LIMITLESS:
A COLLECTION OF COMMISSIONED SCENES AND MONOLOGUES
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2025
5PM at The CENTER
co-conceived by L Morgan Lee (she/her) and George Strus (they/them)
directed by L Morgan Lee (she/her)
in partnership with Concord Theatricals
featuring new works by Adrian Einspanier (they/them), Audley Puglisi (they/them), Barsha (she/they), Bazeed (they/them), Chris Bush (she/her), Dom Martello (they/them/she), Emmanuelle Mattana (she/they), JJ Maley (he/they), Jordan Ramirez Puckett (they/them), Sam Mueller (they/she), Travis Alabanza, and Utkarsh Rajawat (they/them)
performed by Brian Michael Smith (he/him), Justin David Sullivan (he/she/they), K.O. (they/them), Reed Northrup, and Sandra Caldwell (she/her)
Following Overheard, Bliss, and Dare, BTB Core Community member L Morgan Lee and Founding Artistic Director George Strus are partnering with Concord Theatricals/Broadway Licensing for the fourth year in a row to create Limitless: A Collection of Commissioned Scenes and Monologues. The twelve commissioned works inspired by the prompt "LIMITLESS: What does it mean to be free? What does it feel like to fly?” will be crafted together and brought to life by a cast of five TNB2S+ performers to close the 2025 Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival. The works will then be published and licensed by Concord Theatricals in 2026.
L Morgan Lee (she/her)
Co-Conceiver/Director
L Morgan Lee (she/her) is a Tony Award® nominated actress and storyteller known for her history-making turn in A Strange Loop on Broadway - a performance which also garnered her an Antonyo Award and a Drama League Distinguished Performance nomination. In London, she was seen playing artist Lili Elbe in a musical adaptation of The Danish Girl (currently in development). Other work includes well over a decade of Off-Broadway, Regional, International/National tours and concerts with artists from Paul McCartney to Our Lady J. In the studio, L Morgan was the voice of Ornate Williams in the Sugar Maple Series w. Fred Savage (Osiris Media) and can be found on Joe Iconis' album (Ghostlight Records), The Rainbow Lullaby Album (Broadway Records), and more. For more: @lmorganlee | lmorganlee.com
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
Adrian Einspanier (they/them)
Writer
Adrian Einspanier’s plays include Lunch Bunch (PlayCo and Clubbed Thumb; licensed by Concord Theatricals; in development for television with FilmNation), House Plant (New York Theatre Workshop’s Next Door; Lambda Literary Award Finalist), I forgot to tell you (published in The Brooklyn Rail), and DEBT (co-written with reid tang, developed with Pride Plays, New York Stage and Film, and Breaking the Binary). A recipient of the Lotos Foundation Prize and a member of SPACE on Ryder Farm’s Working Farm and Primary Stages’ Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group, Adrian teaches at NYU Tisch, the National Theater Institute, and Sewanee Writers’ Conference and is working on a new play commission for Darren Aronofsky‘s Protozoa Pictures and the LAMF’s Theater Fund.
Audley Puglisi (they/them)
Writer
Audley Puglisi (they/them) is a playwright and poet. Fellowships include NYSCA/NYFA, The Playwrights Realm Writing Fellowship, VONA/Voices, and Lambda Literary. They are a member of the Page 73 Writer’s Group, EST/Youngblood, and have been a resident at Djerassi and Blue Mountain Center, and a Pedagogies of Art for Social Change Fellow at Penumbra Theatre. Plays have been developed with Playwrights Horizons, Skylight Theatre, The Playwrights Realm, Page 73, Checkmark Productions, Mile Square Theatre, and the New York State Council on the Arts. Their writing has been published in Garage Magazine, Color Bloq, and elsewhere. Audley received a BA in Africana Studies from Oberlin College and an MFA in playwriting from the Yale School of Drama.
Bazeed (they/them)
Bazeed is a multi–award winning Egyptian immigrant, playwright, poet, performer, plant-dad, editor, curator, masticator, medical school dropout, licensed massage therapist, and very decent cook, living in Brooklyn. An alliteration-leaning writer of prose, poetry, plays, and pantry lists, their work across genres is published in print and online, while their plays have been performed on both sides of the Atlantic.
