our mission
to amplify queer voices and share queer stories through a virtual theatre medium.
Viscera's mission means that we cultivate a virtual space for the voices of the queer community to tell their stories and be heard by listeners all over the world. We believe firmly that everyone deserves a space to share their stories, and we focus on creating that space for queer individuals because more often than not, queer people are routinely silenced.
Viscera's mission means that we cultivate a virtual space for the voices of the queer community to tell their stories and be heard by listeners all over the world. We believe firmly that everyone deserves a space to share their stories, and we focus on creating that space for queer individuals because more often than not, queer people are routinely silenced.
the history of theatre viscera and the queer plays podcast
Theatre Viscera was founded in 2018 by Avery Kester, Lyla Meadows, and former members Jojo Miller and Jenna Cady. This group of queer theatre artists were drawn together out of a mutual drive to use theatre as a tool for activism especially for the queer community. That drive led to the production of Ride it Out, a memoir play by founder Avery Kester in the summer of 2019.
Spring 2019 saw the beginning of the annual Queer Play Contest as a way to find scripts by living queer playwrights for the theatrical seasons. The 2020 season originally had fully staged productions set to be produced, but unfortunately the Covid-19 pandemic had different ideas about that. In the wake of the pandemic, Theatre Viscera moved to a fully virtual platform for our 2020 season.
We found in this a silver lining to being quarantined at home, reading plays virtually meant that both our performer base and our audience could spread to encompass folks all over the world. It also meant that we had the ability to read more plays for our audience than we would have been able to produce fully.
In 2021, Jaime McMichael joined our creative team, and they now serve as a Co-Artistic Director.
Starting in 2023, The Theatre Viscera Podcast will become The Queer Plays Podcast. We are shifting our focus from stories of queer trauma to stories of queer joy. We have always sought to put forth the stories that those in our community feel are most urgent, and we are following that towards queer joy. This season also marks a shift in the format of the podcast, while we are still focusing on reading plays with a full cast, we will be introducing some new exciting pieces. We will be including artist interviews in our episode rotation. This summer we are very excited to be introducing our first ever "24 Hour Play Fest but Make it Podcast".
As of 2024, Theatre Viscera is on an indefinite hiatus.
Spring 2019 saw the beginning of the annual Queer Play Contest as a way to find scripts by living queer playwrights for the theatrical seasons. The 2020 season originally had fully staged productions set to be produced, but unfortunately the Covid-19 pandemic had different ideas about that. In the wake of the pandemic, Theatre Viscera moved to a fully virtual platform for our 2020 season.
We found in this a silver lining to being quarantined at home, reading plays virtually meant that both our performer base and our audience could spread to encompass folks all over the world. It also meant that we had the ability to read more plays for our audience than we would have been able to produce fully.
In 2021, Jaime McMichael joined our creative team, and they now serve as a Co-Artistic Director.
Starting in 2023, The Theatre Viscera Podcast will become The Queer Plays Podcast. We are shifting our focus from stories of queer trauma to stories of queer joy. We have always sought to put forth the stories that those in our community feel are most urgent, and we are following that towards queer joy. This season also marks a shift in the format of the podcast, while we are still focusing on reading plays with a full cast, we will be introducing some new exciting pieces. We will be including artist interviews in our episode rotation. This summer we are very excited to be introducing our first ever "24 Hour Play Fest but Make it Podcast".
As of 2024, Theatre Viscera is on an indefinite hiatus.
