Queer Voices
Queer Voices
November 20th 2024 Queer Voices: Harris County commissioner Leslie Briones, Stages Artistic Director Derek Charles Livingston and Montrose Centers LGBTQ+ Rally
Discover the groundbreaking efforts of Harris County Commissioner Leslie Briones as she shares insights into Texas' first LGBTQ+ commission, a bold step forward in promoting inclusivity amidst challenging statewide legislation. This episode of Queer Voices promises to enlighten listeners with actionable ways to support and improve the quality of life for LGBTQIA+ residents. Commissioner Briones discusses key initiatives like cultural competency training and increased LGBTQIA+ representation on county boards, reflecting an inspiring shift towards progress and justice in Harris County.
Join us as we explore the vibrant world of theater with Derek Charles Livingston, the new Artistic Director of Stages in Houston. Derek shares his vision for creating inclusive and diverse theatrical experiences, emphasizing the unique connection intimate theater settings foster. With a focus on engaging diverse audiences in a post-pandemic world, Derek discusses the challenges and opportunities of attracting new theatergoers while building trust and encouraging repeat visits through thoughtfully selected plays.
In a heartfelt segment, we honor Trans Day of Remembrance with Reverend Leslie Jackson's powerful speech at the Montrose Center's LGBTQ Plus Rally. The episode concludes with a rallying call for unity and resilience, resonating with the reflections of leaders like Ian Haddock of the Normal Anomaly, who emphasizes the power of community support in the face of adversity. Together, we celebrate the courage and hope needed to drive meaningful change and uplift marginalized communities.
Queer Voices airs in Houston Texas on 90.1FM KPFT and is heard as a podcast here. Queer Voices hopes to entertain as well as illuminate LGBTQ issues in Houston and beyond. Check out our socials at:
https://www.facebook.com/QueerVoicesKPFT/ and
https://www.instagram.com/queervoices90.1kpft/
Hello everybody, this is Queer Voices, a podcast and radio show that's been on the air for several decades. It's one of the oldest LGBTQ plus radio shows in the southern United States. This week's episode is all about community leaders fighting for LGBTQ plus rights, visibility and artistic expression, starting with executive producer Brian Levinka's interview with Texas' Harris County Commissioner Leslie Briones, a proud ally who created the first ever LGBTQ plus commission in the third largest county in America, harris County.
Speaker 2:Harris County is a place of progress. It's a place that embraces equality for everybody, opportunity for everyone and, despite the very restrictive, discriminatory legislation that the state of Texas passes and, frankly, many states across the country, harris County remains a beacon of progress and we're on the right side of history and the right side of justice.
Speaker 1:Later, brett Collum speaks with the new Artistic Director of Stages, derek Charles Livingston, of stages here in Texas and Houston itself.
Speaker 3:They were all, they all added up to make me want to apply and to come here.
Speaker 1:And throughout this episode we'll be bringing you speeches from the recent LGBTQ plus rally at Houston's Montrose Center, following the results of the presidential election winner, donald Trump, addressing the effects his presidency will have on our LGBTQ plus community. Queer Voices starts now.
Speaker 4:Good evening. Thanks so much for coming out this evening. My name is Avery Bellew, my pronouns are she and her, and I'm the CEO of the Montrose Center, and it is good to be together Despite the circumstances. It is good to be together in community. Thank you so much for coming out. We just wanted to create a space. We wanted to create a space for us to come together and hold space for all the different emotions we might be having right now from grief, anger, frustration, disbelief, fear all of those mashed together in one right, any combination of those. And I just want to say all those feelings belong, they're valid and it's okay to not be okay in this moment. But the other thing I was thinking about today and I think about this especially as I look out at this group of folks is how this center came to be, and I want to tell you that story really quickly for folks who don't know it well.
Speaker 4:In the 1970s there was a moment, a moment where the temperature around anti-LGBTQ rhetoric really heated up and folks in this community here in Houston in the late 1970s many of them not out, many of them very afraid got together and decided to come together in a town hall.
Speaker 4:And what they discovered when they came together is that, first of all, there are more than they realized, and the other thing is they found their courage. They found that they had power when they came together in community and from that moment that moment of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and fear was a community was born, a community of advocates and activists, and that community of people got together and they created a movement. And that movement here in Houston created organizations like the Montrose Center, like Legacy, community Health, like, eventually, later, allies in Hope Organizations that now all of us have come to rely upon was created out of a group of folks getting together in community because of a moment in time, creating a movement together by linking arms and from that movement movement creating resources. So I thought of that today, because we're in another moment. Y'all this is a moment right.
