Carl Clemons-Hopkins and Hari Nef join the fifth “Breaking the Binary” theatre festival in New York

The “Breaking the Binary” Theatre Festival, New York’s annual festival dedicated to trans and non-binary artists, has revealed the additional cast of its fifth edition, which runs from October 5 to 11, 2026 at The Susan & Ronald Frankel Theater in the Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space, as BroadwayWorld announces.

Among the dozens of new names are Carl Clemons-Hopkins, Emmy-nominated for his role in the series “Hacks”, and actress and model Hari Nef, who will perform in the staged reading of Jake Brasch’s play “Spin”, alongside Taylor Trensch. The festival cast was selected by The Telsey Office, with Charlie Hano as casting director.

The week’s programme includes staged readings of Zaza Diana Oh’s “My H8 Letter to the Gr8 American Theatre” — dedicated to the memory of the author, who died last year — Liliana Padilla’s “Twitch”, Jaime Jarrett’s “The Magically Re-Imagined History of J.K. Rowling”, and Cecilia Gentili’s “Red Ink”, in which Tony Award winner Qween Jean makes her debut in the leading role. All tickets are free and are already available to the public.

The organisation also announced a one-night concert of the new musical “The Danish Girl”, based on David Ebershoff’s book, to be held at Lincoln Center’s David Rubenstein Atrium on November 20, 2026, on the occasion of the International Transgender Day of Remembrance. After the festival and the concert, founding artistic director George Strus will step down from the post in December 2026; plans for the new leadership are expected to be announced later in the year.

Since its first edition in 2022, the festival — co-founded by Tony nominee L Morgan Lee and Strus — has commissioned over 50 short scenes and monologues, published in partnership with Broadway Licensing/Concord Theatricals, to create more material for the trans and non-binary community.