This year’s SummerStage Cabaret centers on the theme “A Light in the Dark: A Cabaret on Defiant Joy.” We’re exploring what it means to locate protest within celebration—how joy, in moments of uncertainty and intensity, can become its own form of resistance, care, and collective strength.
The evening will unfold as a curated, multidisciplinary showcase of spoken-word, music, and theatrical scenes, blending original work and selected material into a cohesive, dynamic cabaret experience, under the direction of artist Mayah Lourdes Burke.
Performances: June 4 & 5, 2026 at 8PM
Location: The Great Room at ART/New York South Oxford Space, 138 South Oxford Street, Brooklyn, NY
Mayah Lourdes Burke, Director (she/her) is a queer, Haitian-American director, deviser, and producer born and raised in NYC, who creates space for the unseen, centering bodies often left in the margins. She is very excited to collaborate with USE and to continue building community through process-driven, collaborative theater-making. Recent credits include: BRICKGIRL (Brooklyn Art Haus), AFTERLIFE FEST (The Flea); Whodunnit: The Long Way Home (Urban Stages); Stay Awake (Theatre Row). Fellowships: SDCF Directing Fellow 2025; TPOC Fellow 2024; NAMT Producing Residency 2024; SDCF Directing Observer 2023. Training: The Barrow Group. Member: Epheverie Theatre Co., The Makers’ Ensemble, SDC Associate. Thank you, God, for everything! www.mayahlourdesburke.com @mayahlourdes
Featuring:
Petra Hinds ⭑ Eric Thompson ⭑ Kylie Logan ⭑ Leyla DeMolina ⭑ B. Fortune ⭑ Fatou Thiam ⭑ Antonio Artis
Lakeria Robinson ⭑ Javan Zapata ⭑ Christopher Leon ⭑ Emily Dean ⭑ Anthony Smith
