That Uppity Theatre Company

By Scott Miller
InTheater Magazine, April 10, 1998

The age of the impressario is not dead -- but those few who are carrying on today in the tradition of Florenz Ziegfeld, Billy Rose, and Serge Diaghilev are not necessarily located in New York.

Based in St. Louis, Joan Lipkin is active as a producer, presenter, artistic director, playwright, and theatre professor. She created St. Louis' premiere alternative space, the St. Marcus Theatre, which for 10 years has been home to her work, her company (That Uppity Theatre Company), and her acclaimed AC/DC Series of performance art primarily by women, gays, lesbians, and artists of color. She also co-founded the Women CenterStage! Series at the Center of Contemporary Arts. Her plays are performed around the world. And, as if all of that isn't enough, she teaches courses in performance art and women's performance at Washington University.

Lipkin began her life in political theater by writing "Just Like Family", which opened the first annual St. Louis Playwrights Festival in 1985. Three years later, she created "See How They Run," a satiric look at the presidential race. In 1989, in honor of the 20th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots and in opposition to Missouri's sexual misconduct laws, she wrote "Some of My Best Friends Are...". In 1990, her absurdist comedy "He's Having Her Baby" addressed reproductive rights and gender roles. In 1991, she wrote "Love & Other Four-Letter Words", about office and gender politics in corporate America. And in 1992, she created After Rodney, a poetry performance group of white women and women of color addressing racial issues in America.

That same year – as America debated the National Endowment of the Arts, the Rodney King verdict, and the notorious 1992 Republican National Convention – Lipkin founded the Alternate Currents/Direct Currents (AC/DC) Series at the St. Marcus, opening her first season with a performance by openly-gay, HIV-positive monologist Michael Kearns. And what a ride it’s been since then. When Lipkin presented Tim Miller’s My Queer Body, her printer refused to print flyers for the show; the post office refused to mail the flyers, once they were printed; the minister and congregation of the St. Marcus Church (which houses the theatre) came under attack; there were threats of shutting down the theatre space for building code violations; and one of the company’s major funders, the Regional Arts Commission, was impugned by the public and by its own commissioners. But Lipkin beat down each obstacle through sometimes unpleasant confrontations and aggressive public education efforts.

Despite bomb threats and other problems, Lipkin never shrinks from her mission. “The primary reason for our success is that we answer a need that is not consistently met by other theatrical organizations in the area,” she says. “Our audiences know they can count on seeing the latest, cutting-edge performances in the country, uncompromised in their risk-taking. They also know they’ll see gender, ethnic, and racial representations on stage that they rarely see in St. Louis.”

In addition to established figures like Tim Miller, Lipkin presents emerging talent. Alumni of the series include Sara Felder, John McGivern, Paul Bonin-Rodriguez, and Marcia Wilkie; it’s not uncommon for St. Louis audiences to see “new” artists on HBO specials or profiled in national magazines whom they saw years before in the AC/DC Series. And Lipkin’s two-year-old Women CenterStage! Series – crafted with the same care and intelligence as AC/DC – addresses issues like motherhood, the experiences of at-risk, teenage, black, and Latino girls; and the myths of unattainable modern domesticity in America.

Most people would be content with that, but Lipkin seems never to be contented. There are always more issues to be dealt with, more people and experiences that shouldn’t be ignored. In 1997, inspired by her work with Joe Chaikin, she began The Disability Project, a multi-year series of workshops with disabled and non-disabled theater artists and members of the community. When that’s done, she will no doubt be involved in another half dozen projects. Luckily for St. Louis audiences, and for artists in New York and across the country, Joan Lipkin doesn’t know when – or how – to stop.

Scott Miller is the artistic director of New Line Theatre in St. Louis. He has written for the Stephen Sondheim Stage Web site.