Introducing…
The Manifestation Clowder!!!
TROY ROCKETT (he/they)
COMMISSION PRODUCER, QCP Company Member
Troy Rockett (he/they) is a Bay Area based artist who finds liberation through honest and radical story-telling. Troy first explored acting through the Queer Women Of Color Media Arts Project, which is based in San Francisco but leads workshops all over the world. Almost directly after, he experienced his first prominent screen acting role as a lead actor in Dyke Central, the Bay Area's first Queer web series. He was later cast in a supporting role in Jewelle Gomez's Leaving the Blues, 2017; an unforgettable introduction to acting in theater. In 2018, he then landed his first lead role in WAAFRIKA 123 by Nick Hadikwa Mwaluko at TheatreFirst. Troy writes: “These necessary firsts have been so important in shaping my confidence as a Transmasculine actor and they have showed me there is space for me on stage and in theatre.”
GENEVIEVE JESSEE (She/Her)
MANIFESTATION CLOWDER, QCP Company Member
Genevieve Jessee (she/her) is a playwright based in Puerto Rico. She received her MFA in Playwriting from Boston University. Her work has been staged at PlayGround, The Source Festival, Atlanta Black Theatre Festival, San Francisco Fringe Festival, EXIT theatre, Those Women Productions and the Festival de Marseille. She is the recipient of commissions from PlayGround and Planet Earth Arts. Her awards include the June Anne Baker Prize, Best of the San Francisco Fringe (2012), Emerging Playwright Award (PlayGround), Congo Square Theater's 2021 Emerging + Professional 10 minute play competition winner, and the recipient of a California Arts Council Artists-in-Communities grant. She was a fellow at the 2018 Cultural Diaspora Playwriting Residency at the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France where she further developed her play The Diaspora Cycle, which was a finalist for the 2019 Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Semi-finalist for the 2019 O'neill National Playwright's Conference and appeared in the 2020 Kilroys list.
librecht baker (she/her)
MANIFESTATION CLOWDER
librecht baker (she/her) is the author of vetiver (Finishing Line Press), an English Professor, and a Sundress Publications' Assistant Editor. She was part of The Vagrancy’s 2018-2019 Playwrights’ Group and Eastside Queer Stories Festival 2019 and 2017. baker has attended Ragdale, VONA/Voices, and Lambda Literary Writer’s Retreat. she has a MFA from Goddard College. Her poetry appears in Solace: Writing Refuge, & LGBTQ Women of Color, Bone Bouquet (Issue 8.1), Sinister Wisdom 107, and other publications. Baker's play, "Lineage Undone," was awarded Top Performance in the "Top Papers and Performances in Performance Studies" category at Western States Communication Association’s 89th Convention.
WHAT’S HAPPENING:
In June 2020, Queer Cat Productions made our Commitments to Fight Anti Blackness, including this one:
Create a commission for a Black queer/trans artist to create or bring a project towards the next step of its realization (creation, development, or production) in the next year.
Our MANIFESTATION CLOWDER is currently at work creating a CALL FOR ARTISTS!
We can’t wait to share it with you!
FIVE QUESTIONS WITH GENEVIEVE JESSEE, MEMBER OF OUR MANIFESTATION CLOWDER (March 8th, 2021)
WHEN DID YOU REALIZE YOU WERE A THEATER ARTIST?
In 9th grade I took my first Drama class at school. It feels a little corny to say that it was love at first contact, but it kinda was! I knew right away I'd struck something in myself that was going to be alive for a long time. The realization that I was a theatre artist happened in college. I was a theatre major at an HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) and all the work was centered on Black theatre artists from playwright to director to scenic design. That was when it dawned on me that theatre was truly a viable life path and one that could be mine. That sort of changed my perspective on who I was and who I could become.
WHAT DOES BEING PART OF THIS COMMISSION (AS A MEMBER OF THE MANIFESTATION CLOWDER) MEAN TO YOU?
I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to bring all of my identities to the forefront of my work. As a playwright, most of my plays have been concentrated on exploring the perspective of Black women. However, they've been absent the queerness that exists in my own life. I'm excited to be a part of a project that centers intersectionality. I've been feeling a void, and I'm eager to participate in this commission to help build what I want to see in the world of theatre and in my own body of work.
