Life, Values & Legacy: Our Chat with Adam Odsess-Rubin of Brooklyn

We’re looking forward to introducing you to Adam Odsess-Rubin. Check out our conversation below.

Adam, it’s always a pleasure to learn from you and your journey. Let’s start with a bit of a warmup: What do you think is misunderstood about your business? 
A lot of people ask me why we need a dedicated queer theater in NYC when there are so many queer shows happening here all the time.

I don’t think people understand that while Broadway shows like Oh, Mary! and A Strange Loop have brought a lot of positive representation for our community, their engagement over time is limited because the shows are there for a limited time. At National Queer Theater, we’ve built partnerships with LGBTQ+ nonprofit organizations like NYC Pride and Hetrick-Martin Institute over many years, and use our artistry to give back to their constituents. Our goal in these partnerships is not to make money- rather we are mobilizing our artists to pour back into the queer community which has given us so much. While it’s great to have queer shows on Broadway, those shows are commercial enterprises, and will not sustain our movement in the long term. National Queer Theater, and other nonprofit identity-specific companies, are really invested in building community over the long-term.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I founded National Queer Theater in 2018 to be a home for queer artists in NYC. As Artistic Director, I helped found the Criminal Queerness Festival, an international showcase of queer and trans artists from countries that criminalize or censor queer people. We won an Obie Award for the festival earlier this year. In 2021, we launched Staging Pride: Queer Youth Theater, a free after school program for LGBTQ+ youth ages 13-18 where young people create their own original shows at Hetrick-Martin Institute in NYC. The program features acting classes, writing classes, drag workshops, Broadway field trips, and free dinner and MetroCards so all students have access. We bring in expert queer Teaching Artists to help guide students in unlocking their potential on stage and off, giving them positive queer adult role models. Not all of our students are out of the closet, so Staging Pride is a safe space of refuge where young people can be themselves and make friends. It’s been really special.

Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
When I was 15, I was deep in the closet. I felt lost- depressed, anxious, suicidal. I was bullied a lot as a kid for not being as masculine as the other boys, and that really hurt my self-esteem. But acting in the drama club gave me so much joy. In high school, my drama teacher decided we would do ‘The Laramie Project,’ a Documentary Play about the aftermath of the murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student in Wyoming who was killed in 1998. Doing that play led me to read Tony Kushner’s Angels in America and helped me understand my place in the world as as an emerging queer adult. I had a lightbulb moment working on that play- if this experience could be so life changing for me, I knew I wanted to share this with other young queer people who felt the same kind of isolation that I did.

If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
It gets better is a cliche now, but if I could tell my younger self one thing, I’d tell him to be patient. Nobody teaches us about queerness as kids. We don’t learn about our history or culture in the home or at school. We have to discover it ourselves- through the internet or in a GSA if we’re lucky for our school to have one. So many of us wait until college to come out because we’re scared of our parents’ reactions, or how we’ll be perceived by our peers. Things are so hard for queer youth, and even harder for trans youth these days, with dozens of states around the country legislating away their rights to healthcare and equal participation in sports, or access to bathrooms. As adults, it is incumbent upon us to protect trans youth right now and use what resources we have to show young people that we are committed to making the world a better place for them.

Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. What do you believe is true but cannot prove?
I believe deeply that theater has the power to heal the soul and transform the world. That’s been my experience all my life. My work has led me to facilitate workshops with homeless queer youth, Israeli and Palestinian teens, and refugee children. I’ve also worked in fancy private schools and taught abroad. What is always true is that theater helps young people feel more comfortable in their own skin. It gives them confidence, and helps build friendships. It teaches them about the world in ways that traditional education can’t, and gives them an opportunity to rehearse the ways that they want to act in the real world. In such a scary political environment, I think theater is a tool we can use to build the society we want, and envision new futures for ourselves. We could all benefit from returning to the type of play we engaged in as children, and allow ourselves to dream bigger.

Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. What will you regret not doing? 
There’s a lot of fear in the air in the United States at this moment. It feels like our government is punishing any institution that promotes diversity, labeling them as ‘woke.’ They are censoring our art and our history, hoping to eliminate any criticism of our government or our country. But in a democracy, it is incumbent on all of us to put in the work to make our country more free and equal for everyone. As a queer person, I know that America has not always operated with my community’s best interest in mind. It would be easier to be silent right now in the face of increasing authoritarianism. But if we are not vocal about our civil liberties now, we may not have the chance to be later. In March, National Queer Theater joined the ACLU and other theaters in a lawsuit against the National Endowment for the Arts over their ‘gender ideology’ ban. In May, the NEA revoked a $20,000 grant for our Criminal Queerness Festival. This is retched behavior, and every American should be concerned by the gross government overreach happening right now. We will not be censored, and we will continue fighting for queer liberation, especially for our youth.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.nationalqueertheater.org
• Instagram: @nationalqueertheater
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aodsessrubin/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nationalqueertheater/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGYV2VV-7Vd7zgggmGafpcA

Image Credits
HanJie Chow, Desmond Pictotte