CELEBRATE

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2026 at 5:00PM
at THE SUSAN & RONALD FRANKEL THEATER
AT THE ROBERT W. WILSON MCC THEATER SPACE

co-conceived by L Morgan Lee (she/her) and George Strus (they/them)
directed by L Morgan Lee (she/her)

Stage Manager: Jude Brandt (they/them)

featuring work by Audley Puglisi (they/them), D.A. Mindell (he/him), Dante Green (they/she/he), Esmé Maria Ng (they/he/she), Jen Silverman (they/them), Jordan Ramirez Puckett (they/them), Kit Yan (they/he/she), Nora Brigid Monahan (she/they), Sasha Velour (she/they), Sharifa Yazmeen (she/her)

featuring JJ Maley (he/they), Julie J (she/her), L Morgan Lee (she/her), Murphy Taylor Smith (she/her), Nora Schell (they/them), TL Thompson (they/them)

Since the inaugural Festival in 2022, Tony Award-nominee L Morgan Lee and BTB’s Founding Artistic Director George Strus have joined forces to commission over 50 short scenes and monologues. These pieces have been published in partnership with Broadway Licensing/Concord Theatricals to create more material specifically for the TNB2S+ community. Join us for the grand finale of the fifth annual Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival to celebrate this year-long collaboration by highlighting some of the greatest hits from the four published collections: OVERHEARD, BLISS, DARE, and LIMITLESS.

L Morgan Lee (she/her)

**Co-Conceiver/Director/Performer**
L Morgan Lee received Tony Award and Drama League nominations for her history-making performance in *A Strange Loop* on Broadway. The performance earned her an Obie Award and a Lucille Lortel nomination Off-Broadway. Other credits include AKS Immersive’s *The Listening*, *All Shook Up* and *A Complicated Woman* (Goodspeed), Osiris Media’s *Sugar Maple* series, and Marvel’s "Daredevil: Born Again". As a director, she helmed the 2025 BTB Festival Opening at Carnegie Hall, a benefit concert of *The Drowsy Chaperone*, which received a Special Recognition Honor at the 2026 GLAAD Media Awards. For more, visit lmorganlee.com. "Happy 5th Anniversary BTB!"

George Strus (they/them)

**Co-Conceiver**
George Strus (they/them) is a Tony Award-nominated and Obie Award-winning trans non-binary Latiné producer and dramaturg. They founded Breaking the Binary Theatre: an Obie Award-winning new work development and community building hub for transgender, non-binary, and Two-Spirit+ (TNB2s+) theatermakers. Since the organization’s launch in July of 2022, Breaking the Binary Theatre has paid out over $500,000 to over 400 TNB2S+ artists. Commercially, they were a proud co-producer of HERE WE ARE and ILLINOISE (2024 Tony Nomination). Current co-producing credits include OH, MARY!, THE ROOMMATE, ROMEO + JULIET. Upcoming co-producing credits ALL IN, and THE LAST FIVE YEARS. They were awarded the 2024 Prince Fellowship (in association with Columbia University School of the Arts), receiving mentorship from Kristin Caskey, Sue Frost, Jeffrey Seller, Thomas Schumacher, and David Stone. www.georgestrus.com

Jude Brandt (they/them)

**Stage Manager**
Jude is an Oakland born Brooklyn-based stage manager, director, intimacy director, and teaching artist whose work centers the voices of queer, trans, and disabled artists. They are excited to be returning for their second show with Breaking the Binary and grateful for the opportunity to work alongside such an amazing cast and crew. #FreePalestine #BlackTransLivesMatter

JJ Maley (he/they)

**Performer**
JJ Maley is an actor, writer, Tony Award-winning producer, and member of the 2026 SONY Elevate Actors cohort. Acting credits include COMMAND Z (directed by Steven Soderbergh), THIS REALLY HAPPENED (Tribeca), FARTHER ALONG, and "King of the Jews" (Off- Broadway). JJ is on WET, a house improv team at UCB. His writing work includes PARTIAL , "HE/SHE" (Irons in the Fire finalist), 808, and “Limitless” in the 2025 Breaking The Binary Festival. JJ has also worked with Heidi Schreck on a series in development. JJ is a Tony Award winner for "A Strange Loop" and a four-time Tony-nominated producer.

