Celebrating seven years of Breaking Our Silence programming, the showcase was launched in the 2013 Poetic License Festival by Joanna Hoffman, Elliot D. Smith, Charan P. Morris and Storm Thomas and has since highlighted the work of 26 all-star queer poets, playwrights, and musicians, sharing their work and their experiences of coming out, finding love, breaking the silence and speaking out.
Presented as a part of Poetic License: Resilience
This year’s Breaking Our Silence featured:
Prologue from suck+blow, presented by Sacred Circle Theatre Company
written by Milo Longenecker
performed by Milo Longenecker, Becca Travis, and Anise
directed by Raymond Arnold
CowboysCowgirls, presented by Pioneers Go East Collective
written and directed by Gian Marco LoForte
choreographed and performed by Daniel Diaz
Asher Rhys Got Married Too Young, presented by Undiscovered Countries
written by Adin Lenahan
performed by Alton Alburo
Trans Voices Cabaret, presented by National Queer Theater
featuring Andi Lee Carter,Donnie Cianciotto, and George Ronis
Collaborating Organizations:
National Queer Theater is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to foster and support LGBTQ communities through social justice in the performing arts. By producing socially-conscious plays about issues in the community, the theater raises awareness about LGBTQ rights in the general public. Through partnership-based education programs, National Queer Theater teaches acting and storytelling skills to underserved groups in the LGBTQ community to instill pride and promote creative leadership.
Sacred Circle Theatre Company was founded in Bushwick, Brooklyn in late 2015 as a queer/feminist theatre company with this mission: To develop work that makes word into flesh; using diverse performance and movement practices to subvert theatrical tradition with physical and spiritual body in an artistic safe space.
Trans Voices Cabaret is a show that highlights transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming singers & performers in NYC, created by Donnie Cianciotto.
New York City award-winning ensemble Pioneers Go East Collective is a laboratory collective of multimedia and performance works in residence at two historical downtown venues: La MaMa and Judson Church. Since 2010, the collective creates high-energy and interactive performances to celebrate a multigenerational collective of queer artists. The collective’s performances and video-art projects have been praised as shape-shifting theatre experiences. The collective’s interdisciplinary works have been presented in New York City at La MaMa, Judson Church, JACK, Bronx Academy of Art and Dance, The LGBTQ Center, Dixon Place, A.R.T./ New York, St. Ann’s Warehouse, Performance Mix /New Dance Alliance, HERE, Governors Island/ Warehouse 101, The Exponential Festival, Astor Alive, The Tank, Wild Project, Time Space Limited (Hudson, NY), EstroGenius Festival, The Ontological Hysterical/ Incubator Arts Project, Goethe Institute, and Chashama gallery. The collective has been presented at Buddies in Bad Times/ Rhubarb Festival in Toronto.
Undiscovered Countries is an ongoing festival of new and developing live art, performing every other month. Over the past four years, Undiscovered Countries has presented 40 consecutive monthly or bimonthly showings at various New York venues, including Goodbye Blue Monday, Brooklyn Fireproof, Quinn’s NYC, and our current home at Bizarre Bushwick. Over one hundred emerging artists have worked with Undiscovered Countries to produce their in-development works, which have gone on to full productions at places such as Ars Nova, Dixon Place, Tom Noonan’s Paradise Factory, Theater for the New city, and the PIT.
Breaking Our Silence Showcase Lighting Design by Daisy Long, Projections by Lisa Renkel & Brian Pacceli, Audio Engineering by Sean Hagerty, Technical Direction by Ori Bensimhon, Stage Management by Ellen Mischinski