Above: The drag queen PomPom Pomegranate (left) poses with Caitlin Ross (right) at this year's Be Here! Be You! event.
By Jillian L. Martinez
Elin Schran is no stranger to the world of ice shows and productions. After all, she is the daughter of 1956 Olympic champion Dr. Tenley Albright.
However, Schran has created her own legacy on the ice. Not only has she served as a performer in numerous ice shows, she is also an experienced coach and choreographer and founded several ice productions in Boston. The newest production, Joy Skate Productions, was founded in 2018 and has made its mission to make “the joy of skating accessible to all through free, professional outdoor shows, and workshops for every age, level, and ability.”
Although the organization hosts a number of workshops and events throughout the year, their annual “fun-raiser” Be Here! Be YOU! has become a signature Pride Month event to support the LGBTQ+ community and was hosted earlier this month on June 3 in Boston.
“Be Here! Be YOU! is a skating party to celebrate and support the LGBTQ+ community,” said Schran, the innovator of IceFlow yoga-inspired skating classes and founder of the former Ice Frog Productions. “This was our third year hosting the event, and we actually doubled our attendance last year, which is exciting.”
About five years ago, Schran found inspiration for the event from Portland, Maine’s Out on Ice event. Similarly, Out on Ice was a skating and dancing party that supported LGBTQ+ organizations in the community. While Out on Ice was hosted in the winter on an outdoor rink, Be Here! Be YOU! has brought their event indoors for June’s Pride Month. To host the event, Joy Skate Productions decorates The Skating Club of Boston’s Tenley E. Albright Performance Center with rainbow curtains, special lights and inclusive Pride flags.
“We really take over the space, which is coincidentally named after my mom. She has a big picture right up on the wall beaming down on us, which is kind of cool,” Schran remarks. “But, we really try to make it a whole new space, so that when you walk in, you’re walking into this [LGBTQ+] safe space. It’s totally family friendly, and we have guests of all ages.”
In addition to hosting a fun and safe space for the LGBTQ+ community and allies, Be Here! Be YOU! hosts ice time for participants and includes ice and stage performances throughout the event. The past three years, Schran has been joined by gender illusionist Mizery McRae; drag performer and former RuPaul’s Drag Race participant Milk; and host Olympic pairs figure skater Randy Gardner, who formerly competed with Tai Babilonia and came out as a gay man in 2006.
“Randy and I have worked together for years and have become just close friends,” Schran said. “He’s been very supportive and comes all the way from L.A. every year to host this event.”
Other notable guests include honorees who are trailblazers for LGBTQ+ awareness. Honorees then choose the organization that the event will sponsor, as well as the following year’s honoree. In 2021, the event’s first honoree was Faith Soloway, composer, director and writer most known for her work on Amazon’s “Transparent.”
“Faith was a friend of ours, and I’ve known her for years,” Schran explained. “She worked closely with a theater organization called Rehearsal for Life (which was chosen as the Be Here! Be YOU! Fundraiser recipient in 2021). The organization works with youth and helps them find their voice by working through complicated, emotional situations in a safe space right here in [Boston’s] Jamaica Plains.”
Soloway subsequently chose Maria Semnack, a nurse at Boston Children’s Hospital’s Center for Gender Surgery, to be the honoree in 2022. Semnack then chose 2023 honoree Julie Thompson, a physician’s assistant and medical director of the Trans Health Program at Fenway Health. According to Joy Skate Productions, Thompson chose Fenway Health as the beneficiary of the Be Here! Be YOU! due to its longtime commitment to serving to LGBTQ+ community and other underserved communities.
Schran and Joy Skate Productions have also received the overwhelming support of the Skating Club of Boston, which is one of the oldest skating clubs in the U.S. Since the creation of the Be Here! Be YOU!, The Skating Club of Boston has donated rental skates and hot chocolate for the event. The club even provides the full support of their events’ team.
“I don’t think I could do what I do without The Skating Club of Boston,” Schran said.
Because many of the larger event costs are covered by The Skating Club of Boston, Schran has been able to bring money into the event through admission fees and the event’s cash bar. According to Schran, the event has been able to donate $5,000 to the honorees’ organizations the past two years and is hoping to hit that mark, again, this year.
“It’s not a ton of money, but [Be Here! Be YOU!] is so important to me. And, it’s important to provide a safe space. It's always just baffled me that anybody would be upset with someone for who they are and who they love,” Schran reflected. “Be Here! Be YOU! is more than just watching people have fun. It’s about watching parents see their children feeling completely comfortable and completely at home.”
