Queer Voices
Queer Voices
June 4th 2025 Queer Voices Female Grand Marshal, LGBT Christian Church of Katy and Stages Artistic Director
For Pride month, we will be speaking to the grand marshals.
First, we speak with Josephine "Jo" Jones, the Female Identifying Grand Marshal for Pride Houston 365 and senior police officer with the Houston Police Department. For the past five years, Jo has served as the LGBTQIA+ liaison, building crucial bridges between law enforcement and the queer community. With 18 years on the force, she brings unique perspective to her role: "Behind the badge is a human being who cares deeply." Jo discusses how her position allows her to advocate for community members while helping transform perceptions within the department. Her selection as Grand Marshal represents both personal validation and institutional progress.
Lauren Tennyson takes us inside the First Christian Church of Katy, where radical inclusivity is reshaping suburban ministry. As Outreach Director, Lauren oversees their "transparent closet," providing clothing and resources to LGBTQ+ youth in need. The church has earned recognition as Outsmart Magazine's favorite trans support organization through their commitment to creating safe spaces outside the Loop. Lauren invites listeners to their upcoming Pride events, including drag bingo fundraisers on June 7th and a special Pride Sunday service featuring a trans male preacher sharing his journey.
We close with Derek Charles Livingston, artistic director of Stages Houston, discussing his direction of the world premiere "Let Her Rip." This innovative production weaves together two historical threads – the Jack the Ripper murders and the matchstick maker strike of 1888 – to examine ongoing violence against marginalized women. The parallels to contemporary issues, including violence against trans women of color, make this a particularly powerful Pride Month offering. Derek also shares exciting plans for Stages' upcoming season, featuring diverse voices and stories.
Don't miss the Houston Pride Parade on June 28th! Subscribe to Queer Voices for more conversations with the LGBTQ+ leaders, artists, and advocates shaping our community's future while honoring its past.
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:
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Hello everybody, this is Queer Voices, a podcast version of a broadcast radio show that's been on the air in Houston, texas for several decades. This is Pride Month and over the course of the month we'll be talking with Pride Parade 365 Grand Marshals leading up to the big event on the 28th. This week, debra Moncrief-Bell talks with Josephine Jones, who is the female identifying Grand Marshal. Jo, as she likes to be called, is a senior police officer and the community liaison for the Houston Police Department.
Speaker 2:We are here to serve. So if there's ever anything that the police can do to better that relationship with community, as the liaison, I'm here to listen. Any officer that you run into they should also be there to listen, because we are all liaisons in a capacity of serving community.
Speaker 1:Brian Levinca talks with a representative of the First Christian Church of Katy. With a representative of the First Christian Church of Katy. One of their Pride events happens Sunday, the 29th, with guest preacher Ashley Quinn from Missouri.
Speaker 3:He is a trans man and he's going to share his journey. And I mean we've had drag queens preach, we've had cis people preach at Pride Sunday and now we're going to have a trans man tell us his journey. It's such a pivotal time in our country and I just what bravery.
Speaker 1:And Brett Cullum has a conversation with Derek Charles Livingston, the artistic director of Stages Houston, who is directing the world premiere of the play Let Her Rip. It merges the Jack the Ripper legend with the London matchstick strike of 1888.
Speaker 4:Queer Voices starts now Grand Marshals perform ceremonial duties, lead the parade and serve as Pride Ambassadors for Pride Month and throughout the year. They are selected out of submissions from the community and the Grand Marshal Advisory Committee, which consists of former Grand Marshals. The finalists of the nomination process then are voted on by the community. The committee chooses the trendsetter and the distinguished Grand Marshals. These are individuals or groups who have made outstanding contributions to the community. And that brings us to Josephine Jones.
Speaker 4:Josephine, or Jo as she's more commonly called, has been selected as a Grand Marshal of Pride, Houston 365 in the Female Identifying Category for 2025. She stands at the intersection of courage and community. As a senior police officer, LGBTQIA plus liaison and relentless advocate for equity, she brings bold leadership and unwavering compassion to the front lines of change. She is a trailblazer, breaking barriers, building bridges and showing us what it means to serve with pride. Joe, welcome to Queer Voices, and we're going to talk a little bit about what this means for you this year. So that's the first question what does being nominated mean to you?
Speaker 2:Being nominated as a Grand Marshal for Houston Pride 365 is truly one of the highest honors of my life. I've served as a police officer for 18 years now and I am so overjoyed that the community would nominate me to be a Grand Marshal. Nominate me to be a grand marshal. It means to me that the community sees me, joe Jones, not just my uniform, but they see me as a person who has worked to bridge gaps, build trust uplift voices that are too often just not heard.
Speaker 4:If anyone's been to almost any event in the community in the past so many years, they're likely to have seen you or met you. You probably walk in the parade every year, and now you get to lead it. What is your past experiences with Pride?
Speaker 2:to serve as a public servant to Pride, from ensuring safety of our community as an officer to now being able to march with them as a symbol of representation. So it kind of is twofold. For me it was all about safety and making sure that the community knew that they could come to this pride parade and feel safe and just celebrate being who they are. To now actually standing there as a grand marshal. It's a great symbol that shows the connection that the community is having with HPD and vice versa. This year looks a little different and I'm excited. I'm so excited about it to walk as a Grand Marshal for Pride.
Speaker 4:What was your first experience with Pride? Do you remember the first time you went to a parade?
Speaker 2:The first time that I went to a parade, I want to say it was it wasn't in the Montrose area, it was actually downtown. I was offered to drive a car in the Pride Parade and I drove our HPD vehicle by way of the recruiting division in the Pride Parade. I was in the recruiting division. We were allowed to have that opportunity to be there in that capacity. That was one of my first, one of my experiences. That I definitely feel is very memorable for me because it just meant so much for me to be able to provide, I guess, an extra level of protection and still enjoy community in that capacity.
