LCC introduces LGBTQ history with Michigan premiere tonight

THURSDAY, Oct. 13 — Lansing College Performing Arts coordinator Paige Tufford knew last year as the department started planning the 2022-‘23 theater season that space and time were going to be tight. The college’s mainstage, the 500-seat Dart Auditorium, was undergoing major renovations meaning all performances would have to share the intimate Black Box Theater in Gannon Building. 

“I wanted something that was different, that our audiences in the area wouldn’t normally see here,” she said. “I was on a website featuring new plays, and I saw this one and ordered it. I loved it.”

That “something” is “Queering History,” which opens at 8 tonight as a staged reading and continues for two nights.

New York based playwright Maggie Keenan-Bolger received a grant to write the play while she was working with LGBTQ youth. Some of her royalties will be donated to organizations.

By producing the show as a staged reading, it cut down on the time commitment for the actors and the pressure on the schedule of the shared space, Tufford said. 

“A reading allows us to move forward, while a set for the show that opens in three weeks is being built in the theater as well,” she said. 

“Queering History” takes the audience on a journey with Emma, a high school student, learning about American LGBTQ history — with the help of a rainbow clad Fairy Godmother. 

The Fairy Godmother “tells us the backstory on the history,” said Tufford. “And she has a chorus — a Greek chorus — helping her.”

Clocking in at just over an hour, Tufford said the play is “full of hope.” The show also attracted brand new actors to the art. 

“It’s really exciting to see new faces,” she said. “And they are committed to the story being told. That’s important. It has more meaning for them, I think.”

While the play is set in high school, Tufford said she felt it was accessible by college students. 

The show runs Oct. 13-15, 8 p.m. each night at the LCC Black Box Theater, 1442 Gannon Building. Tickets are $10 general admission, $5 students. For more information: https://bit.ly/3rQAHnB.