In terms of inclusion. Theatre has grown leaps and bounds over the last few years, However, one area where there’s been the least growth is in the portrayal of LGBTQIA+ characters.
Think about it. I bet it’s nearly impossible to name more than one or two plays or musicals that deal with the gay/queer experience where the characters aren’t dealing with HIV/AIDS or fighting with their biological families over their sexuality.
Now add into the equation the historically excluded populations.
For BIPOC people, their stories tend to center around their suffering at the hands of the police, white people and the world in general.
Put these two historically excluded groups together, people of color and gay/queer people and there is a dearth of on stage theatrical representation.
Audiences deserve to see characters on stage who are gay people of color, as a matter of fact, rather than the issue at hand. Gay and queer characters of the global majority deserve to be the focus of the story and not merely the butt of the joke or some magical being with all the answers or struggling to fit into a homogenized world where they're told they don't belong.
Gay/Queer BIPOC characters deserve to be given the same willing suspension of disbelief as all the other multi-dimensional straight white characters who populate Theatre. These new characters should live productive lives, and have people love them for themselves, not in spite of them being gay/queer or of color. They should be as well-rounded and as flawed as their straight white counterparts, and not merely interesting because of who they have sex with or their hair texture.
A character on stage is just like a person in real life. They should have hopes, and dreams, and be relatable to people outside of their demographic.
The next generation of BIPOC Gay/Queer characters need to be human.
That’s what I want to see...
so that’s what I write.