Speaker 4:What does pride mean to you? Do you think it's relevant?
Speaker 2:Absolutely it's relevant. For me personally, it just means visibility. I get to be who I am. I get to be a African-American lesbian woman on this HPD large police department and just be who I am, and I don't have to hide. And during the month of June you can be even louder about being who you are. But for me, it means just celebrating who we are. For me, celebrating me in each capacity as a police officer and as a community member, honoring those who came before us. Pride is a time for us to reflect and then, just for me, make a stronger commitment to serving the community that I love to serve, the community that I have passion to serve.
Speaker 4:The theme this year is Celebration is Our Legacy. What does that mean to you?
Speaker 2:It means that pride is not just a celebration, but it's a protest, and that's how it all started, you know, a platform and a promise, and a time when the LGBT community feels like their rights are under attack. Pride is relevant because it reminds us that we are not alone. It's relevant because all of our lives matter in regards to having community commitment and being able to have our voices heard commitment and being able to have our voices heard.
Speaker 4:There are some folks that have kind of been riled at the idea of someone who is in law enforcement being recognized as a Grand Marshal. They go back to cops are our enemies, our history, all of that. What would you say to them?
Speaker 2:I would say that they have every right to feel that way due to the history of Pride and how it all began. Definitely I wouldn't suppress anyone from feeling the way that they feel, but I want people to know that behind the badge is a human being who cares deeply and I want people to feel comfortable to know that, police, we care about community and sometimes that's a hard pill to swallow because people have their life stories about what's happened to them, a family member or someone in the community no-transcript. But we serve in this capacity to try to bridge that gap. I always say bridge the gap. I'm hoping that we can reach a point where we sustain these relationships and just try to continue to move forward in community, knowing that police are here to serve you.
Speaker 2:That's why we put this badge on, that's why we put this badge on, that's why we put this uniform on. And if you are not being served in the capacity in which you feel, we encourage people to utilize resources like your liaisons, because we're your voice and in this opportunity this year Pride, houston 365, as a police department, we use this as an opportunity to celebrate the commitment that we have to serve all communities. We are here to serve. So if there's ever anything that the police can do to better that relationship with community, as the liaison, I'm here to listen. Any officer that you run into they should also be there to listen, because we are all liaisons in a capacity of serving community.
Speaker 4:Would you say, being the liaison is your number one achievement for the queer community.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I would say it's my number one achievement because I serve as the showing up, being authentic and just really having the mindset to help people that really need help, and I've been a police officer for 18 years so I know the rules and regulations and ins and outs of what is expected when you come across a police officer officer. But being able to share that information with community, with community leaders, and helping us understand it's been very impactful. When you know better, you can do better. Why do police do this? Why do they do that? As a liaison, I'm so happy to be able to just share with community because it helps us connect and understand each other better and therefore, hpd can lean on community and community can lean on HPD. So, yes, this is a great honor. I'm very, very honored to be able to serve as the LGBTQIA liaison.
Speaker 4:How long have you been in that role?
Speaker 2:It's been about five years, so 2019 of November has been about almost five years, and we've had liaisons before.
Speaker 2:Before I was a liaison. Actually, my sister officer who is retired, ej Joseph, was a liaison and I think that she served the community in the capacity in which she could, and we're just so grateful that we are able to have a role like this, because all community members don't feel comfortable with police and to have access to someone that will listen to you first of all, listen and then follow through on commitment to help in whatever way we can to share HPD's resources with you. That's really impactful. So I take my job very seriously and I don't over-promise and under-deliver, as I have been in this position. We have had a lot of good things happen where, unfortunately, crime has taken place in community and we've been able to get these people behind bars, and we only have been able to do that by community trusting, trusting HPD to come forward and to give these reports. That's so important. I'm very passionate about serving the community and, yes, the honor to be liaison for this community means everything to me.
Speaker 4:Are you part of the Community Affairs Division?
Speaker 2:Yes, I am.
Speaker 4:Hearing from the community and saying what it means for us. Because there is, I know, when I see you I've seen you over at Law Harrington, I've seen you out at different events in the years and I'm like there's Jo, I know she's looking out for us. There's Jo, she's on the job. I think you have done a wonderful job and I really appreciate you and I'm so pleased that you've been nominated several times this year. You actually are Grand Marshal, female identifying. Is there anything that I didn't ask about that you'd like to share?
Speaker 2:I would like to share that the Houston Police Department cares about the community in more ways than just the LGBT community and I would just encourage people to help us build that relationship where we can get past the hurt and that's a hard thing to do, that's a hard, that's a big ask and to try to forge ways to continue to build relations together, because at the end of the day, the police officers put on the uniform to serve the community, whatever that community looks like.
Speaker 4:This is Deborah Moncrief Bell. I've been talking to Josephine Jo Jones about her becoming the 2025 Grand Marshal female identifying for Pride, houston 365.
Speaker 1:Coming up on Queer Voices. Brian talks with a representative of the First Christian Church of Katy about their Pride events this month, including their guest preacher on the 29th, and Brett Cullum talks with the director of the Stage's Houston production of Let Her Rip. Get more out of your listening experience by making a pledge to support KPFT. Become a member of Houston's only commercial-free alternative radio voice. Visit kpftorg for more information. This is Queer Voices.
Speaker 5:This is Brian Levinka and I'm speaking with Lauren Tennyson of the First Christian Church of Katy. Welcome to the show, lauren, Thank you. Thank you for having me. What is your role at the church and tell me more about the mission of the church?
