For Pride month, we will be speaking to the grand marshals.
First, we speak with Josephine "Jo" Jones, the Female Identifying Grand Marshal for Pride Houston 365 and senior police officer with the Houston Police Department. For the past five years, Jo has served as the LGBTQIA+ liaison, building crucial bridges between law enforcement and the queer community. With 18 years on the force, she brings unique perspective to her role: "Behind the badge is a human being who cares deeply." Jo discusses how her position allows her to advocate for community members while helping transform perceptions within the department. Her selection as Grand Marshal represents both personal validation and institutional progress.
Lauren Tennyson takes us inside the First Christian Church of Katy, where radical inclusivity is reshaping suburban ministry. As Outreach Director, Lauren oversees their "transparent closet," providing clothing and resources to LGBTQ+ youth in need. The church has earned recognition as Outsmart Magazine's favorite trans support organization through their commitment to creating safe spaces outside the Loop. Lauren invites listeners to their upcoming Pride events, including drag bingo fundraisers on June 7th and a special Pride Sunday service featuring a trans male preacher sharing his journey.
We close with Derek Charles Livingston, artistic director of Stages Houston, discussing his direction of the world premiere "Let Her Rip." This innovative production weaves together two historical threads – the Jack the Ripper murders and the matchstick maker strike of 1888 – to examine ongoing violence against marginalized women. The parallels to contemporary issues, including violence against trans women of color, make this a particularly powerful Pride Month offering. Derek also shares exciting plans for Stages' upcoming season, featuring diverse voices and stories.
Don't miss the Houston Pride Parade on June 28th! Subscribe to Queer Voices for more conversations with the LGBTQ+ leaders, artists, and advocates shaping our community's future while honoring its past.
Queer Voices airs in Houston Texas on 90.1FM KPFT and is heard as a podcast here. Queer Voices hopes to entertain as well as illuminate LGBTQ issues in Houston and beyond. Check out our socials at:
https://www.facebook.com/QueerVoicesKPFT/ and
https://www.instagram.com/queervoices90.1kpft/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everybody, this is Queer Voices, a podcast
version of a broadcast radioshow that's been on the air in
Houston, texas for severaldecades.
This is Pride Month and overthe course of the month we'll be
talking with Pride Parade 365Grand Marshals leading up to the
big event on the 28th.
(00:21):
This week, debra Moncrief-Belltalks with Josephine Jones, who
is the female identifying GrandMarshal.
Jo, as she likes to be called,is a senior police officer and
the community liaison for theHouston Police Department.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
We are here to serve.
So if there's ever anythingthat the police can do to better
that relationship withcommunity, as the liaison, I'm
here to listen.
Any officer that you run intothey should also be there to
listen, because we are allliaisons in a capacity of
serving community.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Brian Levinca talks with a representative of the
First Christian Church of Katy.
With a representative of theFirst Christian Church of Katy.
One of their Pride eventshappens Sunday, the 29th, with
guest preacher Ashley Quinn fromMissouri.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
He is a trans man and he's going to share his journey
.
And I mean we've had dragqueens preach, we've had cis
people preach at Pride Sundayand now we're going to have a
trans man tell us his journey.
It's such a pivotal time in ourcountry and I just what bravery
.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
And Brett Cullum has a conversation with Derek
Charles Livingston, the artisticdirector of Stages Houston, who
is directing the world premiereof the play Let Her Rip.
It merges the Jack the Ripperlegend with the London
matchstick strike of 1888.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Queer Voices starts now Grand Marshals perform
ceremonial duties, lead theparade and serve as Pride
Ambassadors for Pride Month andthroughout the year.
They are selected out ofsubmissions from the community
and the Grand Marshal AdvisoryCommittee, which consists of
former Grand Marshals.
(02:07):
The finalists of the nominationprocess then are voted on by
the community.
The committee chooses thetrendsetter and the
distinguished Grand Marshals.
These are individuals or groupswho have made outstanding
contributions to the community.
And that brings us to JosephineJones.
(02:28):
Josephine, or Jo as she's morecommonly called, has been
selected as a Grand Marshal ofPride, Houston 365 in the Female
Identifying Category for 2025.
She stands at the intersectionof courage and community.
As a senior police officer,LGBTQIA plus liaison and
(02:50):
relentless advocate for equity,she brings bold leadership and
unwavering compassion to thefront lines of change.
She is a trailblazer, breakingbarriers, building bridges and
showing us what it means toserve with pride.
Joe, welcome to Queer Voices,and we're going to talk a little
(03:10):
bit about what this means foryou this year.
So that's the first questionwhat does being nominated mean
to you?
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Being nominated as a Grand Marshal for Houston Pride
365 is truly one of the highesthonors of my life.
I've served as a police officerfor 18 years now and I am so
overjoyed that the communitywould nominate me to be a Grand
(03:39):
Marshal.
Nominate me to be a grandmarshal.
It means to me that thecommunity sees me, joe Jones,
not just my uniform, but theysee me as a person who has
worked to bridge gaps, buildtrust uplift voices that are too
(04:09):
often just not heard.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
If anyone's been to almost any event in the
community in the past so manyyears, they're likely to have
seen you or met you.
You probably walk in the paradeevery year, and now you get to
lead it.
What is your past experienceswith Pride?
Speaker 2 (04:17):
to serve as a public servant to Pride, from ensuring
safety of our community as anofficer to now being able to
march with them as a symbol ofrepresentation.
So it kind of is twofold.
For me it was all about safetyand making sure that the
(04:41):
community knew that they couldcome to this pride parade and
feel safe and just celebratebeing who they are.
To now actually standing thereas a grand marshal.
It's a great symbol that showsthe connection that the
community is having with HPD andvice versa.
This year looks a littledifferent and I'm excited.
(05:03):
I'm so excited about it to walkas a Grand Marshal for Pride.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
What was your first experience with Pride?
Do you remember the first timeyou went to a parade?
Speaker 2 (05:14):
The first time that I went to a parade, I want to say
it was it wasn't in theMontrose area, it was actually
downtown.
I was offered to drive a car inthe Pride Parade and I drove
our HPD vehicle by way of therecruiting division in the Pride
(05:35):
Parade.
I was in the recruitingdivision.
We were allowed to have thatopportunity to be there in that
capacity.
That was one of my first, oneof my experiences.
That I definitely feel is verymemorable for me because it just
meant so much for me to be ableto provide, I guess, an extra
level of protection and stillenjoy community in that capacity
(05:56):
.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
What does pride mean to you?
Do you think it's relevant?
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Absolutely it's relevant.
For me personally, it justmeans visibility.
I get to be who I am.
I get to be a African-Americanlesbian woman on this HPD large
police department and just bewho I am, and I don't have to
hide.
And during the month of Juneyou can be even louder about
(06:25):
being who you are.
But for me, it means justcelebrating who we are.
For me, celebrating me in eachcapacity as a police officer and
as a community member, honoringthose who came before us.
Pride is a time for us toreflect and then, just for me,
make a stronger commitment toserving the community that I
(06:47):
love to serve, the communitythat I have passion to serve.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
The theme this year is Celebration is Our Legacy.
What does that mean to you?
Speaker 2 (06:56):
It means that pride is not just a celebration, but
it's a protest, and that's howit all started, you know, a
platform and a promise, and atime when the LGBT community
feels like their rights areunder attack.
Pride is relevant because itreminds us that we are not alone
.
It's relevant because all ofour lives matter in regards to
(07:18):
having community commitment andbeing able to have our voices
heard commitment and being ableto have our voices heard.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
There are some folks that have kind of been riled at
the idea of someone who is inlaw enforcement being recognized
as a Grand Marshal.
They go back to cops are ourenemies, our history, all of
that.
What would you say to them?
Speaker 2 (07:41):
I would say that they have every right to feel that
way due to the history of Prideand how it all began.
Definitely I wouldn't suppressanyone from feeling the way that
they feel, but I want people toknow that behind the badge is a
human being who cares deeplyand I want people to feel
(08:02):
comfortable to know that, police, we care about community and
sometimes that's a hard pill toswallow because people have
their life stories about what'shappened to them, a family
member or someone in thecommunity no-transcript.
(08:39):
But we serve in this capacityto try to bridge that gap.
I always say bridge the gap.
I'm hoping that we can reach apoint where we sustain these
relationships and just try tocontinue to move forward in
community, knowing that policeare here to serve you.
That's why we put this badge on,that's why we put this badge on
(09:02):
, that's why we put this uniformon.
And if you are not being servedin the capacity in which you
feel, we encourage people toutilize resources like your
liaisons, because we're yourvoice and in this opportunity
this year Pride, houston 365, asa police department, we use
this as an opportunity tocelebrate the commitment that we
(09:22):
have to serve all communities.
We are here to serve.
So if there's ever anythingthat the police can do to better
that relationship withcommunity, as the liaison, I'm
here to listen.
Any officer that you run intothey should also be there to
listen, because we are allliaisons in a capacity of
(09:44):
serving community.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
Would you say, being the liaison is your number one
achievement for the queercommunity.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Absolutely.
I would say it's my number oneachievement because I serve as
the showing up, being authenticand just really having the
mindset to help people thatreally need help, and I've been
(10:12):
a police officer for 18 years soI know the rules and
regulations and ins and outs ofwhat is expected when you come
across a police officer officer.
But being able to share thatinformation with community, with
community leaders, and helpingus understand it's been very
impactful.
When you know better, you cando better.
Why do police do this?
(10:33):
Why do they do that?
As a liaison, I'm so happy tobe able to just share with
community because it helps usconnect and understand each
other better and therefore, hpdcan lean on community and
community can lean on HPD.
So, yes, this is a great honor.
I'm very, very honored to beable to serve as the LGBTQIA
(10:57):
liaison.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
How long have you been in that role?
Speaker 2 (11:01):
It's been about five years, so 2019 of November has
been about almost five years,and we've had liaisons before.
Before I was a liaison.
Actually, my sister officer whois retired, ej Joseph, was a
liaison and I think that sheserved the community in the
capacity in which she could, andwe're just so grateful that we
(11:25):
are able to have a role likethis, because all community
members don't feel comfortablewith police and to have access
to someone that will listen toyou first of all, listen and
then follow through oncommitment to help in whatever
way we can to share HPD'sresources with you.
That's really impactful.
So I take my job very seriouslyand I don't over-promise and
(11:51):
under-deliver, as I have been inthis position.
We have had a lot of goodthings happen where,
unfortunately, crime has takenplace in community and we've
been able to get these peoplebehind bars, and we only have
been able to do that bycommunity trusting, trusting HPD
to come forward and to givethese reports.
(12:12):
That's so important.
I'm very passionate aboutserving the community and, yes,
the honor to be liaison for thiscommunity means everything to
me.
Speaker 4 (12:23):
Are you part of the Community Affairs Division?
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Yes, I am.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
Hearing from the community and saying what it
means for us.
Because there is, I know, whenI see you I've seen you over at
Law Harrington, I've seen youout at different events in the
years and I'm like there's Jo, Iknow she's looking out for us.
There's Jo, she's on the job.
I think you have done awonderful job and I really
(12:48):
appreciate you and I'm sopleased that you've been
nominated several times thisyear.
You actually are Grand Marshal,female identifying.
Is there anything that I didn'task about that you'd like to
share?
Speaker 2 (13:02):
I would like to share that the Houston Police
Department cares about thecommunity in more ways than just
the LGBT community and I wouldjust encourage people to help us
build that relationship wherewe can get past the hurt and
that's a hard thing to do,that's a hard, that's a big ask
and to try to forge ways tocontinue to build relations
(13:26):
together, because at the end ofthe day, the police officers put
on the uniform to serve thecommunity, whatever that
community looks like.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
This is Deborah Moncrief Bell.
I've been talking to JosephineJo Jones about her becoming the
2025 Grand Marshal femaleidentifying for Pride, houston
365.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Coming up on Queer Voices.
Brian talks with arepresentative of the First
Christian Church of Katy abouttheir Pride events this month,
including their guest preacheron the 29th, and Brett Cullum
talks with the director of theStage's Houston production of
Let Her Rip.
Get more out of your listeningexperience by making a pledge to
(14:20):
support KPFT.
Become a member of Houston'sonly commercial-free alternative
radio voice.
Visit kpftorg for moreinformation.
This is Queer Voices.
Speaker 5 (14:41):
This is Brian Levinka and I'm speaking with Lauren
Tennyson of the First ChristianChurch of Katy.
Welcome to the show, lauren,Thank you.
Thank you for having me.
What is your role at the churchand tell me more about the
mission of the church?