Speaker 4:All of those same feelings might be true for all of us, but what's true is, just like for all of them, it's important to come together. To come together in community and remind each other that we're not alone, to remind each other that we have power when we come together in community. And just like our queer ancestors in the 1970s and before, this moment requires us to build a movement. A movement that insists that every single one of us deserves full, equal civil rights. A movement that insists that trans people and non-binary people and queer people belong here in this city, in Houston, they belong in Texas, they belong in this country. A movement that creates space for our pain and our grief, but a movement that's also expansive enough to hold queer joy and queer celebration as forms of resistance. A movement that ensures that every single one of us in our LGBTQ community has the resources and the support we need not just to survive whatever is coming across these four years, but to thrive through it. So, in this moment, where the ground feels like it might be shifting underneath our feet, I want you to take a moment and to feel your two feet on the ground beneath you, because this is ground. This space. This center was created by a group of folks just like us in a moment where there was fear and anxiety. They found their courage and they found their power by coming together in community and creating a movement. So I want you to know that the Montrose Center is here to link arms with you in community, to build power together, to hold your grief, your fear and your anger, because it all belongs to link arms with you and accompany you and to co-create the movement that we need for whatever may come our way next.
Speaker 4:Later in the program, I'm going to say a few words about resources that we have, which includes a support group that's actually happening directly after this.
Speaker 4:If you need a place to process your fear and your anxiety and your grief, we have a licensed psychologist who's going to have space up here on the first floor for you to just sit together in community and process that. And we'll talk about other resources as well, but but for now I just want to say thank you for being here in community, thank you for finding your courage by being in this space, and now's the time for us to come together and build a movement for what needs to happen next and part of how that movement is going to be built is by all the other speakers you're going to hear from today who are committed, just like I am, to making sure that we're all going to be okay. This is Avery Bellew my pronouns are she and her and I am the CEO of the Montrose Center, houston's LGBTQ Plus Center, and you are listening to Queer Voices, an integral part of Houston's LGBTQ plus community.
Speaker 6:This is Brian Levinka. Today I'm speaking with Commissioner Leslie Briones of Harris County Commissioner's Court. Welcome to the show, commissioner Briones.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, brian, for the opportunity to be here, and thank you for everything you do for our community. Thank you for everything that you do for our community. It is my pleasure and I find it energizing to my soul the progress we're making together.
Speaker 6:So tell me what is the Commissioner's Court and how does it work.
Speaker 2:So the Commissioner's Court. So Harris County is the third largest county in the United States. Harris County has 34 cities, so the county. I think of it as an umbrella and we have a variety of responsibilities, from administering elections to being in charge of justice and safety, funding the sheriff's office, the constables, the jail, the public defenders, the district attorney's office to flood mitigation we have the Harris County Flood Control District to being the essential super mayor of the unincorporated areas of Harris County, ie the places that are not in a city, in the 34 cities. So we have, just in my precinct alone, it's bigger than eight US states population-wise we have Precinct 4, which is western Harris County, which goes out to Katy. We have A-Leaf, sharpstown, golfton, river Oaks, greenway Plaza, we go up to Tomball, cypress, waller, and we have 55 parks, 10 community centers, just in my precinct. So we have a ton of free family programming for folks of all ages, all abilities, and parks and trails, and so in sum, it is infrastructure, it is public health, it is public safety and beyond.
Speaker 6:So why did you run for this position?
Speaker 2:The truth, brian. It was an unexpected blessing. I can tell you the long story in a second, but I'm the daughter of teachers now retired teachers after 50 years of education, and peace and public service was always something that my parents taught me and my siblings and I decided to run for commissioner to help people to improve everyone's day-to-day life, so I have been honored. It's been almost two years. I became your commissioner in January 2023, and it has been a joy ever since.
Speaker 6:So when you became commissioner, you formed an LGBT liaison group. Is that right? So when you became commissioner, you formed an LGBT liaison group, is that right?
Speaker 2:Correct. So when I took office in January 2023, I was surprised to learn, brian, that in the third largest county in the United States we did not have an LGBTQIA plus commission, and so I'm an extremely proud ally, always have been, always will be, and my team and I decided we are going to put this on the Commissioner's Court agenda. Hopefully we'll get our colleagues support to share actionable ideas on what we can do as a county to continue to advance equality and justice and opportunity for our LGBTQIA plus community, and so that's what we did. So in the summer of 2023, we put this item on the commissioner's court agenda. It was approved by a majority of the vote and we launched it, and so it's an 11-member body all volunteers, all community leaders, activists, thought leaders and this inaugural report, which we just transmitted at this past Tuesday, yesterday, november 12th Commissioner's Court meeting, was the first inaugural report, so it had actionable ideas on how we can drive progress.
Speaker 2:And I'll stop here, but I'm happy to go into some of the recommendations. But I'm energized personally because I used to be a public school teacher eighth and 10th grade, and this was a long time ago, almost 20 years ago and my students at the time in South Texas. Many of them, who were LGBTQIA, didn't feel comfortable being their authentic selves at school, at home and, you know, in their neighborhoods, and I always wished there was more I could do and I was a listening ear and created a safe space in my classroom. But now fast forward now as your commissioner. It's energizing to me that we've created this commission. We have our first report and we're already busy at work taking action to implement the recommendations.
Speaker 6:So before you came there, the Commissioner's Court was pretty conservative, if I understand, if I remember correctly. So it's like a breath of fresh air on the Commissioner's Court, I think.
