Queer Voices
Queer Voices
July 25th 2025 Queer Voices Former mayor Annise Parker's new campaign, Rainbow on the Green, Gay Men's Chorus and Catastrophic!
We speak with local community photographer, Nora Dayton, about their work in the community. Then we catch up with Annise Parker, former mayor of Houston, who has announced a run for Harris County Judge. We also speak with the Pride Chorus of Houston artistic director David York about Rainbow on the Green happening Friday, June 27th. Finally, we catch up with Catastrophic Theater's Tamarie Cooper and Kyle Sturdivant about their production, "Another Ding Dang Tamarie Show," which opens on June 27th and runs through August 2nd.
Tickets for Tamarie:
https://matchouston.org/events/2025/another-ding-dang-tamarie-show
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 version of a broadcast radio show that's been on the air in Houston, texas, for several decades. This week, ethan Michelle Gantz talks with Nora Dayton, a transgender, lgbtq community photographer, about her work.
Speaker 2:But I appreciate the people that I'm photographing so much because they give me a wonderful energy that I somehow can capture and hopefully show to others.
Speaker 1:Brian Levinka interviews former Houston mayor and now candidate for Harris County judge Anise Parker. Candidate for Harris County Judge Anise Parker. Deborah Moncrief-Bell has a conversation with Frankie Ortega, the marketing director for Discovery Green, and David York, the artistic director of the Pride Chorus Houston, about this year's Rainbow on the Green event June 27th.
Speaker 3:It is a retrospective of the music of the 80s and it has been such fun to produce because there's just a treasure trove of great music from that time period and a lot of gay artists were coming out in those days. We are happy to be able to feature that music in a dynamic performance that includes dance.
Speaker 1:And Brett Cullum talks with the producers of the latest version of the Ding Dang Tamari show at the match. Queer Voices starts now.
Speaker 4:This is Ethan Michelle Ganz talking to Nora Dayton today about her photography. Nora, how are you today?
Speaker 2:I'm doing good. I actually just got back from taking a bunch of pictures. There was the no Kings rally in Houston. I've been volunteering and just being out at some of the events that have been being organized and just showing up and taking pictures, and people have appreciated that and so I was there again today.
Speaker 4:Nora is part of the trans community as I am, and we are friends. I've known her for years and she shows has shown up to take a lot of pictures in a lot of really important places, taking a lot of pictures of history as we make it. How did you get into photography?
Speaker 2:as a little kid. I remember having a camera at a really young age and enjoying taking pictures. But then I got in high school I decided to take a photography class and that really expanded my interest it was black and white and you know in doing darkroom work and I, expanding from that and kind of having my own darkroom in my house and kind of enjoyed that, I went to college and did some photography for newspaper and also yearbook and then it was kind of again always just hobby for me and it would be different amounts of time being spent on it at different points in my life and it would be different amounts of time being spent on it at different points in my life, like when my kids were born. That would always kind of renew my interest in taking pictures and things. So yeah, it's been something I've always considered a hobby and done my whole life.
Speaker 4:Well, it's interesting that you call it a hobby, because your photography is beautiful. You've won awards for it, which I find just amazing. And even today, as we were out in the crowd, what did you hear someone scream to you today?
Speaker 2:Sometimes I'm surprised that people recognize me and there was a group and I took their picture and someone introduced themselves and I said yeah, I'm Nora Dayton, here's my card. And somebody else turned around and like that's Nora Dayton. She takes absolutely beautiful photos, and so I'm always humbled by that sort of response. There's a few things today where people went out of their way to come up to me and tell me they appreciated what the photos that I've taken and put out there and what have you enjoyed photographing the most?
Speaker 2:Well, my work lately with community has been really great for me. It's given me a comfort, it's given me kind of a place in the community. It's given me the opportunity to be aware of what I can contribute and feel the appreciation and love from other community members and then I'm proud to be able to give something to the community that that is appreciated so much. It's a healing thing for me to be hearing how how people appreciate it and respect what I do, the events that we've done, trips to the Capitol, and I've taken photos there, both the 2023 legislative session and the legislative session that just ended. Advocacy Day. I took photos for the All In for Equality Coalition with Equality Texas. Especially this place that I've found within our community has really made my photography take off and has enabled me to see it in a whole new way.
Speaker 4:You've taken some pictures of me, some really great pictures of me In fact, when I ran for city council, the people that did my mailers and stuff like that no-transcript. I've noticed now that you've branched out from the trans community and you've taken pictures at other groups, protests and get-togethers. You photograph them just as beautifully.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Yeah, no, I don't. I don't even know the formula that I have for it or how I how I capture. I know what you mean with capturing the emotion on people's faces. I don't necessarily know how I do it, I mean. I think I mean as much as anything is people on photographing. They're giving me that love. I don't necessarily know what I do to bring it out, but I appreciate the people that I'm photographing so much because they give me a wonderful energy that I somehow can capture and hopefully show to others.
Speaker 4:Well, it definitely does show through. The work that you do is really important to me because it really shows our community and our history through the eyes of someone experiencing it themselves, and it's something for us to tell our own story. What do?
Speaker 2:you plan in the future for your photography? Where can people look at your pictures? I share my work on my website, noradaytoncom, Kind of just by different events that I volunteer and take pictures of, I put up there and just make things available to everyone to use and share as they wish. My website is my name noradaytoncom. Is there?
