Join The Theater Offensive and Boston Public Library for an EXCLUSIVE FIRST LOOK screening of the new play, SHAPE SHIFTER: A PLAY IN MOMENTS, by Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi.  Shape Shifter is presented in partnership with Long Wharf Theatre and Breaking the Binary Theatre as part of the 5th Anniversary of the Black Trans Women At The Center virtual play festival, premiering  Monday, November 18th at Coolidge Corner Theatre.  This program is part of The Theater Offensive’s new series entitled, Queering The Screen, which will showcase cinematic masterpieces focused on narratives of QTPOC experience.

Synopsis:

When Angeline returns home to her family’s church in New England she expects to put all her unfinished business to rest. But when her ancestor Evangeline’s ghost begins to haunt her, both she and Evangeline must confront their past while trying to avoid the ever encouraging night spilling through the floorboards of time. Shape Shifter: a Play in Moments invites us to examine how we can heal from the past while still holding firm to our futures.

CAST 

Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi (she/her) - Angie

L Morgan Lee (she/her) - Evangeline

Dillon Yruegas (he/él) Trevor

Marquise Vilsón (he/him) - Jacob

Dillon Yruegas (he/él) Trevor

Zachary A. Myers she/her Amerie

CREW

Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi (she/her) - Playwright

Paige Hernandez (she/her) - Director 

Joey Reyes (they/them) - Project Manager 

Joseph Distl (he/they) - Stage Manager 

Garnet Williams (she/they) - Stage Directions

Join us on Monday, May 13, 2024 from 6:00 - 10:00 PM at Grace By Nia with your hosts: Emmy, Grammy, Tony, and SAG Award Nominee Norm Lewis and drag legend and True Colors alumna Neon Calypso! Enjoy inspiring performances, a mouth watering menu, fabulous auction items to bid on, and a dance floor that will keep you moving. We will celebrate with members of the growing TTO family from 1989 to today and come together to support our mission to empower queer and trans artists of color.

When: Monday, May 13, 2024 from 6:00 - 10:00 PM

Where: Grace by Nia, 60 Seaport Blvd #325, Boston, MA 02210

TICKETS

EARLY BIRD TICKETS AVAILABLE THURSDAY 4/18!
Early bird tickets (4/18-4/25): $50
Standard tickets (4/25-5/12): $70

We encourage you to purchase tickets early if they are within your means!

If standard ticket pricing is outside of your means, we invite you to sign up for the community ticket waitlist.

COMMUNITY GUIDELINES

At The Theater Offensive, we believe that community safety is a pillar to creating an inclusive environment. In the tradition of art made by Queer and Trans People of Color, we want to create an intentional, inclusive, and healing space for this event centered in radical empathy and universal love.

This is brave and sacred space. We strive to create a welcoming and inclusive environment for all attendees regardless of gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religion, disability, or any other characteristic. Please be mindful and respectful of fellow attendees and performers. Bullying or harassment of any kind will not be tolerated. Any attendees exhibiting discrimination of any kind will be asked to leave.

 Masks are required at this event unless eating or drinking. Get ready to show off your COVID-safe creativity in a contest for Most Fabulous Mask! Masks will be provided at the door to all who need them.

 PLEASE NOTE: The CDC recommends that you do NOT wear a cloth mask over a respirator (KN95, N95) - doing so can interfere with the seal and decrease effectiveness. The CDC recommends that you DO wear a cloth mask over a surgical mask, which is more effective than either alone. Thank you for helping to keep our community healthy!

The Theater Offensive (TTO) built a reputation amongst our audiences as an organization that puts the FUN in fundraiser with our CLIMacts! and Beyond the Stage events. This year we’re excited to invite you to move beyond the stage and onto the dance floor for TTO’s latest soiree:

QUEER PROM: a joyful celebration of queer belonging! Inspired by all queer youth and adults who may not have had the opportunity to be their true self at their own high school proms, Queer Prom will be a night filled with entertainment, dancing and intergenerational community to celebrate queer youth in our True Colors: Out Youth Theater programming and across Boston.