Their work has been supported by the the Arab American National Museum, the Asian American Writers Workshop, Breaking the Binary, the Center for Fiction, the Dramatists Guild, Lambda Literary, LMCC, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Sundance Institute, Queer Art Mentorship, and Trans Lab, among others. Their plays, prose, and poetry have been published or are forthcoming from Driftwood Press, The Evergreen Review, Foglifter, I Came for Couscous, Khöra, The Margins, Milk Press, Oberon Books, Palette, Poetry, Red Hen Press, and Saqi Books, among others.
To procrastinate from facing the blank page, Bazeed talks to the multitudes of plants they maintain in their Brooklyn hermitage, and is a slow student of Arabic music.
Barsha (she/they)
Writer
Barsha won the Jonathan Larson Award for the score to Radiant Baby, (Public Theater) directed by George C. Wolfe. Composer credits: Songs From an Unmade Bed (NYTW), A Taste of Things to Come (with Hollye Levin, York Theatre) and her two one-woman shows Go To Your Womb and A Womb With a View (CAP21/Cherry Lane Theatre). Barsha originated roles/music director off-Broadway: Tony ‘N’ Tina’s Wedding and Charles Busch’s Swingtime Canteen. Music Director: Steven Sater/Serj Tankian’s world premiere of Prometheus Bound (ART - dir. Diane Paulus). Conductor: Karen O’s psycho opera Stop the Virgens! (St. Ann’s Warehouse and the Sydney Opera House). Songs recorded by: George Clinton, Rebecca Luker. Vocal arrangements: Yeah Yeah Yeah’s single Sacrilege and Lea DeLaria’s House of Bowie. Broadway: associate conductor of Jersey Boys, Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, pianist: Tina: The Tina Turner Musical. Actor: In the Amazon Warehouse Parking (Playwrights Horizons, dir. Sivan Battat).
Dom Martello (they/them/she)
Writer
Dom Martello is a transfemme theatermaker based in NY. Their work has been developed in collaboration with The Road Theater, The Workshop Theater, The Elif Collective’s FireWorks Lab, and The Strides Collective. Dom is a 2025 Celebration Theater Trans Lineage: Rites of Passage Commission Recipient to develop their play substantiation. They were a 2024 O’Neill NPC semi-finalist and the inaugural reading for the Blue Roses Project (artistic directors James McBride & Gideon Glick, directed by Jack Serio, Oct 2025) with their play RED TIDE. Dom is the co-founder of Ten Toes Theater Collective, a Truman Capote Fellow, and a Brooklyn College MFA Playwriting ‘27 Candidate. For contact and more, visit www.dom-martello.com
Emmanuelle Mattana (she/they)
Writer
Emmanuelle Mattana (she/they) is an Australian actor, writer and maker passionate about telling stories that blend the playful with the political and connect with young, queer audiences.
Her debut play 'Trophy Boys’ just closed its twice-extended Off-Broadway premiere, directed by Tony Award Winner Danya Taymor, and will soon tour Australia for a third time after sold-out audiences, critical acclaim and major award recognition.
As a performer they are best known for leading three seasons of the International Emmy Kids® nominated tween series Mustangs FC (ABCMe) and Videoland (Netflix) which was awarded Best Comedy at Europe’s largest series festival, Seriesmania. Indie feature film 'Fwends', which she leads and co-wrote was awarded the Caligari Prize at the 75th Berlinale (2025), and her shorts have been commissioned by the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, Creative Victoria and recognised at festivals internationally.
JJ Maley (he/they)
Writer
JJ Maley is a writer, actor, and producer. His writing credits include Partial, He/She, 808 (Out on Film), and The Revival (Fault Line Theatre; Irons in the Fire Finalist). JJ is currently releasing an interactive romantasy novel, All That Remains of Magic, with Strands Fiction. He is also writing on several TV, film, and musical projects at various stages of development. As an actor, JJ starred in Steven Soderbergh's Command Z. JJ’s other performing credits include King of the Jews (Off- Broadway), This Really Happened (Tribeca), Farther Along, Esther Updates Her Book, and more. He is a Tony-Award Winner for A Strange Loop and four-time Tony-Nominated Producer. Other producing credits include Illinoise (Tony Nomination), What the Constitution Means to Me (Tony Nomination), Indecent (Tony Nomination), and Be More Chill. They are also the Founder and Executive Director of Queer Arts Coalition, where he recently partnered with BTB to bring Cecilia Gentili’s Red Ink to Edinburgh.
