About the author:
Laura GodfreyGraduated with a BA from York University in 2008, where I worked as the Assistant Arts Editor at Excalibur, the university's community newspaper...
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Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, cabaret, LGBTQ (6), Pride Week 2009 (9)When Kai Wa Yapp, 22, heard about Buddies in Bad Times Theatre just over a year ago, he was relieved to find a haven for queer youth. As a gay high school student in the suburbs of Richmond Hill, he found that his hometown lacked the diversity of the downtown theatre.
Three days before deadline, he applied for PrideCab 2008, an annual cabaret that gives 10 young, queer performers between the ages of 15 and 25 the chance to collaborate on a creative, multi-disciplinary performance. This year, he’s back as the assistant to directors Chy Ryan Spain and Evalyn Parry.
The one-night-only performance for PrideCab 2009 will take place on Wednesday, June 17 at 8 p.m., and Yapp is grateful to be involved once again.
Each year, during the 12-week rehearsal process, the participants learn about important events in queer history, such as the 1981 bathhouse raids when hundreds of men were arrested and publicly humiliated by Toronto Police. Yapp remembers how empowering it was to watch tapes of the first gay pride rallies on downtown Yonge Street.
“They had no fear,” he said. “And I think to myself, will I ever be able to hold my partner’s hand down Yonge Street in Richmond Hill? It just opened my eyes to the courage some of these people had.”
Co-director Spain said that this learning process, which is later incorporated into the cabaret performance, is key to the PrideCab experience. In one event called “Speed History,” the performers get to meet with 10 older queer activists and artists, asking questions and rotating every five minutes.
“We don’t necessarily have that same cultural or historical link to our past, so the intergenerational dynamic is really important to us,” Spain said. “There’s a sense of history being passed on, particularly around struggles for equality or finding one’s place in the community.”
This year, several performers have written pieces directly based on the artists they met during Speed History. Some are lighthearted, such as a performance based on storyteller/drag performer Rico Rodriguez, while others are more somber, such as a monologue based on a gay-bashing that took place in Vancouver.
According to Spain, one of the highlights of this year’s PrideCab will be the “Church Street Tango,” a reimagining of Chicago’s famous “Cell Block Tango.” In this musical number, performers will share stories of their own relationships and perspectives on the queer community through monologues interspersed throughout the song.
For the participants in this program, Spain believes that diversity and close collaboration are vital to the performance. The selection process is as inclusive as possible – some performers are theatre school graduates, while others have never performed publicly before at all.
“It’s community-building work, and a lot of our participants develop long-term friendships with the folks that have been in the project with them,” he said. “There’s a real sense of trust and intimacy created by working so intensely with a group for that long.”
PrideCab is part of Buddies in Bad Times Theatre’s annual Pride Festival, which also includes Pride Prom 2009: Superqueeroes! on June 22, and Homo Night in Canada, their annual comedy show, on June 27. It’s also a fitting preview of Toronto’s Pride Week, which takes place June 19 to 28.