Rayne

🫨 “MASC.” is a wrap (for now)! 🥰 Thank you to @leewayfound and @theatreexile for always believing in my wacky experiments in human connection. Thank you to Travoye, Ray, Amira, Sunflower, Maybe, Liana, Meenashki, and Cherise — my beautiful Community Advisors. Thank you to @abolitionschool for vital dramaturgy about the carceral system and abolition. Thank you to @dmeissler and @dawn.loq_ for being the best creative team a playwright/performer could ask for. Thank you to our partygoers/pallbearers for participating in Tasha/Rayne’s story. And, thank you to Greg for reminding me to trust and love myself every goddamn day 💗 Upstream Performance Collaborative is just me in a trenchcoat (really, a hammock this time of year). Thank you to all of my talented friends, past, present, and future, for making scrappy new work that pushes boundaries, expansively dreams, and dismisses status quo ✊🏾 Now, we rest till the next adventure 🏹

There are over 100000 abandoned homes in Philadelphia and about 5000 houseless community members. It’s time we get together and create the infrastructure necessary to help our community not only survive but THRIVE. Who’s in? What role will you play? ⤵️

DEADLINE EXTENDED! 🫨 Link in bio 💫 Thank you to everyone who already applied! You’ll hear from us this weekend 💜

IT’S TIME! 💫 We need YOU! 👆🏾🎭 Link In Bio 📱 Upstream Performance Collaborative is a scrappy, Barrymore Award–winning theatre company dedicated to boundary-breaking new works by emerging and underrepresented artists. Help shape our newest play “MASC.”— apply to join our Community Advisory! We’re assembling a Community Advisory to help develop the next phase of MASC., a Black, Trans solo play built with audience interaction. During a public development week at Theatre Exile, Advisors will take part in playtests, respond to the work, and help refine its interactive elements as part of the creative process. The development week runs in the evenings from April 20th to May 1st, 2026. Ten Community Advisors will be selected and paid a $75 stipend to participate in at least one playtest and conversation with the creative team. While “MASC.” centers a Black trans experience, its interactive structure is designed for everyone. We are prioritizing Black Queer and Trans+ applicants, but Upstream Performance Collaborative is excited to gather a cohort of Community Advisors that reflect a wide range of identities, perspectives, and lived experiences. We’re looking for people curious about theatre, social change, and the hope of building community across difference. For consideration, please fill out this form to the best of your ability: https://forms.gle/Dwu4Xj6FkHiF2jw57 Responses of any length are welcome and encouraged! If you’d like any accommodations, please email [email protected] This project is made possible by the Leeway Foundation Art & Change Grant in collaboration with Change Partner Theatre Exile.

An Untraditional Year-In-Art (and Life) Review 🎊 2025 was… unrelenting. Floating listlessly in a sea of loss, I drifted further and further away from myself. Fear threatened many of my professional choices— a kind of self-doubt I thought I had lulled to sleep. But, undoubtedly, it was awoken again by sudden displacement and immense grief. Then, just a few short weeks ago, there was light. After three moves in 6 months, I nested in a solo apartment— solo. I began treatment for a difficult, liberating diagnosis. And, I stuck my bare feet in snowy grass— some of y’all know how much bravery that takes for me. Christmas through New Years, in the company of loved ones old and new, all the pain began to transform into something more romantic and less selfish. In a conjure of laughter, furry friends, cuddles, oxtails, bachata, tears, glitter eyeshadow, sapphic kisses, and other spells, it became clear that 2025— each “no,” each act of intuition, each choice to rest rather than serve someone else’s fantasy— was never a shameful “pivot” or a failure. I chose crucial steps on a previously untrodden path toward greater love for and within myself. I live my life for my sister, my mother, and little-Angela who is so, so proud of me, I’m sure. So, I believe that last year— even through heartbreak— was ultimately about hope. In 2026, I will ask important questions with indefinite, evolving answers: What might it feel like to befriend Time? What does it mean to truly be sustainable and intentional in artistic practice? What might it feel like to trust oneself, and to embrace collaborations rooted in honesty, accountability, and repair? How can I continue to honor the truth that I, and my art, are not for everyone? And how can I center my younger self in all the work that I do— continually accessing her generous heart and limitless imagination? How can I keep tending to the most curious, bravest parts of my soul? What if I, unconditionally, became the greatest love of my life? My intention for 2026 is discovery. I’m excited for questions. I’m excited to not know things. I’m excited to keep y’all hip to my wild experiments. Stay tuned 💫

