/genius

What is genius and who is granted permission to wield it? /genius uses the intersection of three world-famous musical minds—Mozart, Beethoven, and Haydn—to interrogate the meaning of genius, the gendered history of the word, and the fetishizing of “great intellects”. The play begins with the legendary meeting of Mozart and Beethoven in Vienna and unfolds as they explore relationships of love, labor, God, and meaning. The structure of the play operates like a metronome with scenes leaping in the future and back again, keeping time to the tune of the composers’ greatest hits we know and love. The actors performing these roles are not solely “gender-swapped” but purposefully meant to disrupt the status-quo perception of male genius. Male roles are to be performed by anyone but cis-gendered men, women roles by anyone but cis-gendered women. This means queerness is welcomed and encouraged in any role and actors of color in any role as well.