About Queer [Re]public
Queer (Re)public is program that honors, uplifts, and builds on emergent themes inherent to and in QTPOC art through workshops, residency programs, and comissioning art by, for, and including queer and trans artists of color. Queer (Re)Public has three main components:
Queer (Re)public Residency Program — 22 months of discovery, investigation, research, and play for mid-career to experienced national QTPOC artists. During this 22 month residency program artists will embark on developing new work and fostering their artistic soul using QTPOC emergent strategies as guidance. Throughout their 22 months at TTO they will be able to organize community talks, workshops, having work in progress showing, which will ultimately culminate into their final showing.
Queer (Re)public Commissioning — TTO will regularly commision multi-discipline, performance-based art to produce with and present to our communities in Boston and beyond, in partnership with national and regional organizations.
Queer (Re)public Workshops — The Theater Offensive knows that QTPOC art is life-affirming -- that ritual and healing is a core part QTPOC artistic practice. Queer (Re)Public Workshops is a community based activity series that includes artistic development and community learning exchanges that invite participants to be well & whole.
2023-2025 Queer [Re]public Cohort
Cheyenne Wyzzard Jones
Cheyenne Wyzzard-Jones (they/she) comes from a political art background through her work as Director of Arts Programming of movement organization, In Solidarity. Their project “The Messenger” is a musical journey that shares an intimate “coming of age” story about a young femme, Zanyah, who has been chosen to become the next Messenger for her nation, The In-Between. As Zanyah goes on a spiritual journey with her elders, she meets people that each share a lesson about what Zanyah needs to know about her past, present, and future. The Messenger shares with the audience the complexities, sacredness, and love of what it means to take on the role of a Messenger within a community.
Over the course of Cheyenne’s Residency, they will work with a musical director to develop the musical score of the play, with mid-Residency work-in-progress readings, and a culminating multi-experienced listening session of the musical score on Noepe Land also known as Martha's Vineyard.
Victoria Awkward
Originally from Massachusetts, Victoria L. Awkward (she/her/hers), trained at Impulse Dance Center by LuAnn Pagella and worked with Boston-based artists such as Karen Krolak. Her project “In the Space Between” (ITSB) follows a soloist as they inspire their community to delve into an infinite space between their reality and their wildest dreams. This infinite reality provides opportunity for freedom-seeking, exploration, and embodiment. ITSB showcases a dynamic fabric set by architectural firm, NADAAA, extravagant handmade costumes by Mitzi Eppley and our costume team, light design by Elmer Martinez, original music by Aaron Brown, and performance by VLA DANCE. ITSB originally premiered as a short work at Boston Center for the Arts and The Dance Complex.
Annalise Guidry
Informed by feminist notions of “A Love Ethic” by bell hooks and “Knowing Together” by Allison Weir, Annalise Guidry (they/them/theirs) will work to introduce a thesis for a theater of union that emphasizes storytelling, deep listening, and understanding to build worlds of knowledge that bring people together. Their hopes are to contribute to life sustaining world-making projects with theater as the vehicle by exploring lineage, the self and lived experiences in storytelling. During their residency, they will interrogate the question “In what ways can our stories bring us together?” through the development and praxis of their thesis in community through playwriting and directing for True Colors Troupe.