Julie J (she/her)

**Performer**
Julie J is a Brooklyn-based actress, drag artist, and community organizer. She stars in the horror-comedy film *Queens of the Dead*, currently streaming on Hulu, and stars as "Hazel" in *Bittarverse*, the ongoing, award-winning web series for luxury jewelry brand Alexis Bittar.
A prominent figure in New York City nightlife, Julie was crowned Miss Bushwig in 2023 at the nation’s largest drag festival and won Entertainer of the Year at the 2024 Glam Awards. Offstage, she is the founder of Stand Up NYC, a grassroots initiative that has raised over $124,000 for trans and LGBTQIA+ organizations. She is also the co-author of the book *No Tea, No Shade: Life As a Drag Queen.*

Murphy Taylor Smith (she/her)

**Performer**
Murphy Taylor Smith is an actress and songwriter who still believes in musical theatre. In collaboration with her twin sister Emerson, and director Mack Brown, she created the SURVEILLANCE trilogy, a series of musicals on how the internet both gave birth to and destroyed trans community in 21st century America. The trilogy includes WATCHDOG, a doppelgänger psychothriller; GOOD FRIDAYS, an ecclesiastic musical comedy of menace; and SEE JANE RUN, a gonzo musical heart attack. She has also written music and lyrics for ELEKTRIC, a trans woman-centered Oresteia; and RADIO: A MUSICAL GHOST STORY, a lesbian horror film. The RADIO original cast album is available to stream on Spotify and Apple Music. As an actress, she originated roles in A TRANSPARENT MUSICAL (Centre Theatre Group), BILLIE JEAN (Chicago Shakespeare Theater) and DOLL/GIRL (Joe’s Pub).

Nora Schell (they/them)

**Performer**
Nora originated the role of Bustopher Jones in CATS: THE JELLICLE BALL on Broadway and Off-Broadway (Obie Award). Nora received Drama Desk, Drama League and Clive Barnes Award nominations for their Off-Broadway debut in SPAMILTON. They made their Broadway debut in JAGGED LITTLE PILL. Nora serves as a cowriter and composer for the new musical SWEET CANAAN (Berkeley Rep Groundfloor, Rhinebeck Writer’s Retreat, Hermitage Grant). Nora graduated from the University of Michigan with a BFA in Musical Theatre & a minor in Gender, Race and Nation. @sirnoraschell

TL Thompson (they/them)

**Performer**
TL was a series regular on the 4400 Reboot and recently co- starred in *Long Pork* by Iris Dukatt. TL narrates all three seasons of *Unlicensed* (Audible) Broadway: Straight White Men. Off Broadway: Orlando (Signature Theatre); Is This A Room? (Vineyard), Chiarascuro (NBT @ the Flea), Nervous System (BAM). Documentary: *Holding Back The Tide*. Web-series: THESE/THEMS, Dinette Season 2. Short Films: Wolf Tone, Flu$h, Friday Afternoon, Miles Away (Chronic Insanity Edinburgh Fringe). Audiobooks: Thrust, Four Hundred Souls, Filthy Animals

Audley Puglisi (they/them)

**Writer - GOOD HAIR**
Audley Puglisi is a playwright and poet. Fellowships include NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship, The Playwrights Realm Writing Fellowship, VONA/Voices, and Lambda Literary. They are a member of the Page 73 Writer’s Group, EST/Youngblood, and an artist-in-residence at MacDowell, Djerassi and Blue Mountain Center, and have worked with Penumbra Theatre. Audley has been a finalist for the Weissberger/Harris Award, the Lorraine Hansberry Award, the Page 73 Fellowship, the Blue Ink Playwriting Award, and shortlisted for the Theatre503 International Playwriting Award. Plays have been developed with Playwrights Horizons, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Skylight Theatre, The Playwrights Realm, Page 73, Breaking the Binary Festival, Checkmark Productions, Mile Square Theatre, and the New York State Council on the Arts. Writings have been published in *Garage Magazine*, *Lucky Jefferson,* *ColorBloq*, and elsewhere. Audley received a B.A. in Africana Studies from Oberlin College and holds an M.F.A. in Playwriting from the Yale School of Drama.