Speaker 3 (14:55):
My role is Outreach Director, basically in charge of
meeting the community and theirneeds wherever they are going
out into the community andhelping wherever we can.
Our church is open andaffirming in a radical way.
We believe that everybody ismade perfect in God's image and
God doesn't make mistakes.
We welcome everybody.
(15:15):
But when I say we welcomeeverybody, we welcome believers
and non-believers.
Everyone is welcome to come andcelebrate with us.
It's a Disciples of Christchurch and so basically, the
Disciples of Christ believe andcommune in every service, and so
everybody has a seat at ourtable.
Speaker 5 (15:30):
How did this church get organized?
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Well, the church has been around for a while.
I believe it's definitely olderthan 45 years.
Forgive me for not knowing theprevious history, but about five
to six years ago the churchdecided that they needed to be
serving, they needed to reallybe out there and there was a
need.
There was a need for childrenwho were being basically kicked
(15:54):
out of their home, given nowhereto go, and they were found
without a place.
And the church realized that byopening the doors to everybody
and going out and seeking thismarginalized community, through
offering clothes, offeringassistance, letting them know
that they're not alone.
There's a lot of trauma thatchurches cause.
I mean, my goodness, it's thecause of all wars and misery,
(16:16):
religion.
There is a lot of trauma thatpeople have and people carry,
and sometimes just being open, aplace where people can come,
people can be supported andlifted up, is all that you need
to be sometimes, and so that'swhat it was.
In the back of the churchthere's a closet and they put
donations in the closet forpeople who they were LGBTQ, qia,
(16:36):
plus in the family, but theywere maybe questioning their
sexuality, they were exploringtheir gender identities and they
wanted to make sure that therewere the appliances, there were
the clothes, there was thesupport that they needed on that
journey, because often there'snothing there, and so they found
this specific kind of need inthe community.
They had somebody who was veryinterested in doing that.
(16:57):
He had passed away before thecloset was actually truly able
to open, but it was a passionproject for him and they opened
the transparent closet and byopening up to the community and
serving the community, thecommunity and Katie found us.
Speaker 5 (17:11):
Has there been an increase in the needs, with the
kind of ramping up of thehateful things we're hearing
from the government?
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Absolutely.
There's been a substantialspike.
So, as part of outreach, I callit the old school Christian in
me, but I go for the least ofthese.
If you believe in Christ,that's where he asked us to be.
I can't think of a communityright now.
That's more the least of thesethat's being actively hunted,
persecuted by our government,and so there is a need.
(17:38):
There's been an increase inattendance, but part of the
outreach is I'm very called tothe hungry as well, and so a
year ago we opened up a freeit's called a blessing box and
it's just.
It's like a little free librarybut it's a pantry and it's part
of the little pantry movementand it's the only location out
in the Katy area right now.
But we're working on that.
Hopefully other people aregoing to join in with us.
(17:59):
We provide dry goods, cannedgoods it's getting a little too
hot to provide canned foods butstaples and hygiene products,
things for anybody in need, andthe Blessing Box has seen such
an uptick I mean we are havingto refresh it daily.
We put in a Google Maps listingfor it so anybody can find it,
and within the first two weekswe've already had a thousand
(18:20):
people look at our listing, andso there's definitely a need in
the hunger, there's definitely aneed in supporting people who
have been traumatized.
People just are looking forhope.
They're looking for a placethat accepts them and supports
them, no matter what comes.
We're here to do that Laterthis summer.
I have several people that arehelping us.
We're doing a four-weekpersonal defense course for
(18:41):
anybody who's marginalized inthe community that feels like
they needed to learn how todefend themselves a little bit
better.
We want to provide that.
We're going to offerself-defense.
We're going to offer a gunliteracy class, a gun safety
course.
We're going to have range timeif somebody wants that.
We're going to just givede-escalation tactics, ways to
get out safely, ways to getyourself protected, and that's
coming in the summer.
So we're very determined to behere for the long haul.
(19:04):
I know personally the church.
We're galvanizing ourselves.
Who knows what comes next, butI know that we're in for it and
we're here for it Any way thatwe can help Truly, to be a
Christian, no matter what thetime is, is to be light in the
darkness.
It's a dark time right now, butyou know what God is a drama
king.
He loves a comeback story andit may feel like we're on the
roofs right now, but you knowwhat?
With God with us, nothing canbe truly against us and
(19:27):
persevere.
Speaker 5 (19:28):
What is the K-Place?
I was reading about that on thewebsite.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Oh yeah, k-place is a wonderful place.
It is for youth, lgbtqia youth,and it is a place where they
can kick back.
There's a community center is ayouth group for kids that get
together and they have so muchfun.
They do movie nights and theyget together.
I know that also, pflag meetsand during PFLAG they usually
take the kiddos into K-Place andthey just have a time to
(20:08):
decompress and talk and havefellowship with each other.
Speaker 5 (20:12):
And I was reading that you have a Pride Bingo
coming up in June.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
Oh, absolutely.
June 7th, 5 and 9 pm we'redoing two shows of drag bingo
and it's a whole lot of fun.
These queens are incredible.
I was blessed enough to serveat the last drag bingo.
It was literally wall-to-wallpeople.
You couldn't get up to get moredrinks because we were so
crammed in there.
So we decided to do two shows.
The 5 pm is going to be great.
9 pm is going to be a littlebit looser.
(20:36):
We're going to cut up a littlebit more.
You know how those queens getafter they get in their flow.
That's going to be June 7th.
Like I said, 5 and 7 pm.
It's going to be a great timeand my favorite part about it is
that everything we earn thatnight goes to our transparent
closet, goes to helping kids whoare disenfranchised, kids who
are being persecuted not justkids, anybody.
(20:57):
That's the thing.
The closet is there for anyone.
We are truly there.
If you're in need, if you needwork clothes, if you need a
special occasion dress, if youneed a suit, if you're
questioning anything and youwant to know how it works, you
come to the closet.
And the great thing is is thatthese drag bingos they benefit
the closet 100%.
Speaker 5 (21:16):
What other things do you have coming up?
Speaker 3 (21:18):
for Pride On June 21st, we are doing Put a Ring on
it and we are celebrating 10years of marriage equality by
having weddings.
We're hosting weddings.
We already have three wonderful, amazing couples that are going
to get married at our church incelebration.
We've got the cake, we've goteverything and they're just
going to show up and we're goingto celebrate with them.
I'm not sure if they're stilltaking applications, but I do
(21:41):
know that we have threewonderful couples and we're
really excited about it.
What a way to, instead of justliving in fear and worry, we're
just going to celebrate.
You know what?
Nobody knows what's next, butwe do know that we're going to
live for today and enjoy todaywith each other and have and
just have a great time, becauseit's been 10 years and every day
we walk forward is a harder togo back.
And then, of course, prideSunday is immediately after.
(22:05):
So we're going to be a littlepartied out from the 21st and
then we're going right intoPride Sunday.
That's when our church reallycomes out.
We all get in our best rainbowgear and we just really
celebrate Pride.
And so this year I'm so excitedwe have Pastor Ashley Quinn of
the National Avenue ChristianChurch in Springfield, missouri,
(22:25):
is going to be our guestpreacher.
He is a trans man and he'sgoing to share his journey.
And I mean we've had dragqueens preach, we've had cis
people preach at Pride Sundayand now we're going to have a
trans man tell us his journey.
It's such a pivotal time in ourcountry and I just what bravery
.
And I just I can't wait tocelebrate with everybody.
That's the 22nd of June.
Speaker 5 (22:46):
You're very passionate about outreach.
How did you get involved withthis?
Speaker 3 (22:50):
It's very important to me to go to an open and
affirming church, because theminute a church says that
they're not open to thecommunity, that tells me that
they're not truly followingChrist.
So it was very important for meto find an open and affirming
church.
I was going out to lunch withmy mother-in-law to a restaurant
very close to the church andshe said, oh, that's that church
that has the closet for thecommunity.
(23:10):
And I said, what are youtalking about?
And she's like, oh yeah, theyhelp all sorts of people.
They help kids who are gay andget kicked out of their house.
And I was like, ding, ding,ding, let's try it out.
Went in there the first Sunday.
There's a rainbow flag flyingout.
Now, hey, I get it.
There's a lot of people whohave decided to covertly be
Christian missionaries and kindof pretend to be like they're
(23:31):
pro-gay and they're not.
And I had to go in there.
Still, I wasn't completely wonover, but it definitely made me
go.
Okay, this might be my people.
And then I went inside and Ijust the energy, just the
passion, and seeing severalmembers of leadership that were
queer it, just I was like Ifound my place and we plugged in
For me.
I get my religion from servingothers, from being Christ's
(23:52):
hands and feet.
That's what really drives me,and so this is a place where
it's a limitless ability toserve.
There's so many things going on.
There's so much hate out there.
There's so many beautiful,beautiful children of God who
have been told that they'renothing and treated like trash.
I'm out there.
I'm out there, if not toconvert anybody.
I don't care who you pray to, Idon't care what you believe.
I care, though, that you knowyou are perfect.
(24:14):
There is nothing wrong with you.
You are just the way you shouldbe, and that should be given to
you in a positive Christianatmosphere.
As far as I'm concerned, to letyou know hey, these other
people, they've got it wrong.
Christ was pretty dang clearabout how you treat the least of
these.
Speaker 5 (24:29):
It's a different message than we normally hear,
sometimes from the religiousright.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
Absolutely and trust me, I'm a stranger in a strange
land to them.
You know they don't understandme and they don't have to.
The Apostle Paul is like whenyou find people who are in
darkness and I think every oneof those wayward Christians who
are spewing hate are in darknessI mean you can try and talk to
them, but don't get caught up init, don't get twisted, baby.
And I don't.
And I keep going because thereis so much rot in American
(24:54):
Christianity right now thatthere's a reckoning coming and,
quite honestly, it'swell-deserved.
Speaker 5 (24:59):
Now, how do you find people and how do you let people
know about your church?
Speaker 3 (25:03):
I just tell them I talk about my church.
I mean, I just am alwaystalking about it.
I have my card available at alltimes.
I'm always asking for donationsfor the blessing box, I'm
always asking for support at thecloset volunteers, and so it's
just a real central part of whoI am and I just it just is I'm
always working on things.
So the church actually in thefall, late September, all
(25:24):
throughout October, we do apumpkin patch and it is our
outreach.
It's free to the community.
Everybody around us comes andfamilies take pictures and buy
pumpkins, have fun.
We have all sorts of activitiesbut it requires a lot of
outreach.
I probably need about 150volunteers a year to pull it off
, and so I'm always talkingabout the church anyway, trying
to recruit help.
Speaker 5 (25:43):
Is there anything that I haven't asked you about
the First Christian Church ofKaty that you want our listeners
to know about?
Speaker 3 (25:49):
We are really proud to be Outsmart Magazine's
favorite trans supportorganization.
I think that really meanssomething right now and I think
to be a church and to wear thatmantle is it's something.
It doesn't matter what youbelieve, as long as you know
that you have a place with us.
We are here for you.
We are here to support you.
We've got clothing.
We've got other ways to helpyou.
(26:10):
We've got our blessing box.
Right now we've been doing bagsfor the unhoused with specific
items, like we did life strawslast month with various things
for the unhoused.
So there's a way to plug in andserve and be together in a
community.
You don't have to be alone.
We're here for you and I knowyou're hearing this.
I know a lot of your erudite,well-heeled listeners wouldn't
(26:32):
even dream of going at lifeoutside the loop.
I understand as a suburbannormie, I completely understand.
Going into the city gives mehype sometimes.
But there is life outside ofthe loop and the thing is is
that we are here, we're on thefront lines.
We are out here fighting,fighting for our brothers and
sisters, fighting for thesechildren.
At the end of the day, we needthe support of Inside the Loop.
Okay, I'm not asking you tocome out all the time, but maybe
(26:53):
support us Inside the Loop Okay, I'm not asking you to come out
all the time, but maybe supportus, maybe donate, maybe find a
way to plug in.
You've got connections.
We need them, we need the helpand I promise it's only a quick
25-minute drive and it mightchange your life.
Coming out and volunteering inthe closet and just seeing these
kids that we're helping it,just it really changes yourself
and to me, like I said, that'show I get my religion is by
being Christ's hands and feetand this is a place to help and
(27:16):
serve, no matter where you livein the city.
Speaker 5 (27:18):
Houston is massive and we are everywhere, so I
think I appreciate the work thatyou're doing out there, and
congratulations on the OutsmartAward.
That's a major achievement, Ithink.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
Well, thank you so much.
It's to everybody at our church.
I mean, I could list all thenames but we'd be here for
another 30 minutes probably, butit truly takes a village there.