The night will feature “Prom Court” awardees who are prominent members of the Boston LGBTQIA+ community, music, and performances from queer youth and artists. The event will also honor the current youth and alumni of TTO’s youth performance troupe, True Colors, now entering its 30th year.

Join us for retro-roller rink vibes and tasty snacks at Tenderoni’s, the newest restaurant from queer Bostonian celebrity chef Tiffani Faison.

Advance tickets required. Ticketing closes on Friday, February 16.

Candace Persuasian

Candace Persuasian is a Vietnamese Goddess that you can see all around Boston including her residency spots Carrie Nation and Jacques Cabaret where she is one of the co-hosts of an all trans show for the latter. She is most known for her viral video where Beyoncé declared Trans is Beautiful after reading Candace’s sign. This led her to being featured in Billboard, PinkNews, Them and even cameoed in Beyoncé’s recent Renaissance Film. 

Candace is grateful for where she is now. She has continuously contributed to the Boston Queer community, from being a program manager at MAP for Health to being a co-chair of BAGLY Youth Leadership Committee, to being a True Colors/Theater Offensive alum to being the Clinical Coordinator at Fenway Health to helping Trans and Gender Non Binary folks at Mass General Hospital get Gender Affirming Surgery to now serving as Community Relations Specialist for the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ+ Advancement (MOLA) working on Queer issues and advocating for brave spaces in a city that she loves so much.

DJ TROY Frost

Kyara Andrade-Howell also known as DJ TROY Frost is an artist, educator, and event curator from Dorchester and Roxbury. She started DJing in 2013 and completed Scratch DJ Academy’s certification program in 2015. After graduating from Barnard College in 2017, she worked as a DEI Consultant and for Boston Public Schools in varying roles. In 2019, she piloted The Breaks, an enrichment program which gave 15 Boston youth an introduction to the pillars of Hip Hop. Kyara now works part time as a library coordinator at a middle/high school and at Frugal Bookstore in Roxbury. She is currently working on growing Purple Produce, an event series focused on Hip Hop, wellness, literacy and community collaboration.

Letta Neely

Black. Dyke. Mother/Father. Auntie/Uncle. Poet. Playwright. Performer. Drapetomaniac. Freedom Fighter. Letta’s first play, "Hamartia Blues", was produced by The Theater Offensive at the Boston Center for the Arts in 2002. Her plays "Last Rites" and "Shackles & Sugar" have been produced in Boston, Philly, and Los Angeles. In addition to the chapbooks: gawd and alluh huh sistahs and When We Were Mud, Letta has written two books of poetry, Juba and Here (Wildheart Press). Her literary work has been included in numerous anthologies, literary journals, and bathroom stalls.

Liberation. Freedom. Because she is rooted in infinite love, she branches out in infinite love.

She is currently touring “Pulling It All Into The Current” a one woman spoken word- infused play. The show has been to Boston, Edinburgh, NYC, New Hampshire, and her hometown of Indianapolis, Indiana. Her newest book: Geographies of Power will be released in the Fall of 2024

Tre'Andre Valentine

Tre’Andre Carmel Valentine (he/they) is a Black, Indigenous, and South Asian immigrant from Trinidad and Tobago. An advocate for trans rights for almost 20 years, he is the first BIPOC Executive Director to lead the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition, the oldest active transgender advocacy organization in the United States, solely focused on trans and nonbinary communities.

From 2009 to 2019, they supported LGBTQ+ survivors of domestic violence through their work at The Network/La Red and have over a decade of experience in the anti-violence movement advancing DEI initiatives specializing in LGBTQ+ inclusion.

From 2009 to 2017, he co-chaired the Boston Transgender Day of Remembrance planning committee and volunteered as an adult support for the Boston Alliance of LGBTQ Youth from 2012 to 2019.

He has served on the board of the Y2Y Network and Trans Resistance; Gender Spectrum’s Mental Health and Medical Care Advisory Group and the steering committee of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition, the Transgender Emergency Fund, and the National LGBTQ Domestic Violence Learning Center.

They have been the keynote speaker for the 2015 Trans Youth Summit and 2021 Trans* in the CLE Conference.

