[category]
[title]
National Queer Theater’s annual Criminal Queerness Festival returns to HERE Arts Center (145 Sixth Ave.) June 9–27 as the official theater event of NYC Pride (which is not to say that there won't be plenty more queer theater happening this month throughout NYC). The Obie Award-winning festival spotlights new works by LGBTQ+ playwrights from countries where queerness is criminalized or censored, with this year’s lineup centering Arab queer voices. The 2026 edition includes the punk-infused musical Area D, the dark comedy faggy faafi Cairo boy and the surreal afterlife fantasia Syrian Soap.