Prison Dancer: The Musical

In 2007, a YouTube video showing the inmates of a maximum-security prison in the Philippines dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” went viral on the internet. Who were these dancers? How and why did they do it? Romeo Candido (composer and book writer) and Carmen De Jesus (book writer) took inspiration from one of the world’s first viral videos to bring audiences inside the redemption, suffering, and joy that embodies the story told in this incredible new musical. An award-winning transmedia experience that spans multiple platforms, Broadway-bound Prison Dancer is a modern inspired-by-a-true-story about how fears can hold us captive and the power of art and connection can set us free through dance!

Cutler Majestic Theatre

The Seasons

A group of contemporary artists comes to a retreat in nature to make their art. They feel the emotional weather inside of them more than they feel the weather outside of them. But extreme weather impacts them without warning and changes their lives forever. The Seasons is a meditation on the relationship between our contemporary moment and Vivaldi’s iconic music, which appreciated the harmonious seasons. Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, paired with additional arias and ensembles by the composer, becomes an occasion for seeing our own disordered seasons more clearly.

Robert J. Orchard Stage, Paramount

Admissions Granted

In a landmark Supreme Court case pitting Asian American plaintiffs against Harvard University, activists on both sides wrestle with hard truths about race, equality, and Asian Americans’ precarious status in America, as the fate of affirmative action hangs in the balance.

Bright Family Screening Room (BFSR)

9-Man

9-MAN&nbsp;uncovers an isolated and unique streetball tournament played by Chinese-Americans in the heart of Chinatowns across the USA and Canada. Largely undiscovered by the mainstream, the game is a gritty, athletic, chaotic urban treasure traditionally played in parking lots and back alleys and it is fiercely protected by a community of men who require that 2/3 of players are “100% Chinese.” In the 1930’s, a 9-Man tournament was born. It emerged at a time when anti-Chinese sentiment and laws forced restaurant workers and laundrymen to socialize exclusively amongst themselves. Today it’s a lasting connection to Chinatown for a dynamic community of men who know a different, more integrated world, but still fight to maintain autonomy and tradition.

Home Court

Ashley is a Cambodian American basketball phenom. Her natural talent and tenacity makes coaches and family want to support her even when they don’t always know how. Filmed over three years, Home Court is a coming-of-age story that follows Ashley’s family dynamics, both tender and tragic, as she navigates being one of the top basketball recruits in the country. Home Court&nbsp;draws from the intricate history of Asian Americans and their relationships with sports, community, and the interweaving of the two. Anti-Asian racism and xenophobia that were prominent in the late 19th and early 20th centuries resulted in Asian Americans forming sports leagues of their own. In the 1930s and 40s, Asian American women began playing for co-ed teams, helping to pave the way for women like Jaime Hagiya, Natalie Nakase and now Asheley Chea to thrive in these spaces.

TAKING ROOT: SOUTHEAST ASIAN STORIES OF RESETTLEMENT IN PHILADELPHIA

Taking Root amplifies the stories of Southeast Asians who resettled in Philadelphia after the American War in Vietnam. It highlights the intergenerational impact of structural violence and demonstrates the power of Southeast Asians in resisting and rebuilding in America.

It's a Motherf**king Pleasure

Hot off the back of their smash-hit Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Soho Theatre NY runs, multi award-winning, disability-led theatre company FlawBored presents a scathing satire on the monetization of identity politics&nbsp;which spares no one and literally has audiences catching their breath between fits of laughter.

Jackie Libergott Black Box, Paramount

Igualada

In Colombia, a nation marred by profound racial and socio-economic disparities, a Black woman from a rural background challenges the status quo by launching a presidential campaign. Reappropriating the term “Igualada,” Francia Márquez, catapults a movement to the upper echelons of power, by refusing to “know her place.” Fifteen years in the making, this documentary peels back the curtain on how unprecedented change can happen.

Come Home, My Child

For more than two decades, Mama Yang, a Taiwanese immigrant, has dedicated her life to corresponding with inmates in New York’s prison system. Filmed over ten years, the documentary follows Mama Yang’s extraordinary life journey as she tells the stories of a group of people who encounter each other in a world of loneliness.