Jordan Ramirez Puckett (they/them)
Writer
Jordan Ramirez Puckett is a Chicanx writer originally from the San Francisco Bay Area. Their plays include A Sapphic Family Christmas, Transitional Love Stories, Untitled Dad Play, Huelga, En Las Sombras, To Saints and Stars, A Driving Beat, Las Pajaritas, Restore, and Inevitable. These works have been produced and/or developed by Abingdon Theatre Company, Creede Repertory Theatre, Flint Repertory Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Intar Theatre, New Harmony Project, Playwrights Realm, San Diego Repertory Theatre, San Francisco Playhouse, and TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, among others. Jordan was named a finalist for the 2022 Yale Drama Series Prize and is a 2024 graduate of the Juilliard School’s Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program. They are a current WP Theater Lab Fellow.
Sam Mueller (they/she)
Writer
Sam Mueller [they|she] is a Chicago-born, Florida-raised, New York-based playwright. Their work includes At the Confluence of Creeks (2024-25 McKnight National Residency Finalist) and PIN. (2025 National Capital New Play Festival, 2023/2024 O’Neill NPC Finalist). Sam's plays Laced and 70.3 are available through Broadway Play Publishing. They are an alum of EST/Youngblood, Ucross Foundation, The New Harmony Project, The Road Theatre's Under Construction, Life Jacket Theater's Writers' Room, as well as a former Terrence McNally Fellow at Rattlestick Theater. They are a co-founder of Ten Toes Theater Collective, an NYC-based collaborative group of trans+ theater artists dedicated to the wellbeing and freedoms of TGNC people across the country. Sam is proud to be represented by Michael Finkle, WME. BS: Northwestern University
Travis Alabanza
Writer
Travis is a writer, performer and theatre maker.
For stage, Travis wrote and performed in their debut show Burgerz which won the Total Theatre Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, sold out at Southbank Centre and Traverse Theatre and toured internationally. It was also voted one of The Guardian Readers Top Shows of The Year. Their play Overflow, which premiered at a The Bush, was met with critical acclaim including numerous four-star reviews and was shortlisted for the George Devine Award. Their play Sound of the Underground, premiered as part of the Royal Court's new season in 2023 to critical acclaim. Travis currently has a new show for stage in development with the Southbank Centre and Hackney Showrooms, and their project PUSH THE BUTTON is in development with Green Door Theatre in Australia. For screen, Travis is developing projects with Lookout Point and See Saw.
Travis' debut book None of the Above: Reflections on Life Beyond the Binary was published in 2022 by Canongate and in the US by Feminist Press in 2023. It won the Jhalak Literary Prize, the Somerset Maugham Award, and was listed in TIME Magazine's 100 books of 2023.
Their work has also earned them a place on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list 2021, the Dazed100 list and in 2023 as an Evening Standard's future stars of stage and screen.
Utkarsh Rajawat (they/them)
Writer
Utkarsh is following the call of Rasha Abdulhadi, who they know of through “Notes on Craft” by Fargo Nissim Tbakhi, to use their bio to uplift resistance efforts against the US-sponsored, Israeli genocide of Palestinians (which is one of a complex of linked imperialist genocides being wrought by the US, like those in Sudan, Congo, and Turtle Island). You can contribute to the movement by donating to the Sameer Project and individual campaigns, buying e-Sims, endorsing PACBI, attending an action, engaging in BDS. I hope more institutions are moved to full-throated support, with their words, their resources, their (divestment from Israeli) money, as Palestinian people like those of The Freedom Theatre have been asking for. You can contact PACBI@wawog.com if you have questions or concerns, including legal ones, about your cultural or academic organization’s commitment. From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.
Rachel Denise April (they/them)
Stage Manager
Rachel Denise April (they/them) is a Guyanese-American Stage Manager, who has studied Theatrical Design and Stage Management at the City College of New York. Select Credits include: Jordans (The Public Theater), The Mood Room (Big Dance Theater) Bernarda’s Daughters (The New Group), soft (MCC) Chicken and Biscuits (Queens Theatre), The Baby Monitor (Different Translation), The Big Green Theater Festival (SuperHero Playhouse) The Hole (Zhailon Levingston), Neptune (Timothy DuWhite), , Anaïs Nin Goes to Hell (MTWorks), and The Fire This Time Festival 2015 (The Kraine Theater). They have worked on projects throughout the United States and internationally.
