AudioHow one Ohio theatre is centering LGBTQ+ lives on their stage

The importance of LGBTQ+ representation in entertainment cannot be overstated. 

According to some of the latest data from GLAAD, the inclusion of LGBTQ+ characters and stories in media can lead to higher acceptance rates of our community and an increased feeling of validation within our community. 

That representation is just as important on the stage as it is on the screen. 

The Dobama Theatre in Cleveland Heights has that commitment to showcasing LGBTQ+ stories firmly in mind with their upcoming season, including the unforgettably named show: At the Wake of a Dead Drag Queen.

The Buckeye Flame spoke with Colin Anderson, the Director of Production at the Dobama Theatre, to learn more about this very queer new season. Click play directly below to listen or read our (edited) conversation below.

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First, give us the quick backstory on the Dobama Theatre. 

Colin Anderson: Dobama was founded in 1959 as Cleveland’s off-Broadway theater. We do a lot of important work that tends to be “too risky” for some of the larger houses to produce. 

We were the first to produce Angels in America, and the first to produce How I Learned to Drive. Some of these major plays that we consider to be part of the American canon, we were the first ones to take the risk in the Cleveland area and bring those important stories to a Midwest audience. Since 2014 or so, we have tripled in size in terms of staff, budget, attendance, etc.

As we continuously move toward higher levels of professionalism, we are seeing an explosion in what we’re able to do.  

So it sounds like inclusion is pretty central to the work at Dobama. 

Yes, it has been since 1959, and we try to extend and push the boundaries of that even further as the years go on. 

What is on stage right this very second? 

Right now, we are producing the Ohio premiere of At the Wake of a Dead Drag Queen, which is a play by Terry Guest, a Chicago playwright. The play focuses on Courtney Berengers, who has just died of complications due to AIDS, and she’s welcoming us to her funeral, which is more of a fun-eral, for lack of a better term. 

The show has a lot of drag performances and a lot of comedy. But it’s still packing a punch when it comes to health disparities among queer folks versus straight folks, as well as BIPOC folks versus white folks. You have a Black drag queen and a white drag queen, both of whom are HIV positive, and it deals with how they are and are not able to access the proper care to live the life that they want to live. 

What have reactions been like already to the show?  

We’ve been selling [tickets] pretty quickly, which is very exciting. I think with a strong title like that, we’re bound to have some buzz out in the community, 

But we’ve also had a lot of new people who have not been to Dobama before to see this show, which speaks to one of the benefits of inclusivity. In taking these kind of risks, you’re always welcoming more and more people from different sectors of the community. 

Obviously, with any kind of queer media, it’s going to make people more mad, but we want that. That’s where change happens. It sparks dialogue and historically speaking, camp is a huge political tool that the queer community has used. And while this show doesn’t necessarily venture all the way into camp, it definitely has some of those big personalities. 

What LGBTQ+ content is coming up the rest of the season? 

Coming up next is Something Clean by Selina Fillinger, which is a play about the parents of Brock Turner, a case that has pretty close-to-home implications for us as Ohioans.

The show deals with his mother trying to reconcile how her son could commit an act of sexual violence. This brings her to work for a rape crisis center and a young man named Joey: a queer Black man and a victim of sexual assault himself. And we’re partnering with the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center in that show to have a presence in the room for actor safety, as well as resources and talkbacks for audience members.

And then following that is Significant Other, which is a play by Joshua Harmon that I’m actually directing, which is very exciting for me. Essentially that one deals with a gay man who is 29, approaching 30. All of his best girlfriends are getting married or have already gotten married. So the show a lot to do with the loneliness of being a queer person in general, but also a queer twenty-something and some of these major milestones that you see your cis-het friends running into and accomplishing. [Queer people] just know that our lives are going to be different and [this show depicts] coming to terms with the excitements and disappointments that that can all bring.

Give us the final word. Why is this representation on stage so important? You work for the Dobama, you’re a director, but I know you’re also a theater goer. Why is it important to see these lives represented on stage?  

I think the way that we change people’s minds about different people, different outlooks and different perspectives is by exposing them to it. Exposure response therapy, for lack of a better term.

And more importantly, our concern has been and always will be the most marginalized person in the room. So we’re always looking and seeking to find ways to represent that person to make them feel seen and heard and make them know that they are a part of our community. They’re welcome just as much, if not more so, in our space than the stories that we see represented all the time.

And we’re particularly interested in finding the ways that those different marginalized identities intersect with each other: finding queer folks of color and people who are disabled, who are also women, who are immigrants, etc. We try to find the line between each of those things and the lines around them and cross them in every way that we can. 🔥

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• For more information on the Dobama Theatre’s current season, visit their website. At the Wake of a Dead Drag Queen is on stage until February 18, followed by Something Clean (March 8-30) and Significant Other (April 26-May 19).