NYC/Colorado Playwright’s Road Home Leads to World Premiere in Brooklyn – With the Help of Upstart Crow & Visionbox Studio, A New Piece is Staged in Readings of Locker Room Talk or: How to Survive in a “Straight” Man’s World

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The Upstart Crow

PO Box 18045

Boulder, CO 80308

(303) 578-5667

Boulder, CO – From June 12-14th, Upstart Crow Theatre will be putting on Crow’s Fest, their summer play festival featuring Colorado and NYC playwright Drake Susuras and his full-length dramedy entitled Locker Room Talk or: How to Survive in a “Straight” Man’s World. Originally making its CO premiere in a 2024 staged reading for Visionbox Studio’s Queer Theatre Project, Upstart Crow will take Susuras’ work to the Dairy Arts Center (2590 Walnut St, Boulder, CO 80302) on Friday, June 12th and Saturday, June 13th, at 7:30 pm, and Sunday, June 14th, at 2 pm. Jennifer McCray Rincón will once again be leading the project as director.

This is one of many plays that Susuras has shared with Colorado audiences. Prior, Susuras has written for Visionbox Studio, the 2025 Denver Fringe Festival, Roshni Theatre’s New American Arts Festival, and IGNITE New Play Festival (Fireside Ink Writers Workshop). His work tends to focus on the nuances of queer identity and expression through unconventional lenses such as the executive office of an NFL CEO, through the eyes of one of America’s most famous illustrators on Fire Island, and now, in a high school locker room, showcasing how the worst boys in school grow up to be the worst men towering over us all today.

Locker Room Talk or: How to Survive in a “Straight” Man’s World is a manospheric retelling of every man’s experience in their high school locker room. However, the added baggage of a queer relationship makes this environment like a loaded gun ready to take anyone and anything down in its path. The only question is who’s going to pull the trigger?

After the play makes its way through Boulder in June, Susuras will be taking the piece back to Brooklyn, NY, for a production run on July 22nd and 23rd at the Brooklyn Art Haus in his NYC playwriting premiere.

Drake J. Susuras is a multidisciplinary theatre artist based in Brooklyn, NY. He has been able to collaborate artistically and technically with some of the most prestigious theaters and companies across the country, including the James Earl Jones Theater, Audible’s Minetta Lane Theater, New York City Center II, The Vineyard Theater, Women’s Project Theatre, the New Harmony Project, and Curious Theatre Company, among others. Drake’s written work has been read, workshopped, and staged throughout the U.S., including a recent staged reading at the Denver Center for Performing Arts (Champa Arts Studio), a sold-out run at the 2025 Denver Fringe Festival, and an upcoming performance run at the Brooklyn Art Haus. Drake is the recipient of the Jack Reynolds Outstanding Thespian Award, the Virginia Lowell Grabill Award for Playwriting, the 2025 Henry Award for Best Production of a Play (Downstate, Curious Theatre), and the winner of the 1st Annual IGNITE New Play Festival. He holds a BFA in Theatre Performance from the University of Evansville.

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