Theaterlab invites you to join Jeremy Rafal as he develops his never before seen work, Schubert Was a Rice Queen

Vienna, 1828. Composer Franz Schubert is dying, but not without throwing one last party. Re-introducing himself as an Aquarius, tea-spiller, and musical genius, he recollects the life of an artist in post-Napoleonic Vienna under Metternich, where anything erotic, foreign, or new is treated as a political threat. Souvenirs from the Orient become portals to imagined queer histories through piano performance, puppetry, and scandalous reminiscence, recasting Schubert as history’s unwritten rice queen.

Schubert Was a Rice Queen is an immersive solo show that blends cabaret, puppet fantasia, and live recital, featuring some of Schubert’s most beloved works, from his piano sonatas and impromptus to Lieder such as Erlkönig and Ständchen.

Testing the boundaries of solo performance and new artistic territory, early, never-before-seen experimental work finds a home in front of an audiences for the first time,

THE GALLERY SERIES champions the unique potential of the individual performer and challenges artists to craft ambitious explorations of the specific and intimate relationship between solo performers and spectators.

Artists with highly experimental, combustible, pliable works receive up to 25 hours of rehearsal and two nights of performances in our intimate Gallery, for audiences of no more than 20 people as a catalyst for future development.