Off-Broadway's The Playwrights Realm begins its third Beyond The Realm this week, which will run September 25–November 2 and include looks at three different in-process shows. The shows, according to press notes, "evoke the madness of our current moment." Every performance will be free. 

The festival will open with Malena Pennycook’s Choreomania 1518, directed by Tara Elliot, which merges theatre and dance in its exploration of the real-life “Dancing Plague of 1518” in Strasbourg, where hordes of people abruptly began dancing—and continued for weeks. Performances will run September 25–27.

After will be Malaika Fernandes’s MULAQAT, directed by Adil Mansoor and performing October 16-18. The play is about the complexities of communication between a family across three different languages and will feature projections that include handwritten recipes, drawings, and various animated elements. 

The final festival show will be Daria Miyeko Marinelli’s participatory WALK OUT, directed by Ellie Heyman and performing October 30-November 2. The show will take audiences out of the theatre and into the streets in an ambulatory performance/meditation on injustice and uprising in New York. 

Each show will have four free performances, to test how they work in front of audiences. Audiences can RSVP at PlaywrightsRealm.org/Beyond.

Playwrights Realm Executive Director Chris Berry said in a statement, “We’re thrilled to present these works by three daring writers who, in various capacities, have passed through The Realm—and to continue our support for their work with this singular opportunity. It’s hard to imagine another setting in which such distinct visions of how theater can be bent and expanded to tell particular stories would be presented all together. We can’t wait to bring these illuminating works in front of audiences and continue their journey.”