What Happens To Boys In Chelsea

an autobiographical choreopoem

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​In 2006 New York, Foster Lawrence sets out on the town for a night out with friends. He ends up in a stranger's home. And then splattered, clinging to his life, on the New York City asphalt. Ten years later Foster sets out on the town once more- to find out what happened that night. We follow Foster navigate the New York City terrain and New York City Police Department as he begins to understand his trajectory juxtaposed to queer history, societal constructs - and as per the NYPD - What Happens To Boys In Chelsea. 

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“It's impossible to imagine the impact of their movement clashing with and elevating the words of the text. Ryan is riveting! The story still stuns even though I'd read it. I understand the power of the material. The claim of the choreopoem is earned, I'd say.” - Sydne Mahone, Original Dramaturg on For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When The Rainbow Is Enuf

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Performance History

The play was first performed at The Karcher, a hair salon in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

 

The work was an Official Selection of the United Solo Theatre Festival 2018

where it had its off-Broadway debut at Theatre Row. 

 

Past Peformances

The Triad Theater an off-Broadway theater in Manhattan (directed by WAR)

The Stonewall Inn with Spin Cycle NYC 

Club Cumming; Alan Cumming's cabaret venue in the East Village

Pangea with Family Liquid Dinner Cabaret 

Green Room 42 as a part of Tom March's Cabaret/Poetry

Theatre 80 with Naked Angels’ Tuesdays@9 

New York's LGBTQ Center with the New Masculinities Festival 2019

Tilles Center For The Performing Arts at Post of Long Island University

Prospect Park with Spin Cycle NYC 

SAGE (Service and Advocacy for GLBTQ+ Elders) in midtown Manhattan​

NYC AIDS Memorial Park at St. Vincent's Triangle