Independent Arts News Reporting 
Pictured Above: Choreography Lab, Andy, Keith & Jean-Michel.. Photo Credit: Contributed.
New York Theatre Barn Makes Room for New Musicals
By: Keith Loria
New York Theatre Barn presents October and November programs that invite audiences into stories of women resisting erasure and a Black pastor’s fight for freedom.
New York Theatre Barn will bring audiences inside the development of three original musicals this fall, pairing an Oct. 26 program about violence against women with a Nov. 16 benefit concert tracing a Black pastor’s fight for religious freedom.
“We amplify narratives of collectively underrepresented communities,” said Joe Barros, the company’s artistic director. “We’re proud to support artists across generations and identities who bring these stories to life.”
The New Works Series, now in its 19th season, returns Oct. 26 at 7 p.m. at Five Angels Theater, 789 Tenth Ave., with excerpts from Desaparecidas and Miss Hysteria. The 75-minute presentation includes roughly 20 minutes of each show and a conversation with the writers.
Pictured Above: New Works Series Spectrum. Photo Credit: Michael Hull.
Hosted by Claudia Mulet and line producer Emy Ramos, the event welcomes audiences in person and through a livestream.
Desaparecidas, performed in Spanish and English, confronts the disappearance of women and girls in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, and the struggle to end gender-based violence. Husband-and-wife artists Jaime Lozano and Florencia Cuenca wrote the songs, with a book by Georgina Escobar. Cuenca directs the presentation.
Miss Hysteria follows a young actress wrongfully committed to a Paris asylum in the 19th century. Her arrangement with neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot turns his lectures on “female hysteria” into a sensation, raising questions about who defines madness and who benefits. Laura Schein and Ben Zeadman wrote the book and lyrics; Zeadman composed the music. Jen Wineman directs the presentation.
The November event, a concert of Big Quarterly, takes place Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. at The Green Room 42, 570 Tenth Ave. The benefit supports Theatre Barn’s development work and honors Julianne Wick Davis, director of Berklee NYC’s Writing and Production for Musical Theater program.
Written by S. Todd Townsend, Luke McLemore and Kim Kilby, the musical blends hip-hop, gospel and dance to tell the story of Peter Spencer, who emerged from enslavement to establish an independent Black church and a religious freedom festival in Wilmington, Delaware. The Wilmington festival still takes place each year, according to Barros.
The show also illustrates how Theatre Barn’s programs connect artists. Barros paired director and choreographer Jōvan Dansberry with Big Quarterly through the company’s Choreography Lab, which brings writers and choreographers together early to explore movement as storytelling.
Pictured Above: Choreography Lab, Little Red 1. Photo Credit: Contributed.
Those collaborations reflect a conviction Barros developed long before co-founding the nonprofit Theatre Barn in 2007.
Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, he lost both paternal grandparents to AIDS. As his father’s friends also lost partners, surviving partners passed along Broadway CD collections that eventually reached Barros. Listening to William Finn’s Falsettos, he recognized a family confronting changes that echoed his own experience.
“I could immediately relate, and it transformed my idea of what a musical is and what it can do,” Barros said. “Musicals that really dig deep, that really can shift culture and make audiences see themselves are really powerful.”
Pictured Above: Joe Barros during Playbill Storytellers. Photo Credit: Michael Hull.
At 17, with fundraising help from the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, he directed and produced Falsettos as a benefit for the teen theater company where he had trained.
“It was healing for my family,” Barros said. “Because nobody told me I couldn’t do it, suddenly I’m directing.”
Later, at the University of Hartford’s Hartt School, I Married Wyatt Earp (now called The Belle of Tombstone) challenged his assumptions again. The musical examined the West through women’s experiences, helping inspire the organization he would build. The show would go on to be produced Off-Broadway by New York Theatre Barn and Prospect Musicals, and that New York Theatre Barn plans to record an album of the musical as part of its 20th Anniversary season in 2027.
Today, Theatre Barn supports emerging and established writers whose work centers communities often marginalized onstage, including LGBTQ+ people, disabled artists and communities of color. Its commitment extends to audiences through American Sign Language interpretation and live captioning.
“We give musical theater creators the freedom to experiment in front of live audiences, often for the first time, while providing them with the resources to build something innovative, intentional, and impactful,” Barros said. “For audiences, we offer a glimpse inside the blueprint of an original musical being developed in real time.”
Beyond the New Works Series and Choreography Lab, its five core programs include Barn on Fire, a summer residency with the Fire Island Pines Arts Project; the “Backstage Pass” podcast; and Theatre Barn Records, whose recordings introduce developing musicals to listeners on streaming platforms.
Barros is particularly enthusiastic about “Spectrum,” which explores the intersection of neurodiversity and queerness through an autistic young man who discovers a gay community. Such stories, he believes, expand whose lives musical theater can portray.
Pictured Above: Rob Rokicki in audience. Rebecca J Michelson. Photo Credit: Rebecca J Michelson.
Writers can introduce themselves through the company’s open submission process, which Barros said runs through the end of October. Students can participate through internships, work on events and receive complimentary tickets. Attending a presentation also offers opportunities to meet writers and other theater artists.
Tickets and additional information are available at www.nytheatrebarn.org.
“We strongly believe that art is best created in dialogue,” Barros said. “A large part of our process is fostering community.”
Pictured Above: Barn on Fire 2024 Company. Photo Credit: Contributed.