WHY THIS PROJECT NOW?
The pandemic stole so many moments of togetherness from all of us over the last year. As far as I knew up until now, theatre walked hand in hand with groups and a shared experience in a physical space. I love that it has challenged us to figure out how to connect at a distance. I've seen a number of Zoom presentations and theatrical performances that were the result of theatre shapeshifting, because what became clear is that no one was willing to give up theatre for any length of time. I learned that the time to make theatre is always right now. We cannot wait for ideal conditions or even customary ones. Now, more than ever, we have an imperative to create work that connects us. Especially for and by those who've lived in the margins. I believe folks who have thrived in spite of exclusionary culture have a lot to offer on how to navigate an isolated world and come out on the other side.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE QUEER THEATER?
What I love about the word "Queer" is that it's an umbrella term that can encompass a variety of perspectives, experiences and identities. I define Queer Theatre as work that's centered on a wide rainbow of folks that include the LGBTQ+ community, and seeks to defy norms while expanding what we know as theatre.
IF YOU WERE A CAT, WHAT KIND OF CAT WOULD YOU BE?
This question implies I am not a cat. Ha! I love cats because I feel like I must have been one in a past life, and I've been lowkey obsessed with them as long as I can remember (my dear, allergic mom let me adopt some kittens born on our back porch and keep them in my room as a kid). My eldest cat Hunter, whom we affectionately refer to as "Fat cat" (given his affinity for food and lazing about) has a pretty sweet life. His favorite time of day is meal time. Almost nothing ruffles his feathers. He loves cuddles and companionship, but is also perfectly content with his own company. Same, Hunter, same.
FIVE QUESTIONS WITH TROY ROCKETT, PRODUCER OF OUR 2021 COMMISSION! (January 27th, 2021)
WHEN DID YOU REALIZE YOU WERE A THEATER ARTIST?
I was 20, had just performed in my first drag, and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have called myself a theater artist, but since then I have always found myself in spaces making some kind of theater or performance with others. I've been in charge of sound and lights, I've been a stage manager, a performer, worked box office, been an event organizer you name it. I was so eager to be part of the world making and ceremonious aspects of queer theater because my healing as a young queer person depended on those spaces.
WHAT DOES BEING A PRODUCER MEAN TO YOU?
This is my first role as a producer. I'm excited to meet the artist and the team that will come together to lift up the project. Right now, I'm focussed on this moment and what it will require of me as a producer. There's so much that can't be anticipated right now, but overall I want to help create the best case scenario that honors the artist, the project, crew and our overall experience as we journey together.
WHY THIS PROJECT NOW?
On December 18, 2020 Nicole and Carson sent me an offer letter to produce a commissioned project. It was a reverberating yes throughout my body. Now? Because I have the amazing opportunity to learn from two experienced producers while having my first go and also, it's a role that I've naturally leaned towards while supporting artists in developmental works. ALSO, this new wave of queer and trans+ art is literally giving me life. I want to be a part of ushering it in. The restrictions we've experienced as artists during a global pandemic has made it even more difficult to make art as a Black queer and trans+ person and still I see people using new platforms, creating new genres and finding ways to interact with their audiences.
HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE QUEER THEATER?
Oh wow! How can I define queer theater. It's like when someone is like define Hip hop and you have to take it back to the first tracks that put you on. Everyone is going to have a different origin depending on where they were at when it was happening for them. I'm from Cali, more specifically North Long Beach born in 85'. I spent my late teens and the beginning of my twenties in LA and the Bay. So the origin of queer theater and performance for me is Adelina Anthony's Las Hociconas, Cherríe Moraga, D'Lo (the works), open mic scenes, Miss Mona Webb, The Shepeople Artisit Collective founded by esteemed Jazz musician Miss Valerie Trout, Culture Fuck, burlesque and drag. This is where my in-the-closet baby dyke brain was blown and where the endless possibilities were proposed for what being in a theater with my identities could be.
IF YOU WERE A CAT, WHAT KIND OF CAT WOULD YOU BE?
If I were a cat I'd be The Pink Panther or I'd be the song Jazz Cats pt. 1 by Quasimoto/Madlib.