This weekend, the Boston Theater Company will launch its first annual QUEER VOICES FESTIVAL, with performances from March 8-10, 2024, at the Plaza Theatre of the Boston Center for the Arts. The submission-based showcase, produced by Joey Frangieh and Lisa Rafferty, will showcase seven diverse ten-minute plays written by LGBTQ+ playwrights.
By Mike Hoban
Theater Mirror: Can you give us a little history ofthe Boston Theater Company?
Joey: We started in 2014 – with no money – in the backroom of the Club Café with a gender-neutral Shakespeare show (Romeo and Juliet) and for the last 10 years, we’ve been really focusing on gender, inclusivity, and the LGBTQ+ community. I think we did Much Ado About Nothing next at the BCA, and then we launched our education program before doing Finish Line: A Documentary Play About the 2013 Boston Marathon in 2017 at the Boch Center Shubert Theatre, which I directed from a script co-created with Lisa Rafferty. Finish Line was certainly our biggest production, and although it obviously didn’t focus on the LGBTQ-plus community, our mission has always been to amplify voices that are left out; Finish Line told the unheard stories of the survivors of the marathon bombing. We then did Move Your Face at the Boston Playwrights’ Theater. That was our last production before COVID hit and now we’re renewing our mission.
Theater Mirror: What was the impetus behind starting the Festival?
Joey: At the Boston Theater Company, our mission is to create thoughtful experiences with and about marginalized communities. We’re really committed to our programs and projects that amplify voices that are often left out, with a particular focus on the LGBTQ+ community. It has always been our mission, and we wanted to find a way to specifically amplify the voices of LGBTQ+ playwrights. The amazing thing about a 10-minute play festival, and the reason that we decided to create it this way, is that we get this awesome opportunity to create a platform – for not just a queer voice but for so many queer voices. We’ve got seven playwrights, three directors, and nine performers in addition to the dozens of folks behind the scenes. So what I think is really unique and fun is that in one night, in 70 or 80 minutes, you’re getting seven different playwrights’ points of view and ideas and words and creativity. We’ve been holding on for years since COVID, and we’re so excited to finally be back producing again.
Theater Mirror: How did you select the plays for the festival?
Joey: So we opened for submissions completely free of charge, with no questions, and the only criteria was that they had to be queer voices and a 10-minute play. We were like, ‘Here’s a link; upload a PDF of your play.’ We were really worried that we were only going to get about three plays, but we got more than 75. So we thought, clearly, there’s a need for these plays. Then Lisa organized our reading committee, comprised of seven diverse folks, all on the LGBTQ-plus spectrum. Every single play that was submitted was read by multiple people, and then we gave each a rating. We read them in rounds of 10, and the top three favorites from each one advanced to the next round until we came up with our final seven. We’re really excited about the quality of the work, especially since we’ve been idle since before COVID hit, and now we’re renewing our mission.
For information and tickets to the QUEER VOICES FESTIVAL, go to: https://www.bostontheater.org/queervoices
