Why Queer Theatre Matters (Now More Than Ever)
Theatre has always been a space where truth slips past the censors, where protest dresses up in costume, and where communities gather to witness each other’s full humanity. It’s one of the oldest forms of cultural storytelling and yet, in 2025, queer and trans stories are still fighting to be fully seen within it.
Queer artists have long held space in the theatre world; as actors, designers, playwrights, and behind-the-scenes visionaries. But too often, they’ve been asked to contort themselves into cishet roles and narratives that don’t reflect who they are. The industry has rarely made room for queer characters to take center stage as queer, without apology or explanation.
We believe that theatre should reflect the people who make it, and that means embracing stories rooted in queer joy, complexity, and truth. We’re not doing this to check a box. We’re doing it because we’re tired of watching queer stories get sidelined, sanitized, or shaped to fit someone else’s comfort zone.
That’s why we started EAC Out Loud, to carve out space for stories that are bold, tender, complicated, and actually queer, not just “queer-adjacent if you squint.” We want theatre that reflects real lives, not watered-down versions designed to feel palatable.
Although we’re kicking off during Pride, this isn’t just a seasonal nod. Because queer theatre isn’t a trend, it’s how we tell the truth.
Visibility Is Not a Luxury. It’s Survival.
In a time when book bans, anti-trans legislation, and regressive politics are on the rise across the U.S., telling queer stories becomes more than an artistic act—it becomes a form of resistance.
Representation isn’t just about “seeing ourselves onstage.” It’s about reshaping the narrative landscape. It’s about normalizing joy, tenderness, anger, complexity. All the messy truths of queer lives. And it’s about ensuring that future generations inherit stories that affirm, not erase, our existence.
Not Just About Queer People–By Us, For Us
Too often, queer stories are filtered through the lens of institutions that don’t include us. EAC Out Loud changes that. By creating opportunities for queer performers, directors, playwrights, designers, and collaborators, we’re building the kind of theatre we’ve always wanted to see–intimate, bold, and deeply authentic.
This isn’t representation for the sake of optics. It’s about creative power.
Our First Step: BULL IN A CHINA SHOP
We’re proud to launch EAC Out Loud with Bryna Turner’s BULL IN A CHINA SHOP—a whip-smart, tender, and revolutionary play based on the real love letters of suffragist Mary Woolley and her partner Jeannette Marks.
It’s the kind of play that doesn’t ask for permission. It simply tells the truth.
Performances run May 30th – June 28th, 2025, at Empire Arts Collective in Sacramento, with a Pay-What-You-Can Benefit Night on June 13th. All proceeds that night go directly to the cast, because valuing queer work also means valuing queer labor.
Join Us
EAC Out Loud is just beginning, but it’s not a quiet start. We’re raising our voices, taking up space, and building something joyful, strange, fierce, and unapologetically queer.
Come see the show. Come make theatre with us. Come tell the stories that no one else can.