Chris Bush (she/her)

**Writer - EVERYDAY APPLIANCES**
Chris Bush (she/her) is a UK-based playwright, lyricist and theatre-maker. Past work includes OTHERLAND (Almeida Theatre, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist); STANDING AT THE SKY’S EDGE (Sheffield Crucible/National Theatre/West End); PERICLES; THE ODYSSEY (both National Theatre: Olivier); ROCK/PAPER/SCISSORS; A DOLL’S HOUSE; STEEL (all Sheffield Theatres); JANE EYRE (Stephen Joseph Theatre/New Vic Theatre); FANTASTICALLY GREAT WOMEN WHO CHANGED THE WORLD (Kenny Wax, UK Tour); HUNGRY (Paines Plough); KEIN WELTUNTERGANG/NOT THE END OF THE WORLD (Schaubühne, Berlin); NINE LESSONS AND CAROLS: STORIES FOR A LONG WINTER (Almeida Theatre); FAUSTUS: THAT DAMNED WOMAN (Headlong/Lyric Hammersmith/Birmingham Rep); THE CHANGING ROOM (National Theatre Connections) and THE ASSASSINATION OF KATIE HOPKINS (Theatr Clwyd). Awards/prizes include an Olivier Award for Best New Musical, a South Bank Sky Arts Award for Best Theatre, three UK Theatre Awards, the Perfect Pitch Award, a Brit Writers’ Award, the Theatre Royal Haymarket Writers’ Award and the Hermitage Major Theater Award.

D.A. Mindell (he/him)

**Writer - JOE, INTERRUPTED**
D.A. Mindell is a playwright and educator who aims to contribute to a canon for transgender artists to explore the breadth and depth of opportunity that cis artists have been able to pursue for centuries. His play "On the Evolutionary Function of Shame" made its off-Broadway debut February 2025 with Second Stage, following its inclusion as a reading in their 2024 Next Stage Festival, and is published by 1319 Press. Recent recognition includes participation in the 2024 //dare and 2025 Cloud Nine commissions for Breaking the Binary Theatre, Theatre Write Now’s 2026 cohort, Under Construction’s 2026 cohort, First Kiss Theatre's Summer 2024 Residency, and the 2023 Fair Play Initiative Commission through Florida Atlantic University. He holds an MFA in playwriting, three foam LARP swords from his time as a camp counsellor, and enduring love for his family, his friends, and his dog Birdie (short for Bertolt Brecht, with whom he shares a birthday).

Dante Green (they/she/he)

Writer - LOVE IS OTHER PEOPLE

Dante Green (they/she/he) is a Brooklyn-based theatre director and writer. They are the Founding Artistic Director of The Makers' Ensemble and a Co-Director of The Brick Theater. Dante is also a Roundabout Director's Cohort 7 Member, a Mercury Store Project Lab Director, and a member of the Network of Ensemble Theaters. Selected Credits: An Incomplete List... (Writer/Director, PRISM Festival of New Queer Musicals), Love is Other People (Writer, Breaking the Binary), This Moment (Writer, Prospect Musical Theater). Upcoming: User Agreement by Ben Holbrook (Director, The Makers' Ensemble) Minor Music at the End of the World by Saidiya Hartman (Associate Director, BAM). @dantemgreen www.dantemgreen.com

Esmé Maria Ng (they/he/she)

**Writer - MIND THE GAP**
Esmé Maria Ng is a Gaysian American writer, producer, and dramaturg.
As a playwright, Esmé seeks to embody the phenomenon of laughing at/through the pain. They look for joy in inappropriate moments, with often-understated, sometimes-surrealist aesthetics and complicated BIPOC characters.

Their plays have gained them recognition as a Playwrights Realm Fellow, a Lambda Literary Playwriting Fellow, and the 2024 June Bingham Playwriting Commission recipient.
Recently, Esmé was named as a finalist for the Parity Award for their play FISH MEAT and an honorable mention for the Relentless Award for their play 'i know why iris chang died'

Jen Silverman (they/them)

