Detour Productions is a grassroots collective that creates immersive, site-responsive performances rooted in queer, trans, disabled, and BIPOC experiences. Founded in 2009 by Eric Garcia and Kat Gorospe Cole, Detour blends dance, theater, and drag to push the boundaries of performance and expand whose stories get told—and how.

Our flagship program is the creation and presentation of evening-length immersive works. Recent productions include The Twilight Aristocracy (2024), which transformed Fort Mason Center’s General’s Residence into a queer maximalist secret society, and We Build Houses Here (2023), which turned Oasis Nightclub into a post-shipwreck world of survival, connection, and communal rebuilding. Earlier works such as Quake (2022), Up On High (2022), Fugue (2017), and Beckon, (2015) explore themes of gentrification, racialized desire, mental health, legacy, and queer ancestry. Across all projects, we emphasize collaborative devising, deep research, and performances rooted in place.

Detour also runs Clutch The Pearls, a monthly cabaret uplifting experimental new work by queer and trans dancers and drag artists. Now in its sixth year, Clutch has become a staple in San Francisco’s queer performance scene, providing mentorship and consistent stage opportunities for emerging artists.

Our Workshop Series and Seasonal Intensives support artist development through training in devising, ensemble practices, drag performance, makeup, self-producing, budgeting, and grant writing. These programs are open to all, with a focus on creating intergenerational spaces that reflect our community’s full spectrum of experience and access needs.

Other key accomplishments include producing the Tiny Dance Film Festival (2010–2020), participating in CHIME with Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, and receiving multiple Izzie nominations. In 2024, Detour became a 501(c)(3), marking a new chapter in our long-standing commitment to queer-centered artmaking, community, and sanctuary.