Stephen Gribbin and Robert Ribar started Femme Fatale Theater 2011. The goal of their monthly event is simple: create an event featuring queer artists that didn't necessarily focus on stereotypical queer obsessions with a focus on typically nerdy-geeky tropes.
I sat down with Rob to ask him some questions.
1) how did you get started in theater?
I was an only child with an active imagination and in lieu of playing with siblings, I loved nothing more than to sing and dance along with videotapes of "Mary Poppins" and "The Wizard of Oz". My parents saw this and, in addition to probably assuming that I was as queer as a cucumber, signed me up for singing and tap dancing lessons when I was no more than three-years-old. This began a lifelong need/obsession/love with performing and theater. From elementary school through twelve-grade, I appeared in every play or musical that I could.
I spent the summer before my senior year of high school studying at Northwestern University as part of the National High School Institute (commonly known as “Cherubs”) – a seven-day a week, intensive “theater boot camp”. This solidified my desire to pursue theater as a career and I went on to study Drama at the Playwrights Horizons Theatre School, one of the many studios that make up NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Once there, my concentration moved away from acting and into directing and producing. Since graduating in 2008, I have actively directed and produced my own projects through my theater company Femme Fatale Theater and other ventures; worked as an actor, producer, dramaturg and designer on other people’s projects, and currently work as a fulltime story editor and associate producer for a two-time Tony Award nominated production company.
2) What's in like founding a theater company?
There is no one-way to create a theater company. Every company has a unique journey, goal and method of achieving that goal but a common thread is certainly hard work.
Femme Fatale Theater was founded by myself and my producing partner Stephen Gribbin in 2011 and together we basically handle every aspect of production from casting shows and booking acts to marketing and graphic design to booking the theater and press relations. Certainly, we have had a great deal of help from our collaborators and supporters but at the end of the day it is more or less a two-man operation. We hope to have the company grow to include more people but we are still in our infancy and the less bureaucracy, the easier it is to get things done.
As is often the case, the more artistic control you command, the more work you have in store. Since starting “Queer Not Cool” three months ago, there is not a day that goes by when Stephen or I are not completing some necessary task to get the show off the ground. At first, I figured, the show is only once a month, how much work could that be? Soon, I discovered – quite a bit! Given the specific focus of our show (queer nerds) there is a bit more finesse that goes into selecting acts then the average comedy/music/variety show. As the show continues to grow and become more secure in its identity, it is becoming easier and easier to book performers and attract an audience however it is still a daily struggle and I don’t foresee it ever becoming a smooth running machine, nor would I want it to be.
3) Why Nerdy stuff? Are you nerdy? What comics/tv/books influence your art
I’ve always been a big nerd. As a kid, my biggest nerdy obsessions were “Star Wars”, “GI Joe”, comic books, stand-up comedy and Broadway musicals. I’m 26 and I came of age just as “nerd culture” was really entering the mainstream through the first four “Batman” films, the “X-Files” on television, the “Star Wars” prequels, “The Matrix”, and the rise of the Internet. Of course, there has always been a nerd subculture but for the first time ever, it was actually becoming cool to have these geeky obsessions.
In some ways, it was if there was a whole generation of nerds coming out of the geek closet and I wonder if the underlining themes of geekdom – the desire to be accepted, feeling different than everyone else, utopian vs. dystopian – that connects so strongly with queer individuals. Superheroes struggle to come to terms with elements beyond their control. “Star Trek” postulates a world where people of different races and beliefs can live together in harmony. These themes resonate with queer people who are either out or still discovering their sexuality.
I have never dated “cool” guys and I’ve frequently gone out with people who are very knowledgeable about typical “geeky” subjects. Stephen, my co-producer, and I dated for a year and a half (we are still the best of friends) and I remember our second date involved a two hour discussion of superheroes over several Bloody Marys.
About eight months ago I entered into such a relationship and I quickly discovered that most of his gay friends, like many of mine, were obsessed with many a nerdy subject from “Game of Thrones” to “Doctor Who” and, unlike me, most of them shun textbook gay culture such as dancing, drag, and even steadfastly avoid gay bars. This got me thinking: there are so many events in NYC for queer folks but, while many of them are great, they all fall steadfastly into the stereotypes of gay culture. Our goal was to produce a show that catered to the rest of the queer community or, at the very least, our own nerdy sensibilities.