Speaker 3:My role is Outreach Director, basically in charge of meeting the community and their needs wherever they are going out into the community and helping wherever we can. Our church is open and affirming in a radical way. We believe that everybody is made perfect in God's image and God doesn't make mistakes. We welcome everybody. But when I say we welcome everybody, we welcome believers and non-believers. Everyone is welcome to come and celebrate with us. It's a Disciples of Christ church and so basically, the Disciples of Christ believe and commune in every service, and so everybody has a seat at our table.
Speaker 5:How did this church get organized?
Speaker 3:Well, the church has been around for a while. I believe it's definitely older than 45 years. Forgive me for not knowing the previous history, but about five to six years ago the church decided that they needed to be serving, they needed to really be out there and there was a need. There was a need for children who were being basically kicked out of their home, given nowhere to go, and they were found without a place. And the church realized that by opening the doors to everybody and going out and seeking this marginalized community, through offering clothes, offering assistance, letting them know that they're not alone.
Speaker 3:There's a lot of trauma that churches cause.
Speaker 3:I mean, my goodness, it's the cause of all wars and misery, religion. There is a lot of trauma that people have and people carry, and sometimes just being open, a place where people can come, people can be supported and lifted up, is all that you need to be sometimes, and so that's what it was. In the back of the church there's a closet and they put donations in the closet for people who they were LGBTQ, qia, plus in the family, but they were maybe questioning their sexuality, they were exploring their gender identities and they wanted to make sure that there were the appliances, there were the clothes, there was the support that they needed on that journey, because often there's nothing there, and so they found this specific kind of need in the community. They had somebody who was very interested in doing that. He had passed away before the closet was actually truly able to open, but it was a passion project for him and they opened the transparent closet and by opening up to the community and serving the community, the community and Katie found us.
Speaker 5:Has there been an increase in the needs, with the kind of ramping up of the hateful things we're hearing from the government?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. There's been a substantial spike. So, as part of outreach, I call it the old school Christian in me, but I go for the least of these. If you believe in Christ, that's where he asked us to be. I can't think of a community right now. That's more the least of these that's being actively hunted, persecuted by our government, and so there is a need. There's been an increase in attendance, but part of the outreach is I'm very called to the hungry as well, and so a year ago we opened up a free it's called a blessing box and it's just. It's like a little free library but it's a pantry and it's part of the little pantry movement and it's the only location out in the Katy area right now. But we're working on that. Hopefully other people are going to join in with us.
Speaker 3:We provide dry goods, canned goods it's getting a little too hot to provide canned foods but staples and hygiene products, things for anybody in need, and the Blessing Box has seen such an uptick I mean we are having to refresh it daily. We put in a Google Maps listing for it so anybody can find it, and within the first two weeks we've already had a thousand people look at our listing, and so there's definitely a need in the hunger, there's definitely a need in supporting people who have been traumatized. People just are looking for hope. They're looking for a place that accepts them and supports them, no matter what comes. We're here to do that Later this summer. I have several people that are helping us. We're doing a four-week personal defense course for anybody who's marginalized in the community that feels like they needed to learn how to defend themselves a little bit better. We want to provide that. We're going to offer self-defense. We're going to offer a gun literacy class, a gun safety course. We're going to have range time if somebody wants that. We're going to just give de-escalation tactics, ways to get out safely, ways to get yourself protected, and that's coming in the summer. So we're very determined to be here for the long haul.
Speaker 3:I know personally the church. We're galvanizing ourselves. Who knows what comes next, but I know that we're in for it and we're here for it Any way that we can help Truly, to be a Christian, no matter what the time is, is to be light in the darkness. It's a dark time right now, but you know what God is a drama king. He loves a comeback story and it may feel like we're on the roofs right now, but you know what? With God with us, nothing can be truly against us and persevere.
Speaker 5:What is the K-Place? I was reading about that on the website.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, k-place is a wonderful place. It is for youth, lgbtqia youth, and it is a place where they can kick back. There's a community center is a youth group for kids that get together and they have so much fun. They do movie nights and they get together. I know that also, pflag meets and during PFLAG they usually take the kiddos into K-Place and they just have a time to decompress and talk and have fellowship with each other.
Speaker 5:And I was reading that you have a Pride Bingo coming up in June.
Speaker 3:Oh, absolutely. June 7th, 5 and 9 pm we're doing two shows of drag bingo and it's a whole lot of fun. These queens are incredible. I was blessed enough to serve at the last drag bingo. It was literally wall-to-wall people. You couldn't get up to get more drinks because we were so crammed in there. So we decided to do two shows. The 5 pm is going to be great. 9 pm is going to be a little bit looser. We're going to cut up a little bit more. You know how those queens get after they get in their flow. That's going to be June 7th. Like I said, 5 and 7 pm. It's going to be a great time and my favorite part about it is that everything we earn that night goes to our transparent closet, goes to helping kids who are disenfranchised, kids who are being persecuted not just kids, anybody.
Speaker 3:That's the thing. The closet is there for anyone. We are truly there. If you're in need, if you need work clothes, if you need a special occasion dress, if you need a suit, if you're questioning anything and you want to know how it works, you come to the closet. And the great thing is is that these drag bingos they benefit the closet 100%.
Speaker 5:What other things do you have coming up?
Speaker 3:for Pride On June 21st, we are doing Put a Ring on it and we are celebrating 10 years of marriage equality by having weddings. We're hosting weddings. We already have three wonderful, amazing couples that are going to get married at our church in celebration. We've got the cake, we've got everything and they're just going to show up and we're going to celebrate with them. I'm not sure if they're still taking applications, but I do know that we have three wonderful couples and we're really excited about it.
