LOS ANGELES — There’s only one dress that Jaya Joshi wears in the musical “Interstate.”
There is a bright yellow flowing skirt in this custom-made overalls dress. It’s a costume in many ways, something that feels foreign to both Joshi and Henry, the character they play.
“It is funny to wear it,” they said. “It’s a little painful to wear it.”
“Interstate,” which is described as an Asian-American pop-rock poetry musical, is about a journey — and offstage, Joshi is on a journey as well. They describe themself in various terms: gender neutral, nonbinary and trans, although they have not started pursuing physical transition.
At the moment, Joshi said, it’s like standing on moving ground, for themself and everyone in their life. When they heard about a musical with a character going through some of the same experiences, it was a revelation.
“Somebody must be like me because there’s somebody else playing a role that I could play, which is just rare for a person like me!” they explained. “It makes me feel really normal in a way that I am kind of desperate for.”
The show is the brainchild of Melissa Li and Kit Yan, performers who met in Boston more than a decade ago while working in queer Asian cabaret.
“One day in the dressing room, I asked Melissa if she wanted to quit her job and go on tour with me,” Yan said.
"Yeah, and I was like, 'I don’t really know you that well, but let’s do it,'" Li followed, completing the thought.
That was in 2008, and the musical is based on the two years they spent on the road performing as "Good Asian Drivers." It’s very much their story — the story of a lesbian singer-songwriter and a transgender slam poet — but it’s not just about them.
“We’re telling an incredibly personal and specific story to us, but also the act of doing that opens the conversation for other people to write down their own stories, and to put that out there into the art space and hopefully musical theater as well," said Yan.
They’ve been working on “Interstate” for 10 years, and it arrives at East West Theatre at an interesting crossroads. "A Strange Loop" on Broadway just won the Tony for Best Musical, and actor L Morgan Lee became the first openly transgender performer to be nominated in an acting category.
There are also several shows running in Los Angeles this month about the trans experience, such as “To T or Not to T” at the Kirk Douglas and Celebration Theatre’s “Tales from the Transcestors.”
But while strides have been made in the past decade, Li said that unfortunately some things are still the same.
“I know there is more visibility,” she said. "But there’s also a lot of violence still and there’s a lot of laws that are being enacted that are anti-trans and queer and so all of that is really tough."
As she explained, that’s why it makes telling their story all the more important. Yan refers to the work they do and the way they do it as activist art.
“Part of our mission is to change the landscape of American theater and, therefore, change this world that we live in by telling these stories.”
Having their show at East West Players has been an incredible experience, they say, allowing them to not only see it on stage in this West Coast premiere but also to sit in a theater in community with their community.
“Sometimes the theater doesn’t speak to or reach our community, which is largely queer and trans people of color,” Yan said. "So it was very nice to sit in the audience and have our community with us, to be welcoming folks of many different gender expressions and identities into the space.”
Joshi appreciated that as well but also stressed that “Interstate” is not solely for LGBTQ theatregoers.
“The stories that we went to tell each other are beautiful and universal enough that anybody can relate to them, and can come away with hopefully maybe some empathy toward trans children and adults.”
“Interstate” is running at East West Player’s David Henry Hwang Theatre through June 26.