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LGBTQIA+ Theatre

This section contains content about work created by and for the LGBTQIA+ community. Dive in with the series Gender Power and Politics, curated by MJ Kaufman, or Beyond Angry Lesbians and Gay Best Friends: Writing Gender and Sexuality in the 21st Century, a panel from the Dramatists Guild.

The Latest

SWANA and Queer in the Global Story
Video
SWANA and Queer in the Global Story
Doing It For Ourselves
Sunday 26 March 2023
Chicago, Illinois
“Marimacha” Laughs its Way Through Representation of Latine, Black, and Queer Characters
Essay
“Marimacha” Laughs its Way Through Representation of Latine, Black, and Queer Characters
by Daphnie Sicre
13 February 2023
Blessings with Brittani Samuel
Podcast
Blessings with Brittani Samuel
by Yura Sapi, Brittani Samuel
1 February 2023
event poster for doing it for ourselves with speaker headshots.
SWANA and Queer in the Global Story
Video

SWANA and Queer in the Global Story

Doing It For Ourselves

Sunday 26 March 2023
Chicago, Illinois

Join playwright Martin Yousif Zebari and director Sivan Battat for an online conversation moderated by Co-Executive Artistic Director of Silk Road Rising Jamil Khoury about the intersections of SWANA and Queer identities. This event will have live, human-written captions.

A young woman looks to her right.
“Marimacha” Laughs its Way Through Representation of Latine, Black, and Queer Characters
Essay

“Marimacha” Laughs its Way Through Representation of Latine, Black, and Queer Characters

13 February 2023

Daphnie Sicre discusses the way that Latinidad, Blackness, and queerness intersect in “Marimacha,” comedic coming out story about an AfroPanamanian family on their way to a wedding.

Building Our Own Tables Season 3 teaser image.
Blessings with Brittani Samuel
Podcast

Blessings with Brittani Samuel

1 February 2023

Recently named Edward Medina Prize winner Brittani Samuel joins Yura Sapi to share about her experience building her own table as a theatre critic. Topics in this episode include choosing joy every day, being a child of immigrants, and a shared meditation practice. This episode is dedicated to theare artist and critic Edward Medina, honoring his legacy which brings us all together today.

Building Our Own Tables Season 3 teaser image.
Fill Your Cup with Abundance Zaddy
Podcast

Fill Your Cup with Abundance Zaddy

18 January 2023

Abundance Zaddy joins Yura Sapi to talk about creating Cause Reign, an oral history project that connects Black people—with a focus on Black trans and queer folks—to their histories through dreamwork, the practice of remembering, recording, and activating the healing potential of dreams. Topics in this episode include prioritizing love and sweetness, transcending time, and asking for consent.

Two performers embrace each other with their foreheads touching.
The Queer Theatre We Need Now
Essay

The Queer Theatre We Need Now

13 December 2022

David Valdes explores the limitations of queer theatre historically and makes the case for a more expansive future—one that includes a wider range of characters living more complex lives, created by more queer theatremakers.

A woman dancing on stage.
Shakespeare in Gdansk: A Vessel for Past, Present, and Future
Essay

Shakespeare in Gdansk: A Vessel for Past, Present, and Future

29 September 2022

Monica Payne recaps the 26th international Gdansk Shakespeare Festival, where artists from around the globe adapted, deconstructed, and celebrated Shakespeare’s plays through boldly contemporary productions.

PUHA Season 1 Episode 2 w/ Gergö David Farkas, Kemelo Sehlapelo, and Veronika Szabó.
Queerness and Gender
Podcast

Queerness and Gender

14 September 2022

In this week’s episode of PUHA podcast, co-hosts Bíborka and Zsófi navigate their way through a discussion of what queerness means with performer, actress, and director Veronika Szabó; contemporary dancer Kemelo Sehlapelo; and dancer, choreographer, and clubber Gergő Dávid Farkas. Together, they contemplate identities, responsibility, and the way queer people exist in society.

An actor touches the face of another actor while standing on a darkened stage.
Bringing Identity to Staged Intimacy
Essay

Bringing Identity to Staged Intimacy

A Conversation with Adi Cabral

1 September 2022

Ann James talks to Adi Cabral about Cabral’s path though the intimacy industry. As a practitioner and professor, Cabral approaches intimacy choreography by centering harm prevention while working to create opportunities for students to identify and grow within their boundaries.

