SF's LGBTQ theater brings diverse voices to the stage
ebar.comIn October, San Francisco's New Conservatory Theatre Center will mount the world premiere of Nick Malakhow's new play "A Picture of Two Boys." It is the first time the queer Dominican and Ukrainian American writer and theater educator has worked with the LGBTQ nonprofit theater.The work features queer characters but delves more into their different racial backgrounds and other aspects of their identities.
Their sexual orientations are not central to the plot, noted Malakhow in a recent phone interview from Boulder, Colorado where he lives and teaches English at a nearby private school."It is super amazing, honestly, to be working with a theater especially focused on LGBTQ issues with a story that centers LGBTQ characters but at the same time approaches these characters from a holistic, intersectional point of view," said Malakhow, 38, whose father emigrated from Ukraine in the 1950s at the age of 10. "It is exciting to be working with a queer theater on a play that, at first glance, one might not think is a 'gay' play.
NCTC sees the intersectional value of bringing this story to their stage."Richard Mosqueda, New Conservatory's new director of residence, chose Malakhow's work as one of the two plays they are directing as part of NCTC's 2022-2023 season.
The other is the West Coast premiere in April of "Locusts Have No King" by queer Puerto Rican and Dominican playwright C. Julian Jiménez."I can safely say most theaters still have a difficult time programming queer voices, period.
