Four-time Helen Hayes Award winner Ashleigh King is my plus-one for this third episode of The Show With No Name, and we’re talking about what it means (and what it feels like) to make culture in the District, how “Sure you can” became a King family mantra, and which three words can be a signal that Ashleigh is about to say something shady.
In the episode’s main segment, Ashleigh and I talk to Dr. Thea Kano, artistic director of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington. After 22 years of history with an organization that boasts more than 300 singing members, there’s not much Kano hasn’t seen or heard either onstage or backstage.
GMCW, Kano explains, is both a niche operation and the largest queer arts organization in the DMV. And they found themselves making national headlines last year when the Trump Administration started tinkering with programming at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Kano’s take on what went down when the chorus’s World Pride concert with the National Symphony Orchestra got canceled starts at around 28:20, for anyone who wants to skip straight to the she-said version.
And yes, my non-singing gheys: I did ask Thea about what kinds of shenanigans go down out there in the woods on GMCW’s legendary (notorious?) annual retreat. These are the things you can always count on me for.
No spoilers in this post — you’ll have to listen for yourself. But there’s a reason The Washington Blade keeps ranking GMCW as the best LGBTQ+ social organization in town.
Recorded live at the Barrel House Cafe and Bar in Logan Circle, with plus-one Ashleigh King and headline guest Thea Kano. Host: Trey Graham. Executive producer: Solomon HaileSelassie. Production assistant: Megan Hannah.