Speaker 2:It is. It is so, actually, before I got there for one term before me, so for the four-year term before me, there were three Democrats and two Republicans. Before that, though, it had been conservative for decades and then we had three-two Democratic majority, and then, when I took office in 2023, it was the first time we had had a Democratic supermajority. However, you know, when I took office, there hadn't been this commission and, again, as a proud ally, I was like I'm going to take the initiative to make this happen because we are. Harris County, to me, is what Texas I pray one day will be.
Speaker 2:Harris County is a place of progress.
Speaker 2:It's a place that embraces equality for everybody, opportunity for everyone, and, despite the very restrictive, discriminatory legislation that the state of Texas passes and, frankly, many states across the country, harris County remains to me a beacon of progress, and we're on the right side of history and the right side of justice, and so this commission is testament to it, and I am a very action oriented person, and so what I told the commission when we started is like we want your ideas and we don't just want reports.
Speaker 2:We are going to put them in action together. And it's been so fabulous, brian, because the first year of the commission, they went out into the community. They had four town halls across the county making sure we're going everywhere in Harris County, in every different region, to make sure voices are heard, and so these recommendations are not only from the 11 thought leaders on the commission, they are from the community and these town halls will continue, and so I hope, with your partnership, helping us spread the word, we will have more folks attend the town halls we will hold in 2025. And our next meeting for the commission is actually November 21st. So we hope you will help us spread the word and come yourself, brian, and share your ideas on how we can improve as a county and where we can drive progress.
Speaker 6:I would love that. You know it's a very scary time in our country right now, especially in the state of Texas, so I'm very happy to see what you're doing at the county level, kind of giving us protections. So, what are you proudest of with the commission?
Speaker 2:So I'm proud that they immediately once we launched in June of 2023, you know, a year later we now have actionable recommendations that we can dive into, and those range from a quality of life survey for LGBTQIA plus residents across the county.
Speaker 2:It is helping to improve access to physical and mental health resources.
Speaker 2:One item that we've already gotten hard at work we met with Sheriff Gonzalez on Monday is helping to improve the Harris County Sheriff's Office in terms of implementing LGBTQIA plus cultural competency training liaisons, best practices throughout the agency, not only to keep our LGBTQ plus residents in Harris County safe in our community and, if and when they may have law enforcement encounters, that our law enforcement agents are as trained as possible in how to deal with them in a culturally sensitive way as possible.
Speaker 2:In how to deal with them in a culturally sensitive way. We've also been, and my team and I have appointed many LGBTQIA plus individuals on various boards and commissions in Precinct 4. And one of the recommendations for the commission is to make sure we have a lined up talent pipeline of LGBTQIA plus individuals who are willing to serve on county boards and commissions, because these commissions range from Harris Health, which is one of the biggest safety net healthcare providers in the nation to you know, centers for youth and seniors and sports, and you know flood mitigation, economic opportunity to small, you know chambers, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 2:So there's many boards and commissions, and what I like about the commission, it's a way to convene. There's so many great nonprofits doing fantastic work, but how do we harness the power of government to amplify what our community organizations are already doing? So those are some of the recommendations that were offered by the commission in this first report and I look forward to many, many years of service with the commission and many years of driving progress. And again, service with the commission and many years of driving progress. And again, in light of the Texas climate and national climate, it is imperative that in Harris County we continue to be on the right side of history and justice and take action to the greatest degree within our authority to make sure it's a place where everybody feels welcomed, respected, celebrated and where everyone can thrive.
Speaker 6:If you're joining us, we're speaking with Commissioner Leslie Briones of the Harris County Commissioner's Court, precinct 4, talking about the inaugural report of the LGBT Commission findings. So, commissioner Briones, thank you for coming on. Is there anything you want our listeners to know before we head out?
Speaker 2:No, thank you, Brian. I, you know, I'm a proud native Texan. I grew up in South Texas on the border. I am a you know mom of three little kids. I am a proud Christian and I, you know, I'm devastated and heartbroken by so many things that are happening, but I remain hopeful, and I remain hopeful because of the tenacity and passion and persistence right of our community.
Speaker 2:And I think about again, as a proud Texan, how we always talk about everything's bigger in Texas, and maybe that's referring to highways or trucks or who knows. My dream is that when we talk about everything is bigger in Texas we're talking about our justice is bigger, our tolerance is bigger, our respect is bigger, our opportunity is bigger. This work, continuing this fight, continuing to build spaces where we all feel accepted, welcomed and celebrated, we will get to that Texas that my children and all children and all of us deserve. So in these moments where we may feel challenged, it's all the more reason to double down, because I believe that justice prevails, right and truth prevails, and so I think a lot about that quote from Martin Luther King Jr about the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice and here in Harris County we're going to bend it with everything we can, and the arc of the moral universe does bend towards justice.
Speaker 2:So we must remain hopeful and we must continue the work together in unity. And so I appreciate you, brian, I appreciate everything you do for the community, and my team and I in Harris County, precinct 4, are at your service. So please reach out anytime and if anyone's interested, please join us at the next Harris County LGBTQIA Plus Commission meeting on November 21st. We look online, you'll see the commission's website and we really would love your partnership in helping to drive progress here in Harris County.