Speaker 3:What a way to, instead of just living in fear and worry, we're just going to celebrate. You know what? Nobody knows what's next, but we do know that we're going to live for today and enjoy today with each other and have and just have a great time, because it's been 10 years and every day we walk forward is a harder to go back. And then, of course, pride Sunday is immediately after. So we're going to be a little partied out from the 21st and then we're going right into Pride Sunday. That's when our church really comes out. We all get in our best rainbow gear and we just really celebrate Pride.
Speaker 3:And so this year I'm so excited we have Pastor Ashley Quinn of the National Avenue Christian Church in Springfield, missouri, is going to be our guest preacher. He is a trans man and he's going to share his journey. And I mean we've had drag queens preach, we've had cis people preach at Pride Sunday and now we're going to have a trans man tell us his journey. It's such a pivotal time in our country and I just what bravery. And I just I can't wait to celebrate with everybody. That's the 22nd of June.
Speaker 5:You're very passionate about outreach. How did you get involved with this?
Speaker 3:It's very important to me to go to an open and affirming church, because the minute a church says that they're not open to the community, that tells me that they're not truly following Christ. So it was very important for me to find an open and affirming church. I was going out to lunch with my mother-in-law to a restaurant very close to the church and she said, oh, that's that church that has the closet for the community. And I said, what are you talking about? And she's like, oh yeah, they help all sorts of people. They help kids who are gay and get kicked out of their house. And I was like, ding, ding, ding, let's try it out. Went in there the first Sunday. There's a rainbow flag flying out. Now, hey, I get it. There's a lot of people who have decided to covertly be Christian missionaries and kind of pretend to be like they're pro-gay and they're not. And I had to go in there. Still, I wasn't completely won over, but it definitely made me go. Okay, this might be my people. And then I went inside and I just the energy, just the passion, and seeing several members of leadership that were queer it, just I was like I found my place and we plugged in For me.
Speaker 3:I get my religion from serving others, from being Christ's hands and feet. That's what really drives me, and so this is a place where it's a limitless ability to serve. There's so many things going on. There's so much hate out there. There's so many beautiful, beautiful children of God who have been told that they're nothing and treated like trash. I'm out there. I'm out there, if not to convert anybody. I don't care who you pray to, I don't care what you believe. I care, though, that you know you are perfect. There is nothing wrong with you. You are just the way you should be, and that should be given to you in a positive Christian atmosphere. As far as I'm concerned, to let you know hey, these other people, they've got it wrong. Christ was pretty dang clear about how you treat the least of these.
Speaker 5:It's a different message than we normally hear, sometimes from the religious right.
Speaker 3:Absolutely and trust me, I'm a stranger in a strange land to them. You know they don't understand me and they don't have to. The Apostle Paul is like when you find people who are in darkness and I think every one of those wayward Christians who are spewing hate are in darkness I mean you can try and talk to them, but don't get caught up in it, don't get twisted, baby. And I don't. And I keep going because there is so much rot in American Christianity right now that there's a reckoning coming and, quite honestly, it's well-deserved.
Speaker 5:Now, how do you find people and how do you let people know about your church?
Speaker 3:I just tell them I talk about my church. I mean, I just am always talking about it. I have my card available at all times. I'm always asking for donations for the blessing box, I'm always asking for support at the closet volunteers, and so it's just a real central part of who I am and I just it just is I'm always working on things. So the church actually in the fall, late September, all throughout October, we do a pumpkin patch and it is our outreach. It's free to the community. Everybody around us comes and families take pictures and buy pumpkins, have fun. We have all sorts of activities but it requires a lot of outreach. I probably need about 150 volunteers a year to pull it off, and so I'm always talking about the church anyway, trying to recruit help.
Speaker 5:Is there anything that I haven't asked you about the First Christian Church of Katy that you want our listeners to know about?
Speaker 3:We are really proud to be Outsmart Magazine's favorite trans support organization. I think that really means something right now and I think to be a church and to wear that mantle is it's something. It doesn't matter what you believe, as long as you know that you have a place with us. We are here for you. We are here to support you. We've got clothing. We've got other ways to help you. We've got our blessing box. Right now we've been doing bags for the unhoused with specific items, like we did life straws last month with various things for the unhoused. So there's a way to plug in and serve and be together in a community. You don't have to be alone. We're here for you and I know you're hearing this.
Speaker 3:I know a lot of your erudite, well-heeled listeners wouldn't even dream of going at life outside the loop. I understand as a suburban normie, I completely understand. Going into the city gives me hype sometimes. But there is life outside of the loop and the thing is is that we are here, we're on the front lines. We are out here fighting, fighting for our brothers and sisters, fighting for these children.
Speaker 3:At the end of the day, we need the support of Inside the Loop. Okay, I'm not asking you to come out all the time, but maybe support us Inside the Loop Okay, I'm not asking you to come out all the time, but maybe support us, maybe donate, maybe find a way to plug in. You've got connections. We need them, we need the help and I promise it's only a quick 25-minute drive and it might change your life. Coming out and volunteering in the closet and just seeing these kids that we're helping it, just it really changes yourself and to me, like I said, that's how I get my religion is by being Christ's hands and feet and this is a place to help and serve, no matter where you live in the city.
Speaker 5:Houston is massive and we are everywhere, so I think I appreciate the work that you're doing out there, and congratulations on the Outsmart Award. That's a major achievement, I think.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you so much. It's to everybody at our church. I mean, I could list all the names but we'd be here for another 30 minutes probably, but it truly takes a village there. But I will pass that on. I'm so proud of everybody at our church and our community.
