As part of Pride Plays Festival 2020, Playbill has presented two fully live streamed performances of LGBTQ+ works—Donja R. Love’s one in two and The Five Lesbian Brothers’ Brave Smiles...Another Lesbian Tragedy—and will present two more live streams this weekend with The Men From the Boys June 26 and MJ Kaufman’s Masculinity Max June 27. But what makes Pride Plays a true festival is happening behind the scenes. Throughout the month of June, Pride Plays has been developing 11 new plays featuring queer stories by new artists in the LGBTQ+ community, and presenting closed industry readings via Zoom.
Meticulously curated by festival producers Doug Nevin and Michael Urie and festival director Nick Mayo, as well as a team of readers and an advisory board, this year’s full lineup showcases stories about self-discovery in the digital age, how the queer experience intersects with religion and culture, new takes on queer love, explorations of gender and the physical body, family drama, friendship and more. And, even in the midst of a theatrical shutdown, Pride Plays managed to stack the casts not only of the four mainstage presentations, but for each of these readings. Thanks to James Calleri, Paul Davis, and Erica Jensen of Calleri Casting, playwrights and directors have been able to investigate their work with Tony-winning talent like Debra Monk (Redwood Curtain), Tony-nominated talent like Mary Testa (Oklahoma!) and Hailey Kilgore (Once On This Island), as well as big names from Broadway and Off-Broadway such as Patrick Breen (The Normal Heart), James Cusati-Moyer (Slave Play), Jonathan Raviv (The Band’s Visit), Taylor Trensch (Dear Evan Hansen), Kara Young (All the Natalie Portmans), and Zoë Winters (White Noise).
Take a look at the full casting of the 2020 festival below, and keep an eye out for these plays and more work from these artists.
PRIDE PLAYS 2020
Will You...Hold My Hair Back?
Playwright: Carmen LoBue
Director: Dominique Rider
Stage Manager: Tia Harewood-Millington
Cast: Faiven Feshazion, Angelina Impellizzeri, Tracey Conyer Lee, Michael Potts, Mary Testa, Stephen DeRosa, Kara Young, Kana Hatakeyama, Reed Northrup, Toni Ann DeNoble
Crooked Parts
Playwright: Azure D. Osborne-Lee
Director: Kirya Traber
Stage Manager: Chiara Johnson
Cast: Joyia Bradley, Ileya Robinson Williams, Suzanne Darrell, Kevin R. Free, TL Thompson, Jak Watson
Modern Gentleman
Playwright: Preston Max Allen
Director: Blayze Teicher
Stage Manager: Emma Sonricker
Dramaturg: Amara Brady
Cast: Amy Jo Jackson, Parker Gard, Renita Lewis, Daniel K. Isaac, Zoë Winters, Carmen Berkeley
You Have to Promise
Playwright: Audrey Lang
Director: Jenna Worsham
Stage Manager: Seth Betzler
Cast: Johnathan Dougan, Taylor Richardson, Rebecca Jimenez, Quinn Copeland, Cassie Beck
Marked Green at Birth, Marked Female at Birth
Playwright: Sophie Sagan-Gutherz
Director: Caitlin Ryan O'Connell
Stage Manager: Gaia Malin
Cast: Katie Croyle, Zo Tipp, Lauren Rexach, Mirirai Sithole, Braden Wilkerson, Brie Archer
Just Press Save
Playwright: Rodney Hicks
Director: Michael Greif
Stage Manager: Evan Ensign
Cast: Anwar Ali, Taylor Trensch, Hailey Kilgore, Kenny Tran, Wyatt Gray, Rocky Vega, Rafael Molina
Everything Beautiful Happens at Night
Playwright: Ted Malawer
Director: David Cromer
Stage Manager: Tyler Osgood
Cast: Debra Monk, Patrick Breen, Bubba Weiler
Are You There Truman?
Playwright: Garrett David Kim
Director: Gaven Trinidad
Stage Manager: B. Rafidi
Cast: Lennox T. Duong, Sam Hamashima, Dan Amboyer, Kathleen Choe, Shaun Anthony, Courtney Williams, Chris White
Roof
Playwright: Omar Hantash
Director: Kareem Fahmy
Stage Manager: Geoff Boronda
Cast: Peter Romano, James Cusati-Moyer, Andrew Guilarte, Noor Hamdi, Pooya Mohseni, Kathryn Kates, Victoria Nassif
Good Time Charlie
Playwright: Ryan J. Haddad
Director: Danny Sharron
Stage Manager: Katie Ailinger
Cast: Sarin Monae West, Jonathan Raviv, Wendie Malick, Demosthenes Chyrsan, Elizabeth Keener, John Glover, John Wesley Shipp
For Leonora, or, Companions
Playwright: Hayley St. James
Director: Leigh Fondakowski
Stage Manager: Bella Anidjar
Dramaturg: Caroline Prugh
Cast: Lillian Carrier, Christina Sajous, Jules Latimer
Read More About Each Of These Plays in These Exclusive Playbill Interviews:
3 New Plays Explore Queerness in Islamic, Jewish, Black, and Italian Communities
