Our Stories
Since its revival in 2017 after more than a decade in hiatus, GAPA Theatre has been dedicated to providing a platform for queer and transgender Asian and Pacific Islander American artists. Its mission is to mentor emerging artists interested in theater and the performing arts by supporting their artistic development through skills-building and technical workshops in writing, acting, and directing, as well as producing public readings of works-in-progress and full-length performances for both virtual and in-person audiences.
GAPA Fund and With You Festival
2022
GAPA Fund partnered with producer, director, and performer, Kat Evasco and her newly established production company, With You Productions, to launch With You Festival as part of her official residency at Brava! for Women in the Arts. A trio of plays was staged and helmed by diverse and emerging voices that shed light on growing up queer, being undocumented, and living your best life in the face of AIDS, HIV, and COVID-19. The festival ran from September 8th through October 1, 2022.
Hearts and Minds:
A QTAPI Community Conversation Series
2021 - 2022
GAPA Theatre hosted a three-session series of inter-generational conversations with QTAPI and their allies. The sessions included panelists who are community leaders, activists, artists, and educators. These esteemed individuals held space for important conversations that embrace our experiences of the dual pandemics of HIV/AIDS and COVID-19; our histories as Asians and Pacific Islanders in the U.S.; our past and current role in community organizing and the political process; as well as other issues that are part of the current cultural and political shifts and relevant to our experiences QTAPI individuals.
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With support from the California Humanities, creative output was staged at the Brava Theatre in San Francisco, then culminating in a show with the GAPA Men’s Chorus at the Gunn Theater of the Legion of Honor:
Generations of Power
Finding Your Voice
2017
GAPA Theatre revived its collective of writers, performers, and storytellers in 2017 with a compilation of vignettes, personal narratives, and short plays reflecting the lived experiences of our queer Asian and Pacific Islander men. Performances were staged for three nights at Bindlestiff Studio as part of the United States of Asian America Festival by the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center.