the week of june 20 - 26, 2025

noble knights, fleet-footed riffs, queer theatre festivals

Lauren Halvorsen

Jun 20, 2025

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world premieres

Eliana Theologides Rodriguez’s Indian Princesses is now running through July 6th at La Jolla Playhouse. Miranda Cornell directs the “laugh-out-loud funny and delicately tender new play” set at a summer program for young girls of color and their white fathers as they “navigate the joy and confusion of childhood amidst myriad challenges: burgeoning friendships, unfulfilled crushes, intergenerational struggles, grief, financial insecurity, and the frustration of not being seen for who you truly are.”
Anna Ziegler’s The Janeiad runs June 21 – July 13 at The Old Globe in San Diego. The “wry contemplation of the evocative power of storytelling and the myths we tell ourselves just to get through the day” is directed by Maggie Burrows.

productions

Marsha Norman, Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray’s musical adaptation of The Color Purple starts performances June 21st at The Goodman Theatre in Chicago. Based on Alice Walker’s Pulitzer-winning novel, the “heart-rending, yet ultimately joyous, story of a young woman’s perilous journey of personal awakening in the American South” is directed by Lili-Anne Brown.
Kander & Ebb’s Cabaret runs June 21 - August 24 at The Guthrie in Minneapolis. Joseph Haj directs the “provocative musical masterpiece set inside Berlin’s sultry Kit Kat Klub, [where] a charismatic Master of Ceremonies invites patrons to partake in a decadent world of musical numbers, kicklines and torrid affairs—a welcome reprieve from the ever-growing Nazi influence just outside its doors.”
Ins Choi’s Kim’s Convenience starts performances June 25th at Olney Theatre Center in Olney, MD. The comedy (and source material for the popular Netflix series) following “a Korean immigrant family in rapidly gentrifying Toronto whose foibles belie serious tensions between assimilated daughter Janet and her parents” is directed by Aria Velz.
Lerner & Loewe’s Camelot runs June 25 - July 19 at Barrington Stage in Pittsfield, MA. Alan Paul directs “the musical crown jewel of Broadway’s Golden Age set in a captivating realm of noble knights, mystical lands, and the legendary King Arthur”, based on his 2018 staging at Shakespeare Theatre Company.

workshops, readings & festivals

Solas Nua’s Enda Walsh Festival runs June 20 & 21 at Atlas Performing Arts Center in Washington, DC. The two-day event features readings of The Small Things (directed by Shanara Gabrielle), The New Electric Ballroom (directed by Hayley Finn), Medicine (directed by Matt Torney, with a post-show discussion between Walsh and Ben Brantley) and a screening of Walsh’s film adaptation of The Small Things (starring Cillian Murphy).
Pride Plays 2025 will take place June 23rd at the Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space in partnership with Rattlestick Theater. The one-day festival features free readings of four new works by queer playwrights: Cecilia Gentili’s RED INK (developed with and directed by Nic Cory), Regan Moro’s Tremolo (directed by Sivan Battat), Sylvan Oswald’s Pony (directed by Will Davis), and Arun Wellandawe-Prematilleke’s The One Who Loves You So (directed by Emma Went).
The New Group’s FreeFest runs June 24-28 at Theatre Row in NYC. The week-long festival includes free readings of jeremy o'brian's Dingaling (directed by Sideeq Heard), C.A. Johnson’s Somebody's Body (directed by Knud Adams), Haygen-Brice Walker's Wood (directed by Alexandra Keegan), and David Davila’s The Invisible Hand of God Touched Me In a Bad Place (directed by Nadia Guevara).
Tony Meneses’ The Tale of Two Marcos and Eleanor Burgess’ The Ingenue will have readings June 24-29 at The O’Neill Playwrights Conference in Waterford, CT. Meneses’ play, set in Albuquerque circa 1997, follows the “unlikely friendship between two comic-book loving boys with the same name but vastly different personalities and outlooks on life”; The Ingenue is a “fleet-footed riff on Hannah Cowley’s 18th-century comedy The Belle’s Stratagem.”
The Theatre Offensive’s inaugural Queer [Re]Public Festival runs June 26-29 at at Arrow Street Arts in Cambridge, MA. The “four-day celebration of art and performance by and about queer and trans artists of color” is anchored by three artistic projects: Victoria Lynn Awkward’s dance work In the Space Between, Cheyenne Wyzzard-Jones’ play The Messenger, and Annalise “River” Guidry’s multi-part collective “world-building practice” Theater of Union.
QUEER @ HERE is now running through June 27th at HERE Arts Center in NYC. The festival of concerts, solo performances, comedy, and more includes ucpoming performances Adam J. Rineer’s rock opera A Trip to the Moon (directed by and developed with Jason Aguirre), Garrett Allen’s would you mind? could you? can I ask? is it possible?, and treya lam. (Earlier performances this month included Mahayla Laurence’s floreography: a plant dance ritual, Ten Toes Collective’s reading of Red Tide (created by Dom Martello), Ato Blankson-Wood & Kelly Kerwin’s POP!, and musician Softee.)
The National Queer Theater’s Criminal Queerness Festival is now running through June 28th at HERE Arts Center in NYC. The annual event “showcases the works of international LGBTQ+ playwrights from countries where queer identities are criminalized or censored.” This year’s projects include Jedidiah Mugarura’s Tomorrow Never Came (directed by Ogemdi Ude), Dena Igusti’s What You Are To Me (directed by Keng S. Meateanuwat), and Krystal Ortiz’s frikiNATION (music and lyrics by EsKoria, directed by Rula A.Muñoz).
Global Forms runs June 23 - 29 Off Broadway at Rattlestick Theater. The “all-international arts festival showcasing the work of immigrant theater artists” features “a bountiful mix of performances, panels, and community events”, including public readings of Francisco Mendoza’s Best Foreign (directed by Attilio Rigotti).