Speaker 5:Thank you for coming on. I've been speaking to Lauren Tennyson of the First Christian Church of Katy.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much, Brian. You'll have a wonderful day.
Speaker 5:This is Queer Voices.
Speaker 1:This is KPFT 90.1 fm houston, 89.5 fm galveston, 91.9 fm huntsville, and worldwide on the internet at kpftorg this is avery Bellew.
Speaker 3: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 7:Derek Charles Livingston is the artistic director of Stages Houston and he is about to premiere his first choice of programming at Stages with Let Her Rip. The show is a swirl of two historical events the Jack the Ripper murders combined with the matchstick maker strike of 1888. Now playwright Maggie Lou Rader is the author and this is billed as a world premiere. The show begins previews on May 30th and it runs through june 22nd at stages derek charles livingston. Thank you so much for talking to me again. It'll be nice to catch up and talk all things murderous and matchsticks in 1880s london. Thank you for having me. No, thank you. I mean, I was very intrigued by this choice and this play and I don't know what it's about, obviously because world premiere I've never seen it before. So tell me what is the show about?
Speaker 6:Well, sort of, as you summarized, in 1888, there was a very influential, very important strike by matchstick workers, who all were women primarily, and they walked out of the factory because of the arduous conditions and many of them were getting this horrible condition called fossey jaw, where their mouths, their mouths would literally be eaten away by the phosphorus that was in the matches that they had to put together. And they walked out and they refused to sign a statement stating that public published accounts of their arduous conditions were untrue. And then they immediately elected six women to represent them and went back into the factory to argue for them. And so you have to note these were mostly unlettered I don't like to use necessarily the word not literate, but certainly not traditionally educated working class women in East London who thought that they were being mistreated and fought and stood up for themselves and they unified. Nobody backed out on the strike and they eventually got, by law of parliament, the right to unionize.
Speaker 6:And also Bryant and May, who were the owners of this matchstick factory, had to change the chemical compound that was used in matchsticks to something that was less toxic to their bodies, and the technology existed.
Speaker 6:It was a little more expensive, and if you see these pictures of where Brian and May lived in that time period. They were living large, so this was not a big cut into the money they were making from these matchsticks to change the chemical compound, and by act of parliament they got this done, and so it was this really amazing moment in the workers' history of East London and indeed is credited with starting a lot of other strikes that happened in the area. It probably really transformed the way if you think about sort of even the Labour Party and labour movement in London probably is one of the things that really has continued to transform politics as they exist today in the united kingdom. At the same time, jack the ripper started killing women in east london, and so what maggie has done and this is based on her research is posits the idea that his murdering of women and if you read about the murders they clearly were misogynistic attacks against women he went after them as women, not just as people. Those attacks started the same day the women won their rights.
Speaker 6:And of course famously never resolved who he was Famously never resolved, and although you have to come see our play, Well, I'm a huge Jack the Ripper fan or buff or whatever.
Speaker 7:I went to London one time and convinced my mother on a Christmas holiday to go to every site of his victims in London. It was terrible. It was not a great holiday plan. I don't recommend it but it was interesting because they really preserved a lot of what it looked like. They have the gas lamps still and they have the areas and they treat it almost as a museum. So definitely two points in history that really changed You're talking about the union type environment and also a serial criminal that kind of changed the way police worked, the way that investigations were done and our concept of what this all was.
Speaker 6:I think one of the things that it really did is it changed the way these kinds of things were covered. There's certainly been serial killers before then, but this one the first ones that was really sensationalized by the media, did not change policing. So that when poor women, women who may believe to be sex workers whether that's true or not women who might have alcohol addiction or who are working class, when they disappear the police often ignore them, particularly if it is believed they're involved in sex work. So that in the opening of her play, in the introduction to the written play it's not actually in the text of the play or what the audience will see Maggie cites a Long Island killer who got away with it because of the women he was killing A lot of indigenous women in this country and in Canada who have been killed and murders haven't been found because they were poor and indigenous and some of them were believed to be sex workers or have alcohol addiction. And as she says is that she wrote a play that takes place in the past to expose the present and the fact that this is still going on and, interestingly enough, not related to that.
Speaker 6:But I didn't know this. I've known about Maggie in this play for four years In fact I was, when I was at the Utah Shakespeare Festival, the director of play development. I chose this play for one of our development processes, so I was actually part of this play's development. There have been subsequent workshops to it and I didn't know this at the time. But Maggie was inspired to write this play because of Breonna Taylor, and what's been said in this play is someone ought to remember her name. Her name is. What is her name? Say her name, but apply it to these women in this time period. But I love how Maggie has again made something that is still much more contemporary, looking back to the past to tell us a contemporary concern that we have.
Speaker 7:Well, and it's wild, and you're doing it in June, which is also Pride Month, yes, and we have a lot of trans women of color that are killed and it never gets solved and ignored.
Speaker 6:Ignored because of who they are and what it never gets solved and ignored. Ignored because of who they are and what they might be doing to make money, and even if not, that because no one cares enough. Right, absolutely yes, and so and I actually had that conversation just today with one of my coworkers pointing out, because he saw the run through last night the parallels to what is going on now with trans women, primarily trans women of color, who just do not. Their murders are not considered important, they're not counted for or the the police. Again, bad policing is they will dead name them in their investigation, which basically stops the investigation because the people who can help them don't know those women by those names, even though we have education enough at that level to understand the difference between dead names and names that people are using well, we've certainly gone down a dark path already, but and you know, and the funny thing is that maggie says the play is a comedy until it's not.
Speaker 6:Play is hilarious oh good until it's not.
