Friday, September 26, 3 – 6 PM, Performing Arts and Humanities Building, 102 & 105, light refreshments will be provided, RSVP
A post-show talk-back with UMBC students will take place later in the evening, following the performance of Call Me By Any Other Name… Just As Sweet at The Voxel, 9 W 25th St, Baltimore, MD 21218
What does queerness look like in the future? What are we dreaming of? What are we building — and how do we build it?
Queer Futures is a roundtable gathering of visionary queer artists, thinkers, and culture-makers to explore the evolving possibilities of queer life, art, and community. In an open and generative conversation, panelists will reflect on the current moment, imagine what’s ahead, and share how their creative and political practices are shaping the world to come. This event, hosted in conjunction with the second week of the new play by Nigel Semaj, Assistant Professor of Theatre, Call Me By Any Other Name… Just As Sweet at The Voxel, invites students, artists, and community members into a space of radical imagination, joy, and inquiry. Join us for an evening of reflection, conversation, and celebration —and then join us for the evening’s performance at The Voxel.
Panelists:
Nigel Semaj (they/them) is a director, movement director, and educator originally from Washington, D.C. As an Assistant Professor of Theatre and Affiliate Assistant Professor of Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies at UMBC, Nigel’s work is rooted in fostering inclusive and equitable theatrical spaces through anti-racist pedagogies and restorative practices. Nigel’s directing career spans a wide range of work, including the Off-Broadway premiere of Bloodshot by Elinor T.Vanderburg, Ntozake Shange’s Spell #7, and most recently Bryony Lavery’s Slime. Nigel’s work speaks to those who have let the sadness in—for those who have been attuned to the haunting wail of the banshee. Often exploring themes of grief, violence, and the hardships of life, their work seeks to embrace the darkness from within. This work is evident in their adaptation work, projects like 10,000 Moor, an all-woman adaptation of Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus exploring rage and violence, For Hylas—an adaptation of the Hercules myth exploring love, loss, and grief, and Call Me By Any Other Name… Just As Sweet, a queer deconstruction of Romeo and Juliet. Upcoming adaptations include in the darkest forest, exploring Shakespeare’s forested worlds, and the serpent under’t, exploring the elements of horror and supernatural complexities of Macbeth. Having trained under companies such as Frantic Assembly, Pig Iron, and Tectonic Theatre Company, Nigel approaches movement as a pivotal tool in storytelling. Their work can be found in plays, operas, musicals, and films. Notable credits include movement direction and fight choreography on Heartbeat Opera Company’s Fidelio, fight and movement for Sarah Young’s award-winning short film Not Him, and Federico Lorca’s Blood Wedding. Their dedication to creating accessible and inclusive performance is reflected in their academic work, which focuses on developing anti-racist pedagogies in theatre education. Nigel is a board member of the American Alliance for Theatre Education and co-chair of the Irene Ryans Acting Scholarship for Region II’s Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival.
Hershey Vazquez Millner (they/them) is a Florida-based producer and arts administrator with deep experience in casting, education, and community partnerships. Rooted in a commitment to ethical and equitable arts practices, they specialize in guiding meaningful connections between artists, institutions, and audiences. Hershey’s work centers on the belief that art is a powerful catalyst for empathy, transformation, and social change. Rather than identifying as an artist, Hershey sees their role as a facilitator—a steward of process who cultivates genuine relationships and creates space for others to thrive. Whether bridging communities and organizations, shaping casting processes, or helping researchers translate data into dramatic narratives, Hershey moves with intentionality and care. In all they do, they strive to honor those who came before and clear the way for those who follow. Their extensive casting experience includes roles with Florida Studio Theatre, Stephanie Klapper Casting, Working Title Playwrights, Theatrical Outfit, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and the Alliance Theatre. Hershey has also designed and taught courses on casting ethics, bias in casting, nonprofit theatre, and speculative futures at institutions including Princeton University, Muhlenberg College, and Georgia State University. As a community connector, Hershey has partnered with organizations such as Harvard Medical School, Cool Girls, Inc., The Breman Museum, Atlanta Botanical Garden, Spelman College, Emory University, and the Center for Pan Asian Community Services, among others.
