Pandora Productions Producing Artistic Director Michael J. Drury, top, and Laura Ellis, audio producer and sound designer for Pandora, Louisville Public Media and Kentucky Shakespeare. Provided photos.
For more than 25 years, the Louisville-based theater company Pandora Productions has been telling the stories of the LGBTQ+ community. Here, a look back – and forward – with Producing Artistic Director Michael J. Drury.
Written by Gioia Patton/Arts Insider
With decades of cutting-edge, award-winning musicals, dramas and comedies created by local, regional and national playwrights writing on LGBTQ+ themes, Pandora Productions has enjoyed fast growth, artistic achievement and prominence both in Louisville and in the national theater community.
Today’s Woman reporter Gioia Patton sat down with longtime Producing Artistic Director Michael J. Drury (he/him/his) and Laura Ellis (she/her/hers), an audio producer and sound designer with Pandora, Louisville Public Media, Kentucky Shakespeare and more to discuss the role of Pandora and other LGBTQ+ companies in driving acceptance and inclusion and plans for the future.
TW: What regional LGBTQ+ productions can we look forward to this summer and the rest of 2023? Are there any especially groundbreaking works you would recommend?
Michael: Our new season begins in August with a co-production of The Prom with Actors Center for Training (ACT). Our season continues with Love! Valour! Compassion! in September, and our production of RENT in November.
Voices of Kentuckiana has a Holiday concert usually in December, and Drag Daddy Productions has a Drag Revival in mid-June that will include several local theater companies performing from shows with a spiritual or religious theme. They will produce a co-production of a queer-forward Jesus Christ Superstar with The Chicken Coop Theatre Company.
Laura: In a year like this, every LGBTQ+ affirming event feels sort of groundbreaking. Louisville Pride is adding a mini-conference for mental health practitioners to its festival this September, with one track for LGBTQ+ providers, and one to help non-LGBTQ+ providers become more culturally competent in their practice. I’m looking forward to Drag Daddy’s production of Jesus Christ Superstar, and can’t WAIT to see what they do with it. (August 3-13 at Arts Sanctuary). Some of my own personal LGBTQ+ artists to watch include writer/director/performer Tyler Tate, drag artist May O’Nays, choreographer Alfie Jones, playwright and director Clarity Hagan.
TW: Have your audiences changed-expanded over the past five years?
Michael: Our subscriber base has mostly returned from Covid, though it’s still challenging for all theater companies to consistently get their audiences back into the theater. We’ve noticed that our single ticket sales are higher now than before Covid. Our audiences are indeed a bit younger which might explain level subscription numbers.
Laura: I don’t run my own organization, but I can tell you that in 2022, the audience for Kentucky Shakespeare in Central Park was nineteen percent LGBTQ+. That’s 13 percent increase over the previous year. (These stats are based on audience surveys.)
I’m seeing KY Shakespeare embrace more gender-blind casting and lean into the inherent queerness of certain Shakesperian texts, and it makes the work feel more relatable, more accessible, and less heteronormative overall. I think the newer audience demographic data shows that it’s resonating with the community.
TW: Give a pitch, if you will, as to why LGBTQ+ cultural experiences are for everyone.
Michael: At Pandora Productions we’ve been entertaining, educating and enlightening on issues of importance to the LGBTQIA+ community. These issues are pretty much the same as issues that are important to all communities: love, life, economy, etc. Of course, some of the focus of our work is where our community isn’t offered the same rights and privileges as the broader community.
Given that we are simply showing the LGBTQIA+ community in the world going about their business, taking care of their lives and families, there is nothing threatening about the work we’re doing, and therefore can be enjoyed by anyone who has a love for the arts. Our culture is one of family. Everyone is welcome to join our family, we exclude no one.
Laura: Consuming art and media from outside your own demographic gives you a deeper understanding of your community. It makes you more empathetic and gives you a cultural vocabulary for understanding the experiences of folks who are different from you. In the same way that men benefit from experiencing art by women, white people benefit from seeking out art by Black people and other people of color, able-bodied people learn from consuming art by disabled people. Straight people can be enriched, informed and entertained through art made by, for and about LGBTQ+ folks.
