Pull Up a Stool to LGBT History at Immersive Dinner Theater in a Real Diner | Eater SF

"Faced with the dilemma of dramatizing a little-known but pivotal civil-rights moment without becoming didactic, the Tenderloin Museum commissioned and produced The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot as an immersive dinner-theater project. I found the museum’s approach—led by co-creator Mark Nassar and Katie Conry (the museum’s director), who wanted audiences to feel ‘really there’—effective at creating empathy and helping people identify with the queer liberation movement. The museum enlisted co-writers Collette LeGrand and Donna Personna, longtime drag performers and Tenderloin residents whose experiences mirror those of the trans women in the story, which adds lived authenticity to the production." - Jay C. Barmann