Speaker 6:Is there a website or a place where people can get more information?
Speaker 2:Yes, you can go to cp4.harriscountytxgov cp4.harriscountytxgov so that's our website, harris County, precinct 4, and you will see the commission proudly. All the information is there and again, whether it's a pothole, whether it's the next hurricane, whether it's a community event, a park, anything we can do to ever serve you, we are here for you and we will continue to persist together. So, thank you so much, brian, for the opportunity and I will see you soon.
Speaker 6:Well, thank you. We've been speaking with Commissioner Briones. This is Queer Voices.
Speaker 7:This is Queer Voices.
Speaker 4:So I'm really pleased to introduce our next speaker, Ian Haddock, CEO of the Normal Anomaly Woo.
Speaker 8:Good evening everybody. I'm going to be honest with you all about my feelings in this moment today. Today, what voting has seemed to show is, though, no matter how hard we fight, we are in a losing battle. It has seemed to show us that our bodies and our lives are not important. It has shown us that freedom seems to be a mirage and a hot street that, upon further inspection, is not water that can fuel our fight. This grief in this moment feels different. This anxiety-inducing, depression-producing feeling has me myself terrified of our future. Walking through the airport in Orlando just today, it felt like I was being encapsulated by a crowd of people who abhor my existence.
Speaker 8:It reminds me of the same anxiety I felt on a layover there right after Pulse. Even standing here in front of you, I'm normally very confident and very sure of myself. I am trembling because right upstairs in room 107, I was here a couple years ago while community had to identify one of our own, a black trans woman, tracey Singleton. It feels like that. It feels like isolation and despair and embarrassment. It feels like fear. But I'm here to acknowledge that even in the face of fear, we can change things. Even in the face of fear, we can accomplish the impossible.
Speaker 8:And as I wrote those words, I had to ask myself how in how can I do that in the face of the next four years of more hateful policies, bans and rights being taken and potentially decades of lasting effects after? But I give you the words of the late, great Martin Luther King Jr Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that. And that's not the kumbaya type of love that doesn't see the people who willingly place oppression on us. It is more love for those who look love and identify with us. It is creating more unity and more resources. They were never coming to save us. We have always needed to be the one to save ourselves. So, as we move along through these next couple of months before the inauguration and after, know that the Norma Anomaly is here to support the community, as well as our partners here, as thought partners, resource sharers and possibilities strategists. Because, despite the hopelessness we collectively feel right now, I'm reminded of the act of activists and the black lives matter movement and the bayard Rustins, the words of Langston Hughes, the thoughts of Kimberly Crenshaw, the strategy of Dr Charles Law, the advocacy of our very own Monica Roberts, and it goes to show you, no matter what the hell they give us, we will still show up 24 hours in the middle of grief to show who the hell we are.
Speaker 8:So I invite you, before I step down, to hear the words of Langston Hughes' poem Harlem what happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun or fester like a sore and then run? Does it stink like rotten meat or crust and sugar over like a syrupy sweet, or does it explode? I urge us, in our grief, to not allow our dream deferred to sit by the wayside and deny us to not see our hope fulfilled. If not for us for trans teens not able to seek care, if not for us, for people who can have children, who cannot make a choice on their own bodies. If not for us, for same-sex families in fear they will lose their rights.
Speaker 8:If not for us, it is for our future. We are, and have always been, who we've been waiting for your presence. Here is hope, literally personified. So let's grieve, let's lend a shoulder, a hand, a smile, a tissue, and then let's organize like never before, with the power of our ancestors, with the energy of our foreparents, with the explosion of a dream deferred. So, as I said, to the extent you feel comfortable, grab someone next to you and say we're here to save us. Say it louder we're here to save us. Say it louder we're here to save us. We're here to save us. Say it one more time we're here to save us. We're here to save us, and our community does not fail. And our community does not fail Even in this moment. Let's clap for our future. We are there.
Speaker 9:This is Queer Voices. Hey, there I am Brett Cullum, and today I am joined by Derek Charles Livingston, who has recently taken over as Artistic Director for Stages Houston. He was preceded by Ken McLaughlin, who stepped down after 25 seasons. Most recently, derek was the Director of New Play Development at the Utah Shakespeare Festival, and Derek also previously served as the Managing Artistic Director of the Celebration Theater in Los Angeles, and he has worked extensively as an actor in new play development and I am so excited to have you here on Queer Voices. Welcome, and hey, just welcome to.
Speaker 3:Houston in general. Well, thank you so much. You know, it's so exciting to be here and to be in such a diverse city and a city with such an active queer community and an active African-American community and Latinx community and all communities, and that really sort of feeds me personally as an artist. So, thank you for the welcome to Houston. I'm really happy to be here.
Speaker 9:It really is. I mean, it's amazing the theater that goes on, and you mentioned specific groups and, oh my gosh, so much happening theatrically with every one of those communities, and we'll definitely get into all of that mix. But just quickly, how did you personally end up in theater? When did you discover that it was something that you wanted to do?