But I will pass that on.
I'm so proud of everybody atour church and our community.
Speaker 5 (27:42):
Thank you for coming on.
I've been speaking to LaurenTennyson of the First Christian
Church of Katy.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
Thank you so much, Brian.
You'll have a wonderful day.
Speaker 5 (27:50):
This is Queer Voices.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
This is KPFT 90.1 fm houston, 89.5 fm galveston, 91.9
fm huntsville, and worldwide onthe internet at kpftorg this is
(28:16):
avery Bellew.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
My pronouns are she and her, and I am the CEO of the
Montrose Center, houston'sLGBTQ plus center, and you are
listening to Queer Voices, anintegral part of Houston's LGBTQ
plus community.
Speaker 7 (28:31):
Derek Charles Livingston is the artistic
director of Stages Houston andhe is about to premiere his
first choice of programming atStages with Let Her Rip.
The show is a swirl of twohistorical events the Jack the
Ripper murders combined with thematchstick maker strike of 1888
.
Now playwright Maggie Lou Raderis the author and this is
(28:51):
billed as a world premiere.
The show begins previews on May30th and it runs through june
22nd at stages derek charleslivingston.
Thank you so much for talkingto me again.
It'll be nice to catch up andtalk all things murderous and
matchsticks in 1880s london.
Thank you for having me.
No, thank you.
I mean, I was very intrigued bythis choice and this play and I
(29:13):
don't know what it's about,obviously because world premiere
I've never seen it before.
So tell me what is the showabout?
Speaker 6 (29:18):
Well, sort of, as you summarized, in 1888, there was
a very influential, veryimportant strike by matchstick
workers, who all were womenprimarily, and they walked out
of the factory because of thearduous conditions and many of
them were getting this horriblecondition called fossey jaw,
where their mouths, their mouthswould literally be eaten away
by the phosphorus that was inthe matches that they had to put
(29:40):
together.
And they walked out and theyrefused to sign a statement
stating that public publishedaccounts of their arduous
conditions were untrue.
And then they immediatelyelected six women to represent
them and went back into thefactory to argue for them.
And so you have to note thesewere mostly unlettered I don't
(30:01):
like to use necessarily the wordnot literate, but certainly not
traditionally educated workingclass women in East London who
thought that they were beingmistreated and fought and stood
up for themselves and theyunified.
Nobody backed out on the strikeand they eventually got, by law
of parliament, the right tounionize.
(30:22):
And also Bryant and May, whowere the owners of this
matchstick factory, had tochange the chemical compound
that was used in matchsticks tosomething that was less toxic to
their bodies, and thetechnology existed.
It was a little more expensive,and if you see these pictures of
where Brian and May lived inthat time period.
(30:43):
They were living large, so thiswas not a big cut into the
money they were making fromthese matchsticks to change the
chemical compound, and by act ofparliament they got this done,
and so it was this reallyamazing moment in the workers'
history of East London andindeed is credited with starting
(31:06):
a lot of other strikes thathappened in the area.
It probably really transformedthe way if you think about sort
of even the Labour Party andlabour movement in London
probably is one of the thingsthat really has continued to
transform politics as they existtoday in the united kingdom.
At the same time, jack theripper started killing women in
east london, and so what maggiehas done and this is based on
(31:29):
her research is posits the ideathat his murdering of women and
if you read about the murdersthey clearly were misogynistic
attacks against women he wentafter them as women, not just as
people.
Those attacks started the sameday the women won their rights.
(31:49):
And of course famously neverresolved who he was Famously
never resolved, and although youhave to come see our play, Well
, I'm a huge Jack the Ripper fanor buff or whatever.
Speaker 7 (32:08):
I went to London one time and convinced my mother on
a Christmas holiday to go toevery site of his victims in
London.
It was terrible.
It was not a great holiday plan.
I don't recommend it but it wasinteresting because they really
preserved a lot of what itlooked like.
They have the gas lamps stilland they have the areas and they
(32:30):
treat it almost as a museum.
So definitely two points inhistory that really changed
You're talking about the uniontype environment and also a
serial criminal that kind ofchanged the way police worked,
the way that investigations weredone and our concept of what
(32:50):
this all was.
Speaker 6 (32:52):
I think one of the things that it really did is it
changed the way these kinds ofthings were covered.
There's certainly been serialkillers before then, but this
one the first ones that wasreally sensationalized by the
media, did not change policing.
So that when poor women, womenwho may believe to be sex
workers whether that's true ornot women who might have alcohol
(33:25):
addiction or who are workingclass, when they disappear the
police often ignore them,particularly if it is believed
they're involved in sex work.
So that in the opening of herplay, in the introduction to the
written play it's not actuallyin the text of the play or what
the audience will see Maggiecites a Long Island killer who
got away with it because of thewomen he was killing A lot of
(33:46):
indigenous women in this countryand in Canada who have been
killed and murders haven't beenfound because they were poor and
indigenous and some of themwere believed to be sex workers
or have alcohol addiction.
And as she says is that shewrote a play that takes place in
the past to expose the presentand the fact that this is still
going on and, interestinglyenough, not related to that.
(34:07):
But I didn't know this.
I've known about Maggie in thisplay for four years In fact I
was, when I was at the UtahShakespeare Festival, the
director of play development.
I chose this play for one ofour development processes, so I
was actually part of this play'sdevelopment.
There have been subsequentworkshops to it and I didn't
know this at the time.
But Maggie was inspired towrite this play because of
Breonna Taylor, and what's beensaid in this play is someone
(34:29):
ought to remember her name.
Her name is.
What is her name?
Say her name, but apply it tothese women in this time period.
But I love how Maggie has againmade something that is still
much more contemporary, lookingback to the past to tell us a
contemporary concern that wehave.
Speaker 7 (34:50):
Well, and it's wild, and you're doing it in June,
which is also Pride Month, yes,and we have a lot of trans women
of color that are killed and itnever gets solved and ignored.
Speaker 6 (35:00):
Ignored because of who they are and what it never
gets solved and ignored.
Ignored because of who they areand what they might be doing to
make money, and even if not,that because no one cares enough
.
Right, absolutely yes, and soand I actually had that
conversation just today with oneof my coworkers pointing out,
because he saw the run throughlast night the parallels to what
is going on now with transwomen, primarily trans women of
color, who just do not.
(35:22):
Their murders are notconsidered important, they're
not counted for or the thepolice.
Again, bad policing is theywill dead name them in their
investigation, which basicallystops the investigation because
the people who can help themdon't know those women by those
names, even though we haveeducation enough at that level
to understand the differencebetween dead names and names
that people are using well,we've certainly gone down a dark
(35:45):
path already, but and you know,and the funny thing is that
maggie says the play is a comedyuntil it's not.
Play is hilarious oh good untilit's not.
Speaker 7 (35:57):
Well, I was gonna ask you why did you pick this one
as your debut at houstonaudiences as a producer, as an
artistic director and, justplain, as a play?
Speaker 6 (36:04):
director.
Sure, there are a number ofreasons.
So I think the first reason isI wanted to be responsible with
Stage's money.
Speaker 7 (36:14):
Yes, always.
Speaker 6 (36:15):
It's a three-person play, three-actor play with a
unit set, so you know there wasa financial responsibility there
.
It also felt an opportunity tobring to stages audiences a
chance to get to know me ofsomething that I have worked on
previously as an artist.
As I said, I was the directorof play development and the
interim artistic director at theUtah Shakespeare Festival when
(36:37):
I chose this as one of the twoplays for us to work on that
year, and so we brought Maggieout.
We put her in a room with adirector, with a dramaturg, with
actors, and every day her jobwas to revise that play and at
the end of that week we put itin front of an audience and we
had talkbacks for three daysthat week and then two weeks
later with a different audience,and so it was something that I
(36:58):
was intimately connected with.
So it felt like that was achance for Stages' audience to
get to know part of myhistorical past, but bringing it
here, and also a chance forStages to have a world premiere
credit, because this is a playthat was developed at the Utah
Shakespeare Festival.
But Utah is not going to do.
Speaker 7 (37:17):
I got you.
Well, speaking of talkbacks andgetting reactions from the
audience and things like that, Inoticed that Maggie Lou Rader
is coming to Houston and she'sgoing to do talkbacks on this
show on the 6th, 7th and 8th ofJune, so you're bringing her in
to do this.
Speaker 6 (37:34):
She's actually here now, so we just started previews
, so she will be here duringthat process.
But the talkbacks actually willbe that opening weekend.
And isn't that exciting for anaudience to see a play and a lot
of them probably know aboutJack the Ripper but don't
necessarily know about theMatchstick Workers strike to
hear a playwright first handtalk about what her inspiration
(37:55):
was for that and why it'shappening, why the play is
happening and why it's importantto her, and to answer all the
little questions that we oftenhave about the research, what it
went into and how thatcharacter came about and where'd
that come from.
And it's one of the things thatI hope to do more as an
artistic director of stages.
When we have thoseopportunities, is to let our
audiences engage with the peoplewho created them, as well as
(38:16):
the actors, the designers, butas much as possible to have a
conversation about the work,which I like to say is an
experience you can't get sittingat home watching Netflix.
So come to the theater.
No.
Speaker 7 (38:26):
Come to the theater.
No, Oliver Stone is not goingto come into your living room
after this movie and talk to youabout it.
So, yeah, you might as well goto stages and talk to Maggie Lou
Rader about why she wrote aboutmatchsticks and murders.
Speaker 6 (38:39):
She's a delightful human being, so I expect the
talkbacks are going to be reallylively and wonderful.
Speaker 7 (38:45):
Another thing that you mentioned is that it's a
three-woman cast.
Tell me about who all is inthis one, because it's a pretty
short cast list.
Speaker 6 (38:52):
Yes, so a woman named Rachel Amatoso, who just
graduated college a couple ofyears ago.
This is her stage's debut andshe has been seen around town.
She's been seen around town ina couple of things, but this is
probably the most major theaterand piece that she's been
involved with Stylus and Claire,who a number of audiences may
know she's worked at the Alley Isaw her most recently as she
(39:12):
was auditioning for this inVanya Sonia, masha and Spike at
Fourth Wall.
And Melissa Pritchard, whoworks all over town in Houston
and was a long-time AlleyCompany member.
Speaker 7 (39:27):
Wow, yeah, you've definitely got three powerful
actresses.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
I mean Skylar, I've seen so many times.
Speaker 7 (39:34):
They get somebody kind of just out of college and
then another one that's been anAlley Company resident I mean,
come on, yeah, you're in goodhands, and not only are they
wonderful actors, they are greatartists.
Speaker 6 (39:48):
to be in a room with it has really been a wonderful,
exciting process.
And you know, by rights, maybeas a man I shouldn't be
directing this play, I don'tknow but it's certainly a play
for which I have affinity for, Ihave a background for, and I
love the idea that puttingpowerful women's voices into the
world don't only have to be thework of women.
(40:09):
In fact, men should do thatwork, and so I'm very excited to
do that as well.
Speaker 7 (40:15):
Well, it's interesting, and I think that
there are several companies herein Houston that actually
address that specifically.
That's their whole raisond'etre, if you will, but it's
certainly something that I'mproud to see.
Stages take up that mantle aswell, because it's not something
that we see a lot of, andthere's different companies that
are saying, hey, we want to putmore women on stage and
stronger female parts, becausewhen you do look at the pantheon
(40:37):
of theater, I mean it's male alot of it.
Yeah, which is so silly,because how many actresses are
out there?
Speaker 6 (40:45):
compared to actors.
Lots of really good ones, yes,and of course I have to be
careful that I don't createcriticism.
I have to back on, because thenext play I direct this stage is
going to be Lehman Trilogy,which is three men.
Speaker 7 (40:57):
We're just keeping the scales balanced, Derek.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
That's it.
Speaker 7 (41:01):
We're, we're just keeping the scales balanced,
that's it.
We're just doing that, you know?
Okay, you keep like psychicallymentioning stuff that I'm going
to ask you, but next season,obviously you're going to direct
the lehman trilogy, right?
Speaker 6 (41:11):
yes, so excited.
In fact, today I just literallytoday I had a conversation with
a man named guy cohen who worksat one of the jewish community
centers here in town, because Iwant to make sure that there are
Hebrew prayers and Hebrew wordsin it.
I want to make sure we get thoseright.
But it's not just getting thewords right, it's making sure
that culturally, I think,particularly now with the rising
(41:34):
anti-Semitism that's happeningin this country that we honor
and respect the traditions thatthe layman brothers came to this
country with and why that wasso central to their family.