**Writer - TRICK**
Jen Silverman (they/them) is a playwright, novelist, and screenwriter. Recent productions include CREDITORS (TOGETHER x Audible/Sonia Friedman), the Broadway premiere of THE ROOMMATE (starring Mia Farrow & Patti LuPone), BLACK SWAN (book for musical, A.R.T. premiere), and SPAIN (Second Stage). Other plays include: COLLECTIVE RAGE: A PLAY IN 5 BETTIES (MCC), WITCH (Geffen Playhouse) and THE MOORS (Playwrights Realm). Jen’s work has been produced widely across the United States (Steppenwolf, The Goodman, Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Huntington, Writers Theatre, etc.), and internationally in Australia, the UK, the Czech Republic, Brazil, Spain, and elsewhere. Books include: *We Play Ourselves, The Island Dwellers*, and *There’s Going to be Trouble* (Random House); their essays have appeared in the New York Times, the Paris Review, and Vogue. TV includes: *Tales of the City* (Netflix), *Tokyo Vice* (HBO Max), and *Crystal Lake* (A24 + Peacock). Silverman is a three-time MacDowell Fellow, a New Dramatists alum, and a Scholar of Note at the American Library in Paris. Honors include fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim. More info: www.jensilverman.com

Jordan Ramirez Puckett (they/them)

**Writer - THE QUEER HIKING COLLECTIVE**
Jordan Ramirez Puckett is a Mexican-American writer currently based in Spanish Harlem. Their plays include *Find Me in the Mirror,* *A Sapphic Family Christmas, Transitional Love Stories, Untitled Dad Play, Huelga, En Las Sombras, To Saints and Stars, A Driving Beat,* and *Las Pajaritas*. These works have been produced and/or developed by Flint Repertory Theatre, Intar Theatre, Orchard Project, Playwrights Realm, San Francisco Playhouse, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, and WP Theatre, among others. Jordan is a graduate of the Juilliard School and are currently a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Youngblood writers’ collective. www.jordanramirezpuckett.com IG:@puckettplays

Kit Yan (they/he/she)

**Writer - TWO OR EIGHT**
Kit is a writer for stage and screen obsessed with the messy mechanics of why people do the things they do. Drawn to imperfect, hurt, and damaged characters, his work excavates vulnerability and human contradiction while remaining grounded in an enduring belief in the fundamental good of people.

A recipient of the Kleban Prize, the Helen Merrill Playwriting Award, the Vivace Award, the ASCAP Harold Adamson Lyric Award, and the Jonathan Larson Grant, his musical *MISS STEP* will receive its Off-Broadway premiere at Playwrights Horizons in 2027. Across the country, his theatrical work has been produced by leading institutions including Lincoln Center, the American Repertory Theater, East West Players, Mixed Blood, Diversionary Theatre, Keen Company, Weston Playhouse, and New York Repertory Theater.
His craft has been sustained through major artistic incubators, holding residencies and fellowships with MacDowell, the Sundance Institute, the Dramatists Guild Foundation, The Playwrights’ Center, the Hermitage Artist Retreat, and as an Artist in Residence at Lincoln Center.
Bridging live performance and cinematic storytelling, Kit has sold an original feature film to the Disney Channel, developed episodic projects through The Black List x WIF Episodic Lab, and is a current 2026 Rideback Rise Fellow. His short films are currently streaming on the Criterion Channel and have screened internationally at festivals including the BFI London Film Festival, Outfest, BlackStar, Ann Arbor, and the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, taking home the National Film Board of Canada Best Short Award at Toronto Reel Asian and Best Experimental Short at the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival. He is represented by WME.

Nora Brigid Monahan (she/they)

Writer - D.A.R.E., OR JUST SAY MAYBE

Nora Brigid Monahan (she/they) is a playwright and performer best known for creating and starring in the international cult-hit solo musical DIVA: Live From Hell (music and lyrics by Alexander Sage Oyen). Her other stage works include Aunt Jack, The Fifth of November (2026 Kendeda Prize Finalist), and musical adaptations of The Danish Girl (music by Alex Parker) and Virginia Woolf’s Orlando (music and lyrics by Cynthia Saunders). Nora’s plays and musicals have been developed by Goodspeed Musicals, The York, The Lark, NYSAF, Playwrights' Center, Penn State Musicals, and the Alliance Theatre, alongside screen projects with EntertainmentOne and Mark Gordon Pictures. She has a BA in Theatre from Fordham University, an MFA in Playwriting from Hunter College, and a very chatty toddler at home.