Thank you @creativephl , @CouncilmemberKGR , and @CMThomasPHL for awarding my artistry with a 2025 Illuminate the Arts Grant! 🎊 This money will fund the development and performance of two upcoming original, projects this year. 💗 Special shout out to @wanderineyephotography for this shoot, where I felt especially luminous 💫 Congratulations to all of the awardees! 🥳

I am so profoundly honored to be a @leewayfound Art & Change Grant recipient this cycle 💫 💗 There’s so much to discover together with generous community and artistic collaborators (@s.andrew.watring @theguru215 @theatreexile ). For now, here’s some language about the project: “MASC. is a Black, trans solo-play built on audience interaction. When Rayne’s estranged father returns from prison, he teams up with unlikely lovers, professors, and Gods to survive the truths suffocated by his mask. I will conduct a public development-week to deepen MASC.’s audience interaction, including several playtests with paid community advisors, a free work-in-progress showing, a talk-back, and dance-party inspired by a scene in the play.   During this development week, I’ll build intentionally with paid community advisors—mostly Black, Queer, and Trans folxs—refining the play’s interactive elements. It’s a story of forgiveness and transformation that dissects patriarchy, toxic masculinity, and the carceral system’s impact on Black men. Black masculine people are often feared or discarded. This process will ensure audience members move through an emotional arc of forgiveness alongside Rayne—disarmed by catharsis, creating temporary communities of change-makers each night. I believe MASC. can inspire folxs to offer their own testimonies of apology and release. I hope they begin to kill the cop in their head—the one who punishes, withholds love, and defines people by harm. Theater helped me imagine the world I needed: free from white supremacy, patriarchy, prisons, and gender-based violence. This week will help MASC. realize its full, interactive power—channeling the spirit of activist spaces that traditional, proscenium theatre often cannot.” Look out for more information on how to join our Community Advisory in the new year! 💥🪩 📸 @wanderineyephotography

I’m happy to announce that @moaphilly , a project by world-renowned public artist Meg Saligman and 100+ artists, makers, and performers, will crash land into Old City, Philadelphia on Saturday, March 14, 2026. The Ministry of Awe is a living work of art. It’s a bank that trades in humanity instead of money, and a beautiful six-story space of collaboration and artistry. As one of the artists, I’m working on a “private” piece—something unlike anything I’ve ever attempted, and unlike anything you’ve ever imagined… Timed-entry tickets will be on sale soon! Follow @moaphilly or sign up for the mailing list to be the first to know: /connect

🎭 Dive into the world of “New Heaven, New Earth” with Rayne! Discover how Cleopatra’s legacy is reimagined in a modern setting. Catch the full episode now! #NewHeavenNewEarth #BroadStreetReview @broadstreview #Podcast @fringearts @shakespeareinclarkpark @raynetheplaywright @cannonballfest

MEET THE ARTISTS: new heaven, new earth Rayne (Angela Bey)'s revisionist history with live music returns after a sold out one night showing at Philly Theatre Week for a developmental reading through Philadelphia Theatre Company's Text and Dramaturgy Cohort at Cannonball. SCP audiences recently enjoyed Rayne's Philostrate/Oberon in this summer's A BOTTOM'S DREAM, and previously played Orlando in SCP's glam rock TWELFTH NIGHT. September 1st 6pm September 16th 8pm The Proscenium at the Drake 🎟: /events/new-heaven-new-earth/ #NewHeavenNewEarth #AntonyAndCleopatra #phillyfringe2025 #Shakespeareinclarkpark #Cannonball2025 #BlackArtMatters

3D animation, archival photography, and narration combine in this metaphysical story that asks: Do you remember yourself? Afterworlds: The immersive installation. Opening at @iceboxprojectspace between Sep 3rd - Sep 28th. Tickets are available in the bio This project is in development through @philatheatreco

Such an exciting first day @templeuniv workshopping our brand new play honoring Willam Savage and Ramona Griffiths 💗 Huge thank you to @iodtemple and everyone making this project possible! 💫