Two actors staring lovingly into each other's eyes.
Erasure is Not an Option: Intimacy Advocacy Through a Transgender Lens
Essay

Erasure is Not an Option: Intimacy Advocacy Through a Transgender Lens

A Conversation with Raja Benz

30 August 2022

Ann James sits down with intimacy choreographer Raja Benz to discuss her experience implementing cultures of consent in rehearsal rooms, cultivating a localized approach to intimacy work, and centering trans perspectives in theatrical processes.

Two actors kissing on stage.
The Queering of Intimacy: Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Action
Essay

The Queering of Intimacy: Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Action

A Conversation with Brooke Haney

29 August 2022

Ann James interviews Brooke Haney, creator of The Actor’s Warm Down, about closure practices in intimacy practice, when to pass work to someone else, and the need to represent queer stories through an authentically queer lens.

A person in the foreground with another person behind them.
Minding the Gaps: Making Space for All Identities in Intimacy Work
Essay

Minding the Gaps: Making Space for All Identities in Intimacy Work

24 August 2022

Ann James sits down with Chelsey Morgan to discuss the way their background in multiple intimacy work methodologies informs their work as a facilitator, director, writer, and intimacy specialist. Across all their work, Chelsey curates a practice that individualizes approaches to intimacy based on the needs of both the actors and the story.

sculpture floating above a theatrical stage.
Intimacy and Equity: A Balancing Act
Essay

Intimacy and Equity: A Balancing Act

23 August 2022

Ann James introduces the Rebuilding for the Future: A Convergence of Thought Leaders in Intimacy Practice series with this call for intimacy professionals to build a foundation of equity in the industry by interrogating available mentorship and training structures. This essay begins that work by highlighting the need for a diverse pool of training ideologies and methods; and the interview-based series that follows takes up that need by highlighting the perspectives of eight practitioners who navigate the intimacy industry in a variety of ways.

Daughters of Lorraine - Fat Ham
A Soft Place To Land: James Ijames' Fat Ham
Podcast

A Soft Place To Land: James Ijames' Fat Ham

13 July 2022

This episode focuses on the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Drama winner, Fat Ham by James Ijames. Leticia and Jordan discuss the recent production at the Public Theater, its conversation and diversion from Shakespeare, representations of Black queerness, and what it means to be soft as a black person.

2022 TCG Conference in Pittsburgh event poster.
2022 TCG National Conference: Pittsburgh
Video

2022 TCG National Conference: Pittsburgh

Redefining Our Art. Transforming Our Practices. Tending to Our People.

Thursday 16 June to Saturday 18 June 2022
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States

Theatre Communications Group (TCG) presented the 2022 TCG National Conference: Pittsburgh livestreaming on the commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network from Thursday 16 June to Saturday 18 June 2022.

One actor stands on stage under a spotlight, kicking towards the audience.
Moving Theatre Toward Collective Self-Defense: Virginia Grise’s Your Healing is Killing Me
Essay

Moving Theatre Toward Collective Self-Defense: Virginia Grise’s Your Healing is Killing Me

26 May 2022

Educator and writer Marci McMahon reflects on her experience seeing Virginia Grise’s movement manifesto Your Healing is Killing Me at Cara Mía Theatre Co.

Gender Euphoria teaser image.
Gender Euphoria, Episode 9: On Being a 'Trans Trailblazer'
Podcast

Gender Euphoria, Episode 9: On Being a 'Trans Trailblazer'

With Scott Turner Schofield

30 March 2022

Gender Euphoria, the podcast, host Nicolas Shannon Savard sits down with actor, writer, consultant, educator Scott Turner Schofield. They trouble the TV/film industry's framing of Schofield as a singular "trans trailblazer," since as he notes, trans actors were, indeed, carving out spaces to make and support one another’s art long before we were invited into Hollywood or mainstream theatre spaces. The conversation dives into the shifts that Scott has noticed in audience response to his work over the course of the last twenty years and how those are in direct conversation with national politics.

Gender Euphoria teaser image.
Gender Euphoria, Episode 8: QTPOC Comedy: Connecting, Communing, Creating Compassion
Podcast

Gender Euphoria, Episode 8: QTPOC Comedy: Connecting, Communing, Creating Compassion

With D’Lo

28 March 2022

Gender Euphoria, the Podcast host Nicolas Shannon Savard sits down with actor, writer, and comedian D’Lo to talk about his career and how he uses comedy and storytelling as tools for connection, education, and compassion.

lavender event poster for nonbinary acting methods workshop.
Nonbinary Acting Methods with Jo Michael Rezes
Video

Nonbinary Acting Methods with Jo Michael Rezes

Rezes Offers Exercises and Techniques in Performance Expansion through Gender Play, Object Study, Queer Reflections, Sense Memory, and Repetitious Failure

Friday 25 March 2022
United States

Jo Michael Rezes (they/them) presented the workshop Nonbinary Acting Methods livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network on Friday 25 March 2022 at 2 p.m. PST (San Francisco, UTC -8) / 4 p.m. CST (Chicago, UTC -6) / 5 p.m. EST (New York, UTC -5).

