Home

21 Apr Damn Gina

The Ginas never laugh alone. Whenever one member of Austin’s first and only all-black, all-female improv troupe cracks a joke or starts a giggle, every member lets out a big, knowing guffaw.

Cene Hale, Maggie Maye, Ronnita Miller, Tauri Laws-Phillips, and Xaria Coleman all have infectious laughs, and as they spread, the sound of their chuckling infuses an awesomely intimate warmth, sincerity, and affirmation into each moment of hilarity. The friendship and deep connection these women share is in every giggle, every crinkle of the eye, every knowing glance or “yessssss.” The Ginas’ friendship is even more powerful because each member spent so much time feeling alone as the only black girl in the room. Now, these babes who all felt like outsiders are in fucking formation. And they’re changing minds about the way people of color are represented on stage, confronting problems that exist off-stage head on.

10 Feb Adrienne Dawes

“How am I not myself?” In I Heart Huckabees, Jude Law’s character poses this question to a pair of existential detectives. Until then, they have been unshakeable, but in response to his query, the two just stare at each other and repeat his words, profoundly and maniacally. 

In real life, the question of identity—where we come from, who we are, who we want or need to be—is just as complicated and all-encompassing. Adrienne Dawes, a playwright and theater artist based in Austin, would tell you it’s also more fluid than we may be pressured to believe. Adrienne’s plays, especially her award-winning Am I White, reflect an interest in and exploration of identity that has its roots in her own experience. I recently got to chat with Adrienne, who is now busy with two simultaneous productions, Denim Doves and Love Me Tinder. In a phone call that felt like a connection between two friends who had yet to meet face-to-face, we talked about her productions, her day job, her unique family, meeting the man that Am I White was inspired by, the power and necessity of loneliness, and making stuff you love with people you love.

03 Feb Jeremy Snevil

“This is the whole thing!” Jeremy Snevil exclaims with a laugh, gesturing at his get-up after we finish our photo shoot in his bandmate’s mom’s basement in New Jersey. He’s wearing a sweater, scarf, and jacket on top…and just fishnets and cowboy boots below.

It kind of is the whole thing. By day, Jeremy works in special education, but on the nights and weekends, he dresses up in BDSM gear and gets whipped onstage as he plays bass for Pink Mass, a band he helped found that describes itself as “PANSEXUAL PERVERT PUNK GRIND, CONJURING THE UNHOLY POWERS OF SEX, SATAN AND VIOLENCE TO DESTROY THE EARS AND GENITALS OF EARTH'S HUMAN FILTH.” The band’s over-the-top aesthetic is meant to challenge and play with our expectations of sex, metal, and all the evil things in-between, but it’s also a perfect way for Jeremy to do what he does so well: have some fucking fun.