Speaker 4:anything that I haven't asked you about that you'd like to talk about or add to the conversation?
Speaker 2:Here's some feedback. That's been really special to me has been you were someone who said this to me, but also others were like a photo I took helped them feel that it really showed them as themselves, and so that's that's been real meaningful. I remember somebody told me that a picture that I took helped their mom appreciate them and their transition. Things like that mean a lot to me because I recognize I'm someone who's actually self-conscious seeing myself in photos and I recognize that that's something that the trans community I feel like we probably all have things about ourselves where we're self-conscious about our appearance.
Speaker 2:I always hope that when I share photos that people are able to see the beauty that I see. And then I don't know kind of another point on that. On the beauty, I just, yeah, sometimes I come back after taking a bunch of photos at an event or something and then I look at them and I'm just amazed by the love and happiness that I see from everyone and that's meant a lot to me. That's been a special thing. I've had times where I'm going through photos and I have tears running down my face just because of the happiness and love that I feel looking at those photos and again, that's a testament to the people who are allowing me to take their photo. They're putting that energy out. I'm glad to be able to capture it and I'm glad to hear that others can see it too in my photos.
Speaker 4:Thank you so much for talking to me today. You and I were together at that protest today, so I've seen you most of the day.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Thank you, Ethan.
Speaker 4:I'm Ethan Michelle Gantz and I've been talking with Nora Dayton today. Thank you everyone. Have a queer day.
Speaker 1:Did you know that KPFT is completely listener-funded? There are no underwriters, so it's up to all of us to pay for the freedom to say what you hear here on Queer Voices and on this station in general. That means you participate in our programming just by listening and also by pledging your support. Please do that now by going to the KPFT website and clicking on the red Donate Now button, and please mention Queer Voices when you do. Thank you.
Speaker 5:This is Brian Levinka, and I have the honor of interviewing former mayor of Houston, Anise Parker. Anise, welcome to the show.
Speaker 6:Always glad to visit with you. I'm actually very amped up right now. I just left the no Kings protest march.
Speaker 5:You're kind of protesting in your own way by running for Harris County judge. Can you tell me why you're running and why now?
Speaker 6:For the same reason, I was at the protest march today. I'm horrified at what's happening in our country and, instead of trying to bring people together, trying to lower the temperature, we have a president who is trying to amp things up. And, of course, in Minnesota this morning, there were two people assassinated and an attempt on the lives of two others. This has to stop, and the only thing, in my view, that stops what's happening is to put people in those rooms of power, and that means that we have to have candidates who run and win every election day, those candidates who are thoughtful and willing to work together on solutions rather than constantly attacking people they disagree with.
Speaker 5:Can you clarify for us what does the Harris County judge actually do? I don't know if a lot of people know.
Speaker 6:It's not actually a judge. It's every other place in the country that I know of they call it the county executive. It's the top administrative official within Harris County. You preside over the commissioner's court meetings and work with the other elected officials to manage the budget of Harris County. When we really notice, the county judge is in an emergency situation hurricane is coming, something like that because they are the chief emergency officer for the region.
Speaker 5:And so it's kind of like the CEO of a very large county. Can you talk about that and kind of what your experience has been with large organizations?
Speaker 6:Well, I understand that Harris County is the fourth largest county in the United States and there are 34 cities within Harris County, but there are about 2 million people who live in unincorporated Harris County and this is a really urbanized area. So there's about 2 million people whose government is the Harris County government and, having been the mayor of Houston, representing 2.3 million people, I have experience in a large bureaucracy. I have experience in crisis leadership, but also the day-to-day workings of government, and I am the first candidate announced in the Democratic primary. We're actually talking about a race that is in 2026, but the primary is in March, so this is nine months out, which is an appropriate time to get out there and start working for it.
Speaker 6:So I would need to win the primary as a Democrat and then general election. I'd have to win that as well, but I've won nine consecutive races in Houston. I have to introduce myself to the county at large. I mean, I've been in the media market. They know who I am. I'm embarking on what I would call a listening tour. I've been out of office for nine and a half years now. I think I know the issues because I live here and I've always lived here, but the crucial things in various neighborhoods are what I want to go find out.
Speaker 5:So what have you been doing for the past nine and a half years?
Speaker 6:I worked at an amazing nonprofit. It used to be called Neighborhood Centers and it changed its name to Baker Ripley. For a year and a half I taught at Rice University. For two years Some of these things overlapped, and then I spent seven years leading the LGBTQ Plus Victory Fund and Victory Institute. They're a Washington-based PAC that only works with LGBTQ plus candidates for office, every level of the ballot, all parts of the country and even some international work.
Speaker 6:So that's been the last seven years and actually that's part again of why I decided to run for county judge. I'm looking at what's happening in Washington and in Austin and the dysfunction. Local government is the one level of government that absolutely has to work. Everything rolls downhill it's law enforcement, it's the hospital district, it's flood control, and for the last seven years I've been working with candidates mostly in local politics, entry-level politics, city councils, school boards, statehouse, even mosquito control board, water board and it helped remind me of what really matters in politics, and that is that you just have to have people who care and are willing to show up, roll up their sleeves and do the work, and I want to do that.
Speaker 5:What challenges do you see facing Harris County in the coming years?