Utopian Hotline

Step into the cosmic conversation with Theater Mitu’s latest creation. Inspired by the 1977 NASA Voyager mission, which launched a vinyl recording of natural sounds found on Earth into space, as well as the uncertainty and isolations surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic, this experimental performance begs the question: if we were to send another message into the distant future, what message would we send? Part vinyl recording and part live performance, Utopian Hotline uses real voicemails left on a public hotline and to create a moment of community, while inviting audience members around a communal table to re-imagine our shared future. This collaborative performance, done in partnership with SETI Institute, Arizona State University’s Interplanetary Initiative, and Brooklyn Independent Middle School, is a call for audiences to join together and leave an offering of hope for mankind’s future.

Museum of Science, Planetarium

NOBUKO MIYAMOTO: A SONG IN MOVEMENT

This screening is presented in recognition of Day of Remembrance which marks 83 years of racial reckoning since the signing of Executive Order 9066 that led to the wrongful incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II. Nobuko Miyamoto: A Song in Movement&nbsp;is a sweeping documentary that follows the life of 84-year-old artist-activist Nobuko Miyamoto and her work that changed Asian America forever. After decades of groundbreaking cultural work that unites communities and sets the bar for Asian American storytelling, Miyamoto reflects on a life that has bridged coasts, industries, families, and history. Featuring rare archival footage, NOBUKO MIYAMOTO: A SONG IN MOVEMENT is a story of a changing community told through the singular life of one of its most beloved storytellers. This special presentation features a live musical introduction by Nobuko Miyamoto for 1:30pm screening.&nbsp;

Life & Times of Michael K

The Booker Prize-winning Life &amp; Times of Michael K, written by J.M Coetzee, is a stunning novel depicting the arduous personal struggles that accompanies from intense political conflict. South Africa’s Baxter Theater and Handspring Puppet Company’s inventive, poignant adaptation of this seminal book has won plaudits across Europe in New York, and now it’s coming to Boston The hauntingly beautiful story follows Michael K, a simple man who embarks on a journey through South Africa, ravaged by civil war, to return his mother to die on the farm where she was born. He finds strength in his own humanity, his profound connection to the earth, and his unique path, which, as it unfolds, reveals to him his reason for living.

Emerson Paramount Center, Robert J. Orchard Stage

On the Eve of Abolition 

In this bilingual, multimedia masterpiece, puppets, video projection, and miniature sets collide to transport audiences to a future where prison abolitionists have created the conditions to end the prison industrial complex in the liberated lands formerly known as the U.S. and Mexico. Set in 2047, this performance imagines abolition camps, formerly incarcerated people, families, and organizers working together in a fight to end all prisons, all rooted in the realities of modern-day United States and Puerto Rico. Developed and performed by the visionary artists of Papel Machete, this project centers on community engagement with abolitionist organizations and currently and formerly incarcerated people and their families in an effort to create a vision of an abolitionist future. On the Eve of Abolition offers pathways to engage in real-time organizing toward the abolition of the prison industrial complex. Through a partnership with Prison Radio, Papel Machete has engaged with political prisoners and currently incarcerated artists and accessed materials created by incarcerated people in Prison Radio’s archives. They are also partnering with Sisters Unchained, a Boston-based program engaging women/femme-identified and trans youth with family members in the carceral system.

In the Same Tongue

In the Same Tongue is a vibrant full-length movement, sound, and language based-work. Dance legend and choreographer, Dianne McIntyre, unites a vigorous company of dancers and musicians to explore how dance and music “speak” to each other. Reviving the spirit of McIntyre’s internationally celebrated company Sounds in Motion, In the Same Tongue explores a legacy like that of 1920s Harlem salons, and the Black Arts Movement of the 60’s &amp; 70’s, with dynamic dancers, writers, and musicians. With original music by celebrated composer Diedre Murray, In the Same Tongue reveals how language creates worlds of beauty, alienation, harmony, tension, or peace. Dynamic vignettes ignite the stage, including McIntyre’s autobiographical stories with “the music”—such as the musical influence of the Black Arts Movement—and feature the poetry of Obie-winning playwright Ntozake Shange.

