Queer Theatre Kalamazoo launches its 12th season this weekend with the Queer Shorts Festival, running October 3-5 at the Crawlspace Comedy Theatre. Artistic Director Connar Klock Joins Cara Lieurance to discuss the festival's lineup and the challenges facing LGBTQ+ arts organizations in the current political climate.
The festival features seven short plays exploring queer identity, relationships, and connection. Two standout pieces come from playwrights Dray Bowens-Ruben and Zara Barryte: "Polycule," which uses carbon atoms to discuss polyamory and ethical non-monogamy, and "Another Ken," about a shapeshifting being searching for identity while traveling through space.
"When I read it, I knew that this was one that I wanted to personally do," Klock says of "Another Ken." "Even though it's a piece that has a bacteria that is processing dirt...and dragons flying around as water makers breathing fire, all of us are choked up at the end of this 10 minutes."
Local talent is features prominently, including Kalamazoo College sophomore Wesley Innes, who contributed two linked relationship plays. Mars Wilson's "Miles to Go" portrays a transgender individual with less-than-helpful roommates. The festival also includes Paul Rudnick's "Crafty," about a Midwestern mother memorializing her son who died of HIV.
Klock addresses funding challenges, noting that corporate and institutional support has "backtracked" under the current administration. They reference a recent ACLU victory with National Queer Theater preventing the federal government from curtailing grants based on "gender ideology."
Shows run Friday and Saturday at 9:30 p.m. and Sunday at 7:30 p.m. Following Queer Theatre Kalamazoo's model, tickets are name-your-price, with a suggested $15 donation. "The important thing is that no one has to be turned away for lack of funds," Klock emphasizes.