Noax (they/them)
Stage Directions Reader
Noax (they/them) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Harlem. They have worked professionally in the entertainment industry for several years as an actor, singer, writer, producer, and advocate on the lands of the Munsee Lenape people (otherwise known as NYC). They seek to foster community and discover transformative practices that are rooted in equity, healing, and community building. www.noax.me
Brian Michael Smith (he/him)
Performer
BRIAN MICHAEL SMITH is an actor, filmmaker, and advocate best known for his groundbreaking role on FOX’s hit series 9-1-1: Lone Star, making history as the first Black openly trans man cast as a series regular on network television. Renowned for compelling performances in acclaimed series like Ava DuVernay’s Queen Sugar (OWN), Showtime’s The L Word: Generation Q and Homeland. As a filmmaker, his creative work explores nuanced themes of masculinity, resilience, and identity through a distinctly personal lens, championing meaningful representation for trans and Black communities. An impactful speaker and dedicated advocate, Brian draws from his journey as a former decorated scholar-athlete, educator, and LGBTQ+ youth mentor to inspire diverse audiences. Through his powerful storytelling and personal insights, he passionately advocates for acceptance, visibility, and societal change.
Justin David Sullivan (he/she/they)
Performer
Justin David Sullivan (he/she/they) is a proud Mexicasian trans non-binary singer, actor, and artist based in New York City. Justin is known for their breakout role as May in the critically acclaimed pop-hit Broadway musical & Juliet. Justin is passionate about diversity and representation in the performing arts. They are a Queerty Pride50 Honoree, a 30 Under 30 select for the Advocate Magazine, a Live Out Loud Soaring Spirit Award honoree, and have also been the recipient of GLSEN’s Game Changer Award for their advocacy work for the LGBTQ+ community. @justindavidsullivan
K.O. (they/them)
Performer
K.O. (they/them) is a Tony Award-winning artist and educator committed to using their work to further collective liberation. They won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for their portrayal of Anita in the 2009 Broadway revival of West Side Story. They received a second nomination for their role as Satine in Moulin Rouge, The Musical. Their Broadway credits include originating the role of Vanessa in In the Heights. Their career also spans television, with appearances on "The Good Wife," "Law & Order: SVU," and "Harry's Law." Currently serving as Associate Professor and the Donald G. Robertson Director of Music Theatre Certificate Program at Northwestern University, they support organizations advancing equity, including Democracy Now and the ACLU. KO lives on the unceded ancestral lands of the Ho-Chunk Nation and works on the lands of the Council of the Three Fires: Potawatomi, Ojibwe, and Odawa.
Reed Northrup
Performer
Reed Northrup is an actor and writer based in Brooklyn. FILM/TV: Logic's debut feature film Paradise Records, which premiered at Tribeca Festival, Kevin Smith's The 4:30 Movie, Relay, which debuted at TIFF and Tribeca Festival, and the voice of Javi on Adult Swim's Teenage Euthanasia. He will be appearing in Sav Rodgers' (Chasing Chasing Amy) film Pancake Skank in 2026. He has worked at The Guthrie, Breaking the Binary, The Flea, Ars Nova, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and more. BA Sarah Lawrence College, MFA in Acting from Yale School of Drama c/o 2022.
Sandra Caldwell (she/her)
Performer
Sandra has been widely seen on television, including Julian Fellowes’ The Gilded Age (HBO, seasons 1/3; Dir. Deborah Kampeire), Fantasma (HBO; Dir. Julio Torres), Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen (Netflix; Dir. Sam Feder), The Book of Negroes, 19-2, Soul Food, Little Men, Law & Order: SVU, Rookie Blue, Good Fences, Disney’s The Cheetah Girls, and many others. Film work includes The Jackie Shane Story (Dir. Michael Engle), Any Other Way (Bangor Films; Dir. Michael Mabbott), and in Maya Angelou’s directorial debut, Down in the Delta, to name only a few. In theater, Sandra appeared in her self-penned The Guide to Being Fabulous (Soulpepper Theatre, Toronto), Amazon Warehouse Parking Lot (Playwrights Horizons), Chicago (Stratford Festival), Charm (MCC Theater), Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story (Shubert Theater); the Original Workshop for Ragtime (Live Ent. Productions); and was nominated for a Dora Award, Canada’s highest theater award, for her work in Sophisticated Ladies (Sterling Productions, Toronto).
2025 FESTIVAL STAFF
Assistant Producer: Alisha Simmons (they/them)
Literary Manager: Bryar Barborka (they/them)
Casting Director: Charlie Hano, CSA (he/him)
Festival Line Producer: Esmé Maria Ng (they/he/she)
Founding Artistic Director: George Strus (they/them)
Graphic Designer: Marc Ella Roy (they/them)