Speaker 7:Well, I was gonna ask you why did you pick this one as your debut at houston audiences as a producer, as an artistic director and, just plain, as a play?
Speaker 6:director. Sure, there are a number of reasons. So I think the first reason is I wanted to be responsible with Stage's money.
Speaker 7:Yes, always.
Speaker 6:It's a three-person play, three-actor play with a unit set, so you know there was a financial responsibility there.
Speaker 6:It also felt an opportunity to bring to stages audiences a chance to get to know me of something that I have worked on previously as an artist. As I said, I was the director of play development and the interim artistic director at the Utah Shakespeare Festival when I chose this as one of the two plays for us to work on that year, and so we brought Maggie out. We put her in a room with a director, with a dramaturg, with actors, and every day her job was to revise that play and at the end of that week we put it in front of an audience and we had talkbacks for three days that week and then two weeks later with a different audience, and so it was something that I was intimately connected with. So it felt like that was a chance for Stages' audience to get to know part of my historical past, but bringing it here, and also a chance for Stages to have a world premiere credit, because this is a play that was developed at the Utah Shakespeare Festival. But Utah is not going to do.
Speaker 7:I got you. Well, speaking of talkbacks and getting reactions from the audience and things like that, I noticed that Maggie Lou Rader is coming to Houston and she's going to do talkbacks on this show on the 6th, 7th and 8th of June, so you're bringing her in to do this.
Speaker 6:She's actually here now, so we just started previews, so she will be here during that process. But the talkbacks actually will be that opening weekend. And isn't that exciting for an audience to see a play and a lot of them probably know about Jack the Ripper but don't necessarily know about the Matchstick Workers strike to hear a playwright first hand talk about what her inspiration was for that and why it's happening, why the play is happening and why it's important to her, and to answer all the little questions that we often have about the research, what it went into and how that character came about and where'd that come from. And it's one of the things that I hope to do more as an artistic director of stages. When we have those opportunities, is to let our audiences engage with the people who created them, as well as the actors, the designers, but as much as possible to have a conversation about the work, which I like to say is an experience you can't get sitting at home watching Netflix. So come to the theater. No.
Speaker 7:Come to the theater. No, Oliver Stone is not going to come into your living room after this movie and talk to you about it. So, yeah, you might as well go to stages and talk to Maggie Lou Rader about why she wrote about matchsticks and murders.
Speaker 6:She's a delightful human being, so I expect the talkbacks are going to be really lively and wonderful.
Speaker 7:Another thing that you mentioned is that it's a three-woman cast. Tell me about who all is in this one, because it's a pretty short cast list.
Speaker 6:Yes, so a woman named Rachel Amatoso, who just graduated college a couple of years ago. This is her stage's debut and she has been seen around town. She's been seen around town in a couple of things, but this is probably the most major theater and piece that she's been involved with Stylus and Claire, who a number of audiences may know she's worked at the Alley I saw her most recently as she was auditioning for this in Vanya Sonia, masha and Spike at Fourth Wall. And Melissa Pritchard, who works all over town in Houston and was a long-time Alley Company member.
Speaker 7:Wow, yeah, you've definitely got three powerful actresses.
Speaker 2:I mean Skylar, I've seen so many times.
Speaker 7:They get somebody kind of just out of college and then another one that's been an Alley Company resident I mean, come on, yeah, you're in good hands, and not only are they wonderful actors, they are great artists.
Speaker 6:to be in a room with it has really been a wonderful, exciting process. And you know, by rights, maybe as a man I shouldn't be directing this play, I don't know but it's certainly a play for which I have affinity for, I have a background for, and I love the idea that putting powerful women's voices into the world don't only have to be the work of women. In fact, men should do that work, and so I'm very excited to do that as well.
Speaker 7:Well, it's interesting, and I think that there are several companies here in Houston that actually address that specifically. That's their whole raison d'etre, if you will, but it's certainly something that I'm proud to see. Stages take up that mantle as well, because it's not something that we see a lot of, and there's different companies that are saying, hey, we want to put more women on stage and stronger female parts, because when you do look at the pantheon of theater, I mean it's male a lot of it. Yeah, which is so silly, because how many actresses are out there?
Speaker 6:compared to actors. Lots of really good ones, yes, and of course I have to be careful that I don't create criticism. I have to back on, because the next play I direct this stage is going to be Lehman Trilogy, which is three men.
Speaker 7:We're just keeping the scales balanced, Derek.
Speaker 2:That's it.
Speaker 7:We're, we're just keeping the scales balanced, that's it. We're just doing that, you know? Okay, you keep like psychically mentioning stuff that I'm going to ask you, but next season, obviously you're going to direct the lehman trilogy, right?
Speaker 6:yes, so excited.
Speaker 6:In fact, today I just literally today I had a conversation with a man named guy cohen who works at one of the jewish community centers here in town, because I want to make sure that there are Hebrew prayers and Hebrew words in it.
Speaker 6:I want to make sure we get those right.
Speaker 6:But it's not just getting the words right, it's making sure that culturally, I think, particularly now with the rising anti-Semitism that's happening in this country that we honor and respect the traditions that the layman brothers came to this country with and why that was so central to their family.
Speaker 6:And that is not a pro israel and anti-israel statement, but it's about recognizing and honoring a group of people's religion and religious background and we have to do that right, no matter who they are, and I'm not religious myself, but I recognize that that's important and you know, as an actor it's interesting I did the whipping man, which also is centers on a jewish family and at the same and again that same experience of we want to make sure we do this right. So I'm already in plans for layman trilogy and have a wonderful group of designers who already on board to help execute that play. We haven't't cast it yet, but we're already starting to know what it's going to look like and I already have images and ideas in my head of what the staging will be to tell that epic story.