Speaker 6:The challenges don't change significantly, in that the primary responsibilities are law enforcement and health care. Harris County has the Harris County Hospital District, harris Health, there's flood control. I mean, we have parks and libraries and other things too, roads and bridges, but it's that public health, public safety and emergency management that people really desperately need. But what's happening in DC with this big beautiful bill so-called is that Trump is cutting Medicaid. That impacts the hospital district. We know we live in the hurricane belt. We know we have problems with flooding.
Speaker 6:Trump has announced that he's going to do away with FEMA and he has decimated the ranks of the hurricane forecasters. We are in hurricane season right now. All of these cuts, the slash and burn Trump is doing through the national bureaucracy not that it couldn't afford to be cut, but this is instead of thoughtfully figuring out ways to create efficiencies, they're just lopping off important levels of government, and they're not levels of government or they're not functions that we can do without. We have to have hurricane weather forecasters, we have to have a disaster response protocol, and if we're not going to have a federal partner, if FEMA is going to be dismantled, then we have to do it ourselves. So they're the normal priorities.
Speaker 6:The big difference is we're not going to have a partner in Washington and we barely have a partner in Austin. Now I truly believe that in an emergency, that our leaders in Austin will understand that we're all Texans and step up. I had a productive working relationship with both Greg Abbott and Rick Perry when I was mayor. I disagree with them on a whole lot of things, but in an emergency I could call and they would be responsive. I no longer believe that that is true of Washington and that means that we have to wire around it.
Speaker 5:I was going to ask what you were most proud of in your time in office.
Speaker 6:I came into office as mayor. Well, I was a council member for three terms. I was controller for three terms. I was mayor for three terms. I am proud of different things in each of those different roles but and there's not one thing I'm going to be able to point at I came into office promising to focus on infrastructure, the built environment of Houston. I went to the voters at the end of my first year and said we have to put more money into street and drainage work, and now we have rebuilt Houston and being partially paid for by the drainage fee. I had a major initiative for parks and green space and all of those new trails along the bios in the city happened on my watch.
Speaker 6:The big transformation of Memorial Park started on my watch, buffalo Bile Park, emancipation Park so infrastructure, parks. And then the final thing we launched an initiative on homelessness and reduced homelessness in Houston by 60% and there was enough robust energy in that program and we built enough infrastructure into that program. Even though homelessness is on the rise again, we're still the national model for how to tackle homelessness. But the problem is you can't cure homelessness once and for all. You have to manage homelessness and manage the circumstances of people who fall into homelessness. The problem is, you can't cure homelessness once and for all. You have to manage homelessness and manage the circumstances of people who fall into homelessness. And so if an administration doesn't keep their eye on the ball and their foot on the gas, it makes a metaphor things start to fall apart.
Speaker 5:People are excited about this race. How can they get involved?
Speaker 6:It's a rudimentary website website. We just put it up to get started and, uh, one of the things you'll notice on my website that's a little bit different is the first thing you don't get a donate button. The first thing you get on is you get a little bit of information about me and we ask for how to contact you because, uh, this should be a two-way information flow. We do ask for donations, but but, uh, right now you have to look for it. It's about reintroducing myself to people who many people who already know me, but now introducing myself as the potential county judge rather than the former mayor, and I anticipate that there will be other people running. At this point, I'm the only one in the Democratic primary. There are two or three people already announced in the Republican primary. The election is next March, so we have plenty of time to put a strong campaign together.
Speaker 5:We are speaking with Anise Parker, former mayor of Houston, now candidate for the Harris County judge of Harris County. Thank you for coming on.
Speaker 6:Thank you, brian, it is always a treat.
Speaker 1:This is Queer Voices.
Speaker 8:This is Deborah Moncrief-Bell, and I'm talking with Frankie Ortega, the marketing director for Discovery Green. So, frankie, we have something special coming up on Friday, june the 27th. I want you to tell me about it, but first give me a little background on Discovery Green.
Speaker 7:Discovery Green is the 12-acre park in front of the George R Brown. It is probably one of my favorite places in Houston. It opened in 2008. That's the same year that I moved to Houston and so I just I cannot imagine Houston without it. When I moved here I was a young single mom and I didn't really know anybody in the city, so we were there quite a bit, going to all of their free events, and I just pretty much raised my daughter there. And now I've been working for Discovery Green almost six years and I just love it. If you haven't been check us out, it is a beautiful place Lots of grass and trees and flowers and gardens, and then, as a nonprofit, part of our mission is to show and highlight the diversity of traditions that exist in Houston, and we do that by putting on free cultural programs, free concerts, free exercise classes, and we just really try to bring people together and have a good time with our neighbors. It's a great community location and just very, very grateful to be able to work there.
Speaker 8:Where is it located?
Speaker 7:It's right in the heart of downtown. It is pretty much the George R Brown's front yard, so we consider ourselves Houston's yard. It's where you can go, bring some balls, bring a picnic blanket, have a picnic with your family, enjoy the grounds. It's like everybody's outdoor yard.
Speaker 8:For several years now, Discovery Green has hosted an event called Rainbow on the Green as part of Pride Month. Do you know how many years that's been going on?
Speaker 7:I believe it started in 2010. How many years is that now? 15, 16 years. One of our presidents his name was Barry Mandel. He was very active in the gay community and when he was looking at our mission we try to be an open welcoming place for all of Houston, all families and he said you know what? We need a family friendly pride event here in the center of Houston. And that's what he did. He created Rainbow on the Green. We have a new president now. Her name is Catherine Lott and she has taken that mission forward and we still have a family-friendly Pride event called Rainbow on the Green. It's happening Friday, june 27th, from 7 to 10 pm.
