Welcome to Pride Plays
This June, Pride Plays returns with an expanded celebration of queer stories, featuring performances and programming in both D.C. and NYC. We are proud to partner with Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. for a six-play festival (June 3–6), and with Rattlestick Theater in New York City for a one-day festival of four new plays on June 23.
All Pride Plays 2025 readings are free and open to the public, ensuring that anyone who wishes to engage with and support queer theatre can do so: no barriers, no ticket prices.
Want to support this year’s festival? Click here to contribute.
2025 NYC Festival Line-Up
Join us on June 23 for a one-day festival of four bold new works by queer playwrights at The Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space.
Browse the shows below and reserve your free tickets. We can’t wait to see you there.
Festival Schedule — June 23, 2025:
1:00 PM — RED INK (Newman Mills Theater)
2:30 PM — TREMOLO (Newman Mills Theater)
8:00 PM — PONY (Newman Mills Theater)
8:00 PM — THE ONE WHO LOVES YOU SO (Ground Floor Rehearsal Studio)
Scroll below for show information + casting
Cecilia Gentili’s RED INK
Developed and Directed by Nic Cory
Presented in association with Breaking the Binary Theatre
Reading time: 1:00pm | Newman Mills Theater
God won't give up on Cecilia Gentili. Unfortunately, neither will the devil. Follow a young trans girl as she navigates the hilarity of rural Argentina during the 19[redacted]s. Part stand-up, part camp, and (almost) all true, RED INK is an irreverent romp in searching for faith while trans. Cecilia Gentili’s RED INK was awarded a Special Recognition at the 36th GLAAD Media Awards.
Cast:
Introducing Chiquitita as Cecilia
–––
TREMOLO
By Regan Moro
Directed by Sivan Battat
Presented in association with Fault Line Theatre
Reading time: 2:30pm | Newman Mills Theater
Nicola, Con, Sorel, Paulie, Masha, Devyn, Alex, and Nina are old friends. Every summer they spend a week on Sorel and Paulie's dock talking about theater and dykes and sex and aging and the loons that circle below. This is the last summer they’ll ever do this, but they don’t know that yet. Anyway. Tonight Con’s making everyone listen to their new play. (They seem better this year, right?)
A love song to ambition, art-making, and heartbreak,“Tremolo” is at once a radical queer reimagining of Chekhov’s “The Seagull” set on the dock of a dark lake--and a singular exploration of an intergenerational found family on the precipice of great loss.
Cast:
Con: Lio Mehiel
Nicola: Kelly McAndrew
Sorel: Laila Robins
Masha: Francesca Fernandez
Nina: Julia McDermott
Alex: Kristolyn Lloyd
Paulie: Barsha
Devyn: Sagan Chen
Stage Manager: Hannah Sgambellone
Special Thanks: Sammy Zeisel
–––
PONY
By Sylvan Oswald
Directed by Will Davis
Reading time: 8:00pm | Newman Mills Theater
When Pony, a formerly incarcerated trans guy, moves to a small rural town to start a new life, he quickly becomes entangled with its isolated community. He starts to fall for a waitress who is obsessed with a local murder; his social worker doesn’t understand him; and he is pursued by a young trans man who thinks Pony could be the father he always wanted. Amid this whirlwind of fear and desire, Pony must find the strength to confront the stories he’s been told about masculinity, violence, and self-worth.
Cast:
Pony: Han Van Sciver
Cav: Drae Campbell
Heath: Samy Nour Younes Figaredo
Marie: Marié Botha
Stell: Rachel Towne
Stage Manager: Zach Brecheen
Associate Director: Jacob Basri
Stage Directions: Wesley Tiso
–––
THE ONE WHO LOVES YOU SO
By Arun Welandawe-Prematilleke
Directed by Emma Went
Reading time: 8:00pm | Ground Floor Rehearsal Studio
SOLD OUT!
RSVPs are full for this presentation
Though sex between men remains technically illegal in Sri Lanka, the gay population of its capital find ways to live out their sexual and romantic desires. Vidhura is a trust-fund baby slumming it in a rundown studio apartment. Nick is a British expat chasing hedonism abroad. When the two men meet for a casual Grindr hookup, what is meant to be a one-night stand turns into something wholly unexpected. Over two nights, they navigate sex, love, and the fleeting intimacy that arises when one is escaping his life—and the other is trapped in his.
Cast:
Vidhura: Carol Mazhuvancheril
Nick: George Olesky
Stage Manager: Ariana Michel
Stage Directions: Isuri Wijesundara
Our History
Launched in 2019 by the original founders Michael Urie, Doug Nevin, and Nick Mayo, in partnership with Rattlestick Theater, the initial festival hosted 19 separate works and involved more than 200 artists over five days. Pride Plays then presented a virtual festival in 2020, along with several online workshops. Pride Plays has also supported LGBTQIA+ creative initiatives, including Donja R. Love's Write Out Loud program. In 2024, Sam Gravitte and Sammy Lopez joined as the Pride Plays 2024 Celebration producers.
