#had a teenager at my internship ask me what queer meant and it was hard to explain bc its not a native term

[cupidhaseul]

I really hate brazilian LGBT organizations that include q for queer in their pamphlets, materials, etc bc like that's not our term, no one in this country has ever been called a queer and before the internet nobody called themselves that and materially is not a term that means anything to brazilian lgbt history and struggles

[theatredirectors]

Lyam B. Gabel

Hometown?

I was born in California, on a military base, but I only lived there for a few months. I grew up between Maryland and Virginia.  I spent some time in Arkansas as a teenager as well.

Where are you now?

I’m based in New Orleans, LA.  I moved here in 2011, so I’ve been here for six and a half years now.

What's your current project?

I always have a few.  The one that is closest to my heart and my brain right now is Alleged Lesbian Activities, a performance piece about disappearing dyke bars in New Orleans and nationally.  It’s a denim-clad, glitter-crusted, power ballad performance that utilizes drag, music, movement, and archival audio to transport us back to the lesbian bars of the 70s and 80s. It asks what they gave us, why they closed, and what our community needs in their absence.

I’m co-directing the piece with indee mitchell, who is a brilliant director, choreographer, and performance artist. We’ve been working on the piece for almost five years now and we just completed a development intensive for a touring version of the work.  We’re bringing it to The Alternate ROOTS annual meeting in North Carolina, The Theater Offensive in Boston, Clear Creek Creative in Kentucky, and many other cities in the next three years. As we tour we plan to collect oral histories about lesbian and queer spaces in the communities we visit, weave them into the work, and create a tapestry that eulogizes these spaces all over the country.

It is hard to describe to people outside the queer community: We have a kind of ecstatic protest. We have and continue to gather in spaces where we can participate in a radical intimacy and joy that many have tried to suppress. Our ability to gather is essential to our movement and our liberation. This work is an argument for these spaces and an incantation, calling them back to life in order to teach us how to move forward in a more just and equitable way.

Why and how did you get into theatre?

I’ve always been a storyteller and I started performing at a really young age in church pageants and summer camp shows, but I really fell in love with the art (and craft) of making theater in high school.  I had an amazing teacher named Bob Garman who talked to us a lot about what it meant to be a working actor.  He also saw something in me. He put me in charge of student-directed plays and had me producing and directing as a junior and senior. That set me up to start my first theater company in high school (we did Peter Pan!) and then to keep producing in college and beyond.  Producing my own work has been a huge gift.  It’s allowed me to do things I would have never been able to convince other companies to do.

What is your directing dream project?

I have so many dream projects, and in some ways I feel like the pieces I’m working on right now are my dreams! I’ve been thinking about/working on a queer adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I’ve always wanted to do a production of The Three Sisters.  I studied at the Moscow Art Theater School in college and I’d love to figure out a way to make Chekov interesting and exciting to American audiences.

I also really want to do a drag/karaoke/techno/robot musical with Robyn’s music.  But you know, copyright.  Still, I can dream.

What kind of theatre excites you?

I’m drawn in equal parts to visceral emotional realism and big theatricality.  My favorite pieces are works that somehow, within the world of the play, find a way to do both.  I’m excited by work that calls out to be made into an event, that somehow pulls the audience into the world- not through audience interaction but through a real justified whole world that draws the audience in and makes them want to be involved.

What do you want to change about theatre today?

I think theater in America needs to reckon with it’s history, and it’s current position inside of our capitalist society.  I don’t know if that’s a change to the form itself (although it may be) as much as I think it’s a conversation we need to be having across our field including ensemble based performance, contemporary performance art, non-profit theater, and commercial houses. Right now, it seems like the way to “break in” to the field in almost every subgenre is to do a large amount of unpaid labor, and that is something that not everyone can do.  It’s necessary for our field to have a conversation about diversity, but we need to move our language towards equity and look at the barriers that prevent historically marginalized groups of people from being involved in the first place. A part of that is looking a pay structures, and figuring out how to make it possible for folks to make a living doing this work, and another part is looking at with who is actually in power in our organizations. Diversity in casting means nothing if all of the designers, directors, and artistic directors are white cis-men, or white cis-women for that matter.

Also, cis people need to stop playing trans people on stage.  We need to create more/ better avenues for folks to tell their own stories.

What is your opinion on getting a directing MFA?

I don’t have one.  I left college thinking “I don’t need an MFA to be an artist, I just need to make work and I know how to do that.” I’ve made a lot of work, and I’m proud of the work that I’ve made. It hasn’t all been good, but I’ve grown with each piece. I’ve sought out mentors and collaborators who push me. I’ve kept myself nimble and growing by seeking new learning all the time. I’m making my living as an artist and consultant now, so I think it worked out pretty well. It meant some years of living in other people’s homes, or with a lot of people in small houses while I worked internships, waited tables, and made work “on the side” but I think it was worth it.  I think it got me where I am now, and I am lucky to have been able to do it. I’m very conscious that the path that I took is not an option for everyone.

Who are your theatrical heroes?

My biggest heroes are my mentors and collaborators. Stephanie McKee of Junebug Productions (www.junebugproductions.org) is an amazing multi-disciplinary director, choreographer, and performance maker. Rebecca Mwas works on Alleged Lesbian Activities and also is making an amazing piece called Vessels (www.vesselsperformance.com). She’s a brilliant performer and composer of vocal music. Kerry McGee and I ran a theater company called Night Light Collective for a few years and she’s now a director, teaching artist, and performer in DC. She’s working with a company called We Happy Few (http://www.wehappyfewdc.com/). I could name a million more, but I want you to actually click on their links!

Any advice for directors just starting out?

Make work, make work, make work, make work.  Think about, write about, watch work that pushes you.  See work that you think you might not like.  Think about why you don’t like it. Stay open. Stay curious.  Look outside the form for inspiration.  Push the form. Find mentors. Find collaborators who push you, and cherish them as whole artists.  Check your ego, this is a collaborative art form. Find funding and learn to produce. Funding is out there! Learn to write grants. Pay your collaborators when you produce. Get excited. Don’t wait for a play to be written about your passion, you can make the play. Think about the places that really inspire you, and go there.  Go there and listen first.  Listen to folks who have been doing this work for longer than you have. Sometimes it’s easier to make work outside of New York, but it takes some deep listening to root yourself in a place.

Plugs!

Go to www.lastcallnola.org to learn more about Alleged Lesbian Activities. We have a great podcast that is a companion to the performance produced by Rachel Lee and free feral. Also, I’m a Drama League Fall Directing Fellow, so I’ll be in New York and Minneapolis this Fall, and I’d love to hang out. Check out Director Fest in NYC this January at the Sheen Center. I’ll be directing a 45-minute piece.  I’d tell you what it is, but I want there to be a reason for you to go to www.bonniejeangabel.com