ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Dear Crows,

As we approach the 2025/2026 season, the stakes feel higher—not just for Iron Crow Theatre, but for our community. As queer and trans voices are once again under threat, as anti-LGBTQ+ legislation resurges, as hate crimes climb, and as rhetoric from the far right grows louder and more dangerous, I am reminded that our very existence as a theatre and as a people are in fact acts of survival.

Introducing The Season of Survival.

It’s a theme born from necessity. It reflects the growing urgency to protect and preserve our queer stories, our queer bodies, and even if it feels frivolous in the face of such chaos, our queer joy. As the national political tide threatens to wash away decades of progress, it reflects the urgency in protecting and preserving our right to exist freely, be it here in Baltimore or anywhere in the country. It also reflects a piece of why Iron Crow Theatre exists — to ensure queer and allied artists have a creative home where queer stories are not only heard and seen, but deeply felt.

As we fight to survive, each production this season echoes that struggle—telling the story of a person, a family, a people, fighting to survive.

In March of 2026, Next to Normal brings Iron Crow Theatre back to The M&T Bank Exchange at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center, home of the historic Hippodrome Theatre. This Pulitzer Prize-winning musical has moved audiences across the country with its raw honesty, unforgettable score, and profound humanity. At its heart, Next to Normal is a story of survival—of grief, mental illness, and the brutal unraveling of a family. And yet, it’s also a story of connection, reminding us that healing begins only when we face our pain, together. For Iron Crow, this production represents a powerful expansion of what queer theatre can be. While queerness isn’t explicitly written into the text, Next to Normal is queer in its construction: it resists resolution, breaks traditional form, and places emotional truth above convention while simultaneously allowing us to amplify the voices of other marginalized communities.

Next up in June will be Max Vernon's The View Upstairs — a powerful new queer musical (with a wildly under-appreciated score) inspired by the tragic 1973 arson attack on the Upstairs Lounge, a gay bar in New Orleans. 32 queer people lost their lives that night—the deadliest attack on the LGBTQ+ community in U.S. history until the Pulse Nightclub shooting claimed 49 lives in 2016. Justice was never served, and the broader public largely looked away. Max Vernon’s musical transforms this forgotten history into a celebration of love, resilience, and community — perfect for Pride. It’s a reminder that even from within our own communities and our own chosen families, healing and survival require radical honesty, radical forgiveness, and radical love. We'll present this hauntingly beautiful work at the Baltimore Theatre Project.

And this fall, we’re doing something entirely different—something uniquely queer. We’re setting aside scripts and staging to come together in shared space: to eat, to sing, to laugh, to love. In the spirit of queer kinship, we’ll host a communal gathering—equal parts celebration and resistance—because survival also looks like joy — like building community and refusing to go silent. More details are on the way, but what’s already in motion is something truly meaningful.

This season proves that our stories—our art—are acts of survival. It’s also a season about Iron Crow Theatre’s own survival. In a time of political hostility and vanishing public support, we must forge new paths of sustainability. We cannot—and will not—rely solely on government funding to protect our artistic freedom or fulfill our mission. We need you. We need each other.

That’s why we invite you to join us this season as a +Pass Member. For just $20/month or $200/year (you’ll save $40), you’ll receive access to every show, as many times as you’d like. No blackout dates, no exceptions, M&T Bank Exchange included. No other theatre in Baltimore offers anything like it. It's the best way to support our mission—and the easiest way to ensure our communal survival.

We’re Baltimore’s award-winning professional queer theatre — we’re not going anywhere.

Yours in solidarity, in pride, and in survival,

Sean Elias, M.A., B.F.A.
Artistic Director, Iron Crow Theatre

Available soon.