Lyam B. Gabel (they/he) is a trans* director, performance-maker, and community organizer who creates containers for collective remembering and radical celebration. He is obsessed with archives and his ever-evolving process combines extensive research, emerging technology, and embodied improvisation. He worked for eight years in New Orleans where they founded LAST CALL, a collective that documents and interprets neglected queer history. With LAST CALL they co-created and co-directed Alleged Lesbian Activities, a nationally touring musical about the history of lesbian bars. They are a member of New Orleans physical theater ensemble NEW NOISE where they directed Jubilee, a dinner and performance that asks white audiences to interrupt familial patterns of racism. Now they are exploring queer care from 1980s-present with the dance floor, the hospital room, and the kitchen table which received an NPN Creation Fund commission. They regularly collaborate with playwrights and solo performers and have developed work at Ars Nova, Judson Church, Pipeline, Ashland New Plays Festival, The Theater Offensive, and The New Orleans Contemporary Arts Center among others. Their work has been funded by MAP, the National Performance Network, NEFA’s National Theater Project, and Alternate Roots. Lyam teaches acting and directing at Lehigh University. Drama League Resident 2021, Drama League Fellow 2017. BFA Virginia Commonwealth University, MFA Carnegie Mellon University.
Joseph Amodei (they/them) is a new media artist, theater designer, activist, and educator. Their work seeks to make material differences with and for people at the intersection of art, emerging technology, and community. Joseph grew up in North Carolina, where they received a BFA in Studio Art from UNC-Chapel Hill. Joseph completed their MFA in Video and Media Design at Carnegie Mellon. They are an assistant professor of Media Design in Lehigh University’s Department of Theater. Recent work has explored immersive archive creation + Virtual Reality, mediated storytelling amplifying the Black history of the South, gameplay + gerrymandering, the HIV/AIDS crisis + performance of queer care, and Human Centered Design + issues of health equity.
Jane Skapek (they/them) is a theater director, filmmaker and installation artist who creates surreal and elegiac pieces to interrogate the space between physical and digitally imagined reality. Using archived and historical images, live camera, performance and dance, their work centers queer bodies and themes of constructed space. They have developed work in New York City at BRIC, the Tank, Ars Nova Antfest, and Target Margin, among others. Selected Associate and Assistant director credits include two national tours of The Lightning Thief, Jasper (off-Broadway, Signature Theatre), and Angels in America (Broadway, 2018). Skapek received two Fellowship awards during their MFA program at The New School: the Dough Hughes Directing Fellowship, and the Presidential Scholarship of Merit. In 2024, Skapek won best director at the LA International Horror Short Film Festival for their film directorial debut “Close to Home.” Most recently, their performance piece, exit strategy/sema debuted internationally at the Broedplaats Bouw Arts Center, in Amsterdam.
J Purnell Hargrove (they/them) is a multi-disciplined performer, producer, podcaster, and all-around galactic treasure. Based in Baltimore, they have spent the past decade shimmying up and down the East Coast, delighting audiences with their singular and unmistakable je ne said pas. They currently serve as the Artistic Director of Fells Point Corner Theatre, where they are committed to uplifting inclusive storytelling and championing emerging voices in the arts. They are also the Co-Founder of The Greasy Utterson, a podcast production company dedicated audio drama. Their adaptation of The Secret Garden is available for streaming on all major platforms. As a performer, J was recently seen as Fighting Prawn/Grempkin in Peter and the Starcatcher at Cockpit in Court. Other credits include but are not limited too: Lola in Kinky Boots (DCT), Albert/Kevin in Clybourne Park (Spotlighters Theatre), Professor Hidgens in The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals (CJ Productions), and Keeper of the Cosmos in Lyra and the Ferocious Beast (Truepenny Collective).