Speaker 7:Well, heading back into Letter Rip territory, because obviously we've got to wait a while for this next cast. Who are the designers you're working with on this production for Letter Rip?
Speaker 6:Sure, a wonderful woman named Christina Gianelli who is one of the leading lighting designers in town, so she's lighting, she's lit this show for us. She most recently was represented Bedlands Hamlet at Fourth Wall. A woman named Liz Freeze is doing the set design for us and she designed our production of the Hispanic, latino, latina, latinx, latine vote and did a wonderful job on this. It's a completely different set design, so I think people who've seen that play in this one will just be amazed at her versatility. Leah Smith, who heads our own costume shop here, is doing the costume design and if people saw our Pranto Pinocchio and or saw our panto pinocchio and or saw spring awakening at rec room in the fall, lee was a costume designer of that.
Speaker 6:And robert leslie meek is our sound designer and robert did that show. He worked on the panto pinocchio for us, he did the ripple, the way that carried me home for us. Uh, he did hamlet at fourth wall, I think I'm beginning to think that they're like three sound designers in town and they're all Robert Leslie Meek. Not entirely true, but the young man does get a lot of work and there's a reason why so you know the really good designers they do.
Speaker 7:They pop up everywhere. I'm always amazed at the repetitiveness of some of the people that I see as designers, but you definitely picked a very strong group here based on the previous work. I mean the lighting for Bedlam's Hamlet, a fourth wall, as well. As you've got the sound designer too, right, yes, so yeah, those were both top-notch jobs. I saw that pretty recently, so that'll be interesting to see what they do with this.
Speaker 6:We did. Sort of a fun thing for this that Robert spearheaded is that because the play opens with women coming back from parliament singing in the streets, we actually gathered a group of women and we put out the words. So there's, some of them are actors who are professional singers, some of them were our volunteer ushers. One woman was a banker who showed up because a friend of hers said I'm going to go do this thing tonight, come with me, and we recorded women singing protest songs in our theater, and so the idea was to be a mixture of voices to represent these women and so that the voices you hear in each and between each of the scenes is a chorus of Houston women who showed up specifically to record for this production. This is awesome. It was such a wonderful night and you could see in their faces how fun it was to sing these songs.
Speaker 6:And the story that they're helping tell by singing these songs. They made it even more important.
Speaker 7:You've got a pretty healthy preview for this, don't you? It starts tonight as of this recording, yes, wow, and I don't really see it until, I think, maggie shows up on June 6th.
Speaker 6:Yes, so, like I said, she's here already, but our official opening is June 5th, after the previews and then each of those subsequent performances. As you pointed out, maggie will be here for a talkback, yeah.
Speaker 7:Are any of your designers going to be for the TalkBacks too, or is it just Maggie? It's just focused on.
Speaker 6:It's very possible, because they're all local designers and we also do a thing during previews called Sunday Sit-Down, so they'll also be part of that as well.
Speaker 7:And that's the Sunday Sit-Down during previews. Is it the cast and the designers sit down during previews they Is it the cast and the designers?
Speaker 6:Because during previews we're still working. Technically, previews are performances, but they're also still a rehearsal, so the show is still changing during that process, Although after last night we're pretty close, which is very exciting as well.
Speaker 7:I saw the Sherlock production last season during previews and Afsaneh was there doing her set tweaks tweets and she was sitting there dex to be furiously taking notes saying I gotta fix this, I gotta fix that she's designing layman trilogy for us oh yeah.
Speaker 7:no, she's amazing. That's another one of the designers that I absolutely admire. Her art, yes, and she and she always surprises me. She can do realistic, she can do abstract, she can do puppets, I mean, she can do anything. It's just crazy. And she even did basically a one-woman show with a chorus of dancers behind her at one point.
Speaker 6:So I'm pretty sure Afsana can do anything, was that the one that had the larger-than-life projections behind it. So that projection designer, james Templeton, is also designing with Asana who are a great pair, a great team the Layman Trilogy with us.
Speaker 7:Yeah, they're a dynamic duo, for sure.
Speaker 6:I'm looking forward to how that's going to turn out.
Speaker 7:Well, we teased a little bit your production next season. But how did you pick this next season? Because I know this is the season of Derek Charles Livingston. How did you pick this next season? Because I know this is the season of Derek Charles Livingston? It's the first time I know we finally unleashed you.
Speaker 6:I wanted to make sure that stages continued to tell the stories of multiple peoples, especially now where, suddenly, diversity is a dirty word, which I don't understand, because what's the opposite of diversity, what's the opposite of inclusion, what's the opposite of equity? No one seems to be asking that question when you're demonizing the idea that you would have a world that celebrates multiple people. But that's one of the places that I started is continuing stages tradition. I'm not bringing it here. I'm continuing that tradition of telling the stories of multiple people and so wanting to make sure that the plays that we selected did that. The other thing is that I wanted to make sure that we had works that would definitely make people laugh and entertain people. I wanted to make sure that they were plays that people saw, that when they walked out they were having a conversation about the work and about the writing and about the performances I wanted to give our audiences. We're not doing a panel this coming season, but I wanted to give our audiences something that was a very special holiday treat, because they've gotten used to that with us, and so those various things were the drivers of selecting that season. And so you look, and I love epic theater and I love great storytelling and I love the Lehman Trilogy, which is sort of how that play started, and that idea of really leaning into bravura performances which that play demands, because you have three actors who start out playing just the Lehman Brothers but over the course of 140 years that are covered in the play, collectively play about 47 different characters. It's nuts, it's, it's wonderful, right, that's what we go to the theater for and that's what our audience is to have that experience. And you know, dominique morisot is one of america's great playwrights and you know she writes from the african-american tradition of but contemporary plays and so she was influenced and inspired by August Wilson but definitely is writing from her own lens and her own bent and again, with humor and very sexy characters and characters with men who really are wonderful, men who love women and women who really have very strong voices. And she's a Tony nominee for Ain't Too Proud to Beg and all of her plays, except for like two, have been done in Houston. So this is a houston premiere of playwright who's been produced a lot in houston, so mudrow, and then of course it's a wonderful life at the holiday time and I, you know, it's one of those things that to me it just it just says christmas, it just says holiday season and I am such a big it's a wonderful life fan. I literally, on an airplane, watched it in front, it on somebody's screen in front of me, and knew every line of the movie, so I'm really excited about that.