Fight Night

The show begins with five candidates on stage. At the end of the show, only one will be victorious. Through a series of guided prompts and questions, Ontroerend Goed’s Fight Night takes you— the audience—on a journey to choose the best candidate. As each round progresses, the audience learns more information about each candidate that will inform their vote. Random checks, voting signposts, coalitions, campaigns, debates, consultants, exit polls, spin doctors, opinion gauges, list pushers, and referendums will inform your vote. The host will do anything to derail the candidates’ best intentions.. Will the audience choose someone who represents their views? Or will they choose the opposite? With a mix of humor and sharp political commentary, Fight Night is full of twists and turns that will have audiences rethinking how – and why – they vote. In the brand-new Fight Night, the world will remain outside: there are no actual political statements made inside this one-of-a-kind show, only a sharp analysis of how democracy works.

S22: conversations

Wondering what to do in Boston? Places to eat? Free activities? Good for a group? Date night spot? Girls night out? The best things to do? Ask Joyraft!

Best places to go in Boston? Things to do? Places to eat?

Questions & answers about things to do in Boston

Recs 💬

Community recs 💬

S4: top picks

The most fun, cool and unique things to do in Boston. Can’t miss events, shows and experiences. Concerts, restaurants, bars, free things in Boston and beyond.

The most fun and cool events happening around Boston

Hot and new things to do in Boston

Hot & new

Hot & new 🔥

S11: happening this weekend

What to do in Boston this weekend? From festivals, concerts, performances, free events, screenings and more, Joyraft has the best things to do in Boston.

25+ things to do in Boston/Cambridge/Somerville this weekend

Things to do in Boston this weekend

This wknd

This weekend for you

S21: roundups

Our top picks: outdoor dining, free events, spring festivals, best bars, upcoming concerts, museum parties - the latest in and around Boston.  Slug: joyraft-top-picks-best-things-to-do-boston-ma

Top picks of the best things to do in and around Boston

Joyraft picks: Boston’s best things to do

Roundups ⭐️

Curated by Joyraft ⭐️

S28: calendar experiences

This week in Boston

This week in Boston 📆

This week 📆

S20: c+d experiences

Discover new, unique events and experiences happening in and around Boston. Perfect for date night, good for a group or with a friend. Be the first to know.

The newest events happening in and around Boston

The newest events on Joyraft

Just added

Just added to Joyraft

S16: editor picks

The most unique and can’t miss things coming up in Boston / Cambridge / Somerville and beyond. Festivals, food, drinks, fairs, concerts, art and free activities.

Unique and Can’t Miss Things to Do in Boston

Can’t-miss things to do in Boston 🚨

Can't-miss things to do 🚨

S2 (A): top experiences

The most popular things to do on Joyraft. Concerts, restaurants, bars, events, parties, openings, kid friendly, date ideas, free things in Boston and beyond.

Top 20 things to do in Boston

Top 20: Joyraft’s most popular

Top 20

Top 20 on Joyraft

S3 (A): trending experiences

Discover can’t miss events and things to do in Boston. The most fun, unique and cool events coming to the Boston area this spring and summer.

The hottest events happening in Boston

Trending events on Joyraft

Trending 📈

S17: interest based

Your guide to everything free in and around Boston. From events, to fairs, to festivals, to outdoors. Joyraft has all the free events happening near you.

100+ free things to do in Boston and beyond

Free things to do in Boston

Free things to do

S19: interest based

Discover kid-friendly fun in Boston, Massachusetts, and surrounding areas! Enjoy hands-on exhibits at the Boston Children’s Museum, explore the New England Aquarium, and visit the Franklin Park Zoo. Find parks, playgrounds, and seasonal events perfect for families across Massachusetts.

Top 20 kid-friendly things to do in Boston, MA

Kid-friendly things to do in Boston

Kid-friendly events

S18: interest based

Where to eat and drink in Boston? Joyraft has Boston’s newest bars, restaurants and specials. Drinks and pre fixe dinner menus. Cambridge & Somerville too.