Nashville’s theater scene can be conservative in imagination and politics. Our large theater houses have always prioritized the milquetoast tastes of donors. Our small groups are bold, sincere and often talented — but perpetually under-resourced. As a result, queer theatermakers have long worked their asses off to carve a very small but richly imagined space to stage their works. The Naughty Tree, written by Woven Theatre’s River Timms and co-directed by Daniel Jones and Lenin Fernandez, changed all of that for two nights in April at Third Man Records’ The Blue Room. It’s an all-inclusive queer retelling of the Garden of Eden story, starring an effervescent James Rudolph II in drag as Mother Nature. Rudolph’s intro includes a call and response, in which he makes the audience say, “I deserve love. I deserve joy. I deserve to be here.” In the queer community, that’s everything. The play was reprised at OZ Arts during the four-day Kindling Arts Festival. But there was something about the intimate show at The Blue Room that felt untouchable, like we were all holding our breath and praying we’d never wake up from the best damn dream.
Best Local Theater Performance
