Jeremy O. Harris Is Creating a New Era of Event Theater

If there's one art form that's almost exclusively the province of the gays, it's theater -- LGBTQ+ people have shaped the art form for decades, and maybe centuries if those rumors about Shakespeare are true.

Contemporary mainstream theater is, of course, a very different beast. In the past 15 years, we've seen the rise of the jukebox musical, the celebrity limited engagement, immersive onstage seating, and whatever Sleep No More is. One thing, however, remains constant: Theater is one of the few industries in which queer people are placed at (or at least, very close to) the top. Unfortunately, that hasn't historically extended to QPOC, whose contributions to the canon are nonetheless vital.

Thankfully, that's changing. Last fall queer black playwright Jeremy O. Harris' Slave Play ran for a sold-out limited engagement at the New York Theater Workshop, and this week it will begin previews for a limited Broadway engagement at the Golden Theater. Ahead of its new run, Out senior editor Mikelle Street spoke with Harris about the significance of Slave Play's move to Broadway for this week's episode of The Outcast. In their interview, Harris talks about reviving the era of event theater and his desire for the plot of Slave Play to stay a mystery. "Its something we deny ourselves all the time, the chance to be surprised by something," he says.

Speaking of mysteries: Harris also gives an update on the upcoming film adaptation of the infamous Zola Twitter thread, for which he wrote the screenplay.

And on WIG, Jeffrey Masters, Zeke Smith, and Carly Usdin talk about the upcoming L Word reboot, the RuPaul's Drag Race Las Vegas residency, and Fleabag's Hot Priest, Andrew Scott.

Listen to new episodes of The Outcast every Thursday on iHeartRadio and wherever podcasts are available.

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