Speaker 3:There probably wasn't a time that I didn't want to do theater, except for, you know, I grew up in a very working class and disenfranchised black and brown neighborhood where, you know, in those kinds of schools we just don't have active arts programs. I mean they kind of exist. Don't have active arts programs, I mean they kind of exist. Every school has a band, that's kind of the bottom piece, but there really wasn't a strong arts program, there was a little bit, and so it always seemed like just a dream or something that was really on the periphery of what was possible. I did spend my own money, my allowance money or babysitting money or a lawn mowing money that I saved up, and I would go see the bus and truck tours that came through Sacramento at the big civic center downtown on my own, even as an elementary school kid or a junior high school kid. And the Sacramento has a summer stock, the Sacramento Music Circus, which literally when I was growing up was in a big tent and it was theater in the round and every two weeks it was theater in the round and every two weeks there was a different musical and my mother would occasionally take us to that for the more kid-friendly shows. And then, one year of my birthday she bought me a summer season subscription. That was amazing.
Speaker 3:But you know I wanted to do it but the thought that I could was just never sort of in the realm of the possible. But I got to college, there were open auditions for a musical and, mind you, I'd never taken a voice lesson in my entire life. I'd never been in a musical in my entire life except for a church program or something. But you know, it was an open call. So I said, oh, anybody can show up. So I showed up and I sang the greatest love of all, acapella, and I got called back for the lead and I thought, wow, I must have talent. It's the only thing that happened that entire first year.
Speaker 3:So I decided I should take an acting class. That might be a good idea. From there I started acting and I was the worst person in my acting class. It was only one person who was more challenged than I and he literally froze and could not do his first monologue. He'd never been in an acting class or speech class in his entire life and other than that I would say I was sort of the bottom of the barrel in terms of the acting. But you know, did it? Got better, got cast in a couple of shows, started doing more of it and I think the seminal moment that I'd like to talk about and I'm going to name drop shamelessly here the new play development program and graduate program was in the English department, not in the theater department at Brown, and it was run by this theater person named Paula Vogel.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, yeah, just, you know one of the most now one of most America's influential playwrights and playwright instructors. You know like literally about half of the Pulitzer Prize winners in the last 20 years at some point were one of Paula's students. It's a track record that is astounding. And she would do these workshops of the graduate work, graduate students' work, featuring undergraduate students as actors. And I was in one and I didn't understand what was going on with it. So I just made big, bold choices and I remember Paula asked me at the end of it she said, hmm, do you direct? And I don't know if it was because the acting was so bad or if the choices were so bold, but for the, the new play festival that year, she always you featured her graduate students because they were. They were graduate students in playwriting, were paying tuition for that, but she always tried to have an undergraduate to whom she highlighted. So she paired me with a fellow undergraduate to direct her play and that playwright's name was rachel shankin, who went on to win the t Tony Award for the book for the Putnam County Spelling Bee. So I directed her first show and I was her first director and she was far more brilliant than I. But again, I made some bold choices and I don't know how she was ever happy, but she was certainly gracious even then as a college student and that kind of started me directing in college and I got much better and I got really good at it. By the time I left I was pretty good. I mean I got an education in college which was good because it was a very expensive education. So that's kind of how I got started.
Speaker 3:In the first year out of Brown I was very fortunate. The first six months I had an internship in casting at Playwrights Horizons and it was an amazing year. The previous four years, within the previous four years, the theater had produced a world, premiered, three Pulitzer Prize winning works Sunny in the Park with George Driving, miss Daisy and the Heidi Chronicles and the Heidi Chronicles was on Broadway at that time, and so one of my jobs was to be a casting assistant on the Heidi Chronicles and I was actually there when Tony Shalhoub came in to audition to replace Skip sitting in the stage manager's office with the wonderful you know, departed Wendy Wasserstein, who was a lovely person and an amazing playwright. And also that season was the workshop and first production of Once on this Island. So I met Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens and who were just the loveliest people in the entire world, and I got to watch a new musical, which is now a seminal musical in the canon, develop from workshop with the people in the room and in fact for the first production I was the person they set lights to because I was the only person on staff who was the right color to match the actors in the show. The second act of what is now Falsettos was done that year. It was a one act, falsetto Land, and I have this wonderful picture of me with the original cast of that and I was sitting behind James Lapine on opening night of that show.
Speaker 3:So you know, and again, just amazing time to be there and I was sitting at my desk as a lowly casting intern and I was filing pictures and this bearded man comes around the corner with his arms crossed because we were doing a workshop of his new musical, and I look up and I internally gasp. I was smart enough not to audibly gasp and, very Homer Simpson style, across my brain I said don't say something stupid, don't say something stupid, don't say something stupid. And I turned to the bearded man with his arms across his chest. I said, oh, I know who you are, very casually, and he said, hi, stephen Sondheim. And I said, yes, I know I love your work. And he said thank you, yes, I know I love your work. And he said thank you. So it was. You know, it was an amazing experience at 21 years old.
