Qmmunity: Andie Flores and Sam Mayer’s 3 Scenes From Queer Utopia
Taking the stage in a cage
By James Scott, Fri., Nov. 15, 2024
Anyone else doing a li’l reflecting the past few days? The way forward isn’t certain, which means trusting our internal compass to guide us is a scary but unavoidable prospect. Confronting the self has been a staple of local queer artists Andie Flores and Sam Mayer’s individual work – both in Flores’ show To Get There... You Must Undergo... A Radical Transformation... and Mayer’s continuing poolboy00 series – and now they take on their own impulses in joint production 3 Scenes From Queer Utopia.
Taking place within the Museum of Human Achievement’s outdoor Cage Match Project installation – yes, the big rusty cage at the Canopy complex – the performance opens on Sunday, Nov. 17, with a reception the day before that’ll reveal the actual stage. Utilizing this space in particular occurred to Flores and Mayer because of its strange ubiquity. “[Usually] artists create sculptural work that lives in the cage and is exposed to all the dust of the parking lot and the elements outside of MoHA,” Flores remarks. “Sam and I thought it would be an apt place to put on a performance – this cage that’s kind of always there whether you notice it or not, especially [for] a show about 'queer utopia.’”
The narrative on the cage stage has actors performing as Flores and Mayer in a conversation about art’s role in the changing world, while the real creators remain nearby as directors manipulating the scene. Experimental artists Grant Gilker (as Mayer) and Venese Alcantar (as Flores) secured their roles despite not bearing a one-to-one resemblance to their characters’ real-life counterparts. Instead, what they provided was a collaborative spirit: “We found a sweet spot of actors who sort of look like us and sort of can act like us, but who also challenge us in their portrayals,” Flores says. “They bring Grant-ness to Sam and Venese-ness to Andie, which is a really sticky and exciting quality.” Mayer adds that since the 3 Scenes project remains in a moldable state, “it was important to us to find performers who wanted to be partners in the process.”
Processing makes up a great deal of 3 Scenes’ origin story. Flores and Mayer have flirted with autobiography in previous works, which drew them to each other. Stage show To Get There from Flores, which envisioned a Wizard of Oz-like journey through embarrassment alongside drag artist Arinna Dior Heys, inspired Mayer in its loudness. “I love Andie’s work because it’s so big and bold, screams and shouts, and looks amazing,” he explains, “all qualities I wish I had in my work.” On Flores’ side, the work Mayer has done shows a similar reflective self-loathing to her own: “[Both] deal with 'self’ in sort of circular, spiraling ways.”
This new joint work, however, draws from their different thoughts on art: the hopeful Flores and Mayer, a cynic. “I feel a genuine sense of futility about arts’ transformative potential,” Mayer explains. “How could I presume to know what the world needs? Anyway, I feel a real freedom in this futility. Once I stopped caring about saving the world, I started to make good art.” Flores, on the other hand, sees hope in art’s failure to save the world, “or in the cycle of failure required to resist fascism. It’s tight organization and big efforts for small wins, over and over again.”
If art is not the singular sword that’ll pierce evil’s armor, the question remains what the point of art even is. For Flores and Mayer, 3 Scenes is their struggle with that question made physical. “Asking whether or not art can save the world is asking the wrong question,” Mayer says. “If you accept that the answer is no, what do you make art about?”
Queer Trivia
Thursday 14 & Thursday 21, Wanderlust Wine Shady
Aira Juliet and the Little Gay Shop give y’all a space for laughter, memes, and remembering extremely specific knowledge you read online/saw on TV/absorbed through cultural osmosis. This month’s trivia nights promise a bit o’ brain rot, which is needed in difficult times such as these.
Sc3n3 Qu33ns and MySpace Things
Friday 15, Cheer Up Charlies
Dig out the As I Lay Dying shirts and that RAWRXD attitude as DJ Turito hosts another edition of their scene & emo style show. Drag lineup includes Brigitte Bandit, Lavender Thug, Jenna Talia, Mx. Cuntstrood, Solo Vino, Neura Toxin, and Ryan.
Drag Your Ass Out: Thots Giving
Friday 15, Copperhead Club
Time to give thanks to all the pop divas blowing up the music charts and our hearts. Eileen Dover hosts, with special guests from across Texas: Gem Doll Dlux (SATX), Amy H. Graves (DTX), and Maria Maria (HTX). Plus a vendor market, T-Day flash tats by Inked Majesty, and TJ the DJ on deck.
“Ceremony”
Saturday 16 & Sunday 17, Future Front House
FFTX presents their Austin Studio tour selection: a group exhibition featuring selected works by Future Front’s resident artists that center “ritual and craft” and explore “the personal and communal routines that return us to ourselves.”
No Body Passes
Saturday 16 & Sunday 17, Rogge Ranch House
An official Austin Studio Tour stop, those artistic fiends at Thee Gay Agenda (along with experimental theatre Salvage Vanguard) present the second edition of No Body Passes. This event – both a pop-up gallery and Saturday-only variety show – takes inspiration from the book of the same name and “invites the public to explore and celebrate identities beyond cis-normativity.” All artists featured are trans and gender-expansive.
Sparkle Stride
Sunday 17, Epoch North Loop
Second time around, Erica Nix takes her aerobic-led dance parade to North Loop where you’ll take a 45-60 stroll from Epoch coffeehouse around the neighborhood – all while sparkling bright and early.
Sapphic Singles
Sunday 17, Cabana Club
Find a friend, a foe, or a fall-time lover at this sapphic social hosted by Areesha Singh and Erin Camp.
Hello Darlings Presents: Wicked
Monday 18, the Iron Bear
Before it’s on the big screen, experience Act I of Broadway’s greenest musical through drag performances hosted by Hilda Dixon. Theatre kids welcome; wizards, now, that’s a different story...
Coping Strategies for Feeling Stuck
Tuesday 19, allgo
Organized by allgo, this event works as a comforting space for queer and trans people of color and their intimate partners to process the bevy of emotions following recent, well, stressors. “This event will be providing a space for folks who feel emotionally, physically, sexually, spiritually, and mentally stuck,” allgo writes, “(AKA 'freeze mode’).” RSVP before attending.
Snoot Boop Munch
Wednesday 20, the Austin Eagle
Pet players of all furs are invited to meet up with Boop Society of Central Texas officers for a li’l brunch and socializing. Stick around if you’ve got the time for Kennel Karaoke!
Night of 1,000 Goths
Thursday 21, Elysium
Keepin’ it dark and dank is what Elysium – nightclub de la nuit for the vampy set – does best, which is why Boyz of Austin plans to tribute their chosen venue in true goth fashion. The Boyz and host Solo Vino promise a show centering “goth style, genre, and culture, in every one of its glorious and ghastly forms.”
Trans Health Autonomy Social Mixer
Thursday 21, Monkeywrench Books
Join your local revolutionary bookstore for a conversation and community building as trans folks and allies band together in light of the recent election – and just the general uphill battle the trans community has been fighting since five-ever.
Glamp Glamp: Potato, Po-taw-toe
Thursday 21, Lynny’s
Attend this queer experimental performance night where all those signing up get six minutes to strut their incredible self-made stuff. Go over your time, and risk being chased off by a huge tampon. If you’re looking to surround yourself with a great bunch of gays, few events attract ’em more than Glamp Glamp.
Queer Film Theory 101: More than Friends
Thursday 21, the Highball
Four queer film “professors” present their favorites in the genre of will-they/won’t-they too-close frienship rom-coms. “Hope to see y’all there,” QFT 101 writes, “so we can all be more than friends!”