And that is not a pro israel andanti-israel statement, but it's
about recognizing and honoringa group of people's religion and
religious background and wehave to do that right, no matter
(41:57):
who they are, and I'm notreligious myself, but I
recognize that that's importantand you know, as an actor it's
interesting I did the whippingman, which also is centers on a
jewish family and at the sameand again that same experience
of we want to make sure we dothis right.
So I'm already in plans forlayman trilogy and have a
wonderful group of designers whoalready on board to help
(42:19):
execute that play.
We haven't't cast it yet, butwe're already starting to know
what it's going to look like andI already have images and ideas
in my head of what the stagingwill be to tell that epic story.
Speaker 7 (42:32):
Well, heading back into Letter Rip territory,
because obviously we've got towait a while for this next cast.
Who are the designers you'reworking with on this production
for Letter Rip?
Speaker 6 (42:43):
Sure, a wonderful woman named Christina Gianelli
who is one of the leadinglighting designers in town, so
she's lighting, she's lit thisshow for us.
She most recently wasrepresented Bedlands Hamlet at
Fourth Wall.
A woman named Liz Freeze isdoing the set design for us and
she designed our production ofthe Hispanic, latino, latina,
(43:03):
latinx, latine vote and did awonderful job on this.
It's a completely different setdesign, so I think people
who've seen that play in thisone will just be amazed at her
versatility.
Leah Smith, who heads our owncostume shop here, is doing the
costume design and if people sawour Pranto Pinocchio and or saw
our panto pinocchio and or sawspring awakening at rec room in
(43:24):
the fall, lee was a costumedesigner of that.
And robert leslie meek is oursound designer and robert did
that show.
He worked on the pantopinocchio for us, he did the
ripple, the way that carried mehome for us.
Uh, he did hamlet at fourthwall, I think I'm beginning to
think that they're like threesound designers in town and
they're all Robert Leslie Meek.
(43:44):
Not entirely true, but theyoung man does get a lot of work
and there's a reason why so youknow the really good designers
they do.
Speaker 7 (43:54):
They pop up everywhere.
I'm always amazed at therepetitiveness of some of the
people that I see as designers,but you definitely picked a very
strong group here based on theprevious work.
I mean the lighting forBedlam's Hamlet, a fourth wall,
as well.
As you've got the sounddesigner too, right, yes, so
yeah, those were both top-notchjobs.
(44:14):
I saw that pretty recently, sothat'll be interesting to see
what they do with this.
Speaker 6 (44:19):
We did.
Sort of a fun thing for thisthat Robert spearheaded is that
because the play opens withwomen coming back from
parliament singing in thestreets, we actually gathered a
group of women and we put outthe words.
So there's, some of them areactors who are professional
singers, some of them were ourvolunteer ushers.
One woman was a banker whoshowed up because a friend of
(44:39):
hers said I'm going to go dothis thing tonight, come with me
, and we recorded women singingprotest songs in our theater,
and so the idea was to be amixture of voices to represent
these women and so that thevoices you hear in each and
between each of the scenes is achorus of Houston women who
showed up specifically to recordfor this production.
(45:01):
This is awesome.
It was such a wonderful nightand you could see in their faces
how fun it was to sing thesesongs.
And the story that they'rehelping tell by singing these
songs.
They made it even moreimportant.
Speaker 7 (45:17):
You've got a pretty healthy preview for this, don't
you?
It starts tonight as of thisrecording, yes, wow, and I don't
really see it until, I think,maggie shows up on June 6th.
Speaker 6 (45:29):
Yes, so, like I said, she's here already, but our
official opening is June 5th,after the previews and then each
of those subsequentperformances.
As you pointed out, maggie willbe here for a talkback, yeah.
Speaker 7 (45:42):
Are any of your designers going to be for the
TalkBacks too, or is it justMaggie?
It's just focused on.
Speaker 6 (45:46):
It's very possible, because they're all local
designers and we also do a thingduring previews called Sunday
Sit-Down, so they'll also bepart of that as well.
Speaker 7 (45:55):
And that's the Sunday Sit-Down during previews.
Is it the cast and thedesigners sit down during
previews they Is it the cast andthe designers?
Speaker 6 (46:00):
Because during previews we're still working.
Technically, previews areperformances, but they're also
still a rehearsal, so the showis still changing during that
process, Although after lastnight we're pretty close, which
is very exciting as well.
Speaker 7 (46:14):
I saw the Sherlock production last season during
previews and Afsaneh was theredoing her set tweaks tweets and
she was sitting there dex to befuriously taking notes saying I
gotta fix this, I gotta fix thatshe's designing layman trilogy
for us oh yeah.
no, she's amazing.
(46:34):
That's another one of thedesigners that I absolutely
admire.
Her art, yes, and she and shealways surprises me.
She can do realistic, she cando abstract, she can do puppets,
I mean, she can do anything.
It's just crazy.
And she even did basically aone-woman show with a chorus of
dancers behind her at one point.
Speaker 6 (46:51):
So I'm pretty sure Afsana can do anything, was that
the one that had thelarger-than-life projections
behind it.
So that projection designer,james Templeton, is also
designing with Asana who are agreat pair, a great team the
Layman Trilogy with us.
Speaker 7 (47:07):
Yeah, they're a dynamic duo, for sure.
Speaker 6 (47:10):
I'm looking forward to how that's going to turn out.
Speaker 7 (47:13):
Well, we teased a little bit your production next
season.
But how did you pick this nextseason?
Because I know this is theseason of Derek Charles
Livingston.
How did you pick this nextseason?
Because I know this is theseason of Derek Charles
Livingston?
It's the first time I know wefinally unleashed you.
Speaker 6 (47:27):
I wanted to make sure that stages continued to tell
the stories of multiple peoples,especially now where, suddenly,
diversity is a dirty word,which I don't understand,
because what's the opposite ofdiversity, what's the opposite
of inclusion, what's theopposite of equity?
No one seems to be asking thatquestion when you're demonizing
the idea that you would have aworld that celebrates multiple
(47:50):
people.
But that's one of the placesthat I started is continuing
stages tradition.
I'm not bringing it here.
I'm continuing that traditionof telling the stories of
multiple people and so wantingto make sure that the plays that
we selected did that.
The other thing is that Iwanted to make sure that we had
works that would definitely makepeople laugh and entertain
people.
I wanted to make sure that theywere plays that people saw,
(48:14):
that when they walked out theywere having a conversation about
the work and about the writingand about the performances I
wanted to give our audiences.
We're not doing a panel thiscoming season, but I wanted to
give our audiences somethingthat was a very special holiday
treat, because they've gottenused to that with us, and so
those various things were thedrivers of selecting that season
(48:37):
.
And so you look, and I loveepic theater and I love great
storytelling and I love theLehman Trilogy, which is sort of
how that play started, and thatidea of really leaning into
bravura performances which thatplay demands, because you have
three actors who start outplaying just the Lehman Brothers
but over the course of 140years that are covered in the
(48:58):
play, collectively play about 47different characters.
It's nuts, it's, it's wonderful, right, that's what we go to
the theater for and that's whatour audience is to have that
experience.
And you know, dominique morisotis one of america's great
playwrights and you know shewrites from the african-american
tradition of but contemporaryplays and so she was influenced
(49:20):
and inspired by August Wilsonbut definitely is writing from
her own lens and her own bentand again, with humor and very
sexy characters and characterswith men who really are
wonderful, men who love womenand women who really have very
strong voices.
And she's a Tony nominee forAin't Too Proud to Beg and all
of her plays, except for liketwo, have been done in Houston.
(49:40):
So this is a houston premiereof playwright who's been
produced a lot in houston, somudrow, and then of course it's
a wonderful life at the holidaytime and I, you know, it's one
of those things that to me itjust it just says christmas, it
just says holiday season and Iam such a big it's a wonderful
life fan.
I literally, on an airplane,watched it in front, it on
(50:00):
somebody's screen in front of me, and knew every line of the
movie, so I'm really excitedabout that.
The Bride, denise Fennell, who'sbeen coming here a number of
times as our sister in ourcatechism shows this is a show
she did for us a couple of yearsago about getting married late
in life.
We're excited to bring thatback because not enough
(50:22):
audiences saw it.
It did very well, but therewere people who missed it and so
we wanted to bring it back.
And we have a long-termrelationship with Denise and
it's such a wonderful,heartwarming as well as funny
piece.
And if you've seen her work,either recently in Lessons
Learned or as the sister, youjust know how funny she is.
And this experience of gettingmarried at 50 and suddenly
(50:43):
becoming a stepmom and the fearsthat go along with that are
just really exciting I think alot of people will relate to.
And then the Chinese Lady byLloyd Tse tells the story of the
first Chinese woman who came,believed to be the first Chinese
woman to come to America andshe came when she was 14 and
basically spent the next 30, 40years in this country and many
of those when she was 14 andbasically spent the next 30, 40
years in this country and manyof those years she was basically
(51:04):
an exhibit that went around thecountry.
And so Lloyd is playing withthis idea of representation and
Orientalism and acquiring theAmerican understanding of the
American traditions and ideasthrough the guise of this woman,
but in a play that is also veryfunny and very incisive.
And for our audience memberswho came last year to see the
(51:27):
Heart Sellers, it is the sameplaywright but a very different
sort of tone and rhythm to thisplay, but really funny and very,
very incisive and smart.
And that drive through Montereyactually came out of our
Cinemuros Latinx TheaterFestival.
So we just completed our eighthannual Latino Latinx Theater
(51:51):
Festival called Cinemuros andthe one that this play was in
our seventh festival, and it wasjust a huge hit among the
people who attended thatfestival and I read it and said,
oh, this is a wonderful play,and I was told that by the staff
when I got here and they'reright.
And so one of the things that Ithink a theater should do is, if
(52:12):
it's developing new work, isgive that work a chance.
So that will be a worldpremiere of a play that was
developed in part by stages andis emerging from this Latinx
theater festival that we've beendoing now for eight years, and
so it felt really important andright to reach to that resource
and to put a play on stage thatis just beautiful.
(52:35):
Just a beautiful play aboutthese two geeky people falling
in love and how other situationshappening in the country sort
of impact that, but also goes onto tell a story of, of of
masculinity and love, this lovebetween two people, even in and
even in a world where men are,are encouraged to be one way,
(52:58):
and here's a loving man and abeautiful woman who responds to
that, who find each other in areally fun way.
And I don't know if people knowthis, but this is the 10th
anniversary of Hamilton onBroadway.
Speaker 7 (53:09):
Yes, and you're bringing in, I'm bringing in
Spamilton.
Speaker 6 (53:14):
Which is the spoof of Hamilton and that play has
Hamilton itself has so much loveand it's still such a success
on Broadway and it has had manynumerous national tours and the
streaming on Disney was verysuccessful and again, it's just
really smart and it has themusic that we all know from
Hamilton as well as a coupleother shows in it and you know,
(53:35):
taking those lyrics that peoplehave come to know over the last
10 years and really spinningthem.
But we're pairing it with 21Chump Street, which is a small
Lin-Manuel Miranda musical thata lot of people don't know, and
so it was really exciting totake this writer, who a lot of
us have fallen in love withbecause of Hamilton and In the
Heights, which Tuts is currentlydoing, shout out to my fellow
theater and give people a chanceto get to know this piece too.
Speaker 7 (54:01):
Yeah, no, absolutely.
And it's so impressive when youget to see Lin-Manuel Miranda's
works before pre-Hamilton.
It's amazing to see the growthand where all of that stuff
started.
Because recently when I wentand saw the Tuts production of
In the Heights, I was like, ohyeah, I forgot.
This has kind of set the stagefor Hamilton and he used this
here but he didn't use thatthere.
I mean, all that kind of stuffwas interesting.
Speaker 6 (54:23):
And Heights won a Tony for Best Musical as well.
He's two for two on Broadway Interms of his work as a soul
component.
Speaker 7 (54:34):
Yeah, he's not got a bad track record so far?
Speaker 6 (54:37):
Yeah, he's fine.
Alright.
Well, derek Charles Livingston,I could just talk to you
forever.
Speaker 7 (54:39):
But yeah, he's all right, he's got a talent in that
one, fine, all right.
Well, derek Charles Livingston,I could just talk to you
forever.
But Letter Rip, may 30ththrough June 22nd at Stages,
obviously this wholephantasmagora combining the
matchmaker strike of 1888 andthe Jack the Ripper murders
(54:59):
Certainly looking forward to it.
A three-woman cast Very funny,a chance to talk to the
playwright, all these things.
So obviously a lot of excitingthings happening in the stages,
and certainly next year as well.
So we'll get a little previewof that too.
So thank you so much.
Oh my god, thank you for yourtime.
Yeah, no, absolutely Anytime.
