Kiba Walker has done community events in Fort Worth before but never a theater show. The nonbinary actor says they love working with Circle Theatre, the downtown space where the show they’re referring to will open this weekend and run through mid-July.
Circle, Walker said, is “so professional, and [Artistic Director] Ashley White has made a safe space for a sensitive show. I get to show off my acting ability and build something incredible.”
In this regional premiere of A Strange Loop, Walker stars as a Broadway theater usher named Usher who’s working on writing a stage musical about life as a fat, queer Black man much like himself. The show by Michael R. Jackson not only won the Tony for Best Musical but made the select company of musicals that have also won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. (That company includes Hamilton, Rent, A Chorus Line, Sunday in the Park With George, and South Pacific.)
“You’re told you have to do things a certain way because of your background,” Walker said. “Usher wants to break the norms, but because of his physical appearance, he always finds himself falling back into what his family or society thinks of him.”
Thus, Usher’s song “Exile in Gayville” (which contains Liz Phair references beyond the title) satirizes the gay community for unrealistic standards of male beauty, and his number “Inner White Girl” expresses Usher’s envy of white women for their freedom to stay desirable while being neurotic and messy.
When Black filmmaker Tyler Perry offers Usher a job ghostwriting a “spiritual urban drama” for the stage, Usher reconsiders his hatred of Perry’s plays in “Tyler Perry Writes Real Life,” which features the ghosts of Harriet Tubman, James Baldwin, and Whitney Houston rising from their graves to call Usher a traitor to his race.
The 30-year-old Walker found it easy to relate to the character’s struggle for identity. After growing up in Tacoma, they discovered their singing voice during a brief stint in Los Angeles, which resulted in a permanent move there to find work as a child actor.
“The fluidity of [my identity] did mess with me because people told me I was not masculine enough to play heroes,” they said. In musical theater, “I did like to sing some songs for women because they fit my voice, but I wasn’t allowed to play those because I wasn’t female.”
Walker cited the support they received from their parents and teachers as the reason why they stuck with a career in the arts. Selling their musical instruments funded a move from Hollywood to North Texas, where Walker (a longtime fan of anime) had a job lined up voicing characters for Flower Mound-based Funimation’s English-dubbed versions of Japanese anime series. Their credits include leading roles in Witch Hazel and I Am the Darkness: Intermine Legacy. Walker also got into the drag scene in North Texas, and, under the name of Salem Moon, has won Best Drag Performer in our Best Of Fort Worth issue.
Of course, this is a parlous time for a show about queer identity, with the current White House doing its best to roll back protections for LGBTQIA+ people.
“This is the perfect time to tell trans and queer people that they are not alone,” said Walker, who added that A Strange Loop could work just as well with a trans actor in the lead role. “Theater has always been a form of storytelling and protest. If we stop talking about [religion, politics, and homophobia], we stop evolving. I’m glad this show is happening in North Texas at a time when it’s scary for some people. These stories are not being pushed into the closet.”
A Strange Loop
Jun 19-Jul 12 at Circle Theatre, 230 E 4th St, FW. $40-45. 817-877-3040.
