Moxie Theatre Debuts Award-Winning Play with LGBTQ Focus

Nothing has the power to shake a friend group quite like a new baby. That’s what writer Sarah Gubbins explores in The Kid Thing, her award-winning play about two lesbian couples and the news of an impending pregnancy that rocks them all. The piece, which debuts at Moxie Theatre November 13, is part of a long list of Gubbins’s many accomplishments. The Northwestern University graduate has also developed plays with Chicago’s celebrated Steppenwolf Theatre and New York’s Public Theater. Now the L.A.-based scribe has parlayed her talents to TV as a writer and executive producer for the new Amazon series I Love Dick, helmed by Transparent creator Jill Soloway. Here, Gubbins talks about the fear of having children and what she’d change about LGBTQ representation in mainstream media.

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You originally studied acting, right?

I did at Northwestern. I wasn’t very good. But it did help me to start hearing and envisioning plays and creating characters. I took one playwriting class in college but didn’t start writing plays for another ten years. It took me a while to start writing. I spent many, many hours in theaters as a dramaturge participating in the creating of theater. And then I started writing my own plays, and that was that.

What was the inspiration behind The Kid Thing?

So many of my friends were starting to have babies. And I wanted to examine the ways that the process was different and absolutely the same for queer couples.

The play explores gender fluidity, gender norms, and parenthood. At its core, what is the play about to you?

It’s about facing fear. And dealing with the consequences of that.

Why was it important to make the couple lesbians?

We don’t have enough characters onstage who embody that queer experience.

How do you think LGBTQ representation fares in media today?

Let’s get more stories and more visibility. We don’t want to have a single story that is meant to stand in for all queer experiences, because there is no single narrative.

Moxie Theatre Debuts Award-Winning Play with LGBTQ Focus

Sarah Gubbins | Photo: Elisabeth Caren