I am down for this anytime, andmaybe one day we can just talk
(55:20):
shop instead of doing yeah, youjust do this, we'll just go off
on that All right.
Speaker 1 (55:34):
This has been Queer Voices, heard on KPFT Houston
and as podcast available fromseveral podcasting sources.
Check our webpageQueerVoicesorg for more
information.
Queer Voices executive produceris Brian Levinka.
Debra Moncrief-Bell isco-producer, brett Cullum and
(55:58):
David Mendoza-Druzman arecontributors.
The News Wrap segment is partof another podcast called this
Way Out, which is produced inLos Angeles.
Speaker 8 (56:08):
Some of the material in this program has been edited
to improve clarity and runtime.
This program does not endorseany political views or animal
species.
Views, opinions andendorsements are those of the
participants and theorganizations they represent.
In case of death, pleasediscontinue use and discard
remaining product.
Speaker 1 (56:21):
For Queer Voices.
I'm Glenn Holt, Thank you.
Hello everybody, this is Queer Voices, a podcast
version of a broadcast radioshow that's been on the air in
Houston, texas for severaldecades.
This is Pride Month and overthe course of the month we'll be
talking with Pride Parade 365Grand Marshals leading up to the
big event on the 28th.
(00:21):
This week, debra Moncrief-Belltalks with Josephine Jones, who
is the female identifying GrandMarshal.
Jo, as she likes to be called,is a senior police officer and
the community liaison for theHouston Police Department.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
We are here to serve.
So if there's ever anythingthat the police can do to better
that relationship withcommunity, as the liaison, I'm
here to listen.
Any officer that you run intothey should also be there to
listen, because we are allliaisons in a capacity of
serving community.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Brian Levinca talks with a representative of the
First Christian Church of Katy.
With a representative of theFirst Christian Church of Katy.
One of their Pride eventshappens Sunday, the 29th, with
guest preacher Ashley Quinn fromMissouri.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
He is a trans man and he's going to share his journey
.
And I mean we've had dragqueens preach, we've had cis
people preach at Pride Sundayand now we're going to have a
trans man tell us his journey.
It's such a pivotal time in ourcountry and I just what bravery
.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
And Brett Cullum has a conversation with Derek
Charles Livingston, the artisticdirector of Stages Houston, who
is directing the world premiereof the play Let Her Rip.
It merges the Jack the Ripperlegend with the London
matchstick strike of 1888.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Queer Voices starts now Grand Marshals perform
ceremonial duties, lead theparade and serve as Pride
Ambassadors for Pride Month andthroughout the year.
They are selected out ofsubmissions from the community
and the Grand Marshal AdvisoryCommittee, which consists of
former Grand Marshals.
(02:07):
The finalists of the nominationprocess then are voted on by
the community.
The committee chooses thetrendsetter and the
distinguished Grand Marshals.
These are individuals or groupswho have made outstanding
contributions to the community.
And that brings us to JosephineJones.
(02:28):
Josephine, or Jo as she's morecommonly called, has been
selected as a Grand Marshal ofPride, Houston 365 in the Female
Identifying Category for 2025.
She stands at the intersectionof courage and community.
As a senior police officer,LGBTQIA plus liaison and
(02:50):
relentless advocate for equity,she brings bold leadership and
unwavering compassion to thefront lines of change.
She is a trailblazer, breakingbarriers, building bridges and
showing us what it means toserve with pride.
Joe, welcome to Queer Voices,and we're going to talk a little
(03:10):
bit about what this means foryou this year.
So that's the first questionwhat does being nominated mean
to you?
Speaker 2 (03:19):
Being nominated as a Grand Marshal for Houston Pride
365 is truly one of the highesthonors of my life.
I've served as a police officerfor 18 years now and I am so
overjoyed that the communitywould nominate me to be a Grand
(03:39):
Marshal.
Nominate me to be a grandmarshal.
It means to me that thecommunity sees me, joe Jones,
not just my uniform, but theysee me as a person who has
worked to bridge gaps, buildtrust uplift voices that are too
(04:09):
often just not heard.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
If anyone's been to almost any event in the
community in the past so manyyears, they're likely to have
seen you or met you.
You probably walk in the paradeevery year, and now you get to
lead it.
What is your past experienceswith Pride?
Speaker 2 (04:17):
to serve as a public servant to Pride, from ensuring
safety of our community as anofficer to now being able to
march with them as a symbol ofrepresentation.
So it kind of is twofold.
For me it was all about safetyand making sure that the
(04:41):
community knew that they couldcome to this pride parade and
feel safe and just celebratebeing who they are.
To now actually standing thereas a grand marshal.
It's a great symbol that showsthe connection that the
community is having with HPD andvice versa.
This year looks a littledifferent and I'm excited.
(05:03):
I'm so excited about it to walkas a Grand Marshal for Pride.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
What was your first experience with Pride?
Do you remember the first timeyou went to a parade?
Speaker 2 (05:14):
The first time that I went to a parade, I want to say
it was it wasn't in theMontrose area, it was actually
downtown.
I was offered to drive a car inthe Pride Parade and I drove
our HPD vehicle by way of therecruiting division in the Pride
(05:35):
Parade.
I was in the recruitingdivision.
We were allowed to have thatopportunity to be there in that
capacity.
That was one of my first, oneof my experiences.
That I definitely feel is verymemorable for me because it just
meant so much for me to be ableto provide, I guess, an extra
level of protection and stillenjoy community in that capacity
(05:56):
.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
What does pride mean to you?
Do you think it's relevant?
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Absolutely it's relevant.
For me personally, it justmeans visibility.
I get to be who I am.
I get to be a African-Americanlesbian woman on this HPD large
police department and just bewho I am, and I don't have to
hide.
And during the month of Juneyou can be even louder about
(06:25):
being who you are.
But for me, it means justcelebrating who we are.
For me, celebrating me in eachcapacity as a police officer and
as a community member, honoringthose who came before us.
Pride is a time for us toreflect and then, just for me,
make a stronger commitment toserving the community that I
(06:47):
love to serve, the communitythat I have passion to serve.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
The theme this year is Celebration is Our Legacy.
What does that mean to you?
Speaker 2 (06:56):
It means that pride is not just a celebration, but
it's a protest, and that's howit all started, you know, a
platform and a promise, and atime when the LGBT community
feels like their rights areunder attack.
Pride is relevant because itreminds us that we are not alone
.
It's relevant because all ofour lives matter in regards to
(07:18):
having community commitment andbeing able to have our voices
heard commitment and being ableto have our voices heard.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
There are some folks that have kind of been riled at
the idea of someone who is inlaw enforcement being recognized
as a Grand Marshal.
They go back to cops are ourenemies, our history, all of
that.
What would you say to them?
Speaker 2 (07:41):
I would say that they have every right to feel that
way due to the history of Prideand how it all began.
Definitely I wouldn't suppressanyone from feeling the way that
they feel, but I want people toknow that behind the badge is a
human being who cares deeplyand I want people to feel
(08:02):
comfortable to know that, police, we care about community and
sometimes that's a hard pill toswallow because people have
their life stories about what'shappened to them, a family
member or someone in thecommunity no-transcript.
(08:39):
But we serve in this capacityto try to bridge that gap.
I always say bridge the gap.
I'm hoping that we can reach apoint where we sustain these
relationships and just try tocontinue to move forward in
community, knowing that policeare here to serve you.
That's why we put this badge on,that's why we put this badge on
(09:02):
, that's why we put this uniformon.
And if you are not being servedin the capacity in which you
feel, we encourage people toutilize resources like your
liaisons, because we're yourvoice and in this opportunity
this year Pride, houston 365, asa police department, we use
this as an opportunity tocelebrate the commitment that we
(09:22):
have to serve all communities.
We are here to serve.
So if there's ever anythingthat the police can do to better
that relationship withcommunity, as the liaison, I'm
here to listen.
Any officer that you run intothey should also be there to
listen, because we are allliaisons in a capacity of
(09:44):
serving community.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
Would you say, being the liaison is your number one
achievement for the queercommunity.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Absolutely.
I would say it's my number oneachievement because I serve as
the showing up, being authenticand just really having the
mindset to help people thatreally need help, and I've been
(10:12):
a police officer for 18 years soI know the rules and
regulations and ins and outs ofwhat is expected when you come
across a police officer officer.
But being able to share thatinformation with community, with
community leaders, and helpingus understand it's been very
impactful.
When you know better, you cando better.
Why do police do this?
(10:33):
Why do they do that?
As a liaison, I'm so happy tobe able to just share with
community because it helps usconnect and understand each
other better and therefore, hpdcan lean on community and
community can lean on HPD.
So, yes, this is a great honor.
I'm very, very honored to beable to serve as the LGBTQIA
(10:57):
liaison.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
How long have you been in that role?
Speaker 2 (11:01):
It's been about five years, so 2019 of November has
been about almost five years,and we've had liaisons before.
Before I was a liaison.
Actually, my sister officer whois retired, ej Joseph, was a
liaison and I think that sheserved the community in the
capacity in which she could, andwe're just so grateful that we
(11:25):
are able to have a role likethis, because all community
members don't feel comfortablewith police and to have access
to someone that will listen toyou first of all, listen and
then follow through oncommitment to help in whatever
way we can to share HPD'sresources with you.
That's really impactful.
So I take my job very seriouslyand I don't over-promise and
(11:51):
under-deliver, as I have been inthis position.
We have had a lot of goodthings happen where,
unfortunately, crime has takenplace in community and we've
been able to get these peoplebehind bars, and we only have
been able to do that bycommunity trusting, trusting HPD
to come forward and to givethese reports.
(12:12):
That's so important.
I'm very passionate aboutserving the community and, yes,
the honor to be liaison for thiscommunity means everything to
me.
Speaker 4 (12:23):
Are you part of the Community Affairs Division?
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Yes, I am.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
Hearing from the community and saying what it
means for us.
Because there is, I know, whenI see you I've seen you over at
Law Harrington, I've seen youout at different events in the
years and I'm like there's Jo, Iknow she's looking out for us.
There's Jo, she's on the job.
I think you have done awonderful job and I really
(12:48):
appreciate you and I'm sopleased that you've been
nominated several times thisyear.
You actually are Grand Marshal,female identifying.
Is there anything that I didn'task about that you'd like to
share?
Speaker 2 (13:02):
I would like to share that the Houston Police
Department cares about thecommunity in more ways than just
the LGBT community and I wouldjust encourage people to help us
build that relationship wherewe can get past the hurt and
that's a hard thing to do,that's a hard, that's a big ask
and to try to forge ways tocontinue to build relations
(13:26):
together, because at the end ofthe day, the police officers put
on the uniform to serve thecommunity, whatever that
community looks like.
Speaker 4 (13:35):
This is Deborah Moncrief Bell.
I've been talking to JosephineJo Jones about her becoming the
2025 Grand Marshal femaleidentifying for Pride, houston
365.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Coming up on Queer Voices.
Brian talks with arepresentative of the First
Christian Church of Katy abouttheir Pride events this month,
including their guest preacheron the 29th, and Brett Cullum
talks with the director of theStage's Houston production of
Let Her Rip.
Get more out of your listeningexperience by making a pledge to
(14:20):
support KPFT.
Become a member of Houston'sonly commercial-free alternative
radio voice.
Visit kpftorg for moreinformation.
This is Queer Voices.
Speaker 5 (14:41):
This is Brian Levinka and I'm speaking with Lauren
Tennyson of the First ChristianChurch of Katy.
Welcome to the show, lauren,Thank you.
Thank you for having me.
What is your role at the churchand tell me more about the
mission of the church?
Speaker 3 (14:55):
My role is Outreach Director, basically in charge of
meeting the community and theirneeds wherever they are going
out into the community andhelping wherever we can.
Our church is open andaffirming in a radical way.
We believe that everybody ismade perfect in God's image and
God doesn't make mistakes.
We welcome everybody.
(15:15):
But when I say we welcomeeverybody, we welcome believers
and non-believers.
Everyone is welcome to come andcelebrate with us.
It's a Disciples of Christchurch and so basically, the
Disciples of Christ believe andcommune in every service, and so
everybody has a seat at ourtable.
Speaker 5 (15:30):
How did this church get organized?
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Well, the church has been around for a while.
I believe it's definitely olderthan 45 years.
Forgive me for not knowing theprevious history, but about five
to six years ago the churchdecided that they needed to be
serving, they needed to reallybe out there and there was a
need.
There was a need for childrenwho were being basically kicked
(15:54):
out of their home, given nowhereto go, and they were found
without a place.