Speaker 6:The Bride, denise Fennell, who's been coming here a number of times as our sister in our catechism shows this is a show she did for us a couple of years ago about getting married late in life. We're excited to bring that back because not enough audiences saw it. It did very well, but there were people who missed it and so we wanted to bring it back. And we have a long-term relationship with Denise and it's such a wonderful, heartwarming as well as funny piece. And if you've seen her work, either recently in Lessons Learned or as the sister, you just know how funny she is. And this experience of getting married at 50 and suddenly becoming a stepmom and the fears that go along with that are just really exciting I think a lot of people will relate to.
Speaker 6:And then the Chinese Lady by Lloyd Tse tells the story of the first Chinese woman who came, believed to be the first Chinese woman to come to America and she came when she was 14 and basically spent the next 30, 40 years in this country and many of those when she was 14 and basically spent the next 30, 40 years in this country and many of those years she was basically an exhibit that went around the country. And so Lloyd is playing with this idea of representation and Orientalism and acquiring the American understanding of the American traditions and ideas through the guise of this woman, but in a play that is also very funny and very incisive. And for our audience members who came last year to see the Heart Sellers, it is the same playwright but a very different sort of tone and rhythm to this play, but really funny and very, very incisive and smart. And that drive through Monterey actually came out of our Cinemuros Latinx Theater Festival. So we just completed our eighth annual Latino Latinx Theater Festival called Cinemuros and the one that this play was in our seventh festival, and it was just a huge hit among the people who attended that festival and I read it and said, oh, this is a wonderful play, and I was told that by the staff when I got here and they're right.
Speaker 6:And so one of the things that I think a theater should do is, if it's developing new work, is give that work a chance. So that will be a world premiere of a play that was developed in part by stages and is emerging from this Latinx theater festival that we've been doing now for eight years, and so it felt really important and right to reach to that resource and to put a play on stage that is just beautiful. Just a beautiful play about these two geeky people falling in love and how other situations happening in the country sort of impact that, but also goes on to tell a story of, of of masculinity and love, this love between two people, even in and even in a world where men are, are encouraged to be one way, and here's a loving man and a beautiful woman who responds to that, who find each other in a really fun way. And I don't know if people know this, but this is the 10th anniversary of Hamilton on Broadway.
Speaker 7:Yes, and you're bringing in, I'm bringing in Spamilton.
Speaker 6:Which is the spoof of Hamilton and that play has Hamilton itself has so much love and it's still such a success on Broadway and it has had many numerous national tours and the streaming on Disney was very successful and again, it's just really smart and it has the music that we all know from Hamilton as well as a couple other shows in it and you know, taking those lyrics that people have come to know over the last 10 years and really spinning them. But we're pairing it with 21 Chump Street, which is a small Lin-Manuel Miranda musical that a lot of people don't know, and so it was really exciting to take this writer, who a lot of us have fallen in love with because of Hamilton and In the Heights, which Tuts is currently doing, shout out to my fellow theater and give people a chance to get to know this piece too.
Speaker 7:Yeah, no, absolutely. And it's so impressive when you get to see Lin-Manuel Miranda's works before pre-Hamilton. It's amazing to see the growth and where all of that stuff started. Because recently when I went and saw the Tuts production of In the Heights, I was like, oh yeah, I forgot. This has kind of set the stage for Hamilton and he used this here but he didn't use that there. I mean, all that kind of stuff was interesting.
Speaker 6:And Heights won a Tony for Best Musical as well. He's two for two on Broadway In terms of his work as a soul component.
Speaker 7:Yeah, he's not got a bad track record so far?
Speaker 6:Yeah, he's fine. Alright. Well, derek Charles Livingston, I could just talk to you forever.
Speaker 7:But yeah, he's all right, he's got a talent in that one, fine, all right. Well, derek Charles Livingston, I could just talk to you forever. But Letter Rip, may 30th through June 22nd at Stages, obviously this whole phantasmagora combining the matchmaker strike of 1888 and the Jack the Ripper murders Certainly looking forward to it. A three-woman cast Very funny, a chance to talk to the playwright, all these things. So obviously a lot of exciting things happening in the stages, and certainly next year as well. So we'll get a little preview of that too. So thank you so much. Oh my god, thank you for your time.
Speaker 7:Yeah, no, absolutely Anytime. I am down for this anytime, and maybe one day we can just talk shop instead of doing yeah, you just do this, we'll just go off on that All right.
Speaker 1:This has been Queer Voices, heard on KPFT Houston and as podcast available from several podcasting sources. Check our webpage QueerVoicesorg for more information. Queer Voices executive producer is Brian Levinka. Debra Moncrief-Bell is co-producer, brett Cullum and David Mendoza-Druzman are contributors. The News Wrap segment is part of another podcast called this Way Out, which is produced in Los Angeles.
Speaker 8: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.
Speaker 1:For Queer Voices. I'm Glenn Holt, Thank you.
