Queer Theatre Kalamazoo

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Kalamazoo, MI
Queer Theatre Kalamazoo

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Empower all q***r voices by building an accessible & equitable community through theatre and the arts

Mission:
Empower all q***r voices by building an accessible and equitable community through theatre and the arts. Vision:
Build a thriving, cultural community where q***r people are free to live, express, take risks, and create. Values:
Person-Centered & Radical in all things we stand for:
Accessibility; Transparency; Stewardship; Collaboration, Curiosity; Non-Hierarchical Transformative Justice. We exist so that:
Q***r artists are empowered,
There is a space for performance centered on the q***r experience, and
There is a model for equitable and inclusive practices in the arts.

10/22/2026

Don't miss tonight's American Sign Language interpreted production of "Pillow Fortress" at Heirloom Arts LLC. Get your Name-Your-Price tickets at https://qtk.ludus.com/index.php or at the door. 🎟️

10/21/2026

Kendra Ann Flournoy is a Detroit-bred multi-hyphenate artist: playwright, visual artist, producer, educator, and arts administrator. In 2024, her play “Bambiland,” which will be touring Detroit, Battle Creek and Kalamazoo this November, was awarded Best New Script by Encore Michigan's Wilde Awards. She was a 2024 recipient of Detroit Public Theatre ’s TAG Residency and was a semi-finalist in the 2025 Seven Devils Playwrights Conference. She is a member of The Colony Theatre's 2026-27 Writer's Lab.

Kendra co-founded Face Off Theatre Company and has served on leadership teams for The Lark, Detroit Repertory Theatre, and the Ojai Playwrights Conference. She currently serves as Operations Manager for artEquity.

Recently, she’s ventured into film, exploring both writing and production, and has had the opportunity to work on over half a dozen independent films. Kendra received her BA in English and MFA in Playwriting from Western Michigan University.

Here’s what Kendra had to say about serving as dramaturg for “Pillow Fortress,” which continues its run at Heirloom Arts Oct. 22-25 (with ASL interpretation on Oct. 22):

“It was awesome to serve as dramaturg for ‘Pillow Fortress.’ Working on this production gave me the opportunity to reconnect with brilliant theatre makers in Kalamazoo and to meet some new folks, (including) playwright Aysha Zackria. It's always great to work with newly developed plays, especially pieces that work to address the now. ‘Pillow Fortress’ is unpacking race, gender identity, and other difficult social issues like policing and is doing so through the lens of young people who are still figuring themselves out. And in some ways, the play suggests that grace be given as folks make sense of themselves and the world around them. That's an important perspective to capture. It was a pleasure to work with this fantastic company of artists.”

10/20/2026

Hearing fabulous feedback like this means the world to us. Thank you, VF Thompson for sharing your thoughts about "Pillow Fortress," whose run will continue at Heirloom Arts LLC this week, with ASL interpretation on Oct. 22 and additional shows Oct. 23-25:

"If you haven't yet, I highly recommend you nab your tickets to Pillow Fortress at Q***r Theatre Kalamazoo this weekend ... It's a show that I think really speaks to the anxieties of the moment, and the cast and staging brought it to life wonderfully."

10/19/2026

Did you join us for one of our first two stagings of "Pillow Fortress" at Heirloom Arts LLC? We'd love to see your photos ... drop them in the comments. ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️

Thanks to the show's stage manager Cody A. Watson for capturing a couple of the images shared here that truly capture the ***rJoy shared amongst attendees and actors. 📸

If you missed opening weekend, no worries! We're offering multiple weekends of our shows this year to make it easier for all local theatre lovers to attend. Join us Thursday, Oct. 22 for our ASL-interpreted production, or on Oct. 23, 24 or 25.

Visit our website to purchase your Name Your Price tickets, and tag someone who you'd like to bring with you in the comments. 🎟️

10/16/2026

Thanks to everyone who joined us for the incredible opening night of Aysha Zackria's "Pillow Fortress" at Heirloom Arts yesterday.

It's been such a joy workshopping the evolution of this new script with the playwright and dramaturg Kendra Ann Flournoy for the regional premiere of a play Zackria describes as "part polemic, part slumber party, and all chaos" as three classmates working on a group project -- Chelsea who has a penchant for the law, Ry who advocates for prison abolition and Jordan who is just scared sh*tless -- receive an alert that someone has just escaped the local jail.

Said Sloan, an opening night attendee: "'Pillow Fortress' is an intimate story with outstanding actors. A great show for a laugh and a bit of food for thought."

We hope you'll join us for the Oct. 18 matinee, where you can meet the playwright, our Oct. 22 American Sign Language interpretation-supported staging, or our final weekend of shows on Oct. 23-25.

Hear from the cast, crew and playwright about this highly relatable, thought-provoking exploration of friendship and feminism, racism and privilege, and more in your email inbox if you're a subscriber or at https://bit.ly/4sbPs2y if you haven't yet signed up!

10/13/2026

The regional premiere of Aysha Zackria's "Pillow Fortress" at Heirloom Arts LLC is just two days away (Oct 15), with additional performances on Oct. 18 and 22-25 (with ASL interpretation on Oct. 22).

We asked Stage Manager Cody A. Watson about his experience working on the production: "I'm very much enjoying being a part of the 'Pillow Fortress' process for multiple reasons, but one of the most interesting to me is that it's a new work, which is something I've never been involved in before. I've been learning so much about the process of bringing a new play to life, like getting script edits from the playwright during our rehearsal process. Seeing the changes and the character arcs deepening through the edits has been so fascinating - and it's been really cool to see a change in the script that directly came about through something we talked about in rehearsal! The whole team - cast and production team - has been incredible to work with as well."

While Watson has assistant stage managed several productions, this is his first time serving as Stage Manager. He's also performed in many area productions, including QTK's 2025 Q***r Shorts Festival; Kalamazoo Civic Theatre's "Forever Plaid "(Sparky), "Annie" (Drake & Apple Seller), "The Wedding Singer" (David & Billy Idol); and Grand Rapids Civic Theatre's "Cats" (Carbuckety).

We hope you'll join us at the incredible and thought-provoking show, and please SHARE this post to help spread the word!

10/11/2026

On and every day, we support q***r art and uplift q***r artists. We hope you'll come out to support our work this season, which opens this Thursday with "Pillow Fortress" at Heirloom Arts LLC . 🏳️‍🌈

Address

Kalamazoo, MI

Website

https://queertk.org/

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