Out in the Tropics Returns Bigger & Better

For the second year, Out in the Tropics, a gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender contemporary performing arts festival, brings audiences an impressive line-up of award-winning, cutting-edge artists from around the world. The festival, a five-day event last year, has expanded with events at five different venues and runs from June 9-19. “Out in the Tropics gives audiences a chance to see artists that they wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to see in Miami,” says Robert Rosenberg, Festival Artistic Director. “These are the type of artists that you’d see performing in New York or San Francisco.” Rosenberg voiced his excitement about the growth of the Festival as well this year’s collaborations with City Theatre and the Arsht Center. "We're excited to bring Out in the Tropics back to Miami for a second year, bigger, longer and more diverse than before. GLBT artists, mining the terrain of gender, sexuality and identity, create some of the best and most challenging work today around the world, and Miami audiences deserve to see these performances on our local stages."

While Rosenberg says the purpose of Out in the Tropics is to “provide a showcase for these incredible and innovative GLBT artists in Miami,” he also adds “these performers are some of the best in their genres and could be showcases anywhere, not just a gay festival.” For example, one of last year’s Out in the Tropics’ performers, Beverly McClellan, is one of the finalists on NBC’s The Voice.

The lineup for this year’s Out in the Tropics is a diverse offering of performers. There’s BITCH. “She’s been performing for a long time,” says Rosenberg. She used to perform with a partner named Animal in an act called Bitch & Animal. Now it’s just Bitch.” BITCH has an interesting sound, a folksy, R & B, rock mix, that should appeal to a younger audience. “Her music reaches back to the 70s generation of queer music,” says Rosenberg. And then there’s CROTCH. “Crotch is a well respected dancer/actor/performing artist,” says Rosenberg. “His stuff is more fun, entertaining with a message.” Both performers will be at the Colony Theatre.

This year Out in the Tropics has added film to the Festival. Cracks, the featured film, runs all week at the Coral Gables Art Cinema. While Cracks will certainly appeal to the lesbian crowd, it has a greater appeal as it’s set in an all-girls school in the 1930s. “It’s a very sensual film,” says Rosenberg. “Like a 1930s Girls Gone Wild with a lesbian undertone.”

Another offering of Out in the Tropics is Lip Service: True Stories Out Loud, a storytelling series that features stories that are hilarious, heartbreaking, poignant, embarrassing, inspiring and all true. “This is an ongoing project,” says Rosenberg. “It returns to the Miracle Theatre where it’s been performed before.

“Jai Rodriguez, known for Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, is probably the most well known performer in the Festival,” says Rosenberg of the star of Dirty Little Secrets, a collaboration with City Theatre and the Arsht Center. Dirty Little Secrets, described as “Jai Rodriguez’s hilarious, provocative and irreverent musical revue” runs June 10-24 at the Arsht Center.

Out in the Tropics runs from June 9-19. The Festival kicks off on with a panel discussion and opening reception at the Shore Club on June 9. For more information on Out in the Tropics Out in the Tropics call 305.910.7898 or visit www.outinthetropics.com.