The world premiere of Jesús I. Valles' BATHHOUSE.PPTX begins Off-Broadway March 19.
Directed by Obie winner Chay Yew, the play will continue performances for a limited run through April 22. The work has been developed in partnership with Valles as co-producer on all elements of their production.
Valles' play follows Presenter, a gay Latine student, whose PowerPoint presentation on the history of cleanliness and bathing is haunted by the ghosts of a bathhouse at the end of the world. Valles describes the work as “a group project for perverts, somewhere between lecture, re-enactment, and cruising ground. A meditation on queer longing, queer grief, and all our queer worlds that will come to pass, that will come to be.”
The Off-Broadway premiere stars Sam Gonzalez as Presenter, with Claudia Acosta as Chela and others, Manuel C. Alcazar as Daniel and others, Esteban Andres Cruz as Mx. Vazquez and others, Yonatan Gebeyehu as Shaun and others, and Gilbert Diego Sanchez as Carlos and others.
In addition to Yew, the creative team features scenic designer You-Shin Chen, lighting designer Reza Behjat, costume designer Haydee Zelideth Antuñano, sound designer John Gasper, projection designer Nicholas Hussong, and intimacy and fight director David Anzuelo. BATHHOUSE.PPTX’s production stage manager is Bea Perez-Arche, and the assistant stage manager is Abi Rowe.
The work was the 2023 recipient of the Yale Drama Series Prize, judged by Jeremy O. Harris; and is the first recipient of The Flea’s production commission, an open call program that provides finishing funds and a full production to an experimental new work by a Black, brown, and/or queer artist.
Said The Flea’s Artistic Director, Niegel Smith, in a previous statement: “Every so often you come across a play that is epic in scale, written with delicious language and yet deeply personal, with characters that seize you as they careen toward their desires. Jesús’ play grabbed the attention of the entire Flea staff. As soon as we read it, we knew we had to bring it to production.”
For more information, visit TheFlea.org.