Gender Euphoria teaser image.
Gender Euphoria, Episode 7: Trans Theatre and the Autobiographical Assumption
Podcast

Gender Euphoria, Episode 7: Trans Theatre and the Autobiographical Assumption

With Dr. Jesse D. O'Rear

23 March 2022

Gender Euphoria, the podcast, host Nicolas Shannon Savard sits down with artist-scholar, Dr. Jesse O’Rear. This episode features a conversation with Dr. O’Rear about his research on and experience working with autobiographical trans narratives in performance and a phenomenon he calls the “autobiographical assumption” which audiences often read onto trans artists.

Gender Euphoria teaser image.
Gender Euphoria, Episode 6: Putting on the Trans Educator Top Hat
Podcast

Gender Euphoria, Episode 6: Putting on the Trans Educator Top Hat

With Rebecca Kling

21 March 2022

Gender Euphoria, the Podcast, host Nicolas Shannon Savard sits down with storyteller, educator, and advocate for transgender rights, Rebecca Kling. Their conversation addresses Rebecca’s work as a solo performer-turned-activist, the importance of consent in deciding to take on the trans educator role, and her radical and hilarious approach to the post-show talkback: the Strip Q and A.

photo of peter hujar standing on one leg and saluting.
Coffeehouse Chronicles #163: Peter Hujar
Video

Coffeehouse Chronicles #163: Peter Hujar

Part artist-portrait, part history lesson, and part community forum, Coffeehouse Chronicles take an intimate look at the development of downtown theatre in New York City

Saturday 19 March 2022
New York City

La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club presented Coffeehouse Chronicles #163: Peter Hujar livestreaming on the commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Saturday 19 March at 12 p.m. PST (San Francisco, UTC -8) / 2 p.m. CST (Chicago, UTC -6) / 3 p.m. EST (New York, UTC -5).

Gender Euphoria teaser image.
Gender Euphoria, Episode 5: Queer of Color Devised Performance, Disidentification, and Spirituality
Podcast

Gender Euphoria, Episode 5: Queer of Color Devised Performance, Disidentification, and Spirituality

With siri gurudev

9 March 2022

Gender Euphoria, the podcast, host Nicolas Shannon Savard sits down with siri gurudev to talk about their devising practice which blends queer of color theory and performance techniques, popular music, and spirituality and to chat about their dissertation research on ritual, trauma, and healing in QTPOC performance.

Gender Euphoria teaser image.
Gender Euphoria, Episode 4: Training Cisgender Producers and Directors: It’s More than Remembering Pronouns
Podcast

Gender Euphoria, Episode 4: Training Cisgender Producers and Directors: It’s More than Remembering Pronouns

With Maybe Burke

3 March 2022

Gender Euphoria, the podcast, host Nicolas Shannon Savard sits down with actor, writer, and human rights advocate Maybe Burke to talk about her role at the Transgender Training Institute and their signature course, “Supporting Transgender Actors & Creatives.”

Gender Euphoria teaser image.
Gender Euphoria, Episode 3: Building Black Queer Worlds Onstage and Behind the Scenes
Podcast

Gender Euphoria, Episode 3: Building Black Queer Worlds Onstage and Behind the Scenes

With Azure D. Osborne-Lee

28 February 2022

Gender Euphoria, the Podcast, host Nicolas Shannon Savard sits down with playwright Azure D. Osborne-Lee to talk about their play, Crooked Parts; building Black queer worlds onstage; and the mentorship, community-building, and production practices that go into bringing those worlds to life.

event poster for a conversation about drowing in cairo.
Meet the Cast of Drowning in Cairo by Adam Ashraf Elsayigh
Video

Meet the Cast of Drowning in Cairo by Adam Ashraf Elsayigh

A world premiere centered on three Arab gay men trying to rebuild their lives after their arrest on a gay nightclub in 2001

Friday 25 February 2022
United States

Golden Thread presented a conversation with the cast of Drowning in Cairo by Adam Ashraf Elsayigh livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network on Friday 25 February 2022 at 11 a.m. PST (San Francisco, UTC -8) / 1 p.m. CST (Chicago, UTC -6) / 2 p.m. EST (New York, UTC -5).