(AGENPARL) – Thu 29 May 2025 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 29, 2025
Audible Theater and Scrap Paper Pictures Announce
The Pansy Craze
Written and Created by Hunter Bird and Mason Alexander Park
Hosted by Mason Alexander Park
Directed by Johanna McKeon
Six-Part Variety Show Chronicling Queer Performers Throughout History
Featuring Special Guest Appearances To Be Announced Soon
A poster of a person with tattoos
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for First Three Shows at Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre
Thursday, June 26
Friday, June 27
Saturday, June 28
Recorded Live and Later Released Globally As an Audible Original
NEWARK, NJ and NEW YORK, NY – May 29, 2025 – Audible, Inc., the leading creator and provider of premium audio storytelling, and Rachel Brosnahan’s Scrap Paper Pictures are pleased to announce The Pansy Craze, a six-part series written and created by Hunter Bird and Mason Alexander Park and hosted by Mason Alexander Park. The first three live performances, directed by Johanna McKeon, of The Pansy Craze will play on Thursday, June 26; Friday, June 27; and Saturday, June 28 at Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre in New York, with all shows starting at 8:00pm. Special guest appearances for the June shows, as well as three additional performance dates, will be announced at a later date. Each episode of The Pansy Craze will also be recorded live and released as an Audible Original, extending its reach to millions of Audible listeners around the world.
Celebrate Pride Weekend 2025 with the raucous queer history none of us got in school! With the electricity of a cabaret and the intimacy of a piano bar, The Pansy Craze is a love letter to queer icons and those who celebrate them. In this variety show, Mason and some very special guests will transport the audience through time, spilling the hot tea your textbooks left out. Each evening will feature songs, sketches, and storytelling that dives into important moments in history when queerness was celebrated, commodified, and then criminalized.
The Pansy Craze creative team includes David Dabbon (Musical Director), Krit Robinson (scenic design), Stacey Derosier (lighting design) and Cody Spencer (sound design). Jhanaë Bonnick-McDonnell is the production stage manager, and theatrical supervision is by Beacon Theatrical Services with general management by ShowTown Theatricals.
BIOGRAPHIES
HUNTER BIRD a Brooklyn-based director, writer, and maker of new theatrical works. With experience working on Broadway, national tours, and theaters across the country, Hunter has spent over a decade developing plays, musicals, concert experiences, and more. Select projects include Bronco Billy: The Musical (London’s Charing Cross, TimeOut 5* Recommended, Los Angeles Skylight Theater, 2 Ovation Award Wins), XY (Alhadeff Productions with Village Theater, NAMT, Chicago Shakespeare Theater), and three plays with Manhattan Theater Club as Lynne Meadow’s Associate Director. As a writer, She Reached for Heaven (SOMA Stage, Nashville Rep, Red Mountain Theater), The Golden Record (Ferguson Center for New Musicals, Pilot Arts, UCLA), and The Pansy Craze.  Awards / Affiliations: Artistic Consultant for Center Theater Group, Artistic Producer for The New York SongSpace, Jonathan Alper Directing Fellow (Manhattan Theater Club), The Civilians R&D Group (18/19), the Samuel J. Friedman Assistantship (MTC), SDCF Observership, Gilbert Cates Fellowship, Line Producer of ANT Fest (2018) at Ars Nova. www.hunter-bird.com
JOHANNA McKEON is currently directing the world premiere of The National Pastime by Rogelio Martinez at Syracuse Stage. Broadway Associate credits include Swept Away, Funny Girl, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, American Idiot, War Paint, Grey Gardens and King Kong. Broadway National and International tours: Funny Girl, Hedwig, American Idiot, Rent. Directing credits include First Down (59E59); Henry V, Noura, Unseen, and Anonymous Biography (Old Globe); Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Olney), Anne Washburn’s I Have Loved Strangers (premiere, Clubbed Thumb), The Comedy of Errors, Schmoozy Togetherness (Williamstown); Tokio Confidential (Atlantic), Mona Mansour’s We Swim We Talk We Go to War, Much Ado About Nothing, Cymbeline, The Taming of the Shrew, The Rise and Fall of Annie Hall (Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse), Sidewalk Echoes by Rogelio Martinez (En Garde Arts), Born in East Berlin by Rogelio Martinez (Stasi Museum, Berlin); A Hatful of Rain (ITS Festival Warsaw), Semi- Permanent (New York International Fringe Festival Outstanding Solo Show), The Importance of Being Earnest (Bard), Functional Drunk, Fiesta Cabana, The TanksBreak (Ontological-Hysteric Theater). Her independent feature My Address is Still Walton Have You Forgotten It? screened at the Venice Biennale in 2024 and her debut feature Auld Lang Syne received the Audience Award for Best Feature at the Indie Street Film Festival. She spent a year working as Regie Praktikant at the Schaubuehne and Maxim Gorki Theaters in Berlin and she has worked extensively with Toho Theatrical in Tokyo, Japan. Johanna is the recipient of Drama League, Boris Sagal, and Fulbright Fellowships. MFA UT Austin.
DAVID DABBON is an Emmy-nominated composer and Broadway arranger/composer. Broadway credits: Oh, Mary! (arranger); Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ (new music and dance arrangements); Beetlejuice – The Musical; Funny Girl revival; DISASTER! (as dance arranger); Sondheim on Sondheim (additional orchestrations; Grammy nomination).  Emmy nomination for outstanding music and lyrics: “Eat Sh*t, Bob!” on HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (as composer). He arranged and music directed “The Lonely Island” medley featuring Andy Samberg, Lady Gaga, Bad Bunny, T-Pain, and Eddie Vedder for SNL’s 50th Homecoming Concert at Radio City Music Hall. He was the arranger and music supervisor for the Off-Broadway musical The Big Gay Jamboree.  He is the music director and co-wrote music with Catherine Cohen for her filmed comedy special “Come For Me.”  He provided new arrangements for the HBO documentary Six By Sondheim. His orchestrations can be heard on: Audra McDonald/New York Philharmonic: Sing Happy- Audra Mcdonald and her album Go Back Home. B.M. from The Hartt School, M.M. from Carnegie Mellon University. @daviddabbon on Instagram.
ABOUT SCRAP PAPER PICTURES
Scrap Paper Pictures, founded by Rachel Brosnahan, produces film, television, theater and digital content with a focus on character-driven stories that expand the world we recognize on screen and stage. Scrap Paper Pictures produced the Amazon Original feature, I’m Your Woman, in which Brosnahan also starred, and executive produced two installments of the award nominated all-female comedy special Yearly Departed for Prime Video.  SPP co-produced the Tony Award nominated revival of The Sign In Sidney Brustein’s Window on Broadway starring Brosnahan and Oscar Isaac and has a robust slate of upcoming projects across platforms.
ABOUT AUDIBLE THEATER
In May 2018, Audible announced that the Minetta Lane Theatre in Greenwich Village would serve as its creative home for live performances in New York, with Audible members receiving exclusive access to discounted tickets and related audio content. Since then, Audible has hosted and produced a wide variety of live performances at the Minetta Lane including dramatic plays, comedic shows, original musical performances, and more.
ABOUT AUDIBLE, INC.
Audible, Inc., an Amazon.com, Inc. subsidiary (NASDAQ:AMZN), is the leading creator and provider of premium audio storytelling, offering global audiences a powerful way to enhance and enrich their lives through extraordinary content. Audible’s catalog includes more than 1,000,000 audio titles, including Audible Originals as well as audiobooks and podcasts from leading studios, print, audio and magazine publishers and world-renowned entertainers.
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