Applications are now open for the second cohort of Baltimore Center Stage’s Trans History Project, five new plays to be chosen for two-year residencies at theaters around the country.
Bo Frazier, Baltimore Center Stage’s (BCS) Artist-In-Residence, created the project to commission, develop, and publish 10 new plays about the history of gender nonconformity spanning cultures and eras since the beginning of time. This project is a joint effort between Baltimore Center Stage in Maryland and Breaking the Binary Theatre in New York. The national initiative aims to integrate the existence of trans people into public consciousness and culture.
“Trans and gender nonconforming people are being villainized every day—while hundreds of anti-trans bills are currently under consideration in 2026. This work is urgent,” Frazier said in a statement. “The Trans History Project doesn’t just humanize our community, it celebrates our stories and reclaims our place in history proving we have always existed. With the exciting projects from Cohort 1 already underway, we are excited to be expanding this project into new theatres and new regions where the work is most necessary. By investing in these artists, we’re expanding what American theatre makes space for and bringing these vital stories to stages where they’ve long been missing.”
Each playwright or team receives a $10,000 commission to help develop their play. The projects will have support through a coalition of regional theaters, including Actors Theatre of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky; East West Players in Los Angeles, California; Native Voices in Los Angeles, California; Baltimore Center Stage; and one more theatre to be announced.
“Transphobia is not a traditional value,” said DeLanna Studi, artistic director of Native Voices, in a statement. “It is a colonial inheritance. Trans and Two-Spirit relatives have always been part of our nations’ stories, not as an exception, but as essential knowledge keepers, healers, and visionaries. Long before colonization imposed rigid binaries, many of our communities recognized gender diversity as sacred and integral to cultural life. To honor Native storytelling is to honor them. Native Voices is grateful to be part of the Trans History Project.”
“EWP is truly honored and delighted to collaborate with Baltimore Center Stage and Breaking the Binary Theatre as part of the Trans History Project’s second cohort,” said Annie Wang, associate artistic director of East West Players, in a statement. “As the nation’s longest-running theater dedicated to AAPINH artists, we take seriously our responsibility to serve as a home for queer and trans artists in our community, and we look forward to uplifting a new voice as part of our six-decade legacy through this partnership. At a time when many communities face renewed oppression and state-sanctioned violence, we are proud to affirm what many of us have always known: trans narratives are, and have always been, integral to the Asian and Asian American experience.”
“New plays that expand our understanding of who we are and where we come from have always been the heartbeat of Actors Theatre of Louisville,” said Amelia Acosta Powell, artistic director of Actors Theatre of Louisville, in a statement. “We are proud and honored to be part of Trans History Project’s groundbreaking initiative to celebrate previously untold stories of the past and illuminate a future full of possibility.”
Submissions will be accepted through May 29. For more information and to apply, visit the Trans History Project page of Baltimore Center Stage’s website.
