The inaugural cohort of the Trans History Project has been chosen; playwrights, ensemble, and theaters have connected; and the creative process is underway around the country.
Nearly 170 people applied to be part of the first cohort, which had only five spots available.
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.
Each of the playwrights and ensemble has been paired with a theater that will develop the original piece over the next two seasons. This will involve a residency that includes a reading in the 2025/26 theater season and a workshop in the 2026/27 season.
“We are honored to commission these artists to expand the representation of trans and gender nonconforming stories in the American Theatre as part of the vision of the Trans History Project,” said Ken-Matt Martin, producing director of Baltimore Center Stage, in a statement. “The five new plays from the Inaugural Cohort are innovative, visionary, and artistically groundbreaking. The Trans History Project is an integral part of Stevie Walker-Webb’s commitment to develop new work by marginalized voices. …[W]e hope to serve as a model for others to reshape how new work is developed in this country.”
The five projects to be developed at theaters in residence across the country were submitted by: Dane Edidi Figueroa (she/her); Bree Lowdermilk (she/her); Yona Moises Olivares (they/she/he); Roger Q. Mason (they/them); and Mirage Auto Depot, a trans/gender non-conforming (TGNC) theatre ensemble.
“All of us at Breaking the Binary Theatre are thrilled to be partnering with Baltimore Center Stage to help bring Bo’s ambitious and revelatory idea to life,” said George Strus, founding director of Breaking the Binary Theatre, in a statement. “Breaking the Binary Theatre has a rich history with Inaugural Cohort members Roger Q. Mason and Dane Edidi Figueroa, both of whom participated in our first Festival in October of 2022. We are overjoyed to deepen our relationships with them, as well as welcome Yona Moises Olivares, Bree Lowdermilk, and Mirage Auto Depot to the BTB community.”
Figueroa is from Washington, D.C. and will be developing “A Continent of Forget” in residence with Long Wharf Theatre based in New Haven, Connecticut. The story centers a widow named Lucy navigating the potential of love again, while her culinary business blooms. She leans on elders and ancestors to learn how to let go. The play combines magical realism and history and is loosely based on the real-life Lucy Hicks Anderson (1886-1954), an American socialite, chef, and philanthropist.
Lowdermilk is from Philadelphia, Pennsyvlania and will develop “Days of Awe” in residence at Round House Theatre in Bethesda, Maryland. The play’s backdrop is a Yom Kippur dinner wherein a daughter comes out as trans to her Jewish family and chaos and absurdity follow. The story travels backwards chronologically throughout history, revealing the presence and erasure of trans people that has been humanity’s recurrent theme. “Days of Awe” refers to the 10-day period between the Jewish high holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, marked by serious introspection, reflection upon the past year’s sins, and how to reconcile and repair those harms. In Lowdermilk’s play, the audience is invited to look back with humor, ritual, grief, and reverence, to step forward.
Mason is from Santa Monica, California, and will be developing “The Gladys Bentley Project” in residence at Diversionary Theatre in San Diego, California. Set in 1952, the play is about Harlem’s most (in)famous drag king. Gladys Bentley has hung up her gender-bending/queer affirming act, married a short order cook in Los Angeles, and decided to write her life story. She engages the audience in ideas about her autobiography, taking them down Memory Lane with her to the clubs in which she performed, a significant Prohibition night, and a doctor’s office where she sought sexual conversion “treatment.”
Olivares, from Chicago, Illinois, will develop “miss EMERICA” in residence at Baltimore Center Stage in Baltimore, Maryland. The play follows undocumented people competing in a pageant for the chance to become a Real American Woman™. The characters are all historical trans/gender non-binary folks participating in this dystopian contest, trying to prove their “womanhood” to win their place in America. “miss EMERICA” is described as “part farce, part docu-theater, and all bullsh*t.”
Mirage Auto Depot is a trans/gender non-conforming theatre ensemble led by Raychel Ceciro, Logan Gabrielle Schulman, with devising by Alexandra Neuman and Murphy Severtson. The team is based in New York City, New York and will develop “LES BI(T)CHES” in residence at Rattlestick Theater in New York City. “LES BI(T)CHES” centers gender-nonconforming lesbian artists Claude Cahun and Romaine Brooks living amidst the rising fascism of early 20th century Europe. Set in Paris, France, the play examines queer community, resistance, and fracture in the face of oppression and splintering alliances and values. It is adapted from the early 20th century ballet, “Les Biches,” choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska, and blends historical fiction with archival text, artworks, and speculative encounters.
“The incredibly talented selected playwrights come from different backgrounds and experiences, ranging from well-known playwrights and musical theatre composers to brand new playwrights who had a brilliant idea and an emerging TGNC theatre ensemble,” Frazier said in a statement. “The selected plays will tell stories of untold American history, world history, and force us to have dialogues about the most important issues of today. I cannot wait to share these stories with the world.”
The Trans History Project was one of five regional theatre projects to receive the competitive National Theatre Company Grant from The American Theatre Wing. The project is seeking funding for the second cohort, along with regional theatre partners in the American South, Pacific Northwest, Midwest, and culturally specific organizations around the country. To learn more, contact Frazier via email.
