INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS, TRAVEL BANS, AND TRUMP 2.0

How travel restrictions and transphobia threaten to make producing international work even harder than it already is in the U.S.

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It’s onerous. It’s anxiety-inducing. It’s way too complicated and outrageously expensive.

It’s the famously difficult process of securing an American work visa for a performing artist from abroad—and that’s how producers and presenters described it even before Trump issued his latest travel bans.

Now, with nationals from a dozen countries officially barred from entering the U.S. and heightened restrictions placed on travelers from another seven—not to mention the possibility of bans on an additional 36 countries—the hoops and hurdles in the way of programming and producing international artists in the U.S. have become even harder to navigate.

Factor in the string of executive orders aimed at delegitimizing trans, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming identities, and suddenly the prospect of bringing over global theater creators is more fraught and uncertain than ever.

The turbulence of the Trump 2.0 era is having repercussions in all sectors of American social, political and economic life. The international performing arts market is no exception, from the countrywide network of U.S. presenters who thrive on international work to the commercial nexus of Broadway, where this year’s newly minted Tony champ is a Korean-born musical (Maybe Happy Ending) that opened in the same season as a show with a score entirely sung in Spanish (Buena Vista Social Club) and another one co-created by a Mexican musician and centered on the stories of undocumented immigrants (Real Women Have Curves).

“The fact that there are baked-in risks and costs that make it so much harder to work with international artists has a massive effect on what you’re seeing produced in this country,” says the attorney and immigration expert Matthew Covey of CoveyLaw, the go-to firm for many American producers, presenters, and institutions navigating the legal hurdles of working with creators from abroad.

I’ve been researching these logistical complexities over the last few months, and now Trump’s travel bans have suddenly made the topic more timely than ever. The quotes and information in this story come from recent interviews I’ve conducted on the subject as well as panels and presentations arranged by concerned U.S.-based organizations like the Association of Performing Arts Professionals (APAP).

In this SPOTLIGHT STORY, I’ll highlight

• the boots-on-the-ground perspectives of American producers and presenters who prioritize international work,

• a primer on the U.S. visa classifications that apply to nonimmigrant artists,

• a breakdown of the application process and why it’s so unpredictable,

• all the potential roadblocks, pitfalls, and price tags you’ll encounter along the way, and

• what executive orders on “biological truth” mean for trans and nonbinary artists from abroad.

THE FALLOUT BEGINS

Compared to the first Trump administration, which issued travel bans on day one, Trump 2.0’s bans and restrictions (announced June 4 before taking effect June 9) took a surprisingly long time to land. But even before then, the process of getting foreign artists into the U.S. was full of uncertainty and unpleasant surprises.

Jay Wegman is the senior director at New York University’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, which under his tenure has become one of the most active presenters of international performing arts in the city. Wegman recalls that back in March 2024, one of the dancers in a show by the Brussels-based choreographer Mette Ingvartsen was never granted entry to the country, with no explanation. Although the dancer lived in Berlin and was an E.U. citizen, he was born in Iran—which seemed the likeliest explanation for the denial. And that was before Iran was one of 12 countries named in the new travel bans.

Wegman anticipates the fallout from the new bans to be similar to those issued in 2017. “What those bans did is to remove all those countries on the list from consideration for inviting their work,” he says.

Exceptions to the bans are possible when it can be successfully argued that an artist’s visit is in the national interest of the U.S. It’s not yet clear, however, just how hard it will be to make a case that convinces the State Department to grant such exceptions.

“The question we’re trying to answer right now is: How performative are these bans?” Covey says. “Are they creating the media around a ban, and then in practice the State Department is going to be fairly flexible in terms of who they’ll waive it for? Or is it not going to be flexible at all?”

The unpredictability has led producers and presenters from across the country to prepare for the worst.

In Tempe, Ariz., ASU Gammage—a major performing arts center on the Arizona State campus that presents everything from Broadway tours to multidisciplinary works from around the globe—has a show from a Cuban company penciled in for the 2026-27 season. But as of June 9, Cuba is among seven nations facing travel restrictions.

“We’re pretty sure the show’s not going to happen,” Colleen Jennings-Roggensack, ASU’s vice president for cultural affairs and the executive director of ASU Gammage, tells me. “We’re talking to the company now about what we can do and whether we truly think we’ll be able to get them in.”

In her role at Gammage, Jennings-Roggensack straddles both the world of U.S. arts presenters (she’s on the steering committee of the International Presenting Commons) and the commercial realm (she’s also vice-chair of the road on the Broadway League’s Board of Governors). For her, a major source of concern is the ripple effects she’s seeing as a result of how hard it is to get international artists into the country.

“Already presenters are saying, Well, maybe I ought to take that slot in my season and give it to an American company rather than an international one,” she says. “Or worse: Maybe I ought to just make the season one less show.”

Trump’s recent bans and executive orders have also significantly impacted the perception of the U.S. in the eyes of the global arts community.

“The story of America has turned in a way that makes it so much less attractive now for international artists to engage in the cultural sphere in U.S. life,” says producer Thomas O. Kriegsmann, who as the president of ArKtype produces New York’s venerable Under the Radar festival and works with a broad portfolio of global artists on the international presenting circuit.

“For artists who are politically inclined, they want nothing to do with the U.S.,” he adds. “And there are also artists who are averse to stepping foot in America because they’re scared to come and not be able to get out.”

From visa classifications to immigration pitfalls to “biological truth” decrees, here’s what artists, producers, and presenters are facing when they bring international work into the country.

THE CLASSIFICATIONS TO KNOW