About this Event
Out-FRONT! Fest. A Festival curated by Pioneers Go East Collective and presented in partnership with Judson Memorial Church.
Out-FRONT! Fest is a new dance, performance art, and film festival championing the voices of LGBTQ+ and Feminist artists for a lively exchange of art and culture. The Out-FRONT! Festival 2026 is curated by Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte, Philip Treviño, Remi Harris, and Joyce Isabelle. The Festival features award-winning artists who enlighten, entertain and promote conversations around aesthetic diversity and personal journeys on the intersection of mutual ideas, cultures, and meanings.
This performance will take place at Judson Memorial Church. General Admission and Free tickets available. All are welcome!
Alex Romania + Stacy Lynn Smith (Psychic Wormhole)
Face Eaters REDUX
Face Eaters, described by Psychic Wormhole as a “Total Theater Mess,” is the third evening-length piece in Romania's ‘Whoops!’ Saga following KLUTZ (2018, Abrons Arts Center) and junkhead (2019, Brooklyn Studios for Dance). This culminating work marks a seminal collaboration by Romania and Smith, who began creating as a duo in 2019. Face Eaters had its world premiere in 2024 at the Chocolate Factory Theater as a two-hour performance at the intersections of autofiction, dance theater, music, and live film. In a reprised 50-minute version, Face Eaters REDUX mines feelings of apocalyptic grief following the loss of a brother and collaborator, reflecting on personal sickness, political and environmental insanity. Within a warped domestic landscape, songs, monologues, and images à la Kafka’s Metamorphosis unfold: a crusty futon in existential crisis (Alex Romania), manifestations of the Angel of Death (Stacy Lynn Smith), and a dysfunctional self-help convention gone rogue.
Performed by Shane Jones, Alex Romania, Stacy Lynn Smith, Glenn Potter-Takata with contributions by originating performer Nazareth Hassan. With video performances by Arthur Romania and Zach Romania. Libretto by Alex Romania with select text by Zach Romania, Arthur Romania, and Stacy Lynn Smith. Music created collaboratively by Shane Jones, Ramin Habibi, Nazareth Hassan, Alex Romania and Stacy Lynn Smith. Video installation filmed and edited by Alex Romania with contributions by Lena Hawkins and Taylor Sakarett with projection design by Glenn Potter-Takata.
Same As Sister / Hilary Brown-Istrefi and Briana Brown-Tipley
UPSTAIRS, IN OUR BEDROOM (premiere)
What if we were them and they were us…? writes Same As Sister. UPSTAIRS, IN OUR BEDROOM is a multimedia performance that tells the choreographer twins’ joint autobiography alongside the true story of the Barbadian-Welsh outsider artists June-Alison and Jennifer Gibbons, popularly known as The Silent Twins. Unjustly committed to the infamous Broadmoor Psychiatric Hospital from 1982 to 1993, the Gibbons’ channeled their imaginative inner worlds through a singular and relatively unseen body of creative work, including novels, short stories, poetry, diaries, and drawings. Combining dance, narration, and video, UPSTAIRS, IN OUR BEDROOM reconstructs the defining moments of these intersecting stories of twinship, Blackness, and mental illness to question who gets to be called an “Artist” and for what reasons.
Performed by Same As Sister with James Edward Becton III, Emma Rose Brown, Kiebpoli Calnek, Sabrina Canas, Abigail Linnemeyer, John Pickup, and Asia Stewart. Sound design by Arjuna Meadows. Video design by Same As Sister. Technologist: Jeremy Kadetsky. Lighting design by Shana Crawford. Dramaturgy: Susan Mar Landau.
Running time: 2 hours with a 20-minute intermission.
Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to Pioneers Go East Collective, which directly supports artists and programs like this one!
DIRECTIONS:
Judson Church
243 Thompson Street
New York, NY 10012
Subway:
A, C, E, B, D, F, M to West 4th Street
R to NYU 8th Street.
Accessibility:
Our accessible entrance is by way of 243 Thompson St. Use the lift to get to the Meeting Room on Level 3 or our accessible bathrooms on Level B (basement). Return to Level 1 for street access back to the corner of West 4th & Thompson St.
Event venue & nearby stays
Judson Memorial Church, 243 Thompson, New York, United States
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