Speaker 3:And then I couldn't afford to be an intern in New York anymore, so I went to, I was became an assistant at a boutique talent agency. That year we had a couple of people who were Tony award nominees, including Susan Shulman on the first revival of Sweeney Todd, which was a circle in the square. And then Rocky Carroll was one of our clients. He was in the original production of the Piano Lesson. In fact, I was sitting in Rocky's house seats with the two lead agents on opening night of the Piano Lesson, with Charles Dutton, esa-petha Merkson and Rocky Carroll. And you know, as a young 21-year-old African-American man, to see myself on Broadway in that way, as as so beautifully depicted by August Wilson's play, was, you know, life altering. So of course, you know, four months later I was out of New York and wasn't doing theater anymore. That was the beginning.
Speaker 9:I want all of my friends right now to take notes that tell me that I name drop too much. This is how you name drop. You got like all the greats in like a very short amount of time. I am going to learn from you.
Speaker 3:I didn't even say bill finn's name.
Speaker 9:You know we'll sneak him in later. Okay now. You've obviously had a storied career. You've worked with some great people. Sounds like the universe was on your side it sounds like they put some of the people in place for you to really develop, and I find that's true with a lot of artists. I find that we all run in these like weird circles where we get connected with people that lead to the next thing. And now you've got a very daunting job because you are stepping into some shoes.
Speaker 3:I'm going to say exciting job daunting, a little bit more exciting than daunting, but go ahead. No, no, no.
Speaker 9:I feel you. These shoes have been worn for a quarter of a century, yes, and in this juncture in time as well. How did you end up deciding that Stages Houston was where you needed?
Speaker 3:to be. Well, you know, I mentioned a little bit about Houston and its diversity, which was very important to me personally but also meant that there was an audience and various types of audiences here for works that really speak to me as someone who is not just a very strong African-American identity but a very strong BIPOC identity, but you know who also loves shows like Patsy Cline as well, you know. Or Best of the Whole House in Texas, you know, was blown away by Stephen Karam's the Humans, you know. So really all kinds of theater speaks to me, and so that seemed to be very possible here. The other thing was that those kinds that kind of work was very much in Stage's tradition was to do all types of work appealing to various audiences, from those things that I say, you know, make you laugh out loud to those that give you ugly cries.
Speaker 3:Right, I had been an artistic director, as you pointed out before, at a theater in Los Angeles, a celebration theater, which had an intimate stage, and I just love the intimacy of theater in a small setting I mean, I've worked in big theaters as well, there's something very special about that and Stages has three intimate theaters. You mentioned that I was the director of new play development at the Utah Shakespeare Festival, which I did for four years. But two of the years while I was doing that job I was also the interim artistic director and I always loved the task of artistic direction, of choosing a season, of working with the artists, of oversight, of having conversations. From that perspective, the love of the job, the work that Stages had been doing, the reputation of Stages here in Texas and Houston itself they were all they all added up to make me want to apply and to come here.
Speaker 3:If you go to our website and if you come to our building, you'll see it literally writ large on our walls.
Speaker 3:We sit together in the dark so we can learn how to love each other in the light. And you know somebody who you know in that period, right after I left New York and was doing theater, who for a decade was very much a social justice warrior. That idea that we still can learn from each other, we can learn to love each other and be more human with one another, is very much encoded almost in my DNA and it's a very big part of the work that I did, you know, when I wasn't doing theater, and it still guides me and feeds me as an artist, and the fact that that was so important here, that it's on the walls and it's on our website, it's on the back of my business card, and it was the ethos and the culture of this place as well made this really the right fit for me, and I was lucky enough that the search committee saw something in me that they thought would be good for Stages.
Speaker 9:You know, stages exists in a very different space than most of the other Houston theaters because you've got things like the Alley or the Hobby Center very large spaces, not very intimate, and they're going to produce the big, splashy Phantom of the Opera or, like some big actor, for Christie, murder mystery or something that's a spectacle spectacle, a pageant if you will and you've got stages, professional theater, regional theater has done so many world premieres and different things like that. But that audience is right there in every space. There is not one space in stages that feels like an auditorium. They all feel like you are right there. How are you going to select plays going forward? How? What are you looking for? What is the legacy that you want to leave? Because you inherited a season right now, designed by Ken, so we really don't know you yet as an artistic director. I mean, we're about to get a little sneak peek because you get to pick one play, but you're going to design the seasons going forward.
Speaker 3:Works that elucidate, entertain and elevate. So they elevate our minds and our spirits and they elevate people and the people in them and the audience members who come to attend, who co-attend them. That educate us about who we are as human beings. And I want to distinguish that as being different from preaching or being very messagey. I think that the best plays the playwright's goal and theme is in them and maybe even the playwright's point of view. But I don't think it's good theater when it's polemical as opposed to being dramatic and story-driven and interesting in that way. And as an artistic director, I believe very strongly that artistic directors artistically direct, that is, they impart an aesthetic and a belief, even when they're not directing, to other directors and artists about what we're trying to do on the stage and the audience we're trying to reach and the way in which we're trying to do it.
Speaker 9:What do you think is your biggest challenge coming out?