And the church realized that byopening the doors to everybody
and going out and seeking thismarginalized community, through
offering clothes, offeringassistance, letting them know
that they're not alone.
There's a lot of trauma thatchurches cause.
I mean, my goodness, it's thecause of all wars and misery,
(16:16):
religion.
There is a lot of trauma thatpeople have and people carry,
and sometimes just being open, aplace where people can come,
people can be supported andlifted up, is all that you need
to be sometimes, and so that'swhat it was.
In the back of the churchthere's a closet and they put
donations in the closet forpeople who they were LGBTQ, qia,
(16:36):
plus in the family, but theywere maybe questioning their
sexuality, they were exploringtheir gender identities and they
wanted to make sure that therewere the appliances, there were
the clothes, there was thesupport that they needed on that
journey, because often there'snothing there, and so they found
this specific kind of need inthe community.
They had somebody who was veryinterested in doing that.
(16:57):
He had passed away before thecloset was actually truly able
to open, but it was a passionproject for him and they opened
the transparent closet and byopening up to the community and
serving the community, thecommunity and Katie found us.
Speaker 5 (17:11):
Has there been an increase in the needs, with the
kind of ramping up of thehateful things we're hearing
from the government?
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Absolutely.
There's been a substantialspike.
So, as part of outreach, I callit the old school Christian in
me, but I go for the least ofthese.
If you believe in Christ,that's where he asked us to be.
I can't think of a communityright now.
That's more the least of thesethat's being actively hunted,
persecuted by our government,and so there is a need.
(17:38):
There's been an increase inattendance, but part of the
outreach is I'm very called tothe hungry as well, and so a
year ago we opened up a freeit's called a blessing box and
it's just.
It's like a little free librarybut it's a pantry and it's part
of the little pantry movementand it's the only location out
in the Katy area right now.
But we're working on that.
Hopefully other people aregoing to join in with us.
(17:59):
We provide dry goods, cannedgoods it's getting a little too
hot to provide canned foods butstaples and hygiene products,
things for anybody in need, andthe Blessing Box has seen such
an uptick I mean we are havingto refresh it daily.
We put in a Google Maps listingfor it so anybody can find it,
and within the first two weekswe've already had a thousand
(18:20):
people look at our listing, andso there's definitely a need in
the hunger, there's definitely aneed in supporting people who
have been traumatized.
People just are looking forhope.
They're looking for a placethat accepts them and supports
them, no matter what comes.
We're here to do that Laterthis summer.
I have several people that arehelping us.
We're doing a four-weekpersonal defense course for
(18:41):
anybody who's marginalized inthe community that feels like
they needed to learn how todefend themselves a little bit
better.
We want to provide that.
We're going to offerself-defense.
We're going to offer a gunliteracy class, a gun safety
course.
We're going to have range timeif somebody wants that.
We're going to just givede-escalation tactics, ways to
get out safely, ways to getyourself protected, and that's
coming in the summer.
So we're very determined to behere for the long haul.
(19:04):
I know personally the church.
We're galvanizing ourselves.
Who knows what comes next, butI know that we're in for it and
we're here for it Any way thatwe can help Truly, to be a
Christian, no matter what thetime is, is to be light in the
darkness.
It's a dark time right now, butyou know what God is a drama
king.
He loves a comeback story andit may feel like we're on the
roofs right now, but you knowwhat?
With God with us, nothing canbe truly against us and
(19:27):
persevere.
Speaker 5 (19:28):
What is the K-Place?
I was reading about that on thewebsite.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Oh yeah, k-place is a wonderful place.
It is for youth, lgbtqia youth,and it is a place where they
can kick back.
There's a community center is ayouth group for kids that get
together and they have so muchfun.
They do movie nights and theyget together.
I know that also, pflag meetsand during PFLAG they usually
take the kiddos into K-Place andthey just have a time to
(20:08):
decompress and talk and havefellowship with each other.
Speaker 5 (20:12):
And I was reading that you have a Pride Bingo
coming up in June.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
Oh, absolutely.
June 7th, 5 and 9 pm we'redoing two shows of drag bingo
and it's a whole lot of fun.
These queens are incredible.
I was blessed enough to serveat the last drag bingo.
It was literally wall-to-wallpeople.
You couldn't get up to get moredrinks because we were so
crammed in there.
So we decided to do two shows.
The 5 pm is going to be great.
9 pm is going to be a littlebit looser.
(20:36):
We're going to cut up a littlebit more.
You know how those queens getafter they get in their flow.
That's going to be June 7th.
Like I said, 5 and 7 pm.
It's going to be a great timeand my favorite part about it is
that everything we earn thatnight goes to our transparent
closet, goes to helping kids whoare disenfranchised, kids who
are being persecuted not justkids, anybody.
(20:57):
That's the thing.
The closet is there for anyone.
We are truly there.
If you're in need, if you needwork clothes, if you need a
special occasion dress, if youneed a suit, if you're
questioning anything and youwant to know how it works, you
come to the closet.
And the great thing is is thatthese drag bingos they benefit
the closet 100%.
Speaker 5 (21:16):
What other things do you have coming up?
Speaker 3 (21:18):
for Pride On June 21st, we are doing Put a Ring on
it and we are celebrating 10years of marriage equality by
having weddings.
We're hosting weddings.
We already have three wonderful, amazing couples that are going
to get married at our church incelebration.
We've got the cake, we've goteverything and they're just
going to show up and we're goingto celebrate with them.
I'm not sure if they're stilltaking applications, but I do
(21:41):
know that we have threewonderful couples and we're
really excited about it.
What a way to, instead of justliving in fear and worry, we're
just going to celebrate.
You know what?
Nobody knows what's next, butwe do know that we're going to
live for today and enjoy todaywith each other and have and
just have a great time, becauseit's been 10 years and every day
we walk forward is a harder togo back.
And then, of course, prideSunday is immediately after.
(22:05):
So we're going to be a littlepartied out from the 21st and
then we're going right intoPride Sunday.
That's when our church reallycomes out.
We all get in our best rainbowgear and we just really
celebrate Pride.
And so this year I'm so excitedwe have Pastor Ashley Quinn of
the National Avenue ChristianChurch in Springfield, missouri,
(22:25):
is going to be our guestpreacher.
He is a trans man and he'sgoing to share his journey.
And I mean we've had dragqueens preach, we've had cis
people preach at Pride Sundayand now we're going to have a
trans man tell us his journey.
It's such a pivotal time in ourcountry and I just what bravery
.
And I just I can't wait tocelebrate with everybody.
That's the 22nd of June.
Speaker 5 (22:46):
You're very passionate about outreach.
How did you get involved withthis?
Speaker 3 (22:50):
It's very important to me to go to an open and
affirming church, because theminute a church says that
they're not open to thecommunity, that tells me that
they're not truly followingChrist.
So it was very important for meto find an open and affirming
church.
I was going out to lunch withmy mother-in-law to a restaurant
very close to the church andshe said, oh, that's that church
that has the closet for thecommunity.
(23:10):
And I said, what are youtalking about?
And she's like, oh yeah, theyhelp all sorts of people.
They help kids who are gay andget kicked out of their house.
And I was like, ding, ding,ding, let's try it out.
Went in there the first Sunday.
There's a rainbow flag flyingout.
Now, hey, I get it.
There's a lot of people whohave decided to covertly be
Christian missionaries and kindof pretend to be like they're
(23:31):
pro-gay and they're not.
And I had to go in there.
Still, I wasn't completely wonover, but it definitely made me
go.
Okay, this might be my people.
And then I went inside and Ijust the energy, just the
passion, and seeing severalmembers of leadership that were
queer it, just I was like Ifound my place and we plugged in
For me.
I get my religion from servingothers, from being Christ's
(23:52):
hands and feet.
That's what really drives me,and so this is a place where
it's a limitless ability toserve.
There's so many things going on.
There's so much hate out there.
There's so many beautiful,beautiful children of God who
have been told that they'renothing and treated like trash.
I'm out there.
I'm out there, if not toconvert anybody.
I don't care who you pray to, Idon't care what you believe.
I care, though, that you knowyou are perfect.
(24:14):
There is nothing wrong with you.
You are just the way you shouldbe, and that should be given to
you in a positive Christianatmosphere.
As far as I'm concerned, to letyou know hey, these other
people, they've got it wrong.
Christ was pretty dang clearabout how you treat the least of
these.
Speaker 5 (24:29):
It's a different message than we normally hear,
sometimes from the religiousright.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
Absolutely and trust me, I'm a stranger in a strange
land to them.
You know they don't understandme and they don't have to.
The Apostle Paul is like whenyou find people who are in
darkness and I think every oneof those wayward Christians who
are spewing hate are in darknessI mean you can try and talk to
them, but don't get caught up init, don't get twisted, baby.
And I don't.
And I keep going because thereis so much rot in American
(24:54):
Christianity right now thatthere's a reckoning coming and,
quite honestly, it'swell-deserved.
Speaker 5 (24:59):
Now, how do you find people and how do you let people
know about your church?
Speaker 3 (25:03):
I just tell them I talk about my church.
I mean, I just am alwaystalking about it.
I have my card available at alltimes.
I'm always asking for donationsfor the blessing box, I'm
always asking for support at thecloset volunteers, and so it's
just a real central part of whoI am and I just it just is I'm
always working on things.
So the church actually in thefall, late September, all
(25:24):
throughout October, we do apumpkin patch and it is our
outreach.
It's free to the community.
Everybody around us comes andfamilies take pictures and buy
pumpkins, have fun.
We have all sorts of activitiesbut it requires a lot of
outreach.
I probably need about 150volunteers a year to pull it off
, and so I'm always talkingabout the church anyway, trying
to recruit help.
Speaker 5 (25:43):
Is there anything that I haven't asked you about
the First Christian Church ofKaty that you want our listeners
to know about?
Speaker 3 (25:49):
We are really proud to be Outsmart Magazine's
favorite trans supportorganization.
I think that really meanssomething right now and I think
to be a church and to wear thatmantle is it's something.
It doesn't matter what youbelieve, as long as you know
that you have a place with us.
We are here for you.
We are here to support you.
We've got clothing.
We've got other ways to helpyou.
(26:10):
We've got our blessing box.
Right now we've been doing bagsfor the unhoused with specific
items, like we did life strawslast month with various things
for the unhoused.
So there's a way to plug in andserve and be together in a
community.
You don't have to be alone.
We're here for you and I knowyou're hearing this.
I know a lot of your erudite,well-heeled listeners wouldn't
(26:32):
even dream of going at lifeoutside the loop.
I understand as a suburbannormie, I completely understand.
Going into the city gives mehype sometimes.
But there is life outside ofthe loop and the thing is is
that we are here, we're on thefront lines.
We are out here fighting,fighting for our brothers and
sisters, fighting for thesechildren.
At the end of the day, we needthe support of Inside the Loop.
Okay, I'm not asking you tocome out all the time, but maybe
(26:53):
support us Inside the Loop Okay, I'm not asking you to come out
all the time, but maybe supportus, maybe donate, maybe find a
way to plug in.
You've got connections.
We need them, we need the helpand I promise it's only a quick
25-minute drive and it mightchange your life.
Coming out and volunteering inthe closet and just seeing these
kids that we're helping it,just it really changes yourself
and to me, like I said, that'show I get my religion is by
being Christ's hands and feetand this is a place to help and
(27:16):
serve, no matter where you livein the city.
Speaker 5 (27:18):
Houston is massive and we are everywhere, so I
think I appreciate the work thatyou're doing out there, and
congratulations on the OutsmartAward.
That's a major achievement, Ithink.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
Well, thank you so much.
It's to everybody at our church.
I mean, I could list all thenames but we'd be here for
another 30 minutes probably, butit truly takes a village there.
But I will pass that on.
I'm so proud of everybody atour church and our community.
Speaker 5 (27:42):
Thank you for coming on.
I've been speaking to LaurenTennyson of the First Christian
Church of Katy.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
Thank you so much, Brian.
You'll have a wonderful day.
Speaker 5 (27:50):
This is Queer Voices.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
This is KPFT 90.1 fm houston, 89.5 fm galveston, 91.9
fm huntsville, and worldwide onthe internet at kpftorg this is
(28:16):
avery Bellew.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
My pronouns are she and her, and I am the CEO of the
Montrose Center, houston'sLGBTQ plus center, and you are
listening to Queer Voices, anintegral part of Houston's LGBTQ
plus community.
Speaker 7 (28:31):
Derek Charles Livingston is the artistic
director of Stages Houston andhe is about to premiere his
first choice of programming atStages with Let Her Rip.
The show is a swirl of twohistorical events the Jack the
Ripper murders combined with thematchstick maker strike of 1888
.