Speaker 8:Can you recall some of the events of the past? What has taken place?
Speaker 7:of the past. What has taken place? Lots of dancing, lots of musical acts. Last year we had Zomaji Robinson, zomaji Robinson and the Glitterati. He's a singer musician. He performs with the Suffers quite a bit. He put together a fantastic show for us. It was an amazing celebration Lots of dancing, lots of families came out. We had a really good time.
Speaker 8:This year we have something very community-oriented because we have the Pride Chorus of Houston and joining us is the Artistic Director, david York. David, we've had you as a guest on Queer Voices a number of times. Tell me about the program that will be presented at Rainbow on the Green this year. It's called.
Speaker 3:True Colors and it is a retrospective of the music of the 80s and it has been such fun to produce because there's just a treasure trove of great music from that time period and a lot of gay artists were coming out in those days. We are happy to be able to feature that music in a dynamic performance that includes dance, and we're not going to have our whole band there, but we'll be singing with the effect of the whole band. We'll have tracks and it'll be a great show.
Speaker 8:Is there a particular part of the program that you find particularly exciting?
Speaker 3:I would describe the program as starting very exciting, very high energy, with I Am what I Am. We're doing a Gloria Gaynor version of that classic song from La Cage Au Faux and we keep it pretty upbeat there for a little while. But you can't do a concert that has a retrospective of the 80s without acknowledging the AIDS epidemic and how that affected the gay community. Now we're not going to linger there a long time For those of us who lived through it. We don't need to live through it twice. But it is sort of necessary to honor that part of our history, appropriate remembrance of that. And we do it musically. We're not doing lots of testimonies in this concert. We're just going to keep it with the music and we tell that story through songs of the 80s.
Speaker 3:We start with Memory from Cats and then we sing a song by Michael Callan called Love Don't Need a Reason, and then we dip into the world of musicals and we sing from Les Miserables, empty Chairs and Empty Tables, and then we move out of that, ultimately using a song by Indigo Girls called Closer to Fine, and then we move into the part of the concert that I most enjoy. We even have a little bit of a sing-along. We're going to invite the folks to sing with us on we Are the World and Karma, chameleon and Faith. And perhaps my favorite part of the concert is an extended piece that we're calling my 80s Mixtape, and in seven and a half minutes we sing 38 songs. It's literally only a measure long. Sometimes it's four measures long, sometimes we get a whole verse in there. It's all these songs packed together and it's really fun, even for people who didn't live in the 80s, just to hear the way the songs fit together. They tell a story.
Speaker 8:And I don't suppose that you can have a program called True Colors without having Cindy Law.
Speaker 3:Yes, we're doing an a cappella arrangement of True Colors and we have a fabulous soloist.
Speaker 8:I'm not even going to say any more about it because you just have to come to the concert and hear, but it is beautiful have to come to the concert in here, but it is beautiful and this is a bonus concert because your June 14th program of the Pride Chorus offering for June is also True Colors. You will have been well rehearsed before the event on the 27th. So, frankie, back to you. Give me some more of the particulars about Discovery Green and Rainbow on the Green. What should people expect as far as getting there? Where to park that sort of thing?
Speaker 7:Every year. This is an audience that shows up ready to have a good time. So if you haven't been, you've been warned. This is a feel-good audience. People come out in costume, so really want to encourage everybody put on those 80s outfits, wear your colors and come out just ready to have a good time.
Speaker 8:Let's just remind people again that it's a totally free event.
Speaker 7:Exactly Free event. We have two fantastic emcees. We have Jay Michaels he's a radio personality on 96.5. And Desi Love Blake, who is a fantastic queen. We love her and we're so excited that she's going to be coming on stage and emceeing with Jay Michaels. So getting there just put Discovery Green into your maps your Apple Maps, your Google Maps, whatever you choose For parking. There is a parking lot underneath Discovery Green. You can access it through Avenida de las Americas. If you get there a little bit early, street parking is free after 6 pm, so you can drive around a little bit. If you don't want to pay that money, find some street parking and maybe walk a block or two over to the park.
Speaker 8:David, is there anything else that you would like to share about this program at Discovery Green on Friday that I didn't ask you about?
Speaker 3:On June 14th, pride Chorus performed with about 120 people on stage and dancers and a full band gave a great show. We're bringing a lot of that to Rainbow on the Green and we're really pleased to be able to do that. It's fun for us to be able to perform it again, but it's especially important to me personally, and I'm confident, for those in Pride Chorus to be able to share it with the community, and that it's open to the public without cost is just a real boon. We're bringing about 50 singers, most of our dancers, and we're going to be using the screens and so you'll have the lyrics for the sing-alongs and you'll be able to see what we're up to. We're really happy to be able to share this program again.
Speaker 8:We're talking with David York, the Artistic Director of Pride Chorus of Houston, and Frankie Ortega, marketing Director at Discovery Green, about this Friday's event, rainbow on the Green part of their annual celebration of what goes on during Pride, and it's a great opportunity for folks to come out and be with one another and just have a lot of fun, because we are reminded again that finding your joy is what keeps us strong. Thanks for being with us today. On Queer Voices.