Speaker 3:of Stages, the Utah Shakespeare Festival, which is a storied 62-year theater, and, having been in conversations with theater leaders all across the country, we're still working and struggling to get audiences back post-pandemic and the theater attending habit has changed and so learning to adjust to that. So you know, previously theaters like ours in the All alley and Utah Shakespeare Festival were very driven by subscribers to renewed season after season. A lot of that has gone away and we have rise of more single ticket buyers, and so the thing is we have to make sure that all of our productions are still meeting the mark and still doing all those things that I talked about for our regular audience members and then building up an identity for them with the organization, and so we have to make sure that we are strongly going after them for that particular show and that the experience is so great that the next time we do a similar show that is attracted to them, they will go oh, Stages did this other thing that I really liked and they're doing something similar. Let me go back there again because I can trust them, because the work was so good. Theater tenders have really shifted to that model.
Speaker 3:I want to go see that thing and not just necessarily a theater overall, and that's okay. We have to acknowledge that's reality and it's no one's fault. And the other thing is we really want to lean in at stages to what is the total theater going experience, so that you can sit at home and Netflix and watch anything you want at one o'clock in the morning or two o'clock in the morning. But when you come to the theater, not only sitting in a group absorbing narrative with other people, which is a different experience but what is the experience when you walk into our lobby and walk into our space so it goes beyond just you know what is the show about and how do'd you learn all those lines? They were really engaging people and hopefully people come to those experiences and go. Oh, when I go to stages, it's not just the show, it's the full experience and I cannot get that sitting at home.
Speaker 9:No, it's amazing and I encourage anybody that's never gone to absolutely experience stages. Because it is a really good bar too. You do. I ate dinner there the other night before Ruth Brown and wine and cheese. Well, tell me what are some of your personal favorite plays. I would love to get to know you like your kind of tastes.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, it's funny because this is where, being an artistic director, it's really important to understand your own aesthetic, but also speaking to an audience. So I will get up at three o'clock in the morning to go see Uncle Vanya Wow, I, as an artistic director, I'm aware that everyone is not going to do that, that most people are gonna come at eight o'clock to see Uncle Vanya and that's okay, but I love it, right? I mentioned earlier the piano lesson, which is still one of my all-time great experiences in theater, and I think the language in August Wilson's plays are incredible, the most profound experiences and the most emotional experiences I've had in a theater, I will say, bodied in one playwright, matthew Lopez. So Matthew Lopez is the whipping man which I had a chance to do as an actor was the most emotionally arresting and involved experience. I had playing Simon in that production in Las Vegas and there were times when the other two actors and I you know it ends in a very emotional moment and all of us are crying. We would come off stage in the dressing room and look at each other and cry all over again. And, interestingly enough, a completely different type of play, matthew Lopez's the Inheritance, which I saw literally the last day on Broadway before the pandemic, before Governor Cuomo closed the theater, and as somebody in that you may have talked about that period after I was living in New York and doing theater.
Speaker 3:Well, the job that I got after that was an AIDS prevention educator in Rhode Island and did that work through all of New England and which meant that at 22 years old, not only was my job HIV prevention and education, but then also when I was surrounded by a community as an openly queer man where people were dying and I realized I hadn't processed that, and there's a moment in Matthew Lopez's play that undid me so much I sobbed. My sobs filled the theater, literally filled the theater, so much so I had strangers walking up to me giving me hugs at the intermission break. And it was funny because there was this part of me that was so emotionally drawn in that I could not control my sobbing. In fact, a theater reviewer wrote about the experience of sitting in the audience with me without ever and I met him a year later what that was like to have this man so emotionally moved by this. And then there was a theater professional me cataloging oh, this is a problem. Oh, this is a problem? Oh, he should fix that, or this doesn't quite land. So jump forward. A year later, the Geffen Theater in Los Angeles does the Los Angeles premiere of it, and I swear it's as if Matthew Lopez and I had a conversation, because almost everything for me that was problematic in the New York production he had addressed for this Los Angeles production. Those are my most profound experiences.
Speaker 3:I can sing every note of Sweeney Todd. I can't say I can sing it well, but every note of Sweeney Todd. An award-winning director for a production of Sweeney Todd and directed an award-winning production of Head to Begin. The Angry Inch at Celebration and I think you know, one of the finest American musicals written in the last 25 years is a very non-musical in terms of its theme and subject, but it shows how the music was matured and that's Next to Normal. Those are some of the, the immediate, just immediately off the top of my head. We could, you know, I, if we did this too long, I would come up with a list of 50 works that really speak to me, but you know oh, yeah, no, but I can tell you, mitchell greco is dying to do cabaret at stages, so oh, that away.
Speaker 3:Oh, this is trust me. It's there and and I love Cabaret. In fact, I saw literally three productions of it last year. Cabaret is such a great show and it can speak to. It never stops speaking to, whatever is happening in our current culture.
Speaker 9:And it's so wonderful that it can become that, as the years go on, I think there's a lot of musicals that don't have that ability to time travel. Yes, well, thank you so much, derek Charles Livingston. We have gone on and on and I'm sure everybody's like what are these two really doing and what are they talking about? But Stages is obviously what we're talking about and I thank you so much.
