Pluto Koehnen

“Static,” an extraterrestrial, queer-centered play written by Lucía Salazar-Davidson and Kyle Hayes, ran from Feb. 5 to Feb. 8. The production takes place in a small, Midwestern town during the town fair. 

“Static” is centered around Lewis, Joan, and Maren. Lewis is Joan’s 22-year-old brother. He is an anxious, controlling person who believes in aliens and extraterrestrial life. Lewis copes with the death of his and Joan’s parents through his beliefs in aliens. Joan is Lewis’s 17-year-old sibling. 

Throughout the show, they grapple with being out with their sexuality and gender. Joan copes with the loss of their parents through flight—wanting to leave the town to go to college. Finally, Maren is the 22-year-old love interest. She is a friend, sister, and part-time musician whom both Joan and Lewis share as a love interest. Each of the characters copes in unique ways: distraction, flight, and escapism. 

When interviewing writer Salazar-Davidson, he further discussed this idea of grief and queerness: “This show, to me, is about grief… the biggest message I want people to take from ‘Static’ is that there is a way out, and you deserve to live free of expectations, free of homophobia, free of guilt or obligation of things that can’t love you back. ‘Static’ is a love letter to kids from rural towns who are trying to figure out what it means to be queer in a place that doesn’t love you back.” Within “Static,” Joan—played by Katelyn Lee—is caught between their obligation to sustain their family farm with Lewis, or move to the big city to obtain a college degree. The town’s transphobia/homophobia, their rocky relationship with Lewis, and the death of their parents magnify Joan’s internalized conflict. Throughout the act, Joan is constantly misgendered and teased. Their relationship with their brother Lewis falls apart as he 

obsesses over aliens and pushes his obligations to maintain the farm onto Joan. 

The ending of “Static” is left open, allowing audiences to explore. After aliens seem to invade the town, Lewis watches doppelgängers of his parents taunt Joan. Lewis—played by Dante Austin—pleads with Joan to forgive him for how he treated them while watching Joan sob in 

agony. Salazar-Davidson states that he wanted people to feel the fear of a queer kid, “that fear of what if they find out and I’m not ready for them to. I think that the horror and fear of it comes from the inability to express yourself.” 

Salazar-Davidson and Kyle Hayes donated their profits from “Static” to the Trans Mutual Aid Fund, a queer-led nonprofit that assists trans and gender non-conforming people within the Twin Cities. They were able to make $1,340 in donations. While asked about the donations, Salazar-Davidson stated that “being able to raise that amount is something that means so much to me. Because I believe that theaters should be used in order to generate change and in order to push change.” When asked why he picked the Twin Cities Trans-Mutual-Aid-Fund specifically, he expressed that “‘Static’ is a show that is set in the Midwest, and I wanted the money to go to help transgender people in this Midwest area. I know that there is a lot of need right now in the 

cities because of the current occupation.” Salazar-Davidson mentioned that he has interacted with the Twin Cities Trans Mutual Aid Fund before, saying, “I knew they would get it to the people who need it.