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Speaker 10:Tamari Cooper has been churning out her summer musicals for over 28 years and this year no different, totally new. Another ding-dang Tamari show opens up at the Match June 27th and runs through August 2nd. Now this show is a Houston summer tradition and it is the catastrophic theater's version of like A Christmas Carol at the Alley or the Nutcracker at the Houston Ballet. Except every year this one's a new script, a new ball of crazy to enjoy. And today I'm joined by the Chanteuse herself, the creator, tamari Cooper, as well as her assistant director, her partner in crime, sex symbol and best friend, kyle Sturdivant, to talk all things Tamarie. So welcome Tamarie and Kyle, hi, hi.
Speaker 11:Hey, Sex symbol I'll take it.
Speaker 10:Oh you are, please. I've seen you in so many shows where I'm just like that's right there.
Speaker 12:He is this year. He's a sexy candy man.
Speaker 10:There you go perfect typecasting, here we go. So first up. Okay, for what is the plot or the theme of another ding dang tamri show? They always kind of have this little vignette going on right.
Speaker 12:Yeah, as I've said before, the plots of my shows. It's not a big, it's not a heavy lift, right. And then there is something more of like a review kind of feeling to my shows, vaudevillian, a mixture of, you know, comedy sketches with insane musical numbers, but I do always pick some underlying theme. Sometimes they're insanely broad, like love, and then other times it's more specific. Last year was Texas, this year oh.
Speaker 12:And the other thing I should say, interrupting myself and starting over, is that there's always this pressure around this time of year to come up with what I'm doing the next year. And so we're in rehearsals and everyone's like, well, what's next year going to be? And of course we have to announce our season. So I've got to write a blurb. I got to get stuff out there and I think I was in the hallway at Match and I was like gosh, just another Ding Dang Tamri show, right when the title came from. But then I started to think about it, and it does touch on that that I have to keep coming up with different ideas every year, and so we went loosely into my creative process so that gets displayed in the show. And then also, just why do I keep doing these ding dang tamri shows like what is it that brings me out there every year? Why do I put myself through this? Why do I have to come up with this? Is it just my own sick, narcissistic love of the audience?
Speaker 11:or oh gosh, sorry, I had something in my throat or is it something beyond that?
Speaker 12:and so those questions are sort of the theme throughout it, like looking at the creative process involved and then just what exactly is my reason for for being out there and doing these shows year after year? You'll have to come see it to find out Exactly.
Speaker 10:I did some math this morning and currently you have written more musicals than Stephen Sondheim. That is crazy when I think about it.
Speaker 11:Bravo, Bravo Cooper.
Speaker 12:Yes, well, too bad, he couldn't have stuck around a little longer and perhaps reached my total. And, as I always say, I cannot take the credit for these extravaganzas without acknowledging so many people that make them happen, because it isn't just me by any means. The spark comes from me and general themes and you know, obviously, direct choreography, costuming, but I have people that help write them. I have my book writer, patrick Reynolds, who lives in New Mexico, actually, and thanks to technology we're able to Zoom and talk on the phone and share Google Docs, so we can be working in real time on editing together. He likes to yell at me a lot and complain, and then I tell him he's funny and he keeps working for me, so that's good. And then people like Kyle, who has been my partner in crime, as you said, for many, many years. Kyle, how many of these shows have you done, do you know?
Speaker 11:I think about 27,. Something like that. All but four.
Speaker 12:Yeah, yeah, he's done a lot of them, so be like 24 shows that you've done. Okay, he wasn't here when I first started doing them and then he came back in 1999 and, without having really known him, I threw him into one of the shows and that was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. And then you took one year off to go to Southern Decadence.
Speaker 12:That's right, yes, and then there was one year where you know and we've acknowledged this in our friendship where other people that are longtime veterans of the show will say I am not going to be able to do the show this summer, this is the summer I'm taking my children to able to do the show this summer. You know, this is the summer I'm taking my children to Disney World. Or you know, I have a huge family reunion and I just can't do it and I'm like, oh, okay, well, it's okay, we'll get you back, you know, next year. And then, to put a strain on our relationship, kyle's always felt like he doesn't really have that choice, which I think in therapy was actually realized many years ago. So I have given him some freedom, but most of the time he knows I'm just so desperate to have the help and that the audience also think of it as the Tamri Cooper show starring Kyle Sturtivant. So luckily he hasn't completely rebelled yet and left me hanging in the lurch.
Speaker 10:What makes you keep coming back, kyle? I mean, really give us the therapy answer.
Speaker 11:Well, you know, it's just been part of half my life now. So it's the kind of thing that you can't get away from that you love very much, even though at times it's completely great on your physical and mental health. But you know, when I moved to New Yorkork in 98 and I was going to try to go to new york and you know, do the acting thing there and failed miserably, hated new york and moved back within nine months and I had some friends who were in tamry show and she's like well come, I want you to come back, come back to houston, I'll make tamry put you in this show. And I'm like, thanks, yes, I had seen her shows and I loved them. And so I was like, yeah, and I come back and my first rehearsal is Madam Cooper, with like a cast on her leg with a cane, and she goes. Today we will be rehearsing the drag number I Will Survive on the Sherpa Mountains in Switzerland. And I was like, perfect, okay, this is for me, I'm here and yeah.
Speaker 11:And you know, over the years we've developed not only a close friendship but, I think, a close professional relationship where we just have ways of communicating with each other and bringing mostly the best out of each other. And who could ever not, who could ever just say no to doing that, Even though I've tried a couple of times?