Becca Janney (Costume Designer) is delighted to be a collaborator on this project! Professional design credits include: Next to Normal (Barrington Stage Company), Little Women the Musical (Shenandoah Summer Musical Theatre), Boleros, Momia en el Closet (Gala Theatre), Merry Wives (Chesapeake Shakespeare Company), Cinderella, A Salsa Fairytale (Imagination Stage), Everything is Wonderful (WaterTower Theatre), and Ada and the Engine (Stage West Theatre). Educational design credits include: King John, Taming of the Shrew (STC Classical Academy), Stupid F*cking Bird (UMBC), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Rochester University), Damn Things Will Kill Ya (American University), Don Giovanni (Maryland Opera Studio), and A Bicycle Country, Fefu and her Friends (University of Maryland).
Jaucqir LaFond is an actor, singer, writer, and mover from Atlanta, GA. They are thrilled to take on Mercutio in this adaptation of Romeo and Juliet and super thrilled to be making their Baltimore stage debut! Prior, they appeared in Fabulation (Chautauqua Theater Company) and Blue Door (Perisphere Theater Company, Helen Hayes Award).
Vicky Graham is an actor born and raised in Baltimore, MD. They recently performed at The National Aquarium for Voyages: Chapter 7 with Submersive. Other credits include Fat Woman #1 in I Will Eat You Alive (The Voxel), Young Playwrights Festival (Baltimore Center Stage), and The Boundary (Submersive). Vicky received a BFA in Acting from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Dr. Susan McCully (They/She) is a queer feminist theatre-maker and playwright. Over the past thirty-years, all of their professional efforts involve advocacy for intersectional feminist and queer theatre whether through their own playwriting, performing, and teaching or through creating opportunities for others as a producer and dramaturg. From 2005 to 2012, they served as artistic director and dramaturg for the GirlParts Festival of New Plays at UMBC. Beginning in 2013, their research shifted toward developing their own plays. Voracious, Leah’s Dybbuk and Girls on a Dirt Pile (all produced at UMBC) were conceived specifically to create feminist and/or queer-identified roles for young actors. Susan returned to performing in their plays including Inexcusable Fantasies (Prague and New York Fringe) and Kerrmoor (Women’s Voices Theatre Festival). They received a commission from RepStage for the development and production of All She Must Possess, a play about the life of Etta Cone (produced in 2018). In the last few years, McCully has shifted focus to creating theatre which addresses climate justice, including a student devised project Green Theatre Revolution in Spring 2024.
Gerrad Alex Taylor (he/him/his) is an award-winning director and multidisciplinary theatre artist based out of the Greater Baltimore region and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Theatre at UMBC. His current creative work and research centers around creating space that preserves history and celebrates culture of the Global Majority. In 2021 he was named one of Baltimore’s “40 Under 40” by the Washington Business Journal. In 2020, he founded Chesapeake Shakespeare’s Black Classical Acting Ensemble (BCAE), an affinity space for black actors interested in training and exposure of the “classics” and what an expansion of the classical canon may look like today. In 2024, Gerrad joined colleague Lizzi Albert to take on the roles of Co-Artistic Directors of Perisphere Theater in Montgomery County, MD. He holds a BA in Neuroscience from the Johns Hopkins University and an MFA in Performance from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He has worked with theatres and educational institutions across the country including the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, Perisphere Theater, Great River Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare Festival St. Louis, Pacific Conservatory Theatre-PCPA, Children’s Theatre of Annapolis, Everyman Theatre, Constellation Theatre Company, Mosaic Theatre Company, Arena Stage, Studio Theatre, and Washington Stage Guild. He is a member of the Actors’ Equity Association and an Advanced Actor Combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors.
This event is co-sponsored by CIRCA, the Department of Theatre, and The Voxel. This event is open for full participation by all individuals regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or any other protected category under applicable federal law, state law, and the University’s nondiscrimination policy.