2024/25 Season
Grab a seat.
Building the Box
Trash
February 2024
Written by James Caverly and Andrew Morrill
Directed by Nathaniel P. Claridad
The first reading announced in Out of the Box Theatrics Building the Box Series. Tim and Jake may be Deaf roommates sharing an apartment in the city, but they are polar opposites – each with very different worldviews on what it means to be Deaf in a hearing world. When it comes to taking out the trash, they take a comical and insightful dive into their trash and their perceptions of each other’s lives.
Custom Work
Windows
March 2024
Written by Twani O’Dell
11 lives, 8 stories, endless frustration. Fear, hilarity, anger, loss, and love unfolding behind curtains, blinds, broken glass, and bars. Whether navigating the self-reflection of isolation, or the unease of a chance meeting between strangers in need, or the simple realization of how much we value our most basic connection with others, Windows delves into the devastation and new beginnings found in a world forced to face an abyss together but alone. What we each endured as individuals when time suddenly stood still may have differed, but we were all changed by the experience. Our characters reshaped. For better or worse. What were you doing in 2020?
Building the Box
Starstruck
May 2024
Music and Lyrics Emily Saliers
Book by Beth Malone and Mary Ann Stratton
Directed by Sherri Eden Barber
Where the universe meets Sawtooth, Idaho, Cyd DeBerg is on a mission to save her sliver of sky. She crusades for the first International Dark Sky Reserve in the United States, attracting the attention of NPR journalist Roxanne Cooley. Roxanne's magnetism knocks all of Sawtooth out of orbit, including Cyd’s right hand man, Chris. In Cyrano fashion, Cyd begins a courtship on his behalf. When words come too easily and feel uncomfortably true, Cyd is forced to concede the world as she knew it. Cyd and Roxanne are upended by the mysterious universe, truths hidden in darkness, and a collision course of love.
Mainstage Production
Inspired By True Events
July 2024
Written by Ryan Spahn
Developed by Michael Urie
Directed by Michael Herwitz
In the green room of a community theater in Rochester, the Uptown Players are getting ready to play to a full house after opening to rave reviews the night before. When their star actor arrives in a dangerously unhinged state, they must improvise on and off stage in ways they could not have imagined. By turns hilarious, harrowing, and horrifying, Inspired By True Events follows a tenacious group of show people who must determine at what cost the show must go on.
Inspired By True Events received development workshops with New York Stage & Film, The Vineyard Theatre and EST.
Mainstage Production
See What I Wanna See
August 2024
By Michael John LaChiusa
Music Direction by Adam Rothenberg
Directed by Emilio Ramos
Based on three Japanese short stories by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (Rashomon), OOTB’s production of See What I Wanna See will feature Japanese puppetry and translations and an AAPI cast. Examining distinctly Western circumstances through a distinctly Eastern-inspired lens, LaChiusa’s musical adaptation is about the ineffable, unreliable, ephemeral nature of the truth and the responsibility that comes with knowing it.
Mainstage Production
Call Me Abigail
February 2025
Written by Shelli Pentimall Bookler
Call Me Abigail is a comedic drama about a father and daughter conflict based in politics and the adult entertainment industry. Though focusing on family conflict, obscenity is challenged in light of other scandals highlighted, giving a unique perspective of art and censorship. Call Me Abigail was previously produced by Out of the Box Theatrics and Jennifer Campos Productions in OOTB's 2022 reading series Building the Box.