However, although sci-fi and superheroes are a big part of the “Queer Not Cool” aesthetic, our show aims to target all kinds of niche obsessions. The Internet allows everyone to indulge his or her unique fetish, a trend echoed in the expansion of traditional television and cable news, and we hope to touch on as many of these topics as possible. Folks are obsessive about a great many topics: politics, music, movies literature, podcasts, science, sports, clothes – and we hope to highlight all of these topics.
Personally, my art has been influenced by a great deal of artists. I am especially influenced by the films of Woody Allen, John Carpenter, Brian DePalma, Robert Altman, Stanley Kubrick, Kenneth Anger, Quentin Tarantino, Mel Brooks, and especially horror and exploitation films from the 70s and 80s and the television shows “The Simpsons”, “Seinfeld”, “The Larry Sanders Show”, “Tom Goes to the Mayor”, and “Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job”. I am a rabid podcast listener with my favorites being “Doug Loves Movies”, “WTF with Marc Maron”, “Comedy Bang Bang” and “The Nerdist” along with the radio show “The Best Show on WFMU”.
4) What do you want people to get out of these performances, any big ideas you think loop things together?
We had several goals in mind when starting “Queer Not Cool”. First, we wanted to create a show that was both secure in its queer identity but free to explore topics and obsessions not always associated with queer audiences. Second, we want to offer an opportunity to artists to try out new material and to take risks that they wouldn’t normally. This also allows us to promote artists whose work we find exciting. Finally, a goal of this show was to mix and match mediums and to bring artists of different disciplines together. There are many gay comedy shows or gay music shows throughout the city but they are exactly that “comedy” and “music” shows and never the twains shall meet. It is our goal, to provide a forum where artists who normally may not observe one another’s work can and hopefully glean inspiration from each other.
We hope that our audiences, both straight and gay, take away from our show that the queer populace is far more diverse than Bravo, MTV, or “Glee” may have us believe. Yes, there are many gays who love musicals but there is a substantial sect of the queer population who would rather be at a hardcore punk show (as someone who plays in a punk band and works in musical theatre, I’ve bridged the gap).
5) What has been a great moment for you so far?
Our second show featured comedian and author Bob Smith, the first “out” comedian on “The Tonight Show” and the first “out” comedian to have his own HBO special, two of the highest achievements for a stand-up. Unfortunately, Bob has since been diagnosed with ALS (commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease). When I booked Bob on the show, he informed me that it was difficult for him to speak and that Bob would be having a fellow comedian, the hilarious Eddie Sarfaty, performing his bits for him. When I met Bob, I was surprised to find that he had lost much of his ability to verbally speak but not surprised to find that the comedic spark still burned within him. Eddie read a piece that Bob wrote for a new book called “Love, Christopher Street”. It was a beautiful piece that was both hilarious and heartbreaking and tackled his diagnosis head on. I was so touched that we were able to offer Bob a chance to “speak” and honored that he decided to take part in our fledgling show.
6) What's your hope for the future?
I want the show to continue to grow. It would be fantastic to reach a point where I don’t need to worry about audience attendance and can simply focus on putting on the best show possible. We are still finding our voice but it becomes clearer with each passing show. I would love for “Queer Not Cool” to become an outlet for queer artists and their fans to test and challenge themselves. Although the bulk of the show is intended to be funny and has finally forced me to get on stage and actually perform stand-up, we don’t want to shy away from moments that can touch the soul and our tear ducts because all of these feelings, both happy and sad, are apart of the queer experience.
Moving forward, our shows will become more and more “theme” based and we hope to explore such topics as varied as the November election, James Bond films, slasher movies, country music, and many, many more. Additionally, we hope to expand the brand into other mediums such as a podcast or webseries.
All of the money we raise through “Queer Not Cool” returns to the coffers of Femme Fatale Theater and will go towards producing more events including a new full-length play that we are developing and hope to produce by the winter.
You guys can find out more about Queer Not Cool at the event page.