digital & streaming

Kenneth Koch’s Edward and Christine livestreams June 22 at 2 PM EST on Zoom from Takoma Park, MD-based Flapjack Theatrics. The “a live Zoom love-story told out-of-order” is directed by Anna Lathrop and designed by Debra Kim Sivigny.
The podcast adaptation of Mfoniso Udofia’s runboyrun is now available to download from all major platforms. Produced by The Huntington Theatre, Next Chapter Podcasts, GBH, and the Boston Public Library, the third play in Udofia’s Ufot Family Cycle is directed by Christopher V. Edwards and “tells the story of a married couple grappling with the lingering trauma of surviving the Nigerian Civil War.”
Will Wilhelm & Erin Murray’s Gender Play, or what you Will is available to stream June 20-22 from Actors Theatre of Louisville and The League of Live Stream Theater. The “mystical journey of queer joy, laughter, tarot, and self-discovery through the classics” is directed by Emily Tarquin and performed by Will Wilhelm. (The show will stream at the listed curtain times and remain available on-demand to ticket buyers for 24 hours after each performance.)

2025-26 season updates

St. Ann’s Warehouse announced its fall season. The Brooklyn, NY theatre will produce Brian Watkins’ Weather Girl (directed by Tyne Rafaeli), Justin Vivian Bond’s Flaming September (directed by Daniel Fish, and a revival of Eugene O’Neill’s Anna Christie starring Michelle Williams and Mike Faist (directed by Thomas Kail).
Profile Theatre announced its 2025-26 season. The Portland, OR theatre—which centers its seasons on one or more playwrights—will produce works by Mike Lew and Jen Silverman: Lew’s Tiger Style!, Silverman’s Witch (directed by Josh Hecht), and Silverman’s The Roommate.
Pasadena Playhouse announced its 2025-26 season. The line-up includes Jonathan Spector’s Eureka Day, Lerner and Loewe’s Brigadoon (new adaptation by Alexandra Silber), Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus, Brian Quijada and Nygel D. Robinson’s Mexodus, and two family shows: Hamid Rahmanian’s Song of the North and The Lizard & El Sol (developed by The Alliance Theatre).
Westport Country Playhouse announced its 2025-26 season. The Connecticut theatre will produce Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, Eboni Booth’s Primary Trust, Mark Shanahan’s adaptation of Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, alongside short runs of Jeffrey Hatcher and Mitch Albom’s Tuesdays with Morrie, Mark Shanahan’s A Sherlock Carol, and Debbie Gravitte’s Big Band Broadway.
GALA Hispanic announced its 2025-26 season. The Washington, DC Spanish-language theatre’s line-up includes Manuel Puig’s El beso de la mujer araña/Kiss of the Spider Woman (directed by José Luis Arellano), Federico García Lorca’s La casa de Bernarda Alba/The House of Bernarda Alba (directed by José Zayas), and the world premiere of Luis Salgado and Daniel Gutiérrez’s Aguardiente: Soul of the Caribbean (directed by Salgado).

The incomparable Zaza/Diana Oh passed away this week.

Art is often positioned as an antidote to the world's mounting cruelties, but Zaza/Diana's work actually earned that designation. Their artistic practice sprawled across mediums—performance, installations, gatherings, ritual, music—and each of their creations was grounded in an architecture of care. Zaza/Diana was a singular healer. They built communal experiences for joy, rage, pleasure, sorrow, and hope.

I’m heartbroken for their family, their friends, their many collaborators and communities, and for all of us who now live in a world without Zaza/Diana’s ferocious compassion and glittering, expansive heart.

You can explore their body of work here. (They were scheduled to share ART CHXRCH, a "sober intentional binaural beat brain massage dance party for creatives and introverts" as part of QUEER @ HERE on June 27th.)
Here's a gift link to the 2019 NYT feature on The Infinite Love Party, their "intentional barefoot, potluck dinner, dance party, and sleepover for QTPOC and Their Allies" presented at the Bushwick Starr.
There is a GoFundMe to help their family cover memorial-related expenses.

Nothing for the Group