PORTLAND, ORE.: Fuse Theatre Ensemble has announced the lineup for the OUTwright Theatre Festival, an LGBTQ+ new works festival. The festival will be held June 1-25.

The festival’s main presentation will be the premiere of the new musical The Pursuit of Happiness (or The Wacky Lesbian Adventures of Brillo Pad and Hula Hoop), to be staged throughout the duration of the festival. The musical features a book and music by Ernie Lijoi and follows three couples who divulge their deepest, darkest secrets as a nuclear bomb heads their way—only to find they must live with their secrets when they survive. Rusty Tennant will direct and choreograph, with music direction by Mak Kastelic and dramaturgy by associate director Alexis Polis. All performances will be held at the Reed College Performing Arts Building.

The OUTwright Festival will also feature a workshop production of CRUMBS, by artist Ash, which follows a queer throuple raising two children in a utopia at the edge of the map. The one-act musical, inspired by the tale of Hansel and Gretel and directed by Melory Mirashrafi, runs June 24-27.

Staged readings include Queen of the Deseret (June 4) by Carlos-zenen Trujillo, a three-act piece based on the life of Brigham Young’s son B. Morris Young (or, in drag, Madam Pattirini); Mikki Gillette’s Blonde on a Bum Trip (June 11), which follows trans actresses and Warhol superstars Holly Woodlawn, Candy Darling, and Jackie Curtis; and Sappho: The Tenth Muse (June 18) by Ravyn Jazper-Hawke, which features six personifications of love gathering at the Temple of Aphrodite.

All staged readings and performances of CRUMBS will be held at the Back Door Theater at Common Grounds Coffee Shop.

Fuse Theatre Ensemble leads the nation in works centering trans characters, actors, and stories and is a stalwart of socially motivated theatre in the Portland community. The ensemble founded the OUTwright Theatre Festival as the Gay Pride Reading Series in 2011.