Speaker 3:The new era which you are going to be a part of, and I'm excited to be here and I hope everyone comes to Stages and you know audience stages has a long history of of producing plays in the queer community, or of the queer community going back to bent almost 40 years ago, and we're still putting queer characters on stage, so come support us and you know we still talk about that production event.
Speaker 9:it's amazing. I can tell you that the first gay show that I ever saw was at stages and as far as thematically and all of that, I didn't know that that kind of theater existed because I was so used to going to these big splashy musicals and these things that were, you know what we call pageant shows or whatever. And then when I saw that and I remember sitting there in the original space with the columns that kind of blocked some of the view, and it was there, you know, and it's right in front of you and I think that that's the joy of stages. And why?
Speaker 9:I'm so excited to have you there because obviously you've got a very personal sense of what you want to do, so and that'll really shine through. So break legs, as they say.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much, brett. All right, thank you for this time. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 7:Thank you for this time. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1:This is Queer Voices. Before we close out this episode of Queer Voices with Reverend Leslie Jackson, senior Pastor of St Peter United, and his powerful speech at the Montrose Center's LGBTQ Plus Rally, we at Queer Voices want to acknowledge Trans Day of Remembrance, held annually today, november 20th. Transgender individuals, particularly women of color, face disproportionately high rates of violence and murder worldwide. Today serves as a day to remember the lives lost to transphobic violence and not only to bring awareness to the ongoing struggle for transgender rights and safety, but to vow to root out transphobia wherever it rears its ugly head. Closing us out on queer voices. From his speech at the Montrose Center's LGBTQ plus rally, here is Reverend Leslie Jackson.
Speaker 10:I'm going to do this old school Baptist way is how I'm going to start out, black Baptist in particular. First, giving honor to God, who is the head of my life. Second, giving honor to the shepherd of this house, the Montrose Center, avery, thank you for putting this together. And instead of giving honor to the ministers on the roster, I'll say honor to the speakers who have been on the roster today for such an amazing job.
Speaker 10:Let's give them a round of applause. Listen y'all, we are from Texas. We live here in Texas. We live in a perpetual liminal state between hope and being absolutely pissed off state between hope and being absolutely pissed off. This has been the case for a long, long time. You've heard all of the other speakers most all of them mentioned something that I think is very important for us to remember. They all referred to people who came before us. Avery talked about the struggle in the community and how this center came about. You've heard them talk about the struggles of black people in this country and the leaders who stood up in their moment, and I'm reminded of the slaves who fought for their freedom and struggled for their rights to live their lives and to flourish and to thrive, what they had to go through. I'm reminded of the people who sat at lunch counters in this city and were spit on, cursed at, despised. I'm reminded of the people who decided not to ride buses because they were gonna boycott until they were able to get what they wanted. I'm reminded of all the LGBTQ advocates that came before me and had they not have done their work and done what they did, I would not have had the right to marry and now be divorced amen. So what we have to remember is that out of crisis comes opportunity. Out of conflict can come change.
Speaker 10:I read it somewhere in a book. It said something along the lines of "'We are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses "'Let us throw off everything that hinders us "'and run the race that is set before us. The witnesses are all of our ancestors black, white, blue, green and yellow who fought for their rights and for equality. For us. Today, they are our witnesses, and they came before us. Now guess what? What? It's our time. It is our time, it is our moment to do the work, because somewhere there is a child under their bed, worried about what their future is going to be, and while we are upright and while we can stand up for them, we can create a better future for ourselves and for them. This fight can't just be about us individually. This is about us together. This is about us together.
Speaker 10:The statement is not we are not going back. That's not the statement for me. The statement for me is I am not going down. I am not going down without a fight. I am not going down. You are not going to take away my life. You're not going to take away my ability to thrive and to flourish. I am not going down. If others have done it before us, we owe it to them and to those who are coming after us to plant the very trees under which they will enjoy the shade. Amen and Ashe. Thank you.
Speaker 4:I want to say a big thank you to all of you for showing up today. Thank you for reminding us what it looks like to find our courage by being together in community, to name our power by being together in community. I want to say thank you to all the speakers who shared their wisdom with us today, their passion, who represented their organizations. My ask is this Do not let this moment end here. Let this be a moment that is a start of a movement. Roll up your sleeves, get involved, volunteer we have lots of those opportunities here at the center. Donate money, talks, support each other. Most of all, remember that caring for yourself is a way to care for your community. And, most of all, don't forget that you're not alone. Thank you so much for coming out tonight.
Speaker 7:This has been Queer Voices, heard on KPFT Houston and as a podcast available from several podcasting sources. Check our webpage queervoicesorg. For more information. Queer Voices executive producer is Brian Levinka, deborah Moncrief-Bell is co-producer, brett Cullum and David Mendoza-Druzman are contributors, and Brett is also our webmaster.
Speaker 5:Some of the material in this program has been edited to improve clarity and runtime. This program does not endorse any political views or animal species. Views, opinions and endorsements are those of the participants and the organizations they represent. In case of death, please discontinue use and discard remaining product For Queer Voices.
Speaker 7:I'm Glenn Holt, Thank you.