Speaker 12:I mean we really do. We've been in so many productions together, not just the Tamarie show but so many other shows with Infernal, bridegroom Productions, our former company, and now, of course, with Catastrophic, and we've both directed each other in big, meaty, juicy roles. We've been sort of like part of what we call the brain trust of Catastrophic. We're working with Jason. Where of what we call the brain trust of Catastrophic, we're working with Jason, where we work on the casting and developing seasons as well. So, yeah, there's a shared language.
Speaker 12:For sure, there's a shorthand between us and I find it invaluable in my shows to have him there, because there are definitely times when I'm on stage and some numbers he's not in and he can really help me be my eyes out there too for just things that I can't possibly really see. That's going on. And then, just in general, kyle's a great director I'll find with with my shows or other shows I'm directing and where you'll find the person just going. I mean the thing is do this and that and trying to come up with all these philosophical things, and he'll just come in with like one sentence that is so spot on and so exactly what the actor needs to hear. So again. That is very valuable to me to have him in the room for that. And we have that thing that Carol Burnett, harvey Korman, we always kind of joke relationship, you do.
Speaker 10:It's so funny because you have this electric charisma. It's unique to both of you and when you're on stage together it's just like amps up like a lot, which I think is just crazy. I mean, do you have like a favorite memory or skit or song or routine that you did together in a Tamariz show?
Speaker 12:Man, that's a tough one.
Speaker 11:I always think back to me playing your husband. I can't remember which show it was, that was 2008.
Speaker 11:It was such a bad send-up of her husband and he saw it. Such a bad send-up of her husband and he saw it. But that was like one of the first times where it really became evident that that's one of those scenes where we're just making it new and fresh each time we do it, because it became so much about not trying to make each other laugh. But there is that underlying thing of it's the two of us doing this and anything could happen at any moment.
Speaker 12:Sometimes it gets set up for it, like last year when he was playing. He was playing the Confederate flag, if you remember. At a moment.
Speaker 10:I do One of your best roles, yeah super awful Typecasting all over the place.
Speaker 12:You know I set it up. I know, going into that every night, that I'm just who knows what he's going to do. You know like, and there are moments where he did get me. He always, I think there's always some moment where it's a challenge for you to try to break me on stage, and so usually he does succeed during the run several times and people love that the same way we loved it in the Carol Burnett show. You know, when the people that are in the audience that do have that history with us and they do love to see those moments where we just can't keep a straight face and keep going.
Speaker 10:I always joke that it's the Indy 500 and the audience is there for the reps. They are absolutely waiting for somebody to go up against that wall. Yes, it happened. I love it.
Speaker 11:I mean, we're not trying to fool anybody here with these particular shows. We're not recreating the wheel. It is a kind of dig-dig, wink-wink, nudge-nudge type of theater where we're there to have a good time. Let's all realize we're all in the same room to have fun and laugh, and if you get some story out of it, that's great. But it is really about coming together and just having a good time with the audience, with each other, and I think that's really what appeals to everyone. And the fact that most people on stage, you see, are not traditional, you know musical theater, actors and actresses. It's a wide range of people and bodies, shapes and ages and theater styles and it makes it even wackier.
Speaker 12:So yeah, yeah, I always say it's more interesting to see someone who's like I don't know just seems like a real person, like right there. And the intimacy of doing that kind of broad vaudevillian performance but so close in that space at match, I think also makes it special, where you don't have that removal and that slickness that you'll see in like obviously a big highfalutin musical production. And then I think the accessibility comes into, because a lot of the stories that end up being made into sketches and musical numbers are things that people can relate to over the years, whether it was going all the way back to things like my parade of ex-boyfriends and I, you know, have people come up after the show and be like, how did you know that I dated all the same guys you know like, sir, we all did. Yeah, you know, always there'll be something like that that I think they can relate to.
Speaker 12:One thing this year I won't give too much away, but there is a trip to the Catastrophic Theater Storage Unit. Everybody has some attic or storage unit or closet or something that they just can't control right, that is just festering and multiplying and breeding and creating its own little monster, and so that again everyone can relate to that. I feel very sane right now.
Speaker 10:I feel very sane. We've been to my storage unit.
Speaker 12:You'll be excited. Mr Sturdivant has a starring role in that number.
Speaker 10:Of course Mr Sturdivant always has a starring role.
Speaker 11:Yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 10:It's very interesting though, because the cast and we were talking about Sturdivant being like 24 times or something crazy like that.
Speaker 12:I don't feel like there's ever a time when someone has come in and just don't feel like there's ever a time when someone has come in and just don't feel welcome.
Speaker 10:Well, and then you notoriously have this big spread of food during Tech Week that I've seen. What is that like? Sponsored by Whataburger or something?
Speaker 12:Well, no, it's last year we did have the Whataburger tailgating burger package compliments of Kyle, he did that but we just I guess it's just the perfect combination of food addicts in the cast the size of the cast. And then we already have had, I think, three official conversations during rehearsals about the tech food. We are not at tech yet, but we need to have one more thing that we discuss tonight what are you bringing to the tech spread? It gets out of control. That's one thing. I can say that we truly do have the greatest tech spread of all theaters in town, so I will stand on that statement yeah, so we have to like keep guard are you part of the show no, get off, get away
Speaker 12:there was one year where sean patrick, judge actor, was in the show and his husband, eddie's grandmother I think maybe her mother made homemade Vietnamese egg rolls for us in this giant pan and they were so amazing and we all went on stage and we came back out and they were gone and the Main Street Theater youth kids went off with egg rolls. They will never live this down. They will never live it down. I think we actually knew one of the actresses who was in the cast and she was like I just need you to know, it's not part of the egg roll theft. I didn't do it, I'm done.
