ESCENAS FLAMENCAS
From Canvas to Life
By The Flamenco Workshop and Furia Flamenca
April 25
ESCENAS FLAMENCAS brings the world of flamenco to life by turning iconic oil paintings into live performances. Each painting represents a different flamenco style. First the scene appears as a still image, full of color and mood. Then the dancers break away from the canvas and carry the style forward with movement, rhythm, and emotion.
The production is created by Furia Flamenca and The Flamenco Workshop. Choreography and dance are performed by Estela and Daniel Paredez from Furia Flamenca. The music is brought to life by Alma and Paul, with the special collaboration of Bruno Lucini, percussionist and drummer from the Latin jazz band Downtown Tumbao.
Together they shape a show that feels both artistic and electric. Each cuadro grows from brushstroke to dance, from silence to guitar, voice, and percussion. The result is a unique espectáculo filled with power, passion, and the spirit of flamenco in its purest form.
Showtime:
April 25 @ 2:30pm
April 25 @ 7:00pm
Tickets:
General Admission: $25
Seniors & Artists: $20
Students: $15
Please click below to purchase tickets.
BALTIMORE STORY FEST 2026
From the Page to the Stage
Curated and Directed by Phill Branch
A mic, spotlight and a good story is all you need to take a room full of people on a journey.
Now in its third year, Baltimore Story Fest, curated and directed by Phill Branch, continues to spotlight some of the most compelling storytellers in the region, artists who use personal narrative to move audiences, build connection, and bring lived experience to the stage.
Over the past two years, as the festival has grown, so has a different kind of response. Audiences haven’t just asked to hear stories—they’ve asked how to tell their own.
In response, Branch is expanding Baltimore Story Fest in 2026 to include a three-day writing and storytelling intensive, designed for artists, writers, and anyone interested in shaping personal narrative.
“People kept asking how the stories are made-on the page, on stage, in real time,” says Branch. “This felt like a natural next step. A way to open that process up and invite people into it.”
Grounded in the same approach that informs his debut memoir, The Double Dutch Fuss, which has received critical acclaim including a starred review from Library Journal, the intensive focuses on helping participants move from memory to manuscript to performance.
At a time when expression can feel both urgent and uncertain, the expansion reflects a broader commitment: to create space for people not just to listen, but to find and use their own voice.
Accessible, practical, and rooted in lived experience, the workshop offers an opportunity for participants to engage deeply with storytelling without barriers, and in community.
The Story Workshop Structure
Friday, May 1st – 7:30pm
Day 1: Writing the Personal Narrative — Finding the Story
Participants begin by identifying the stories that matter most.
Focus areas include:
- Mining memory for meaningful narrative material
- Writing beyond chronology—finding emotional entry points
- Voice development and authenticity
- Understanding what makes a story worth telling
Participants will leave with the foundation of a personal essay rooted in lived experience.
Saturday, May 2nd – 7:30pm
Day 2: Craft & Structure — Shaping the Work
Day two focuses on transforming raw material into intentional narrative.
Participants will explore:
- Structure in memoir and personal essays
- Scene-building, tension, and pacing
- Balancing reflection and action
- Revision as a creative practice
By the end of the day, participants will have a more fully realized piece of nonfiction writing.
Sunday, May 3rd
Day 3: From Page to Stage — The Art of Storytelling
The final day shifts from writing to performance.
Drawing on his experience as a Moth GrandSLAM Champion and live storyteller, Branch guides participants through:
- Translating written work into spoken narrative
- Presence, pacing, and audience connection
- What changes when a story is told out loud
- Performing with clarity and intention
Participants will have the opportunity to share their work in a supportive, workshop-style environment.
Special Event: Pre-Launch Book Reading
The festival will culminate with a reading and conversation featuring Branch. He will share excerpts from The Double Dutch Fuss and discuss the journey from memory to memoir, followed by brief Q&A. Preorder the book HERE.
About Phill Branch
Phill Branch is a writer, live performance storyteller, and regional Emmy Award-winning filmmaker whose work explores identity, masculinity, and the power of personal narrative.
He is the author of The Double Dutch Fuss (HarperCollins/Amistad, 2026), a debut memoir that has received critical acclaim including a starred review from Library Journal.
Branch is a GrandSLAM Champion of The Moth and has performed nationally and internationally. He is a recipient of the Maryland State Arts Council’s Creativity Grant and the Council’s highest honor, the Individual Artist Award for Solo Performance. A Lambda Literary Emerging Voices Fellow, he is also the founder and Creative Director of Baltimore Story Fest.
An alumnus of the American Film Institute, Branch holds an MFA in Screenwriting and a BA from Hampton University, where he later returned as a professor in the English department. He is currently a Resident Artist at the Howard County Center for the Arts.
Showtimes:
May 1 @ 7:30pm – FINDING THE STORY
May 2 @ 7:30pm – SHAPING THE WORK
May 3 @ 3:00pm – THE ART OF STORYTELLING
Tickets:
General Admission: $15
All 3 Storytelling Intensives: $35
Please click below to purchase tickets.
GOOD TROUBLE (Excerpts)
By VTDance/Vincent E. Thomas
May 9 & 10
VTDance/Vincent E. Thomas presents Excerpts of GOOD TROUBLE.
“Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.” (John Lewis)
The dance project GOOD TROUBLE is an artful and ‘necessary’ work to ignite, instigate, investigate, and inspire dialogue and actions to strengthen the soil and soul of America. Join the journey with new excerpts of GOOD TROUBLE.