Tre’Andre currently consults for the Fenway Institute to address HIV
transmission within transmasculine and nonbinary communities; and serves on the City of Boston’s Human Rights Commission and the Massachusetts Special Commission on Unaccompanied Homeless Youth. He loves babies, animals, music, Xena Warrior Princess, and miniatures.

Advance tickets required. Ticketing closes on Friday, February 16.

Community Guidelines

At The Theater Offensive, we believe that community safety is a pillar to creating an inclusive environment. In the tradition of art made by Queer and Trans People of Color, we want to create an intentional, inclusive, and healing space for this event centered in radical empathy and universal love.

To create this sacred space we are setting some community standards to prevent further trauma and/or oppression to QTPOC community members.

We invite you –

to feel how you want to feel,

to speak from your own experience

to claim and own your emotions and struggles, and express your wants and needs as such

No bullying, xenophobic, homophobic, and/or transphobic behavior of any kind will be tolerated in this sacred and brave space. If such incidents happen we will remove said person(s) immediately so other folks can enjoy their time safely. TTO and Tenderoni’s are committed to creating a place where individuals can come as they are and celebrate in community. We thank you in advance for helping us maintain and defend this sacred space.

Queer Prom is a celebration of queer youth - past, present, and future. Thank you for your cooperation in making this a safe space for intergenerational community gathering!

1. Queer Prom is a 13+ event. The afterparty is a 21+ event.

2. Queer Prom is a reservation-only event. All tickets must be reserved by February 16, 2024. There will be no ticket sales at the door.

3. IDs will be checked at the door, and 21+ attendees will receive a wristband and 2 drink tickets.

4. 21+ attendees are limited to 2 alcoholic drinks (beer and wine only) during Queer Prom (6PM-9PM). During the 21+ after party, (9PM-11PM), a full cash bar will be available. Unlimited soft drinks, including custom mocktails, are available to all attendees.

5. Folks of all ages should come ready to dance on two dance floors - one for youth and one for adults.

6. Keep our community’s health in mind - if you are feeling sick at all, please stay home.

7. Masks are required at this event unless eating or drinking. Get ready to show off your COVID-safe creativity in a contest for Most Fabulous Mask! Masks will be provided at the door to all who need them.

About the Workshop

As a continuation of the AKTIV8 PORTAL series, AnAkA will create AKTIV8 PORTAL (6) in Atlanta, GA by performing to the trees and revolutionaries protecting them in the sacred Weelaunee Forest. As a descendant of these Muskogee and Cherokee lands, AnAkA will perform Angel Music as a bio frequency medicine for the land, the people and beyond.

***This workshop will stream on Youtube

About the Facilitator

AnAkA (she/he/they) applies ancestral root work techniques to all of their artistic and cultural practices. AnAkA utilizes visual, herbal and sonic preservation as a tool to reclaim severed wisdoms, due to the echoing generational disturbances global colonization has caused. Since 2012, AnAkA has cultivated an ethnographic project entitled AKTIV8: an original archive created with the intention to document and strengthen the heartbeat of the global Indigenous movements and rituals of our current time. AKTIV8 is an archive, a research center, land preservation project, as well as a creative studio for stories being told that honor sacred wisdom. The intention is to bridge the gap of reverence that exists between the institutional arts world and the traditional stories of the very much still existing ancient cultures of AfroIndigenous peoples. AKTIV8 PORTAL experiences have been touring the world since 2021 gracing places such as NYC, LA and Paris in order to share the AKTIV8 Archive and its sacred wisdoms in safe space. Through this work, AnAkA advocates for the rights of artists and healers desiring the freedom to exchange wisdom in sovereign spaces.

About the Workshop

With Weeksville Heras a core inspiration and motivation, Jubilee 11213: The Keeping explores practices of social good, self-determination, spirituality, sensuality, and sovereignty as critical components of the Black liberation continuum discovered through Ebony’s archival research and dramaturgical field work over the last three years.  May 2023 marks the culmination of the project with a public sharing of The Keeping, a theatrical ceremony that activates the entire Weeksville campus and surrounding area. The Keeping has catalytic support from Weeksville, Creative Capital, and the Coalition of Theatres of Color, and was conceptualized, devised, and produced by Ebony Noelle Golden and Jupiter Performance Studio.