Now playwright Maggie Lou Raderis the author and this is
(28:51):
billed as a world premiere.
The show begins previews on May30th and it runs through june
22nd at stages derek charleslivingston.
Thank you so much for talkingto me again.
It'll be nice to catch up andtalk all things murderous and
matchsticks in 1880s london.
Thank you for having me.
No, thank you.
I mean, I was very intrigued bythis choice and this play and I
(29:13):
don't know what it's about,obviously because world premiere
I've never seen it before.
So tell me what is the showabout?
Speaker 6 (29:18):
Well, sort of, as you summarized, in 1888, there was
a very influential, veryimportant strike by matchstick
workers, who all were womenprimarily, and they walked out
of the factory because of thearduous conditions and many of
them were getting this horriblecondition called fossey jaw,
where their mouths, their mouthswould literally be eaten away
by the phosphorus that was inthe matches that they had to put
(29:40):
together.
And they walked out and theyrefused to sign a statement
stating that public publishedaccounts of their arduous
conditions were untrue.
And then they immediatelyelected six women to represent
them and went back into thefactory to argue for them.
And so you have to note thesewere mostly unlettered I don't
(30:01):
like to use necessarily the wordnot literate, but certainly not
traditionally educated workingclass women in East London who
thought that they were beingmistreated and fought and stood
up for themselves and theyunified.
Nobody backed out on the strikeand they eventually got, by law
of parliament, the right tounionize.
(30:22):
And also Bryant and May, whowere the owners of this
matchstick factory, had tochange the chemical compound
that was used in matchsticks tosomething that was less toxic to
their bodies, and thetechnology existed.
It was a little more expensive,and if you see these pictures of
where Brian and May lived inthat time period.
(30:43):
They were living large, so thiswas not a big cut into the
money they were making fromthese matchsticks to change the
chemical compound, and by act ofparliament they got this done,
and so it was this reallyamazing moment in the workers'
history of East London andindeed is credited with starting
(31:06):
a lot of other strikes thathappened in the area.
It probably really transformedthe way if you think about sort
of even the Labour Party andlabour movement in London
probably is one of the thingsthat really has continued to
transform politics as they existtoday in the united kingdom.
At the same time, jack theripper started killing women in
east london, and so what maggiehas done and this is based on
(31:29):
her research is posits the ideathat his murdering of women and
if you read about the murdersthey clearly were misogynistic
attacks against women he wentafter them as women, not just as
people.
Those attacks started the sameday the women won their rights.
(31:49):
And of course famously neverresolved who he was Famously
never resolved, and although youhave to come see our play, Well
, I'm a huge Jack the Ripper fanor buff or whatever.
Speaker 7 (32:08):
I went to London one time and convinced my mother on
a Christmas holiday to go toevery site of his victims in
London.
It was terrible.
It was not a great holiday plan.
I don't recommend it but it wasinteresting because they really
preserved a lot of what itlooked like.
They have the gas lamps stilland they have the areas and they
(32:30):
treat it almost as a museum.
So definitely two points inhistory that really changed
You're talking about the uniontype environment and also a
serial criminal that kind ofchanged the way police worked,
the way that investigations weredone and our concept of what
(32:50):
this all was.
Speaker 6 (32:52):
I think one of the things that it really did is it
changed the way these kinds ofthings were covered.
There's certainly been serialkillers before then, but this
one the first ones that wasreally sensationalized by the
media, did not change policing.
So that when poor women, womenwho may believe to be sex
workers whether that's true ornot women who might have alcohol
(33:25):
addiction or who are workingclass, when they disappear the
police often ignore them,particularly if it is believed
they're involved in sex work.
So that in the opening of herplay, in the introduction to the
written play it's not actuallyin the text of the play or what
the audience will see Maggiecites a Long Island killer who
got away with it because of thewomen he was killing A lot of
(33:46):
indigenous women in this countryand in Canada who have been
killed and murders haven't beenfound because they were poor and
indigenous and some of themwere believed to be sex workers
or have alcohol addiction.
And as she says is that shewrote a play that takes place in
the past to expose the presentand the fact that this is still
going on and, interestinglyenough, not related to that.
(34:07):
But I didn't know this.
I've known about Maggie in thisplay for four years In fact I
was, when I was at the UtahShakespeare Festival, the
director of play development.
I chose this play for one ofour development processes, so I
was actually part of this play'sdevelopment.
There have been subsequentworkshops to it and I didn't
know this at the time.
But Maggie was inspired towrite this play because of
Breonna Taylor, and what's beensaid in this play is someone
(34:29):
ought to remember her name.
Her name is.
What is her name?
Say her name, but apply it tothese women in this time period.
But I love how Maggie has againmade something that is still
much more contemporary, lookingback to the past to tell us a
contemporary concern that wehave.
Speaker 7 (34:50):
Well, and it's wild, and you're doing it in June,
which is also Pride Month, yes,and we have a lot of trans women
of color that are killed and itnever gets solved and ignored.
Speaker 6 (35:00):
Ignored because of who they are and what it never
gets solved and ignored.
Ignored because of who they areand what they might be doing to
make money, and even if not,that because no one cares enough
.
Right, absolutely yes, and soand I actually had that
conversation just today with oneof my coworkers pointing out,
because he saw the run throughlast night the parallels to what
is going on now with transwomen, primarily trans women of
color, who just do not.
(35:22):
Their murders are notconsidered important, they're
not counted for or the thepolice.
Again, bad policing is theywill dead name them in their
investigation, which basicallystops the investigation because
the people who can help themdon't know those women by those
names, even though we haveeducation enough at that level
to understand the differencebetween dead names and names
that people are using well,we've certainly gone down a dark
(35:45):
path already, but and you know,and the funny thing is that
maggie says the play is a comedyuntil it's not.
Play is hilarious oh good untilit's not.
Speaker 7 (35:57):
Well, I was gonna ask you why did you pick this one
as your debut at houstonaudiences as a producer, as an
artistic director and, justplain, as a play?
Speaker 6 (36:04):
director.
Sure, there are a number ofreasons.
So I think the first reason isI wanted to be responsible with
Stage's money.
Speaker 7 (36:14):
Yes, always.
Speaker 6 (36:15):
It's a three-person play, three-actor play with a
unit set, so you know there wasa financial responsibility there
.
It also felt an opportunity tobring to stages audiences a
chance to get to know me ofsomething that I have worked on
previously as an artist.
As I said, I was the directorof play development and the
interim artistic director at theUtah Shakespeare Festival when
(36:37):
I chose this as one of the twoplays for us to work on that
year, and so we brought Maggieout.
We put her in a room with adirector, with a dramaturg, with
actors, and every day her jobwas to revise that play and at
the end of that week we put itin front of an audience and we
had talkbacks for three daysthat week and then two weeks
later with a different audience,and so it was something that I
(36:58):
was intimately connected with.
So it felt like that was achance for Stages' audience to
get to know part of myhistorical past, but bringing it
here, and also a chance forStages to have a world premiere
credit, because this is a playthat was developed at the Utah
Shakespeare Festival.
But Utah is not going to do.
Speaker 7 (37:17):
I got you.
Well, speaking of talkbacks andgetting reactions from the
audience and things like that, Inoticed that Maggie Lou Rader
is coming to Houston and she'sgoing to do talkbacks on this
show on the 6th, 7th and 8th ofJune, so you're bringing her in
to do this.
Speaker 6 (37:34):
She's actually here now, so we just started previews
, so she will be here duringthat process.
But the talkbacks actually willbe that opening weekend.
And isn't that exciting for anaudience to see a play and a lot
of them probably know aboutJack the Ripper but don't
necessarily know about theMatchstick Workers strike to
hear a playwright first handtalk about what her inspiration
(37:55):
was for that and why it'shappening, why the play is
happening and why it's importantto her, and to answer all the
little questions that we oftenhave about the research, what it
went into and how thatcharacter came about and where'd
that come from.
And it's one of the things thatI hope to do more as an
artistic director of stages.
When we have thoseopportunities, is to let our
audiences engage with the peoplewho created them, as well as
(38:16):
the actors, the designers, butas much as possible to have a
conversation about the work,which I like to say is an
experience you can't get sittingat home watching Netflix.
So come to the theater.
No.
Speaker 7 (38:26):
Come to the theater.
No, Oliver Stone is not goingto come into your living room
after this movie and talk to youabout it.
So, yeah, you might as well goto stages and talk to Maggie Lou
Rader about why she wrote aboutmatchsticks and murders.
Speaker 6 (38:39):
She's a delightful human being, so I expect the
talkbacks are going to be reallylively and wonderful.
Speaker 7 (38:45):
Another thing that you mentioned is that it's a
three-woman cast.
Tell me about who all is inthis one, because it's a pretty
short cast list.
Speaker 6 (38:52):
Yes, so a woman named Rachel Amatoso, who just
graduated college a couple ofyears ago.
This is her stage's debut andshe has been seen around town.
She's been seen around town ina couple of things, but this is
probably the most major theaterand piece that she's been
involved with Stylus and Claire,who a number of audiences may
know she's worked at the Alley Isaw her most recently as she
(39:12):
was auditioning for this inVanya Sonia, masha and Spike at
Fourth Wall.
And Melissa Pritchard, whoworks all over town in Houston
and was a long-time AlleyCompany member.
Speaker 7 (39:27):
Wow, yeah, you've definitely got three powerful
actresses.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
I mean Skylar, I've seen so many times.
Speaker 7 (39:34):
They get somebody kind of just out of college and
then another one that's been anAlley Company resident I mean,
come on, yeah, you're in goodhands, and not only are they
wonderful actors, they are greatartists.
Speaker 6 (39:48):
to be in a room with it has really been a wonderful,
exciting process.
And you know, by rights, maybeas a man I shouldn't be
directing this play, I don'tknow but it's certainly a play
for which I have affinity for, Ihave a background for, and I
love the idea that puttingpowerful women's voices into the
world don't only have to be thework of women.
(40:09):
In fact, men should do thatwork, and so I'm very excited to
do that as well.
Speaker 7 (40:15):
Well, it's interesting, and I think that
there are several companies herein Houston that actually
address that specifically.
That's their whole raisond'etre, if you will, but it's
certainly something that I'mproud to see.
Stages take up that mantle aswell, because it's not something
that we see a lot of, andthere's different companies that
are saying, hey, we want to putmore women on stage and
stronger female parts, becausewhen you do look at the pantheon
(40:37):
of theater, I mean it's male alot of it.
Yeah, which is so silly,because how many actresses are
out there?
Speaker 6 (40:45):
compared to actors.
Lots of really good ones, yes,and of course I have to be
careful that I don't createcriticism.
I have to back on, because thenext play I direct this stage is
going to be Lehman Trilogy,which is three men.
Speaker 7 (40:57):
We're just keeping the scales balanced, Derek.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
That's it.
Speaker 7 (41:01):
We're, we're just keeping the scales balanced,
that's it.
We're just doing that, you know?
Okay, you keep like psychicallymentioning stuff that I'm going
to ask you, but next season,obviously you're going to direct
the lehman trilogy, right?
Speaker 6 (41:11):
yes, so excited.
In fact, today I just literallytoday I had a conversation with
a man named guy cohen who worksat one of the jewish community
centers here in town, because Iwant to make sure that there are
Hebrew prayers and Hebrew wordsin it.
I want to make sure we get thoseright.
But it's not just getting thewords right, it's making sure
that culturally, I think,particularly now with the rising
(41:34):
anti-Semitism that's happeningin this country that we honor
and respect the traditions thatthe layman brothers came to this
country with and why that wasso central to their family.
And that is not a pro israel andanti-israel statement, but it's
about recognizing and honoringa group of people's religion and
religious background and wehave to do that right, no matter
(41:57):
who they are, and I'm notreligious myself, but I
recognize that that's importantand you know, as an actor it's
interesting I did the whippingman, which also is centers on a
jewish family and at the sameand again that same experience
of we want to make sure we dothis right.
So I'm already in plans forlayman trilogy and have a
wonderful group of designers whoalready on board to help
(42:19):
execute that play.
We haven't't cast it yet, butwe're already starting to know
what it's going to look like andI already have images and ideas
in my head of what the stagingwill be to tell that epic story.
Speaker 7 (42:32):
Well, heading back into Letter Rip territory,
because obviously we've got towait a while for this next cast.
Who are the designers you'reworking with on this production
for Letter Rip?
Speaker 6 (42:43):
Sure, a wonderful woman named Christina Gianelli
who is one of the leadinglighting designers in town, so
she's lighting, she's lit thisshow for us.
She most recently wasrepresented Bedlands Hamlet at
Fourth Wall.
