  They have been inordinately privileged to share the workings of their imagination in collaboration with a vast array of inspiring and supportive artists of various radical backgrounds throughout the country.

CHEEYANG NG (they/them) is a Fred Ebb, Princess Grace, and Jonathan Larson Award–winning singer-songwriter from Singapore. A queer Asian immigrant, Cheeyang creates work at the intersection of personal history and public reckoning, blending Western musical theatre with Chinese folk, Mandopop, and South and Southeast Asian traditions. Their musicals include MĀYĀ (with Eric Sorrels), Eastbound (with Khiyon Hursey) and The Phoenix (with Desdemona Chiang and Eric Sorrels). Across projects, Cheeyang centers queer, Asian, and immigrant voices, positioning musical theatre as a vehicle for both justice and joy. Performance highlights include Carnegie Hall with Jason Robert Brown, Lincoln Center with Carole King, and being the first Singaporean to headline at Joe’s Pub and the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage. Cheeyang is also the creator of the podcast “East Side Story” and founder of The Lunar Collective. MFA: NYU. BMus: Berklee. www.cheeyang.com | @cheeyangmusic

COOPER HOWELL (they/them) is a New York City-based playwright, director, and producer determined to spearheading an audience revolution—creating high-voltage, avant-garde theater where content rips open convention, bends form until it breaks, and unapologetically centers queer, trans, and POC voices. They are the Co-Artistic Director of WILDEHAUS, a new performance incubator positioning itself to become America’s foremost producer of radical queer work. They currently serve in the artistic collective of National Queer Theater and are a founding member of New York Theater Company (NYTC), where they are writing and directing the world’s first silent disco play—an adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler’s La Ronde titled The Loop. Cooper also serves as Associate Director of Cats: The Jellicle Ball (directed by Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch), the acclaimed ballroom reimagining of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical. All my love to Sawyer.

DANE FIGUEROA EDIDI: Dubbed the Ancient Jazz Priestess of Mother Africa, Lady Dane is a Black Nigerian, Cuban, Indigenous, American Performance Artist, Author,  Poet, Educator, Advocate, producer, a Helen Hayes Award winning Playwright (Klytmnestra: An Epic Slam Poem), a 2021 Helen Merrill Award Winner, Film Maker, Advocate, Dramaturg, a 3x Helen Hayes Award nominated choreographer (2016, 2018, 2023), and a Princess Grace Honoria Award winner. She is the Co-director of the Black Trans Prayer Book. She is the curator and associate producer of Long Wharf Theatre’s Black Trans Women At The Center: An Evening of Short Plays and is an artistic ensemble member of the company as well.

EMILIO RAMOS: Honoured to be among the gorgeous luminaries of this year’s BTBTF! Emilio is mixed-race and non-binary, which means “I hear you” and also “please listen”. Recently, he directed the off-Broadway revival of See What I Wanna See, which was nominated for three Drama Desk Awards including Outstanding Revival of a Musical and Outstanding Puppetry. Currently, they serve as Associate Director for Maybe Happy Ending and Hadestown on Broadway (both Tony Award winners for Best Musical). Other AD credits include Parade (Tony winner, Best Revival of a Musical; NYCC / Broadway / U.S. Tour), Vanya (Drama League, Drama Desk, Lortel and Obie winner; Lucille Lortel Theatre), The Light in the Piazza (NYCC Encores!), Titanique. Emilio is also on adjunct faculty at NYU Steinhardt. Thank you George and Cheeyang for having me on Team Legendary – I hope you can all feel me singing along with you. Find more at www.emilioramosonline.com & @lilporkbunz.

GENEVIEVE SIMON (he/they) is an actor and playwright born in Ohio and based in New York. His work has been supported by Ars Nova, The Bushwick Starr, The Brick, New Georges, Fresh Ground Pepper, Shadowland Stages, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Arts on Site, The Motor Company, Oberlin College, Willamette University, Holton-Arms School, Cincinnati Fringe Festival, The Parsnip Ship, and The Tank. He is a 2025 NYSCA Commission Winner, a 2023-24 New Georges Audrey Resident, and was a member of the 2024 Page 73 Writers Group. His climate-doom-comedy Bloom Bloom Pow was a Finalist for the 2022 EMOS Ecodrama Playwrights Festival and will be published in 2026. Genevieve’s plays include This Bug Is Gay, Guarding, Sister/Friend, and Hell Is Real. Playwriting Lecturer, Skidmore College. www.genevieve-simon.com

