I have the great fortune to be headed to the SCRiB LAB 2025 Playwriting Conference on Saturday, June 21, 2025 at the Center Theater at Seattle Center. According to the SCRiB LAB’s website, the goal of the conference “is to bring the Seattle-area playwriting community together for a day of professional development, resource sharing, community building, and networking. Started in 2024, the conference has quickly become THE landmark event of the year for our community. In 2025, we will showcase more than two dozen speakers from a range of artistic and cultural backgrounds. Panel and workshop topics include marketing, script development, self-producing, writing for youth, and more! There is also an exhibitor space featuring local theatre companies, membership centers, new works programs, community organizations, and writing groups.”
Although I am not a playwright (at least not yet), I was invited by my friend and collaborator Jo Jo Stiletto to moderate a roundtable entitled “Serving Story: Burlesque, Drag, and Other Nightlife Perspectives in Theatre.” The panel description reads:
When g-strings, drag queens, and scripted narrative meet, audiences flip their wigs. Drag, burlesque, and cabaret are art forms that are often considered lowbrow or lacking in quality—yet these same art forms successfully bring in new audiences. How can non-traditional storytelling forms enliven the American theater?
Moderated by Dr. Edmond Y. Chang (Ohio University), a panel of nightlife storytellers will share what they’ve learned from their diverse experiences in non-profit theater, self-produced burlesque and drag, devised theater, circus, cabaret, immersive, and more to explore how blending scripted storytelling with nightlife formats can shake up the status quo and bring new audiences to the theater.
I am always excited to work with Jo Jo on a project, and one of the panelists Sailor St. Claire is a longtime presentation partner. Here is the full list of the theater folks on the roundtable:
| Willy Nilly (they/them) | Willy Nilly has been lighting up the stage since 2015 as an actor, playwright, and burlesque dancer. A graduate of Cornish College of the Arts, Willy has been writing and directing original works exploring a variety of genres and themes. They are a founding member and current co-Artistic Director of The Devil’s Advocates, a performance ensemble and burlesque troupe. Their most successful production to date is the smash hit, Summercamp Slasher (2023) produced in 2023. |
| Opal Peachey (she/her) | Opal Peachey is an award-winning actress, singer, cabaret producer, and founding company member of Nordo and Nebula. She graces the stage of the Triple Door each January as the ghost of Frederic Chopin in Bohemia (writer, composer) an annual audience favorite. Other companies she has worked with as a performer and producer include ACT Theater, Book-It Repertory Theater, Annex Theater, and The Re-Bar. |
| Sailor St. Claire (she/her) | Sailor St. Claire has been offering audiences an education in the humanitease since 2009 as a performer, producer, and emcee. A professional writer, educator, and voice-over artist, The Showgirl Scholar loves finding the intersections of pages and stages. To that end, she is also the co-Artistic Director of Noveltease Theatre, a literary burlesque company she co-founded with writer-choreographer Fosse Jack. |
| Jo Jo Stiletto (she/her) | Jo Jo Stiletto is burlesque producer, performer, playwright, and historian, and is known as the Professor of Nerdlesque – a leading authority on all things nerdy in burlesque. Her most recent production GUNKED!, co-written by Marcus Gorman, was nominated for the 2024 Gregory Award for Outstanding Original Script. Her successful burlesque parody co-productions have included The Burl-X-Files: The Truth is Down There, The Westminster Daddy Show, and Bechdel Test Burlesque in partnership with GeekGirlCon. Most recently, she was an invited rookie writer for 14/48: The World’s Quickest Theater Festival. |
| Zheng Wang (he/him) | Zheng Wang is a director, playwright, as well as the founder and artistic director of Dare to Dance Seattle. In 2024 he produced and directed his original play “Unstoppable: A Queer Dancical,” an ode to the power and resilience of the drag community. The show pioneered a new format that challenges the convention of musicals and explores the storytelling power of dance. It was a hit with the audience and garnered three Gregory Award nominations. Zheng is currently working on a new dancical titled “Dance With Me.” His other full-length plays include “Sometimes Love” and “Double Happiness.” |