A woman named Liz Freeze isdoing the set design for us and
she designed our production ofthe Hispanic, latino, latina,
(43:03):
latinx, latine vote and did awonderful job on this.
It's a completely different setdesign, so I think people
who've seen that play in thisone will just be amazed at her
versatility.
Leah Smith, who heads our owncostume shop here, is doing the
costume design and if people sawour Pranto Pinocchio and or saw
our panto pinocchio and or sawspring awakening at rec room in
(43:24):
the fall, lee was a costumedesigner of that.
And robert leslie meek is oursound designer and robert did
that show.
He worked on the pantopinocchio for us, he did the
ripple, the way that carried mehome for us.
Uh, he did hamlet at fourthwall, I think I'm beginning to
think that they're like threesound designers in town and
they're all Robert Leslie Meek.
(43:44):
Not entirely true, but theyoung man does get a lot of work
and there's a reason why so youknow the really good designers
they do.
Speaker 7 (43:54):
They pop up everywhere.
I'm always amazed at therepetitiveness of some of the
people that I see as designers,but you definitely picked a very
strong group here based on theprevious work.
I mean the lighting forBedlam's Hamlet, a fourth wall,
as well.
As you've got the sounddesigner too, right, yes, so
yeah, those were both top-notchjobs.
(44:14):
I saw that pretty recently, sothat'll be interesting to see
what they do with this.
Speaker 6 (44:19):
We did.
Sort of a fun thing for thisthat Robert spearheaded is that
because the play opens withwomen coming back from
parliament singing in thestreets, we actually gathered a
group of women and we put outthe words.
So there's, some of them areactors who are professional
singers, some of them were ourvolunteer ushers.
One woman was a banker whoshowed up because a friend of
(44:39):
hers said I'm going to go dothis thing tonight, come with me
, and we recorded women singingprotest songs in our theater,
and so the idea was to be amixture of voices to represent
these women and so that thevoices you hear in each and
between each of the scenes is achorus of Houston women who
showed up specifically to recordfor this production.
(45:01):
This is awesome.
It was such a wonderful nightand you could see in their faces
how fun it was to sing thesesongs.
And the story that they'rehelping tell by singing these
songs.
They made it even moreimportant.
Speaker 7 (45:17):
You've got a pretty healthy preview for this, don't
you?
It starts tonight as of thisrecording, yes, wow, and I don't
really see it until, I think,maggie shows up on June 6th.
Speaker 6 (45:29):
Yes, so, like I said, she's here already, but our
official opening is June 5th,after the previews and then each
of those subsequentperformances.
As you pointed out, maggie willbe here for a talkback, yeah.
Speaker 7 (45:42):
Are any of your designers going to be for the
TalkBacks too, or is it justMaggie?
It's just focused on.
Speaker 6 (45:46):
It's very possible, because they're all local
designers and we also do a thingduring previews called Sunday
Sit-Down, so they'll also bepart of that as well.
Speaker 7 (45:55):
And that's the Sunday Sit-Down during previews.
Is it the cast and thedesigners sit down during
previews they Is it the cast andthe designers?
Speaker 6 (46:00):
Because during previews we're still working.
Technically, previews areperformances, but they're also
still a rehearsal, so the showis still changing during that
process, Although after lastnight we're pretty close, which
is very exciting as well.
Speaker 7 (46:14):
I saw the Sherlock production last season during
previews and Afsaneh was theredoing her set tweaks tweets and
she was sitting there dex to befuriously taking notes saying I
gotta fix this, I gotta fix thatshe's designing layman trilogy
for us oh yeah.
no, she's amazing.
(46:34):
That's another one of thedesigners that I absolutely
admire.
Her art, yes, and she and shealways surprises me.
She can do realistic, she cando abstract, she can do puppets,
I mean, she can do anything.
It's just crazy.
And she even did basically aone-woman show with a chorus of
dancers behind her at one point.
Speaker 6 (46:51):
So I'm pretty sure Afsana can do anything, was that
the one that had thelarger-than-life projections
behind it.
So that projection designer,james Templeton, is also
designing with Asana who are agreat pair, a great team the
Layman Trilogy with us.
Speaker 7 (47:07):
Yeah, they're a dynamic duo, for sure.
Speaker 6 (47:10):
I'm looking forward to how that's going to turn out.
Speaker 7 (47:13):
Well, we teased a little bit your production next
season.
But how did you pick this nextseason?
Because I know this is theseason of Derek Charles
Livingston.
How did you pick this nextseason?
Because I know this is theseason of Derek Charles
Livingston?
It's the first time I know wefinally unleashed you.
Speaker 6 (47:27):
I wanted to make sure that stages continued to tell
the stories of multiple peoples,especially now where, suddenly,
diversity is a dirty word,which I don't understand,
because what's the opposite ofdiversity, what's the opposite
of inclusion, what's theopposite of equity?
No one seems to be asking thatquestion when you're demonizing
the idea that you would have aworld that celebrates multiple
(47:50):
people.
But that's one of the placesthat I started is continuing
stages tradition.
I'm not bringing it here.
I'm continuing that traditionof telling the stories of
multiple people and so wantingto make sure that the plays that
we selected did that.
The other thing is that Iwanted to make sure that we had
works that would definitely makepeople laugh and entertain
people.
I wanted to make sure that theywere plays that people saw,
(48:14):
that when they walked out theywere having a conversation about
the work and about the writingand about the performances I
wanted to give our audiences.
We're not doing a panel thiscoming season, but I wanted to
give our audiences somethingthat was a very special holiday
treat, because they've gottenused to that with us, and so
those various things were thedrivers of selecting that season
(48:37):
.
And so you look, and I loveepic theater and I love great
storytelling and I love theLehman Trilogy, which is sort of
how that play started, and thatidea of really leaning into
bravura performances which thatplay demands, because you have
three actors who start outplaying just the Lehman Brothers
but over the course of 140years that are covered in the
(48:58):
play, collectively play about 47different characters.
It's nuts, it's, it's wonderful, right, that's what we go to
the theater for and that's whatour audience is to have that
experience.
And you know, dominique morisotis one of america's great
playwrights and you know shewrites from the african-american
tradition of but contemporaryplays and so she was influenced
(49:20):
and inspired by August Wilsonbut definitely is writing from
her own lens and her own bentand again, with humor and very
sexy characters and characterswith men who really are
wonderful, men who love womenand women who really have very
strong voices.
And she's a Tony nominee forAin't Too Proud to Beg and all
of her plays, except for liketwo, have been done in Houston.
(49:40):
So this is a houston premiereof playwright who's been
produced a lot in houston, somudrow, and then of course it's
a wonderful life at the holidaytime and I, you know, it's one
of those things that to me itjust it just says christmas, it
just says holiday season and Iam such a big it's a wonderful
life fan.
I literally, on an airplane,watched it in front, it on
(50:00):
somebody's screen in front of me, and knew every line of the
movie, so I'm really excitedabout that.
The Bride, denise Fennell, who'sbeen coming here a number of
times as our sister in ourcatechism shows this is a show
she did for us a couple of yearsago about getting married late
in life.
We're excited to bring thatback because not enough
(50:22):
audiences saw it.
It did very well, but therewere people who missed it and so
we wanted to bring it back.
And we have a long-termrelationship with Denise and
it's such a wonderful,heartwarming as well as funny
piece.
And if you've seen her work,either recently in Lessons
Learned or as the sister, youjust know how funny she is.
And this experience of gettingmarried at 50 and suddenly
(50:43):
becoming a stepmom and the fearsthat go along with that are
just really exciting I think alot of people will relate to.
And then the Chinese Lady byLloyd Tse tells the story of the
first Chinese woman who came,believed to be the first Chinese
woman to come to America andshe came when she was 14 and
basically spent the next 30, 40years in this country and many
of those when she was 14 andbasically spent the next 30, 40
years in this country and manyof those years she was basically
(51:04):
an exhibit that went around thecountry.
And so Lloyd is playing withthis idea of representation and
Orientalism and acquiring theAmerican understanding of the
American traditions and ideasthrough the guise of this woman,
but in a play that is also veryfunny and very incisive.
And for our audience memberswho came last year to see the
(51:27):
Heart Sellers, it is the sameplaywright but a very different
sort of tone and rhythm to thisplay, but really funny and very,
very incisive and smart.
And that drive through Montereyactually came out of our
Cinemuros Latinx TheaterFestival.
So we just completed our eighthannual Latino Latinx Theater
(51:51):
Festival called Cinemuros andthe one that this play was in
our seventh festival, and it wasjust a huge hit among the
people who attended thatfestival and I read it and said,
oh, this is a wonderful play,and I was told that by the staff
when I got here and they'reright.
And so one of the things that Ithink a theater should do is, if
(52:12):
it's developing new work, isgive that work a chance.
So that will be a worldpremiere of a play that was
developed in part by stages andis emerging from this Latinx
theater festival that we've beendoing now for eight years, and
so it felt really important andright to reach to that resource
and to put a play on stage thatis just beautiful.
(52:35):
Just a beautiful play aboutthese two geeky people falling
in love and how other situationshappening in the country sort
of impact that, but also goes onto tell a story of, of of
masculinity and love, this lovebetween two people, even in and
even in a world where men are,are encouraged to be one way,
(52:58):
and here's a loving man and abeautiful woman who responds to
that, who find each other in areally fun way.
And I don't know if people knowthis, but this is the 10th
anniversary of Hamilton onBroadway.
Speaker 7 (53:09):
Yes, and you're bringing in, I'm bringing in
Spamilton.
Speaker 6 (53:14):
Which is the spoof of Hamilton and that play has
Hamilton itself has so much loveand it's still such a success
on Broadway and it has had manynumerous national tours and the
streaming on Disney was verysuccessful and again, it's just
really smart and it has themusic that we all know from
Hamilton as well as a coupleother shows in it and you know,
(53:35):
taking those lyrics that peoplehave come to know over the last
10 years and really spinningthem.
But we're pairing it with 21Chump Street, which is a small
Lin-Manuel Miranda musical thata lot of people don't know, and
so it was really exciting totake this writer, who a lot of
us have fallen in love withbecause of Hamilton and In the
Heights, which Tuts is currentlydoing, shout out to my fellow
theater and give people a chanceto get to know this piece too.
Speaker 7 (54:01):
Yeah, no, absolutely.
And it's so impressive when youget to see Lin-Manuel Miranda's
works before pre-Hamilton.
It's amazing to see the growthand where all of that stuff
started.
Because recently when I wentand saw the Tuts production of
In the Heights, I was like, ohyeah, I forgot.
This has kind of set the stagefor Hamilton and he used this
here but he didn't use thatthere.
I mean, all that kind of stuffwas interesting.
Speaker 6 (54:23):
And Heights won a Tony for Best Musical as well.
He's two for two on Broadway Interms of his work as a soul
component.
Speaker 7 (54:34):
Yeah, he's not got a bad track record so far?
Speaker 6 (54:37):
Yeah, he's fine.
Alright.
Well, derek Charles Livingston,I could just talk to you
forever.
Speaker 7 (54:39):
But yeah, he's all right, he's got a talent in that
one, fine, all right.
Well, derek Charles Livingston,I could just talk to you
forever.
But Letter Rip, may 30ththrough June 22nd at Stages,
obviously this wholephantasmagora combining the
matchmaker strike of 1888 andthe Jack the Ripper murders
(54:59):
Certainly looking forward to it.
A three-woman cast Very funny,a chance to talk to the
playwright, all these things.
So obviously a lot of excitingthings happening in the stages,
and certainly next year as well.
So we'll get a little previewof that too.
So thank you so much.
Oh my god, thank you for yourtime.
Yeah, no, absolutely Anytime.
I am down for this anytime, andmaybe one day we can just talk
(55:20):
shop instead of doing yeah, youjust do this, we'll just go off
on that All right.
Speaker 1 (55:34):
This has been Queer Voices, heard on KPFT Houston
and as podcast available fromseveral podcasting sources.
Check our webpageQueerVoicesorg for more
information.
Queer Voices executive produceris Brian Levinka.
Debra Moncrief-Bell isco-producer, brett Cullum and
(55:58):
David Mendoza-Druzman arecontributors.
The News Wrap segment is partof another podcast called this
Way Out, which is produced inLos Angeles.
Speaker 8 (56:08):
Some of the material in this program has been edited
to improve clarity and runtime.
This program does not endorseany political views or animal
species.
Views, opinions andendorsements are those of the
participants and theorganizations they represent.
In case of death, pleasediscontinue use and discard
remaining product.
Speaker 1 (56:21):
For Queer Voices.
I'm Glenn Holt, Thank you.
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