Director Ibi Owolabi will join the festival programming team for Pride Plays 2025, advancing the festival’s commitment to amplifying queer voices and stories as the organization continues to grow and expand in New York City and beyond.
Our Mission
Pride Plays’ mission is to celebrate and platform queer works, introduce new voices to the theatrical ecosystem, and support the next generation of artists. We hope to foster a deeper understanding of and appreciation for queer stories.
Our 2025 D.C. Line-Up
PONY
by Sylvan Oswald
Directed by Will Davis
Presented Tuesday, June 3 and Thursday, June 5
Time: 7:30pm
When Pony, a formerly incarcerated trans guy, moves to a small rural town to start a new life, he quickly becomes entangled with its isolated community. He starts to fall for a waitress who is obsessed with a local murder; his social worker doesn’t understand him; and he is pursued by a young trans man who thinks Pony could be the father he always wanted. Amid this whirlwind of fear and desire, Pony must find the strength to confront the stories he's been told about masculinity, violence, and self-worth.
THE NORMAL HEART
by Larry Kramer
Directed by Zhailon Levingston
Presented Wednesday, June 4 and Friday, June 6
Time: 7:30pm
Originally published in 1985 and celebrated in a passionate and eloquent 2011 Broadway revival, this definitive edition of Larry Kramer’s play features an updated version of the script, as well as notes on both the original production and the revival.
A searing drama about public and private indifference to the AIDS plague and one man's lonely fight to awaken the world to the crisis, The Normal Heart was based on Kramer’s real-life experience. Produced to acclaim in New York, London and Los Angeles, the play centers on Ned Weeks, a gay activist enraged at the indifference of public officials and the gay community. While trying to save the world from itself, Ned confronts the personal toll of AIDS when his lover dies of the disease.
NOVIOS
by Arturo Luíz Soria
Directed by Danilo Gambini
Presented Tuesday, June 3 and Thursday, June 5
Time: 7:30pm
A motley crew of cooks hurl insults, grab ass, and compete to be the most macho en el calor of a gringo’s kitchen but, when a new dishwasher arrives rupturing the haze of machismo and sparking a love affair with Luiz, the youngest amongst them, Gallo, the head chef and guardian to Luiz, must do what she can to wrangle the men before the train goes off the rails, jeopardizing her whole operation.
THE HOTEL/MAKEDA - A BALTIMORE CYCLE PLAY
by Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi
Directed by Ibi Owolabi
Presented Wednesday, June 4 and Friday, June 6
Time: 7:30pm
Nearly a decade after World War II, Genieve Adams has made The Hotel Makeda one of Baltimore’s most celebrated destinations. But, even with all of its success, family secrets, the legacy of slavery, and familiar regret threaten to tear it apart. Can Gen protect her family and her business or will she be consumed by the shifting alliances of those she holds most dear. The Hotel/ Makeda: A Baltimore Cycle Play examines a business woman’s life as she navigates love, history, family, and systemic pressures and it invites us to reflect on what exactly do we mean by the American Dream.
FEAR & WONDER
by Jason Tseng
Directed by Emily Hartford
Presented Tuesday, June 3 and Thursday, June 5
Time: 7:30pm
In a forbidden love story, Jabez and Ryan, two boys of color, navigate a Christian summer camp together in the early 2000s. Their friendship quickly grows into a budding romance that they try to keep alive after returning home. Challenged by their parents, the hazards of landline phones, and their faith, they are forced to secrecy. Finding solace in each other and their shared love of music, theology, and Harry Potter; the reality of living in between two worlds threaten to keep them apart as they navigate their blossoming queer identities and teenage angst in their conservative faith communities.
MOTHER MARY
by KJ Moran Velz
Directed by Charlotte La Nasa
Presented Wednesday, June 4 and Friday, June 6
Time: 7:30pm
Taxi driver Jo Cruz knows the streets of Boston like the back of her hand, but no road map can prepare her for meeting Mary O’Sullivan, a Catholic school teacher with a boyfriend and a strict Irish mother. Despite rising tensions between their Irish and Puerto Rican communities, Mary and Jo start connecting over daily rides to work - sharing hot dogs, library books, and a lineage of islands under Catholic and colonial rule. But their new friendship takes a turn when Mary asks Jo to take her on a risky road trip where there’s no going back. A new romcom about choice, the women who choose, and the sinners and saints that make Boston home.
Our 2024 Pride Plays
Pride Plays returned to in-person programming with a vibrant celebration, featuring readings of Pure Glitter by Douglas Lyons, Debt by Adrian Einspanier & reid tang, and Saint Brigid by Hannah Benitez. See highlights from these powerful performances in the photos below.