Showtimes:
Saturday, May 9 @ 7:00pm
Sunday, May 10 @ 2:00pm
Tickets:
General Admission: $25
Seniors/Artists: $20
Students: $15
Please click below to purchase tickets.
From Music in Words
ENOCH ARDEN
Words by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Music by Richard Strauss
Transcription for string trio by Molly von Gutzeit
May 15 – 17
The narrative poem ENOCH ARDEN was published by ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON in 1864 during his tenure as England’s poet laureate. The poem tells the emotionally charged story of a fisherman-turned-merchant sailor who becomes lost at sea, and it gives its name to the legal precedent whereby a person can remarry in the event of a spouse’s absence and presumed death. In 1897, RICHARD STRAUSS set the poem as a recitation for speaker and piano. These performances mark the world premiere of a transcription for string trio accompaniment by Molly von Gutzeit.
JUDITH KRUMMECK, Speaker
NIKITA BORISEVICH, Violin
BENJAMIN VON GUTZEIT, Viola
MOLLY VON GUTZEIT, Cello
*Running time: 75 minutes with a brief intermission
Showtimes:
May 15 @ 7:30pm
May 16 @ 7:30pm
May 17 @ 3:00pm
Tickets:
General Admission: $30
Seniors: $25
Students: $20
Please click below to purchase tickets.
THE VIEW UPSTAIRS
Book, Music, and Lyrics by Max Vernon
Iron Crow Theatre
May 29 – June 14
THE VIEW UPSTAIRS is a fiercely original, soul-stirring tribute to queer history, community, and resilience. With a lush, genre-blending score by Max Vernon, this boundary-pushing work transports audiences to 1973 New Orleans and into the Upstairs Lounge—a vibrant gay bar and haven for queer joy, chosen family, and radical self-expression.
Inspired by the true story of the deadliest attack on the LGBTQ+ community in U.S. history prior to the Pulse Nightclub tragedy, THE VIEW UPSTAIRS reclaims a moment in our collective history many tried to erase. It invites us to gather in solidarity with those we lost, and challenges us to confront what allowed the world to look away.
Showtimes:
May 29 @ 8pm
May 30 @ 8pm
May 31 @ 3pm
June 5 @ 8pm
June 6 @ 8pm
June 7 @ 3pm
June 12 @ 8pm
June 13 @ 2pm
June 13 @ 8pm
June 14 @ 3pm
Tickets:
Available soon
Please click the crow below for more information.
From IN Series
THE SONG OF SAKUNTALA
Music by Timothy Nelson
Texts by Sarojini Naidu Rabindranath Tagore, Vidyapati
Direction and Dance by Hari Krishnan
June 19 – 21
With its story taken from India’s most famous dramatic work, Kalidasa’s 5th century play SHAKUNTALA, itself made into an opera by composers such as Alfano and Schubert, this new opera by IN Series Artistic Director Timothy Nelson fuses Western baroque instruments with Indian classical instruments to create a “dance-opera” on the themes of love, loss, and redemption. Its libretto is formed from the texts of formational Indian poets from across centuries, as well as the sacred Mahabharata words.
Imagined in the still of a concert of Indian classical music, it promises an evening like a “single song, permutated across the hours, in a mood of evocation and remembrance and longing illuminated by swirling, dizzying aspiration – meditation, yearning, whispering, calling, chanting, talking and touching late into the night.”
Featuring: Aryssa Leigh Burrs, Teresa Ferrara
Showtimes:
June 19 @ 7:00pm
June 20 @ 7:00pm
June 21 @ 2:30pm
Tickets:
General Admission: $35
Students: $25
Please click below to purchase tickets.
ROUND TIME
By In Flight Theater
June 25 – 28
Round Time is a striking and soulful aerial performance born of the urgent present from aerialist, Mara Neimanis (Air Heart, Naomi’s Flight, Swing). With performance partner Morgan Mincer, Neimanis creates a duet for two generations of airborne women, bearing aloft audio testimonies from community voices of women of many ages.
Together, Neimanis and Mincer explore old cycles and new dynamics, as generations of women, 30 years apart, lift one another-fly one another!-in troubled times. Pure visual poetry to make your heart sing.
Created as a commission for The Cherry Arts in NY, with a grant from The National Endowment for The Arts and The NY State Counsel of The Arts. Featuring direction by Claire Marie Mannle (SITI Company) and aerial sculpture by Tim Scofield.
Showtimes:
June 25 @ 7:30pm
June 26 @ 7:30pm
June 27 @ 2:00pm
June 27 @ 7:30pm
June 28 @ 2:00pm
Tickets:
General Admission: $25
Seniors & Artists: $20
Students: $25
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PHARAOH: EGYPT’S WOMAN KING HATSHEPSUT
Written by Tim Hogan
Directed by and Starring Michal Roxie Johnson
August 8
Driven by ambition and a call from the gods, Hatshepsut, a woman who lived 3,500 years ago, defied the odds, claimed the throne from a boy-king, dressed like a man, and ruled patriarchal Ancient Egypt (Kemet) as a female Pharaoh before her memory was nearly erased.
Relive the untold true story of history’s first great woman ruler and her Machiavellian-like rise to power. In an epic biographical One-Woman play featuring a tour-de-force performance by actress Michal Roxie Johnson, embodying 18 distinct roles across every age, class, and gender, the work speaks to universal themes of womanhood, gender identity, and empowerment once thought lost to the sands of time…
Showtime:
August 8 @ 2:00pm
August 8 @ 8:00pm
Tickets:
General Admission: $25
Seniors & Artists: $20
Students: $15
Please click below to purchase tickets.