JAYNE DEELY (they/them) is a Queens-born, Puerto Rican, queer playwright and performer. Their work includes Hiraeth, or when Pluto was a planet; I never asked for a gofundme; Walter Mercado Presents: A Queer Puerto Rican (Not Just) Christmxs Spectacular; unqle play; and 30 Seconds. Their plays have been developed with Seattle Public Theatre, the New Harmony Project, Breaking the Binary, Fresh Ground Pepper, American Stage, Renaissance Theaterworks, and others. They are currently under commission with a Sloan grant from EST. As a performer, they’ve worked with Berkeley Rep, Aurora Theatre, TheatreWorks, and BRAVA. Jayne is a proud member of AEA, SAG-AFTRA, and the Dramatists Guild, and is based in Queens, NY. Next up: Indy Playfest, (November ’25), Jungle Theatre Greenhouse Reading Series (January ’26). The world premiere of I never asked for a gofundme will be produced by Actor’s Express in Atlanta in October 2026. MFA, IU Bloomington.

KEDIAN KEOHAN is a trans theater director and creator of live performances. Director: DeliaDelia! (The Brick/Edinburgh Fringe), reid tang’s Isabel (NAATCO) and Boids (BTB workshop), Haruna Lee’s Let’s Sit Down (Say Gay Plays), Erin Markey’s First Lady (Bard Spiegeltent), Jimmy Fay’s Straight Wedding (Brown / Writing is Live). Associate Director: Morgan Bassichis’ Can I Be Frank? (Soho Playhouse), Shayok Misha Chowdhury’s Rheology (The Bushwick Starr), Ryan J. Haddad’s Dark Disabled Stories (The Public Theater/Bushwick Starr). Kedian is a 2025 Audrey Resident with Minna Lee and a 25/26 Resident Artist at The Cell with Utkarsh Rajawat. Kedian is a former Clubbed Thumb Directing Fellow, Soho Rep Writer/ Director Lab alum, and a regular collaborator of Julia Jarcho/minor theater. Upcoming: Nurit Chinn’s Godbird and Kaye Hurley’s :/secondplace (Exponential Festival, Director).  @justkedian

MACK BROWN builds precise new musicals, plays that challenge our collective moral compass, and theatre that is trans-genre and transsexual. Recent: Watchdog (ANTFest), Trans Am (Joe’s Pub). Associate: Pictures From Home (Broadway), The Big Gay Jamboree (Off-Broadway), I Can Get It For You Wholesale (Classic Stage). They are the recipient of the 2025 SDCF Abe Burrows Award for Assistant Directors, the ‘22-23 Roundabout Directing Fellow, and currently serve as Lead Facilitator of the Roundabout Directors Group. Mack also is a NYU Tisch Drama Gender Expansive Mentor, an NYCLU Artist Ambassador, and works at Convergence Magazine with grassroots organizers and activists to produce media that sharpens our collective practice. Proud SDC member. mack-brown.com

SHARIFA YAZMEEN (she/her) is a trans Arab-American director, actor, and playwright. She has completed directing fellowships with The Drama League, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Manhattan Theatre Club, Geva Theatre, and was a Eugene O’Neill national directing fellow. Some of Sharifa’s favorite directing projects include Close to Home (Pillsbury House), Disgraced (American Stage), Beirut (Brown/Trinity Rep), The War Boys (Hangar Theater), 3:59AM (Actors Theatre of Louisville), Babel (CATF), Noon Panir in the Dark (Dartmouth College), and Mosque4Mosque (National Queer Theatre). Yazmeen was honored as the inaugural recipient of the SCDF’s Barbara Whitman Award in 2021, and Abe Burrows award in 2024. She holds a MFA in Directing from Brown/Trinity Rep, and is currently a Jerome Fellow with Playwrights’ Center. www.sharifayazmeen.com

# # # #

www.omdkc.com
www.facebook.com/omdkc
www.twitter.com/omdkc
www.instagram.com/omdkc/

www.btb-nyc.com
https://x.com/btbtfnyc
www.instagram.com/breakingthebinarytheatre