Speaker 11:He's getting the tea today? Hunty, yes, we are.
Speaker 10:Can't wait until Main Street hears about this one, I know right.
Speaker 11:There better be egg rolls showing up at the theater. Yeah.
Speaker 10:Well, they've got that little tie place next to them. They can get you some egg rolls, I know they can.
Speaker 11:I don't know if you can tell from last year's show or two years ago. Tammy's very particular about her egg rolls.
Speaker 10:Oh yes, completely last year's show, or two years ago. Tammy's very particular about her egg rolls. Oh yes, oh, completely. A whole number about egg rolls at one point, my lord. Well, it does feel like you guys are a family and that's, I think, what really sells this whole thing is that you do have all of this closeness and this knit stuff and everything like that. But do you have like some set tropes? Do you have some things where you go? This has to be in every show.
Speaker 12:Well, there's a thing now we call the Abe-ism, where you probably have remembered this from seeing the shows, but Abe Zapata has some moment usually, where he has a joke that he tells I'm usually the only person on stage who has to suffer through this moment, and these jokes are filthy, really very, very lewd and hilarious. We don't know what he's going to say. He does not actually run them past me. I just give him this moment and much, sometimes to the thrill, groans and horror of various audience members, and so that is something that we always seem to find a place to put in there. And it just started with him, sometimes to the thrill, groans and horror of various audience members, and so that is something that we always seem to find a place to put in there. And it just started with him improv-ing something in 2011 that really only the band could hear, because, as he was exiting, he would say something and the whole band would crack up, and soon after the show, we'd be like what did you say? What did you say? And then he kept finding new places to put them, and so, yeah, I think this year we might even have a disclosure show up on the screen. That's like. This material is not.
Speaker 12:The Catastrophic Theater is not responsible for this moment in this play, but I look forward to them and he's so witty and funny and crude, so that's probably something that's always there. I also feel like there's always a moment of just genuine sentimental sort of emotion feeling that comes. Usually it's towards the end of the play, but there's some moment where maybe our theme has kind of wrapped itself up again and and I just have a moment with the audience. I mean, I know I've I've had some moments where I my voice breaks, as I'm saying, just for example, in 2022, when we got to do the show again after the pandemic and just having a moment in the finale where I was like you don't know how much this means to us to be back here with you, you know, and so that was certainly emotional.
Speaker 11:Last year when we celebrated Houston the good and the bad. That felt really nice in a way, to leave the theater going. Yeah, we live in a great place.
Speaker 12:So I do try to have some emotional honesty and genuine heartfelt sentiment wrapped up in it at some point.
Speaker 11:And of course, we always talk about her big behind. Yeah, Of course.
Speaker 12:There's usually jokes about that. Food seems to be I don't intentionally put it in there, but there's a lot of food in my shows. I mean, obviously, duh, we just spent 15 minutes talking about the tech spread, exactly Truly like next year is going to be another greatest hits show. Every 10 years I stop and I do a reflection where I pull out a handful of numbers from the last 10 years of shows and tie them together with some ridiculous through line and I'm starting to think about the numbers and I was like, oh, that's got food in it. That's got food in it. That's got food in it too.
Speaker 10:No, you just make it all food. That'll be it. This'll be great. Well, you know what one thing about this show is? It always comes up during Pride, basically, and this weekend you are premiering during Pride weekend, and one thing that I've admired the Catastrophic Theater about is, my gosh, so much diversity. I mean you've got trans, non-binary, you've got gay, you've got straight, you've got people that I don't even know they're spending new stuff out in the future that I can't even fathom. I mean it's so great and you let them do that very much in an artistic way, which I think is very cool. I mean I think it's one of the serious sides of your company that you actually do that, and it's so wonderful to do it around pride.
Speaker 12:It is. I have been, you know. I guess you would just say that I've been an ally for A long time.
Speaker 10:Basically my whole life. I I just yeah, but I I did.
Speaker 12:I even grew up as a little girl where, like my mom, I remember just having like gay friends and I went and stayed with her best friend and her her wife at the time and and I remember in the 70s I have pictures of me at this like lesbian picnic with a bunch of you know really hairy, happy 1970s lesbians we're all playing water balloon and I knew that they were, you know, a couple. I knew that they had intimacy and I didn't. It wasn't any different. It was never presented to me as being any different than my mother and father, right. And so it was actually shocking for me to come into the world and discover people had issue with that.
Speaker 12:I was like, but why, you know? And so, yeah, and then I did stay in bubbles. I mean, I grew up in the ballet world, right, you know, and then going to HSPVA, and so I've always been in a more accepting, tolerant sort of environment. But, yeah, and my best friends I don't know why, but that's just my best friends have always been in the community too, I mean this guy here and so many people over the years. And so I am hugely moved, for political reasons, to be involved in any way I can as well. And yes, I'm thrilled that our theater obviously is more diverse in those ways. I mean, you can always say that there's been a lot of gays in the theater, right?
