QUEER [RE]PUBLIC FESTIVAL
June 26-29, 2025 | Arrow Street Arts
Born from The Theater Offensive’s OUT In Your Neighborhood Festival in 2017, the QUEER [RE]PUBLIC FESTIVAL is a vital part of TTO’s next lifecycle and mission, presenting liberating art by, for, and about queer and trans people of color that transcends artistic boundaries, celebrates cultural abundance, and dismantles oppression. This inaugural 4-day festival serves as the culmination of our first 22-month long Emergent Artist Residency and True Colors Residency programs, featuring a series of workshops, staged readings, and dance performances.
Annalise “River” Guidry’s Theater of Union
Photography by Tavon Taylor
Theater of Union is a life-sustaining, world-building pedagogy and praxis that seeks to dismantle systems and our culture of domination with theater as its vehicle.
Drawing on anthropological theories and indigenous ways of knowing, this praxis utilizes interconnectedness as survival, a love ethic, and community-based healing as core values for social change to build worlds that are life sustaining through an original theatrical praxis.
Annalise "River" Guidry is offering a three-fold sharing of Theater of Union: an open table talk presentation of the work in praxis & pedagogy; a workshop; and a devised performance starring the first ever Theater of Union company of artists.
Theater of Union Dates:
Thursday, June 26th @ 7:30pm: Remembrance
The performance will close with a second line, leading us into our Opening Night Reception in the lobby, where we invite our community to celebrate the kick off of the Festival with our artists with snacks and drinks!
Saturday, June 28th from 1:00pm-2:30pm: Open Table Talk & Workshop
In this talk, River invites audiences into a presentation and open discussion of Theater of Union in praxis and pedagogy. The first half of this offering is a presentation of the work that transitions into an open discussion of the intricacies of a love ethic as cultural transformation: what are the stakes and costs of choosing love in a culture of domination? How do we choose love, again and again, especially when we don't have to?
QUEER [RE]PUBLIC ARTISTS-IN-RESIDENCE
Photography by Tavon Taylor
Annalise “River” Guidry (they/them)
Known by many names: Annalise, River or Rio. Annalise “River” Guidry (they/them) is a non-binary Black and Puerto Rican theater artist—playwright, director, educator, dramaturg, and theorist—based in Boston, originally from New Orleans. With a background in anthropology, Annalise blends interdisciplinary approaches to create theater that challenges cultural norms and fosters collective liberation.
Throughout their career, Annalise has demonstrated a deep commitment to both theater and the Boston community. Their credits include work as the True Colors Resident Artist with The Theater Offensive, as a two-time Volt Lab playwright and director with Company One Theater, as a teaching artist with Stage One at Company One Theater and Hyde Square Task Force, and as a playwright and dramaturg with Fresh Ink Theater (Mad Dash, 2023; The More the Man, 2024). They have previously served as the Artistic and Community Engagement Fellow at Speakeasy Stage (2023–2024).
Annalise’s directing credits include eight productions, over half of which are original works, such as XROADS (Company One Theater), 3 Womxn, 3 Myths (Edinburgh Fringe), and Just a Thing (Emerson College).
Currently, Annalise is developing an innovative pedagogical framework called Theater of Union, which seeks to dismantle systems of domination through theater. Drawing on anthropological theories and indigenous ways of knowing, this praxis emphasizes interconnectedness, a love ethic, and community-based healing as core values for social change.
Annalise’s work as a playwright, director, dramaturg, speaker and educator is rooted in a deeply embodied practice that explores the intersection of theater, anthropology, and social transformation, all through the lens of love and collective liberation."
Programs at the Theater Offensive