***This workshop will stream on Youtube

About the Facilitator

Ebony Noelle Golden is a theatrical ceremonialist, culture strategist, entrepreneur, and public scholar. In 2009, Ebony founded Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative, a culture consultancy that devises systems, strategies, and social justice solutions nationally.  In 2020, she founded Jupiter Performance Studio, a space to study and practice Black diasporic performance traditions.   Winner of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education’s Transformational Practice Award, Golden works to incite and ignite the creative capacity of everyday folks in service of liberation and collective wellbeing.  Her practice is rooted in community-design, ritual performance, and leadership development through a womanist and Black feminist praxis. Invoking messy, magical, and medicinal processes, Ebony and her collaborators, work to conjure a better world.

About This Episode

This episode helps us set our space and mindframe for permission-giving expression, freedom-oriented play, and invitation to draw the world we want to live in. This practice is open to people with all relationships to "drawing": rather than focusing on technique, we center our inherent birthright and ability to put pen to paper as we uplift messages of love for ourselves, each other and the planet.

***This workshop will stream on Youtube

About The Facilitator

Chetna Mehta (she/they) is a granddaughter of Indian and South African diasporas. As an educating artist, alchemist and facilitator playing and working at the intersection of the arts, spirituality and education. They founded Mosaiceye LLC, a private therapeutic practice and movement with a mission to steward peace, love and freedom on earth via expressive healing arts and reflective community circles.

She collaborates with progressive organizations, coalitions and social movements by offering embodied experiences, education and talks on themes like collective purpose, holistic well-being, decolonizing and liberatory creativity, compassionate connection and peaceful communication. They're a consultant to BIPOC, queer women and non-binary clients around the world who represent paradoxical identities and life experiences, who have been challenged to claim our belonging audaciously in diverse contexts, and who seek to embody the courage it takes to creatively pave an authentic and aligned way for ourselves and the communities we care about. 

Chetna holds a BA in Social Sciences with a concentration in Organizations from Cal Poly University SLO, and a MA in Counseling Psychology from The Wright Institute. She is YT200 trained from a liberation-oriented perspective and continues to develop their training in Non-Violent Communication, Mindful Self-Compassion and Yoga philosophy rooted in decolonization and indigenous wisdom. She is currently living, making and tending on Muwekma Ohlone tribal land, known as San Jose, CA.

SWAN is a fantastical dark-comedy-slash-ghost story that follows Richard, an eighteen-year-old Korean-American closeted transmasc who is forced to confront his desire to come out and embrace his identity after being visited by Swan, a mysterious voice who haunts Richard’s dreams. Swan leads Richard through eerie landscapes that blend dream and reality, showing him the futures he could have if he came out--and the one he’s doomed to if he doesn’t. Desperate to tamp down these desires he didn’t even know he had, Richard turns to, of all things, detransition Youtube. Aiden, a white thirty-something who claims to have also received dream visions from Swan, but to have gotten rid of his visions and overcome his transmasc identity, tries to convince Richard to stay in the closet and live a normal life, while Swan forces Richard to confront his fear of the future, again and again. Richard is pushed to the breaking point, and must weigh the consequences of coming out to his family and giving up everything he’s ever known, with a desperate need to be understood, desired, and loved. SWAN asks the question: If you had to give up everything you knew, everyone you loved, to be something you didn’t understand…would you do it?

Know any Queer youth in the Greater Boston area looking for Summer arts fun? Tell them to apply to our award-winning summer program! Applications are due by July 15th, 2022

This Instagram live conversation will feature our fierce leader Harold Steward, and Emil Wilbekin, founder of Native Son, on the journey to cultivating the collective power of QTPOC community. Follow us on Instagram @OutOffensive to tune in!

Join TTO as we support The New England Revolution at their annual pride match!

Come visit TTO at the 25th Boston Dyke March!

https://www.bostondykemarch.com/blog_posts/blog_2022_05_18.html

Join us for an Instagram live conversation with Amm(i)gone creator Adil Mansoor. Follow us on Instagram @OutOffensive to tune in!