Amid a political push back against diversity and the rights of transgender people, the Queer Voices Festival at the Boston Center for the Arts Plaza Theater in late March brought together a diverse group of performances of pride, joy, grief – and defiance.

“Gay, gay, gay!” is how opening performer Peter Mill described his evening’s song and dance show.

Indeed, during his time on stage, Mill commanded the space with powerful vocals and a magnetic stage presence, performing a mix of show tunes and pop songs to an enthusiastic audience.

“I was so thrilled to be asked to be a small part of the Queer Voices Festival. I try to bring a mix of joy, boldness and unapologetic queerness to all of my work and to be sought out to be part of an evening like this feels really special,” Mill told Sampan later. “It’s always a wonderful feeling when people make space for you at the table.”

But Mill said his favorite part of the festival happens off the stage, when he can meet the many queer artists there.

“People all at different places on their journeys and yet united in their desire to live boldly, beautifully and loudly. These are scary times we live in but sadly that’s nothing new to us. To see the resilience and love-forward bravery of the younger artists in particular gave me a lot of hope,” Mills said.

Organizers from the Boston Theater Company came on stage after Mill’s set to introduce the festival and announced to loud applause that all of the seats had been sold out for the evening. The festival used a pay-what-you-wish model to sell tickets.

The festival weekend featured two showcases of seven 10-minute plays written by playwrights who identify as gay, queer, lesbian or transgender. The festival also featured a matinee staged reading of Brandon Zang’s “Or, Three Wise Monkeys” in collaboration with Chuang Stage on March 22. Shakespeare and gender were explored on March 23 in a trial performance of “Beyond Boundaries: Gender Expression in Shakespeare,” created by Lisa Rafferty. The show was set to go on tour at 10 middle and high schools in the next week.

The seven plays had themes ranging from deep explorations of grief after the loss of a loved one, comedic political statements, exploration of identity, and exploration of the nuances of queer relationships. Throughout the performances, there were moments of real tenderness, raucous laughter, queer joy, and hope.

Playwright Tom Zhang wrote “Oop, Can’t Say That.” and told Sampan that the festival had “had almost 100 plays that were submitted and they ended up picking and choosing seven.”

Zhang, who uses they/them pronouns, said they were excited to be a part of the 2nd year of the festival.

“I think for me there’s like a sense of gratitude to the festival and to the Boston Theater Company for selecting it. But also, I think there’s a lot of joy in this sense of getting the chance to find a platform as someone who’s trans and Asian,” said Zhang. “It’s a story that I don’t really feel like I get to see a lot. And where I think both in queer communities, but also in Asian communities, there can be sort of two dual blindnesses in a way, where I think a lot of time queer discourse is very much dominated by white narratives and white Eurocentric narratives and then in Asian American communities there are a lot of queer folks, but especially for folks who might be like, I’m second generation. So, this sense of understanding that queerness is a part of our experiences as well. I think the chance to get to present a story that is inherently about being both, again, trans and Asian, I think feels like a really lovely chance to expand the conversation around what community looks like, who is within community, and the distinct challenges and stigmas that get associated with each and with existing within both.”

Zhang continued: ”I hope that the audience members take away the sense of the true diversity within the queer community and the diversity of experiences and the complexity of queer identity and queer narratives. I think we live in a world where it’s very easy to flatten perspectives and to flatten our understandings of other groups. And I guess it depends on the audience. I think for queer folks, I hope that we come away like finding a sense of community, finding a sense of joy and recognition and a sense of belonging in community. And then for folks who are outside the community … the sense of understanding, the breadth of experience that exists within these labels that we have.”

Zhang’s play featured three characters, two say they are “from the government and are here to help” yet they keep interrupting and censoring the main character when that character tries to describe their trans Asian identity to the audience. The government workers go so far as to erase the words the main character writes on a whiteboard and grow increasingly hostile in their interruptions, eventually dragging the main character off the stage. The play manages tackle censorship and silencing with humor.
Zhang said they want people to know that they are seen and that queer Asian folks are not alone, especially those folks in the audience at the festival.

The main character in “Oop, Can’t Say That” was performed by Wellesley College theater studies major, Jiayi Shao, who uses any pronouns. Shao described answering a casting call for the show. Shao said they have been looking for opportunities to perform, “specifically with narrative that center queer, Asian American voices” which is something they have been finding opportunities to do more often in the last few months.

When asked what they hope audience members will take away from the play, Shao said, “In addition to sort of the sense of impending danger on our identities … this sense of resilience and persistence and … of finding joy both in our own identities and also sometimes in the ridiculousness of the situation.”

About the festival, Shao said, “I think visibility is always a huge motivation of whatever I do if just even because I think of all the times that I, as an audience member see a fellow Asian American performer on stage. And it has always been very uplifting, especially in this field. That just feels like very historically predominantly white and that there’s like more of an erasure when it comes to that.”

Shao said the festival was timely in a week when the City of Boston announced after a City Council vote that it is now a “Sanctuary City” for trans and all other “LGBTQIA+” people.

“I think any sort of policies that are more so what you want, like, protecting our identities and any opportunity to come together as a community to be in each other’s presence and sort of relish our existence is something that I think is very valuable to people.”