“I think I’m gonna try heroin,” says Ernie, a middle-aged dad eating leftover food beside his son’s gravestone. To his right, a young man mourns his father. For a beat, the two swap stories about their late relatives, bonding over their shared grief and longing for release.
This moment was featured in “Left Overs,” one of the seven 10-minute plays in this year’s Queer Voices Festival, an annual event hosted by Boston Theater Company. After a brief hiatus due to the pandemic, the festival returned for its second year at the Boston Center for the Arts from March 21 to 23, selling out its Saturday night show.
Curated by playwright Lisa Rafferty and Boston Theater Company’s Artistic Director Joey Frangieh, the Queer Voices Festival “elevates the LGBTQ+ community through art” with short yet moving plays. The 10-minute plays, all written by queer authors, explore themes of gender identity, expression, masculinity, and mourning.
“Zelda,” written by Haz Cady, follows a man in therapy as he tries to grapple with his wife’s passing—who never came out as trans while she was still living. David, the husband (played by Adam Boiselle), gave a tender performance with Zelda (Taylor Corbett), whom he reunites with in a surreal embrace.
While “Zelda” and “Left Overs” tackled heavy topics of grief and familial tension, other performances were more theatrical. “Seance,” written by Dylan Horowitz, follows a couple, James (Jamil Johnson) and Garth (Michael Yuseff Greene), as they attempt to summon James’s late father’s spirit via ritual. Through a strange series of events, Garth gets possessed by James’s father, and denounces his son’s sexuality while sporting booty shorts and a fishnet top that says “Daddy.”
The final act of the night, “Halftime v. Intermission,” written by Michael J. Bobbit, featured a standout burlesque performance by Juan Sepulveda. Sepulveda plays an aspiring performer named Darius Xavier, who is saddled with the pressure to conform from his football-obsessed father. The play oscillated between a luxurious spotlight on Xavier and a crazed performance from Johnny Gordon, who plays his dad, scampering around the stage, red-faced and screaming.
Along with the 10-minute plays, the festival included an 80-minute performance of “Three Wise Monkeys” in collaboration with Chuang Stage. The performance was followed by the Boston Theater Company’s Education Tour. The Education Tour, “Beyond Boundaries: Gender Expression in Shakespeare,” was created by the festival’s co-curator, Lisa Rafferty.
Raffery said the play is a “collaboration” between her and William Shakespeare and explores themes of gender expression and identity that are historically rooted in the playwright’s original works.
Boston Theater Company is one of several non-profit theater organizations in the city. Since moving to Boston, Rafferty has seen “expansive” growth in Boston’s theater scene.
“The depth and the breadth of theater art in the Boston area is magnificent, in my view,” she told The Beacon. “I think actors from Emerson should absolutely stay here and do wonderful work.”
The Queer Voices Festival is pay-what-you-wish, with an average donation price of $7. The festival is funded by donations and proceeds from The Boston Theater Company’s annual “Road of Rainbows” 5k on June 14 in the Boston Common. The race will be followed by a block party hosted by BTC.
