March 5, 2024 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Just before the lights go down and the show begins, the oldest queer youth theater troupe in the country always asks their audience to pause, take a look to their left and their right, and say: “Hey neighbor, thank you for the love.”
“When you go to the theater, it’s a moment of fellowship,” says Giselle Byrd, executive director of The Theater Offensive, who says such pre-show rituals help create “a safe and sacred space for folks to be able to let their hair down and be liberated.”
Since 1989, The Theater Offensive has produced festivals, youth programs, and residencies for LGBTQ artists in Boston, including its trademark True Colors theater troupe, which for 30 years, has helped young people hone their play-writing, production, and performance skills.
With the support of grant makers like the Barr Foundation and the Mellon Foundation, plus a $3 million gift from MacKenzie Scott, the group has served around 2,500 people around the country since 2020, when several initiatives went virtual. More than 50 young people have participated in True Colors in that time.
Many artists and productions affiliated with the group aim to celebrate the narratives of queer and trans people of color, while challenging the systemic oppression and biases often baked into more traditional art institutions.
“There is so much erasure of humanity in the performing arts,” says Byrd, who emphasized that The Theater Offensive often develops new programming and productions by going out into their community and asking: “What stories do you want to hear?”
In the year to come, the group hopes to raise enough funds to break ground on a new black-box theater and creative hub, as well as build out a new initiative dedicated to sharing the experiences of queer and trans elders, which will be named in honor of the late Cecilia Gentili, a prominent trans advocate and artist.
Amid a surge in anti-LGBTQ legislation, it’s never been more important to champion the work and lives of queer artists of color, Byrd says.
“We’ve always been here, and we’re not going anywhere,” she says. “Now more than ever, we have to remind folks that our life form is an act of resistance.”
