TTO Cyphers

Every year, the USDAC sponsors the People’s State of the Union, inviting community members across the country to host story circles in their own homes, schools, houses of worship, and community organizations, engaging in conversations that reveal the state of our union. This year, community members across the nation were invited to reflect on the interlocking crises of systemic racism, eviction, poverty, access to healthcare, and more laid bare by COVID-19. The Poetic Address to the Nation invites writers, performers, and activists to present work inspired by the stories. TTO produced the virtual 2021 Poetic Address to the Nation, featuring exemplary Boston-based and national performers, in partnership with the USDAC and MASSCreative.

True Colors Troupe Spring 2021 Virtual Performance

The Troupe’s Spring 2021 Performance is an original work that centers virtual queer youth connection during the pandemic. Someone posts an anonymous queer call on the new queer digital platform created during the pandemic - Queerter. What is this platform? How do we support each other while miles and pixels away? How does one begin a relationship online? This performance asks and answers all these questions and more.

Drag Story Hour

Episode 1: Worm Loves Worm with Neon Calypso

In January 2021, The Theater Offensive, Company One (C1) and The Boston Public Library (BPL) presented VIRTUAL Drag Story Hour. Each Thursday session, a different drag performer read a children’s book with LGBTQ themes — featuring Neon Calypso, KaMani Sutra, and Ra’Jah O’Hara! Drag Story Hour captures the imagination and play of the gender fluidity of childhood and gives kids glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models. In spaces like this, kids are able to see people who defy rigid gender restrictions and imagine a world where people can present as they wish, where dress up is real.

This week’s book is Worm Loves Worm by J.J. Austrian, illustrated by Mike Curato. You are cordially invited to celebrate the wedding of a worm...and a worm. When a worm meets a special worm and they fall in love, you know what happens next: They get married! But their friends want to know—who will wear the dress? And who will wear the tux? The answer is: It doesn't matter. Because worm loves worm. Read by:  Neon Calypso, a drag artist who presents the struggles of intersectionality and what it means to be queer, black, and femme with performances reflecting on life experiences through song, dance, and spoken word.

Drag Story Hour Episode 2 - The Boy and the Bindi with KaMani Sutra

This week’s book is The Boy and The Bindi by Vivek Shraya, illustrated by Rajni Perera. A five-year-old boy becomes fascinated with his mother's bindi, the red dot commonly worn by South Asian women to indicate the point at which creation begins, and wishes to have one of his own. Rather than chastise her son, she agrees to it, and teaches him about its cultural significance, allowing the boy to discover the magic of the bindi, which in turn gives him permission to be more fully himself. Read by:  KaMani Sutra, a South Asian (teluGAY) gender queer bearded drag artist from Washington DC transcends western drag expectations by their performance repertoire and their aesthetic senses.

Drag Story Hour Episode 3 - Born Ready: The True Story of a Boy Named Penelope

In this episode, by special arrangement with Random House Children's Books, TTO had a pre-publication sneak peek at Born Ready: The True Story of a Boy Named Penelope by Jodie Patterson, illustrated by Charnelle Pinkney Barlow. Penelope knows that he's a boy. (And a ninja.) The problem is getting everyone else to realize it. In this exuberant companion to Jodie Patterson's adult memoir, The Bold World, Patterson shares her son Penelope's frustrations and triumphs on his journey to share himself with the world. Penelope's experiences show children that it always makes you stronger when you are true to yourself and who you really are. Ra'Jah O'Hara, a Texas drag queen who has appeared on stages from RuPaul's Drag Race to The Theater Offensive's ClimACTS! Dynasty, read this week's book!

PRIDE Ten-Minute Virtual Theater Festival

Who says PRIDE is only one month out of the year? In the spring of 2020, we commissioned original short plays for a virtual Pride festival. As June began, we postponed the festival to focus all of our energy and resources on supporting those on the front lines of the Movement for Black Lives. We brought these plays to your screen in August 2020, recognizing that QTPOC art is life-affirming and very much needed -- not just in June but all year round!

Tam's Two Dads

Written by Michael Bobbitt. In this shadow-puppet play for young audiences, two young amphibian friends Tam and Jenny are doing an online homework assignment via a Zoompcall. When Tam (a turtle) tells Jenny (a frog) about his two dads (a gator and a fish), and the loving community of queer and gender fluid folks in his life, Jenny's mind is blown, and she fantasizes about a life like theirs.

The Dance of Memories

Written by Dane Figueroa Edidi. In this live-action play, Faith, a Black trans woman living in D.C. grapples with a complicated family legacy, colorism, and what it means to live out her values during the pandemic with her biracial fiancé Korin.