After experiencing how collectively reckoning with traumatic queer theatre history can also be joyful in his classroom, professor John Michael DiResta led a series of readings of queer period plays from the last half-century. He reflects on the way this process led to community building and healing beyond his expectations.

Theatre professor John Michael DiResta reflects on teaching queer theatre history to students who have had very different lived queer experiences than he had growing up. By investigating queer theatrical history from a contemporary lens and with an invitation to engage and make something new, his students were able to find the joy in history where they previously only saw trauma.