Back to All Events

Affecting Expression


  • The Tank 312 W 36th St New York, NY, 10018 United States (map)

Affecting Expression

October 12 at 3 PM
October 7, 9, 11, 13 at 7:00 PM

Eliyana Abraham - Director

Eliana Cohen-Orth - Playwright

Kate Semmens - Producer

BT Hayes - Lighting Designer

Cast: Nora Aguiar, Paige Allen, Juliette Carbonnier, Sam Melton

AFFECTING EXPRESSION explores queer history and three female artists' multi-layered relationships with each other, art-making, legacy, and home. In 1852, renowned crossdressing Shakespearean actress Charlotte Cushman retires from the stage to move to Rome with her long-term partner, reserved writer Matilda Hays. Joining their party is an eccentric young sculptor named Harriet Hosmer and an enigmatic figure representing Charlotte's stage persona. As the women navigate their intersecting artistic paths and the complexities of their relationships, the walls of their home and boundaries between art and reality become increasingly unreliable. Imagining a queer household before modern language to describe that experience, this queer tragicomedy combines history with fantastical elements to explore the thin line between finding and losing oneself in art.

Affecting Expression Fundraiser

Earlier Event: October 4
BRANKO MILISKOVIĆ: TRUST IN US
Later Event: October 8
A Fairie Tale