Frank Theatre Company, formerly known as Screaming Weenie, is a professional

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

company in

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committed to the production, promotion and development of queer and sex positive arts and artists. The company defines 'queer' as individuals and groups outside of sexual and gender norms.

Early years

Incorporated in 2003 with co-founder and original artistic director Ilena Lee Cramer at the helm, the company established itself by staging new plays and creative collaborations at Vancouver night clubs. While Screaming Weenie was a self-described 'queer company', a descriptive quote from Cramer from the on-line magazine Word Play in 2004 reads, "The Weenies do theatre for a wide audience - I'm interested in reaching those who are disenfranchised by art". Original creations by Screaming Weenie in this period included ''The Bacchae - an electronic opera'', ''The Sound of Disco'' and ''The Wizard of Glam''. The company also produced the plays ''Belly'' by Dawn Wendy McLeod, ''Clue in the Fast Lane'' by Ann Marie MacDonald and Beverley Cooper, ''The Well of Horniness'' by Holly Hughes and ''Lounge'' by Tanya Marquardt.

Second stage

Seán Cummings was hired as the company's artistic director in 2008. Cummings had previously worked with other theatre companies in Vancouver on seminal queer-themed works as Martin Sherman's '' Bent'',"Bent"
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The Georgia Straight ''The Georgia Straight'' is a free Canadian weekly news and entertainment newspaper published in Vancouver, British Columbia, by Overstory Media Group. Often known simply as ''The Straight'', it is delivered to newsboxes, post-secondary schools, ...

'', November 7, 2007.

Brad Fraser Brad Fraser (born June 28, 1959 in Edmonton, Alberta) is a Canadian playwright, screenwriter and cultural commentator.Gaetan Charlebois and Anne Nothof"Fraser, Brad" ''Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia'', June 2, 2019. He is one of the most widely pr ...

's ''

Poor Super Man ''Leaving Metropolis'' is a 2002 Canadian drama film, written and directed by Brad Fraser as an adaptation of his theatrical play ''Poor Super Man''. The film, about a gay man and a married heterosexual man who fall in love, was filmed in Winnipeg ...

'' and Richard Greenberg's '' Take Me Out''. Under Cummings' leadership, the company produced the highly acclaimed world premiere of C. E. Gatchalian's ''Falling In Time'', which was nominated for the 2013

Lambda Literary Award Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the "Lammys", are awarded yearly by Lambda Literary to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ writers play in shaping the world. The Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ literature.The awards were instituted i ...

. Cummings left the company in 2012, and was succeeded by Gatchalian. In late 2017, after a series of significant financial and operational challenges, Gatchalian left the company, and was succeeded by current Artistic Director Fay Nass.

References

Theatre companies in British Columbia Theatre in Vancouver LGBT theatre in Canada LGBT theatre companies {{Vancouver-stub