STREAMING THEATER
Virtual Theater in Forbidden Places
Second, online season of work from nations that outlaw us
BY CHRISTOPHER BYRNE
In “As You Like It,” the banished
Duke exiled to the forest
gathers his men and tells
them, “Sweet are the uses of
adversity.” Resolutely putting the
best face on a terrible situation, he
vows to make the best of it. That
pretty much describes the scene
here in New York over the past few
months as theater artists of all
types have been striving to keep
going in a virtual world.
Yet, what if adversity might
be opportunity? That’s exactly
what happened with the Criminal
Queerness Festival. Heading into
its second year in 2020, COVID-19
slammed the breaks on the series
of international plays, talkbacks,
and events produced by National
Queer Theater in conjunction with
Dixon Place.
Festival creator Adam Odsess-
Rubin, founding artistic director
of National Queer Theater, saw
the new restrictions as a chance
to reach a larger audience. Undeterred
by the pandemic or closures,
Odsess-Rubin has taken the entire
festival online. Running from June
13-28, the varied programming
features nine events that bring together
queer artists from around
the world in plays and panels that
touch on issues confronted by
people in countries where it is dangerous
to be out and illegal to be
queer.
According to Odsess-Rubin, the
festival began in 2018 as what was
going to be a “Queer Village Reading
Series.” In soliciting plays from
around the world, the committee
received a play from Egyptian playwright
Adam A. Elsayigh called
“Drowning in Cairo.” It told the story
of a group of gay Egyptian men
who were arrested during a boat
party on the Nile River, tortured,
and imprisoned simply for the fact
that they were gay. The story had
made international headlines, but
as Odsess-Rubin says, he was” really
blown away by the play that
created a three-dimensional story
that highlighted the complexity
and diversity of queer life around
The Criminal Queerness Festival runs online June 13-28.
Adam Odsess-Rubin, artistic director of National Queer Theater.
the world.”
The play had not been able to
be produced in Egypt, and even
a private reading there was risky
because there was fear that the secret
police would break in and arrest
them all.
“I always fi nd readings boring,
but I realized that it can be a dangerous
act,” Odsess-Rubin said.
This realization led him, Elsayigh,
and Tanzanian playwright
Nick Hadikwa Mwaluko into a discussion
about censorship of gay
writers, and they wondered how
many works from queer artists and
writers are lost because of government
repression. They determined
CRIMINAL QUEERNESS FESTIVAL
PHOTO ANDY STRONG
to create a festival of some of these
international works, and, given
how dangerous those works were
viewed as in their home cultures,
Mwaluko dubbed it “Criminal
Queerness.”
Mounting plays in New York even
on a small scale is always challenging,
but the group was able to get
funding from NYC Pride, partially
as a response to what was seen as
an increasingly corporate infl uence
on Pride celebrations and the
need for legitimate queer voices to
be heard. The 2019 Festival was
staged at IRT Theater in Manhattan.
What Odsess-Rubin learned
was that there is an audience that
is “incredibly hungry for diverse,
queer storytelling.”
With a success under their belts,
National Queer Theater made
plans for expanding in 2020. They
brought on Dixon Place, received a
Mayor’s Grant for Cultural Impact,
which supports diversity, and because
of the international nature
of the pieces also received funding
from the Mayor’s Offi ce of Immigrant
Affairs. Things were moving
ahead with submissions coming in
from 24 countries, and selections
were made to showcase the maximum
geographic, gender, and storytelling
diversity from queer and
transgender artists. The goal was
to highlight immigration, equality,
and LGBTQ refugees and asylum
seekers, illuminating these issues
through art and conversation.
And then the shutdown happened.
Rather than being daunted,
working with Dixon Place, National
Queer Theater was able to adapt
the festival for online production.
Odsess-Rubin is excited and
thinks the change, though unanticipated,
is a tremendous opportunity.
He notes that the festival
can now reach a broader audience
than in a small theater.
Of the artists who are involved
in the events, Odsess-Rubin said,
“They’re having a lot of fun with
the medium, really exploring the
possibilities of Zoom. We have actors
in LA, Chicago, New York, and
Berlin, and they can all be together.”
He added that the festival has
stayed true to its mission to showcase
the work of diverse artists in
all facets of production and pay
them, something that few theater
companies have been able to do in
recent months.
More importantly, he said, the
opportunity for dialogue is greater
in the Zoom environment. While
each play in the physical festival
was followed by a talk-back,
Odsess-Rubin realized that few
people would want to watch a twohour
play on a screen and then
stick around for a conversation. So,
➤ CRIMINAL, continued on p.35
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