our creative team
Avery Kester (they/he)
Co-Artistic Director Avery Kester is a Playwright, Performer, and founding member of Theatre Viscera. They received their Master’s of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, Playwriting track, from the University of Nebraska’s low residency MFA program in January 2021. They received their Bachelor’s of Arts in Applied Theatre and Sociology from Pacific University in 2018. They have had pieces published in such magazines as Sand Hills Literary Magazine, The Paragon Press, 30 North Literary Review, and Apricity Magazine. In 2019, Avery served as the Artistic and Development Intern for From the Ground UP! Avery is committed to utilizing the medium of theatre as a catalyst for queer activism. The most powerful and radical thing we can do as artists is tell our stories and let our voices ring clear. Their practice and style is heavily steeped in verbatim theatre and many of their pieces are interview or memoir based. |
Jaime (Eric) McMichael (they/she/he)
Co-Artistic Director Jaime (Eric) McMichael is a Director, Editor, and Performer for Theatre Viscera. They received their Bachelor of Arts in Cinema Studies at the University of Oregon in 2020. Their body of work includes editing for the UO Theatre Arts production of “Or Not To Be” and working as the Director, Writer, and Editor of their own short film “Monotony”. They joined Theatre Viscera’s Creative Team in 2021. Jaime’s goals in creating queer productions are to create spaces where queer voices can be heard, and queer stories can be told. Their background comes from years of study in Film Theory, Stage Production, and Screenwriting, skills which, with a measure of patience and practice, are being used to produce the kinds of queer plays they wished they could have seen growing up. |
Lyla Meadows (she/they)
Co-Artistic Director Lyla has been with Theatre Viscera from the start, serving as producer, director, editor, and reader for the podcast since its inception in 2018. Their background involves a wide range of arts and academics, from high school drama and performances to studying technical writing and video game design in college. Her desire to have experiences in such a variety of fields in life plays into the many hats they wear at Theatre Viscera. For as long as she can remember Lyla has been an avid advocate for social justice and Queer rights. Her passion towards these subjects is a strong driving force for her. Having a project like the Theatre Viscera Podcast and working with such passionate people has been a powerfully positive experience for her, and she hopes to see the impact of their work expand as the vision and voice of the company continues to evolve and grow in the years to come. |
Bob Stevens (he/him)
Resident Artist Bob Stevens is a voice actor and software engineer living in the Denver Colorado area. He was pulled into the theatre community when his sister forced him to audition for his high school production of The Little Mermaid and has loved it ever since. He continued participating in theatre through all of high school and college, earning a minor in theatre from Pacific University Oregon. While in college, Bob participated in Pacific’s reading series every year, solidifying his love for voice acting. Roles he has played for Theatre Viscera include Brendan in The Place That Made You, Mr. Slinky in Preparedness Status, and Malcom in An Aquarium Play.
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Gray Ashford (he/him)
Resident Artist Gray Ashford is a performer and playwright from Oregon City, Oregon. He received his theatrical training from Pacific University and now works for the Theatre & Dance Department as Production Assistant. Some of his previous roles with Theatre Viscera have been Aaron in Ride it Out, The Boy in Dead Girl Dancing, and Jonah in The Place That Made You. Gray lives in Forest Grove with his life partner, roommate, and very spoiled little dog.
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Lindsay Partain (she/her)
Resident Artist Lindsay Partain is an internationally published and produced Oregon playwright and member of the Dramatists Guild. She holds her BA in Theatre from Pacific University and is a resident artist of Veterans Repertory Theatre (Cornwall, NY) and Theatre Viscera (Portland, OR). She was selected to be part of the Ashland New Play Festival's 2022 New Voices Cohort, her 10-minute play, "Cookie Cutter Christmas" was a top-10 semi-finalist for Veterans Repertory Theatre's 2022 Play Writing Competition, her 10-minute play, "Last Dance with MJ" was selected for the 2022 Lanford Wilson New Plays Festival, and her new full-length play, "The Light Keepers" was part of Theatre33's 2022 Summer Reading Pop-Up Series. Recent publications include: "Sci-Fi and Horror Play Pack" and "The Way You Made Me" (Next Stage Press). Her body of work can be found on New Play Exchange.
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Steph Landtiser (they/them)
Resident Artist Steph Landtiser is a performer and music director from Portland, Oregon. They received a BA in Music Education from Pacific University. Some of their favorite shows to musically direct have been Evil Dead the Musical and Once Upon a Mattress with Theatre in the Grove, Lucky Stiff and My Fair Lady with Glencoe High School, and A Xmas Cuento Remix with Milagro Theatre. Steph’s newest project is building Media Queeries, a web development and design company. They hope to use this as a platform to raise the voices of artists, expressive arts therapists, and those who want to bring positive change to their communities. They are very excited to continue working with Theatre Viscera!
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