PRIDEFUL LIMELIGHT

PRIDEFUL

The Theater Offensive is a performing arts group focusing on the support for the Queer, Transgender, Black, and Indigenous People of Color (QTBIPOC) community, including a platform where the public can join their programs. True Colors: OUT Youth Theater is an example of one of the longest running programs, fostering a community for youth to feel represented in theater. Other programs that Theater Offensive supports is Queer Family Series and Queer (Re)public. These provide workshops to teach those the art of acting. Since its inception, the theater has evolved its programs, values, and mission. Over the course of the last six years, the theater’s intention has shifted. The theater now has a mission statement with seven aesthetics. Aesthetics are typically known as a set of principles concerning the nature and appreciation of beauty, especially in art. This develops a safe environment for creativity to shine under the theater lights, with productions that can be shown in person for an audience’s enjoyment.

The goals of the theater are expressing ideas of wholeness and emotional tenderness, unrealities, space and segregation and honoring the kitchens, medicinal and healing, lineage and time travel, edge + queering and ambidextrous, and lastly (be)longing. Celebrating these ideas is key in the troupe’s productions. The theater is fueled by acceptance, change, growth, and openness. Cheyenne Myrie is the Director of Institutional Advancement and Tonasia Jones is the Director of Programs for the troupe. Myrie and Jones discussed their focus on these values through topics such as intersectional practices, perspectives, and frameworks, the sharing and shifting of power, disability justice, and collective care. Those who find themselves wondering what this theater is about can find the answer by discussing who benefits from the performing arts. The troupe’s “People First Practices” and commitment to decolonization and unsettling help to create spaces where people are fully accepted.

“The theater really is for everyone, from folks in the very early stages of their career [and on]. Outside that, we are a community organization where we focus on adapting into and meeting the needs of a greater Boston Area,” said Jones.

To meet the needs of the Boston area, the theater program plans and coordinates community events, from Dungeons and Dragons meetups to Drag Storytime at the public library. Creating environments for people with diverse backgrounds allows the theater to further strengthen its outreach in Boston.

Reaching all members of the community can be difficult, but The Theater Offensive has benefited from the positive effects of the digital age. Their work is able to travel far outside of the Boston area, using innovative social media techniques. The flexibility and engagement that digital resources offer present the theater with an unexpected asset to leverage. COVID-19 presented itself as a hurdle in traditional forms of advertisement, but since expanding to digital experiences and meetings, they are able to embolden and support people from New Orleans to New York.

“I don’t think we will ever stop hybrid,” Myrie said.

The troupe recognizes that society once enforced a set of norms that have historically ignored the validity of the queer and transgender community, so they fashioned the term, “Unrealities.” An unreality, defined by The Theater Offensive, is a way of centering the experience and brilliance of queer and transgender individuals through imagined worlds. The Spell, a structural framework for manifestation and spiritual connection to the QTBIPOC community, helps to build the worlds that are imagined. The Spell helps to provide practice spaces and positive reinforcement for the members and followers of the organization; through a presentation that demonstrates lived experiences hidden from view but gives power and meaning to their kin lives. Wholeness and emotional tenderness is a part of The Spell and works with an emphasis on taking care of oneself, one another, and the surrounding community, which can be referred to as “People First Practices.” This particular aesthetic allows for the troupe to create spaces where people are fully seen and heard. Creating these open forums emphasizes collective care and healing as core values of the theater. QTBIPOC identities deserve spaces where they can showcase their unique individuality. This is important because it helps to highlight QTBIPOC identities, both current and those that have been previously overlooked, in order to inspire and shape the future. Spaces where people can be their whole selves and have their experiences acknowledged, validated, and respected.

Innovation is a key motive for the theater. Gracefully representing the history of the community is difficult for many organizations. The theater’s intention is to keep moving forward and to be open to everything, especially change.

“I want people to come into a space where they can see a show that talks about many different intersections of their life and they don’t have to put a part of themselves on hold. That impact for me is to really embolden and support everybody who comes in contact with the work that we do,” Jones said.

Struggling to find a place of belonging is something everyone will go through, and the theater is not an exception. The Theater Offensive does not just offer a place for everybody, but they also seek to uplift anyone in need of support. Part of the “People First Practices” of the theater is providing food for the community, as well as working with artists and giving them a space to be heard and seen.

Through these aesthetics, the theater continues its journey of activism using the art community and has plans for even more expansion, including a new space located in the Fenway opening in the near future.

For those interested in finding a way to be involved, the theater is always looking for volunteers. Anyone able and willing is encouraged to donate. These donations to the theater fuel its operations to keep providing for the Boston community.

@outoffensive; thetheateroffensive.org