The Last Page is dedicated to individuals who are making a positive impact on the LGBTQ community in Central Florida and Tampa Bay.
This issue, we check in with Orlando’s Donald Rupe, co-founder and artistic director for the Renaissance Theatre Company. Keep an eye on this space to learn more about the movers and shakers of your community.
Hometown: Orlando, Florida
Identifies As: Gay
Pronouns: He/Him/His
Out Year: 2003
Profession: Renaissance Theatre Company co-founder and artistic director
Professional role model: Cole NeSmith, I love what he has been doing recently.
Autobiography Title: “To Be Happy”
Hobbies: When I have a break from work on shows, I like to go watch shows. Also love to just hang out with my friends and go out.
What do you do professionally?
I wear many hats. I’m a producer of theater and then right under that more and more of my time I’m writing theater.
How do you champion for the local LGBTQ community?
I think I would have to answer by living as authentically as I can in every space that I’m in.
What is your favorite thing to read in Watermark?
Selfishly [laughs] I read anytime you all review anything, even if it’s not mine. I love the arts so any reviews or arts-focused coverage you do I love to read.
What is your favorite local LGBTQ event?
I think it is probably a cliché answer but it is Come Out With Pride fore me. I have a thing for Pride parades, they always make me cry. It’s one of those times, since I grew up here, that I feel like I see everybody that I’ve ever known so it’s like a big family reunion in the streets.
What is your favorite thing about the local LGBTQ community?
I find it very inclusive. I’ve heard some people over the years say that it’s not but my experience has been that I always feel included and welcomed when I’m in a space that I identify myself as LGBTQ.
What would you like to see improved in the local LGBTQ community?
We’ve obviously been losing spaces that were more strictly ours, so I would like to see — not to be too corny — a renaissance of more overtly out, gay spaces, especially theater spaces. You would think there would be more of a crossover with theater spaces and gay spaces. I’d like to see more bridges built between those.
What is something that might surprise our readers to know about you?
I don’t listen to music. I write music but I don’t listen to it. [When asked if he has his radio turned on when he is in his car.] No, I sit in silence. I think it is really the only time that I am not around a lot of people or noise. I do a lot of writing in my head while I drive.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Again, I know it’s cliché but I would say “It gets better.”
What do you love about the local theater community?
Its potential. I think the arts community in general but the theater community in Orlando has great potential to become comparable to other great theater communities in the world. I don’t think we’re there yet but I see more and more new work, diverse work and new voices that are starting to be elevated and elevate themselves. I think there is huge potential here.
Why did you open the Renaissance Theatre Company?
Starting like six years ago I started writing a new show and since then I started wondering why you don’t see more new work happening in Orlando. When you go to New York or Chicago or any of the big cities, all of those theater companies are doing shows you’ve never heard of. When you come to Orlando, you see titles of shows everyone knows. So I thought if we’re going to reach new heights as a community then we have got to do new things, new shows.
During the pandemic I chose to uproot my life and try something new and I felt like I had reached a point in my life where I could try something new and so I did. That became Renaissance Theatre.
What can people expect to see from the Renaissance Theatre Company in the coming months?
We just announced that we are doing a show every Sunday [starting Feb. 20] that I wrote last year for Fringe called “Oscar Wilde and Jesus Christ Walk into a Gay Bar,” but we are doing it like a cabaret show. In March we are bringing back another show that I did at Fringe, but it is totally revamped, called “Gorgeous,” which was loosely based on the movie “Drop Dead Gorgeous.” And in April we are bringing in the people who did “Ain’t Done Bad” at Fringe last year. Our Musical Mondays are doing amazing and we are also an official Fringe venue this year.
Do you know an LGBTQ business person you would like to see featured in a future Last Page in Watermark? Recommend people in Central Florida to Editor-in-Chief Jeremy Williams at Jeremy@WatermarkOnline.com and people in Tampa Bay to Managing Editor Ryan Williams-Jent at Ryan@WatermarkOnline.com.
