FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
- queertauqua
- Apr 17
- 1 min read
A Series of Unmentionable Acts
A New Theatrical Work Reclaims Queer History Through Performance
Kansas City, MO — This October, Queertauqua launches with its inaugural production, A Series of Unmentionable Acts—a bold and immersive theatrical experience that resurrects queer histories once silenced, censored, or erased.
Created by artist-historian Joseph Germain Keehn II, the production transforms real moments from the 19th and early 20th centuries into living, breathing performance. At its core is a reimagining of Karl Heinrich Ulrichs’s groundbreaking 1867 speech—interrupted in its time, now re-staged and completed—alongside a puppet adaption of Henry Blake Fuller’s At Saint Judas’s (1896), musical interludes, and an interactive wedding sequence where the audience determines the outcome.
Blending theater, music, puppetry, and audience participation, Unmentionable Acts invites viewers into a world where history doesn‘t sit still—it shifts dependiing on who gets to tell it.
“We are at a moment when LGBTQ+ histories and rights face renewed cultural and legislative challenges,” says Keehn. “Queertauqua insists that these stories are not marginal—they are foundational, and they belong in public view.”
Rooted in the spirit of the original Chautauqua movement, Queertauqua reimagines performance as a space for connection, curiosity, and discovery—where the past speaks directly to the present.
Performance Dates: October 2026
Location: The Arts Asylum, The Student Union at UMKC, and additional venues TBA
Admission: FREE (RSVP required)
Sponsored in part by: The Arts Asylum, No Divide KC, and the Gay and Lesbian Archive of Mid-America (GLAMA)
support the work
Queertauqua is sustained through grants and individual contributions. Learn more or donate: www.queertauqua.org/support.
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