After a nationwide search, The Theater Offensive is proud to present theater and film producer, talent
manager, and LGBTQIA+ rights advocate Giselle Byrd as its new executive director. The appointment makes Byrd the first Black trans woman to lead a regional theater company in the United States.
A long time theater and arts executive, Byrd brings to TTO her expertise in production, casting, script coverage, brand management, and fundraising. She most recently worked at the Katz Company in New York, where for nine years she managed the careers of rising and prominent actors, musicians, activists, and content creators, while simultaneously creating brand strategies and developing partnerships with companies such as Google, LVMH, OPI, The WNBA, and others. As a documentary film producer, Byrd was the first transgender woman accepted in the Through Her Lens: The Tribeca Chanel Filmmaker Program.
The Theater Offensive (TTO), founded in 1989, presents liberating art by, for, and about queer and trans people of color, transcending artistic boundaries, celebrating cultural abundance, and dismantling oppression. TTO is currently building the Boylston Black Box, which will be the world’s largest theater owned and operated by queer and trans people of color.
“Giselle is more than ready to meet this moment of change in American theater, and this moment of possibility and threat for the queer and trans community,” said Stetson Marshall, chair of TTO’s Board of directors. “Her vision of art as critical to social justice, her deep connections with many communities, her superb people skills, her lived experience as a transgender woman of color, and her varied theater accomplishments together make her an ideal executive director as TTO enters an exciting era.”
“I’m excited to lead The Theater Offensive on its journey of theater innovation and queer and trans liberation,” said Byrd. “While traditionally marginalized voices are being silenced, and trans women of color, like myself, suffer an epidemic of violence, TTO centers those creative voices 365 days a year. I’m thrilled to join TTO’s work of redefining the American theater landscape.“
— from a TTO press release
More: The Theater Offensive
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