Speaker 11:That's not true. I think we're very fortunate in a position to be the theater company in this city that can do this kind of work. We're not so big that we're going to get a lot of flack from you know long-time patrons, Like why are you doing it? We have drag queens in your show. But we are large enough that we attract really great talent and are able to have an audience and show it to people really great talent and are able to have an audience and show it to people. So, if not us, who to incorporate these different stories that are, you know, haven't been told, and that always comes from the having the artists who are living them to be involved. And I think we're just so fortunate, especially over the last five years or so, to work with so many wonderfully kooky, weird, interesting people, regardless of their you know orientations and all that.
Speaker 12:It's kind of our responsibility to show that off, I think, in a way, we certainly don't try to like tell somebody to not be who they are, right, yes, I mean, it's important for us Usually whenever we're casting anything. It's less about going home and building a character and that type of thing. It's more of just like finding a way to relate to a character based on your own experiences. Just there's gotta be something when you read this text that you can connect to and so bring yourself and bring your own experiences, as opposed to trying to imagine and create something that doesn't come from you.
Speaker 11:Plus, Tamri just has a habit of getting drunk at parties and going you want to be in my show?
Speaker 10:Exactly, and you guys are really best friends, right.
Speaker 11:Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 10:Why do you guys not have like a podcast together or something where weekly we can get a dose of this wild chemistry that you have?
Speaker 12:It's so funny because we have a group of friends it's me and Kyle and Dennis Draper, rebecca Randall and our friend Jennifer Blessington, who's actually a quite successful novelist and teacher. Back in 2020, when the pandemic started, we all got Marco Polo accounts and I will credit that app for saving all of our sanity. That app for saving all of our sanity. Each one of us at some moment had a complete, absolute emotional breakdown about all kinds of things and the fact that we were all still able to somehow connect and see each other and respond visually that way Again, it was a godsend for us.
Speaker 11:And we have always wanted to say we want to do a podcast, we should share it, but I think it's just laziness, I don't know.
Speaker 10:If you could produce an entire musical every year for going on 30 years, I think you can handle a podcast.
Speaker 11:I think you're right. It's just a trigger.
Speaker 12:It's finding that eighth day of the week to schedule it. I think that's more the problem. Yeah, it's finding that eighth day of the week to schedule it. I think that's more the problem. Anyhow, I'm sure there's some of us thinking well, we think we're hilarious.
Speaker 10:Oh no, all of Houston thinks that you guys are hilarious. I always wonder when you go out together, do people stop you and say, oh my gosh, you're Tamri, you're Kyle.
Speaker 11:Yes, tamri more than me. I'm not as outgoing offstage as Tamri is, so I think she'll get that more than me. But yeah, it happens. And then I climb up like a shell.
Speaker 10:Yeah With you, kyle. Usually you're in a really wild outfit. I mean, we've already referenced this, so seeing you in the real world it is kind of jarring, because it's like, oh my gosh, he wears normal things, what?
Speaker 12:No turkey costume, sorry exactly you're more introverted in your off stage life, which is always interesting to me to see, like when you see someone on stage who is so just wildly over the top and big and animated, and then when they're off stage, just so much more chill and just you know more in their own world. And that's definitely Kyle. Somewhat I tend to be. I mean, the Tamri person you see on stage is a somewhat exaggerated version of me, obviously, and I'm not oh, she's so dumb, she's dumb.
Speaker 12:We make me real dingbat, tamri is dumb.
Speaker 11:Oh my gosh, okay, I thought you were talking about a real one. No, no, no, okay.
Speaker 10:Well, of course, you can see another Ding Ding Tamri show at the Match Theater June 27th Pride Weekend, as we mentioned and it runs through August 2nd. I always say it's not summer without a Tamri Cooper musical in Houston, because it really is just like an institution and something that I look forward to every year and it's definitely the highlight of the catastrophic theater season for me, which I think you guys are going to announce soon what it is, aren't you?
Speaker 12:Yes, I think it'll probably be announced around the time we open my show. So we always aim for earlier, but we can't get our together. You can't get our together. But he can.
Speaker 10:You can't even get it together to do a podcast, how are you going to design a whole season?
Speaker 12:Exactly, but I am very excited about it and I will say that once again. In a time where there's a lot of uncertainty, particularly with funding, future of theater, a lot of theaters have chosen to just do well-known. You know, this is going to be a show that everybody knows and it will sell well, and that's why we're programming it, because we can't take any risks. We've got to just do the old standards and things that people don't have to maybe be challenged by, and we are not doing that next season. So there is going to be a lot of new work, as usual, as part of our mission to continue to create new work and lesser-produced works and champion new voices.
Speaker 10:Well shoot this last season. More than half of it was world premieres.
Speaker 12:Yep, yep, and I believe this next year it's going to be the same, well, more than half.
Speaker 10:Like most theater companies, brag when they have one every couple of years and you guys continuously do it as a part of your season, a routine thing, and, of course, tamri's show always part of that World premiere. Every year Something new, so we're excited. Thank you both for being here. It's so crazy that we got them both.
Speaker 11:Thank you. Thank you both for being here. It's so crazy that we got them both.
Speaker 10:Oh, thank you, thank you for this, thank you, we will see you in the theater this summer.
Speaker 1: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. 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.
Speaker 9:The News Wrap segment is part of another podcast called this Way Out, which is produced in Los Angeles. Thank you.
