‘Compton’s Cafeteria Riot’ Immersive Theatre
Description
Casting “Compton’s Cafeteria Riot,” an immersive show set in a functioning 1960s diner. Based on the historic, yet not widely known, riots in August of 1966 (3 yrs.; before Stonewall) by trans women, drag queens, and sex workers against police harassment.
Production states: “It would be unfair and inaccurate for us to hold these characters in a modern context, and our casting reflects that. Words like ‘transsexual’ and ‘transvestite’ were used at the time to describe those who, by modern vernacular, could be described as transgender, and others as simply ‘gender non-conforming’ or ‘non-binary.’ These characters represent a wide variety of folks on the gender spectrum, and in our casting practices, we have taken that into consideration. Many of our characters use words that were self-identifiers within their community such as ‘dolls,’ ‘queens,’ ‘fish,’ ‘girls,’ etc. These words were used in many sub-sects of queer communities throughout history and don’t necessarily align with modern popular vernacular, medical, or academic terminology.”