Queer Cat Productions, is seeking $1,000 to create the inaugural version of a yearly commission for a Black queer/trans artist, both as part of our capacity building effort, as a growing community-oriented theater company focused on supporting artists and creating queer theater that meets the moment, and as part of our commitments to fight anti-Blackness.
Queer Cat Productions is a Bay Area based theater-company which creates playful, curious, haunted theater and consent-forward immersive experiences at the intersection of theater, games, and storytelling. We stand for paying artists, for consent-forward immersive interactive theater, and for queer theater, and queerness as we define it is loving community, playfulness, joy, upending hierarchies and collective liberation.
In June 2020, with the understanding that Black queer and trans activists have made our existence possible, Queer Cat Productions made our Commitments to Fight anti-Blackness, including these two:
“Pay Black community advisors to provide guidance and leadership on anti-racist strategies and help steer our course”

“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.”
In September - December 2020, we met with nine community advisors, with more planned. Now, turning to the commission, we wish to improve on our promise: we wish to bring back three of our existing community advisors together as a committee to help shape this inaugural commission, and to guide its offering, and five to serve as its selection committee. We received community support for this effort. We have funding in place for the committee, and for the execution of the Now, with the committee in place, we are seeking an additional $1,000 to award to the selected artist in the first year of our commission.