When we think of live arts, we might consider the words, “to create”. When we think of creating, we might consider what it means to collaborate together. When we think of collaboration, we might consider what it means to be a community. In the case of queer work and visibility within the performing arts, we have a substantial history to learn from involving many of us from the LGBTQIA2+ community. For those of us who are a part of this history, we have a sense of belonging and being accepted in one of our community’s most long-standing, dynamic, and prominent places of refuge:
the theater.
Whether it was in plays, musicals, drag performance, burlesque, dance, the circus, music concerts or in the orchestra pit, cabarets, queer-friendly bars, the rich tradition of pantomime, early theatrical cross-dressing, some of the works of William Shakespeare, productions which combine these various artistic mediums of expression, theatre companies and organizations who dared to make and impact with their spaces and spearhead change, or simply being an institution for those who have ever felt as if they don’t belong in their environment or don’t feel that they are being seen, heard, or understood. The performance art space, no matter the type of “stage” or what arts it may produce, is our home.
This home that we call the theater has a history that we absolutely must continue learning about, as well as a history worth protecting in the midst of great uncertainty that includes the very real threat of our voices and stories being censored or banned in numerous areas across our country. Our heroes were not invisible people, they did not remain silent, and their contributions will forever be of immense significance and will continue to be acknowledged. You could help create a theatre company like Gay Sweatshop Theatre Company, which challenged mainstream perceptions of queer people. You could be a notable creative artist and/or dramatist such as Joe Orton, Larry Kramer, Mart Crowley, Mae West, Harvey Fierstein, Shelagh Delaney, Barry Humphries, Noël Coward, a black lesbian playwright like Jackie Kay, or even Jo Clifford, Richard O’Brien, and Laverne Cox who are all openly trans theatre artists.
We have our heroes to learn from and be inspired by, and just as importantly, we have history that we can and will create moving forward. Our work is far from any semblance of completion, and progress is still very much an ongoing battle. We continue to lack voices and increased volume of personal truths from many disenfranchised areas. These areas may include working class and homeless stories, disabled and mentally divergent stories, transgender and non-binary stories, asexual stories, Black, Native/Indigenous, Asian, Latinx stories (and stories from many other cultures), stories from those fighting persecution and disease, stories by women of color, and even stories that shed stage light on the experiences of bi and pansexual voices.
I invite all of us on National Coming Out Day 2024, and beyond, to both celebrate our accomplishments and remain aware of the work that we need to do and continue it. I would like all of us to consider how we contribute to this essential history and continue to create it even when present-day matters may be particularly challenging and discouraging. How do we keep the performing arts alive for queer communities, and how do we ensure that queer history is kept alive in what we call “live arts”? How do we in queer communities overcome great fear that unfortunately still reigns in the present day?
On behalf of our organization, we wish everybody good health, safety, acceptance, and much love wherever it may be realized.
Let’s keep our spotlights radiant with a vast assemblage of color!
Mark C. Westberg (Vice President-He/They)
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