Godfriend is a new, groundbreaking theatrical experience. Equal parts true story, theatrical play, live music, and spiritual gathering, Godfriend asks audiences to practice radical belief in each other while facing uncertain futures.

College professors and real-life couple Hal and Elle ask: should they have a child? As a trans man and a cis woman, the couple wonders if their spiritual callings of gender identity and procreation can coexist. Clues appear in their class discussions about the Public Universal Friend, a nineteenth-century Quaker preacher who claimed God freed them from gender. A live music score created by Hannah Read (known for her work as Lomelda) transforms the performance into a participatory Quaker meeting, where audiences listen for wisdom from the divine.

We are fundraising for costumes ($1000), videography ($1750), and hiring artists ($5000) for both our July 2026 residency at Powerhouse Theater in Poughkeepsie, NY and our August 2026 performances at The Tank in New York City. Thank you for your support!

Reviews of our work:

A play that takes all the inherent gender inequity of childbirth and flips it on its head. I loved getting a window into a relationship with an "abundance of uteri", a relationship that asks "why should I be the one to carry the baby?" Explored with humor, love, and generosity.

- Guilianna Marchese on New Play Exchange, 2025

The magic of Lomelda’s music is in that exchange, an infusion of strength and care from one person to another, no matter how small or ordinary.

- Will Gottsegen for Pitchfork, 2020

...virtuosic and highly imaginative world-building... endlessly compelling.

- O’Neill National Playwrights Conference recommending Hal Cosentino’s work , 2023

Godfriend

Co-written and co-performed by Hal Cosentino & Ellenor Riley-Condit

Directed by Caley Chase

Music and Sound by Hannah Read