West Stockbridge –  The Foundry, an intimate multidisciplinary performing arts venue in West Stockbridge MA, announces an exciting new collaboration with Spin Cycle, an innovative cultural production company in New York City. The Foundry is committed to providing a platform for often marginalized voices through theater, dance, music, comedy, improv, workshops and more. The venue provides accessible work that counteracts the passive, the isolating, and the distance between people.

Spin Cycle was founded in 1998. They were Joan Rivers’ exclusive New York producer of live dates for 17 years and they have co-produced shows by artists including Anthony Rapp, Alison Arngrim, Karen Finley, Trixie Mattel, Alaska, Peppermint, and Penny Arcade, among many others. Spin Cycle also co-produced the New York Premiere of The Vaudevillians with Jinkx Monsoon & Major Scales, the World Premiere of The Donkey Show, and Jacob Storm’s Tennessee Rising (directed by Alan Cumming).

The Foundry kicks off this exciting partnership in West Stockbridge on Friday, June 20 with A Eulogy for Roman. This immersive solo piece premiered in Edinburgh and had an Off-Broadway debut at 59E59 in 2023 that was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for outstanding Unique Theatrical Experience. A sweet queer ‘coming of age’ story, David Finkle, NY Stage Review, describes it as “Delightfully unique… unexpectedly entertaining.”

On Saturday, June 21 “HOMOS! A Solo Disaster Musical, bitch”, by and starring Dan Kitrosser, is an award winning queer musical comedy that performs monthly at The Stonewall Inn in NYC. This side-splitting, solo, 6-character tour-de-farce won Best Cabaret at the 2023 Philadelphia Fringe Festival.

Drag superstar Jackie Beat will appear in JACKIE BEAT: BIRTHDAY CLOWN Saturday, July 19. Jackie has been entertaining audiences across the U.S. and in Europe for over thirty-five years with her razor-sharp comedy and hysterical song parodies. “Some small children may be scared” of Jackie Beat, said The New York Times, and we agree that this show isn’t for young kids.

On Saturday, July 26 Alec Mapa will take to the venue’s stage with his solo piece HA! P.E.N.I.S! During his worldwide comedy tour, actor and comedian (Ugly Betty, Doom Patrol, Frasier, RuPaul’s Drag Race) was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. Undaunted, he fulfilled his club dates from French Polynesia to the Caribbean, all without disclosing his terrifying illness. ‘Fierce and Funny,” declared Broadway World when the show premiered in New York.

In WHAT I WORE TO WORK, An Illustrated Memoir of Dressing to Undress on Saturday, September 12, Jo Weldon, internationally recognized author of two books, The Burlesque Handbook and Fierce: The History of Leopard Print, follows the stiletto footsteps of her heroes into an underworld and discovers that the costumes and clothing worn in the industry – by strippers, escorts, streetwalkers, and dominatrices – were informed by conflicting desires: their own, their employers’, their clients’, and the laws. Jo Weldon is currently a scholar-in-residence at the New York Public Library Center for Research in the Humanities.

COMMUNION is a one-man show to be performed at The Foundry Saturday, September 13, about a gay Catholic school teacher who is fired when the church discovers that he married a man. Broadway actor and playwright Matthew LaBanca  wrote and stars in this story of his own life. COMMUNION spotlights themes of religious hypocrisy, spiritual trauma, faith and hope, reminding those who would use religion to discriminate against LGBTQ people that the most basic tenet of spiritual life is that we are called to love one another.

EDIE: SHOWGIRL UNLEASHED comes to The Foundry on Saturday, September 20. Edie is best known from Cirque du Soleil’s hit show ZUMANITY where she starred as the emcee, the “Mistress of Sensuality,” at the NY-NY Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. During her 13 year run, Edie performed over 5,600 shows for over 6 million people.

More information about this and additional events visit The Foundry’s website at thefoundryws.com!

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Contact noh@thefoundryws.com for high-res versions of event images.

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