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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

The Queer-Trans Performance Family Tree is more of a Galaxy
Podcast
The Queer-Trans Performance Family Tree is more of a Galaxy
With Guest H. May
by Nicolas Shannon Savard, H. May
13 September 2023
Queer Archival Praxis Roundtable
Podcast
Queer Archival Praxis Roundtable
With Guests David Silvernail, Janet Werther, Victoria Lafave, Jordan Ealey, and Kelli Crump
by Nicolas Shannon Savard, David Silvernail, Janet Werther, Victoria LaFave, Jordan Ealey, Kelli Crump
6 September 2023
Composting Queer Trauma through a Collaborative Process in SEAL
Essay
Composting Queer Trauma through a Collaborative Process in SEAL
by Rachel Pottern Nunn, Dante Fuoco, Clara Weist
24 August 2023
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).

Gender Euphoria teaser image.
Gender Euphoria, Episode 2: The Case for QTPOC Slice-of-Life Drama
Podcast

Gender Euphoria, Episode 2: The Case for QTPOC Slice-of-Life Drama

With Dillon Yruegas

23 February 2022

Gender Euphoria, the podcast, host Nicolas Shannon Savard sits down with playwright and performer, Dillon Yruegas to talk about two productions of his play The Brunch Crowd. They talk about what a slice-of-life, kitchen sink play full of trans of color characters looks like and what kind of intervention that makes in the theatrical landscape. They dive into the importance of trans joy and queer friendship and its absence on stage. Finally, Dillon reflects on how expansive approaches to casting trans and non-binary characters and how identity-based casting might open up dialogue and create space for a much wider range of faces and experiences to be seen on stage.

Gender Euphoria teaser image.
Gender Euphoria, Episode 1 Part 2: Transgender Legibility: Have We Really Reached the Transgender Tipping Point?
Podcast

Gender Euphoria, Episode 1 Part 2: Transgender Legibility: Have We Really Reached the Transgender Tipping Point?

With Joshua Bastian Cole

16 February 2022

Nicolas Shannon Savard and Joshua Bastian Cole continue their conversation about transgender representation. They critique Time magazine’s 2014 declaration of the “transgender tipping point” of cultural visibility and explore the ways in which Hollywood’s handling of trans narratives bleeds over into the theatre, politics, and daily life for trans and gender nonconforming people.

Gender Euphoria teaser image.
Gender Euphoria, Episode 1 Part 1: Transgender Legibility beyond the Tropes
Podcast

Gender Euphoria, Episode 1 Part 1: Transgender Legibility beyond the Tropes

With Joshua Bastian Cole

9 February 2022

In episode 1 (part 1) of Gender Euphoria, the podcast, host Nicolas Shannon Savard sits down with Joshua Bastian Cole to talk about popular tropes in transgender representation, gender legibility on stage, and the implications of each for trans and nonbinary theatremakers.

Gender Euphoria teaser image.
Introduction to Gender Euphoria
Podcast

Introduction to Gender Euphoria

2 February 2022

Welcome to Gender Euphoria, the podcast! In this episode, host and producer Nicolas Savard explains the origin story of this new podcast and what (and who) we should expect to hear from this season.

trans plays of remembrance festival poster.
Trans [Plays] of Remembrance
Video

Trans [Plays] of Remembrance

Three Nights of Short Plays and Performances By Trans* Playwrights and Roundtable Discussions with Playwrights, Actors, and Community Members.

Wednesday 17 November to Friday 19 November 2021
United States

Presenting Trans [Plays] of Remembrance livestreamed on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv from Wednesday 17 November to Friday 19 November 2021 at 4 p.m. PST (San Francisco, UTC -8) / 6 p.m. CST (Chicago, UTC -6) / 7 p.m. EST (New York, UTC -5).

event poster for menatma fall convening with group photo of MENA artists.
Middle Eastern North African Theatre Makers Alliance Fall Convening
Video

Middle Eastern North African Theatre Makers Alliance Fall Convening

Panel Conversations about Women Playwrights and Queer Artists

Saturday 6 November and Sunday 7 November 2021
United States

Middle Eastern North African Theatre Makers Alliance presented their Fall Convening livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Saturday 6 November and Sunday 7 November 2021.

A person wearing blue and red holding out a stick.
The Refusal to be Disappeared: Lukas Avendaño’s Xibalbay
Essay

The Refusal to be Disappeared: Lukas Avendaño’s Xibalbay

28 October 2021

María Regina Firmino-Castillo discusses the inspiration behind and implications of Lukas Avendaño’s Xibalbay, a multidisciplinary performance project that relates enduring stories of the Mayan underworld to contemporary forced disappearances of people in Mexico.

event poster with headshots of panelists for dreaming the queer future.
Dreaming the Queer Future
Video

Dreaming the Queer Future

A Conversation with the New Visions Fellowship on the Importance of Transgender and Gender Non-conforming Representation, Hosted by Activist and International Star, Peppermint (she/her)

Tuesday 19 October 2021
United States

The Dramatists Guild presented the online conversation Dreaming the Queer Future livestreaming on the commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Tuesday 19 October at 3 p.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 5 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 6 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4).