HAMILTON FRINGE 2026: ‘Important piece of theatre’
Victoria Schneider: Verified by Hamilton resident Scarlett Gillespie explores the story of a trans woman who sued and won over an unlawful strip search by San Francisco police.
In her Fringe Festival debut, playwright Scarlett Gillespie (AKA Jelena Vermilion) introduces Hamilton to the legacy of Victoria Schneider in Victoria Schneider: Verified, a trans activist who won a landmark civil rights lawsuit in the 1990s over an unlawful strip search.
Gillespie is the executive director of SWAP Hamilton, which advocates for sex workers’ rights. She’s also a graduate student at McMaster University in community-engaged research and evaluation, and a 2026 Hamilton mayoral candidate.
“My friend Carol Leigh, who coined the term 'sex work' in the 1970s, passed away in 2022,” Gillespie told HAMILTON CITY Magazine. “In May of 2023, I travelled to San Francisco to attend her memorial, where I met Victoria Schneider, a 75-year-old trans woman and longtime friend of Carol’s.”
Through their conversations, Schneider shared memories of Leigh and detailed her civil rights lawsuit in which Leigh was an aide.
“Knowing that she was 75 years old was a big deal to me,” says Gillespie. “Knowing that a trans woman could live that long … A lot of us die before 30 years old. After the memorial, we went and walked through San Francisco, we talked about her relationship with Carol, and I realized that I could also grow old. It gave me hope.”
Schneider is an activist and former sex worker, known for her lawsuit against both the City and County of San Francisco over an unlawful strip search during her booking at the San Francisco County Jail. Schneider had been placed in the men’s cells and had asked to be moved to the women’s. The search was conducted to “determine her gender.” Schneider won the lawsuit and was awarded $750,000 in 1999.
Gillespie had originally planned to create a documentary about Victoria’s life and legal case, but after the Trump administration returned to power, Gillespie’s Nexus travel card was revoked due to her being trans, and she no longer felt safe travelling to the U.S. Gillespie thought the opportunity had passed her by, until she was selected in the Hamilton Fringe Festival lottery.
“As an experienced researcher, I reached out to the San Francisco/University of California's GLBT Historical Society to access archival materials, including the court records and Victoria's original over 200-page deposition,” said Gillespie. “The play's script is adapted from the actual court transcripts and testimonies. This play exists because of trust, collaboration, archival research, and a shared commitment to telling trans women's and sex workers' stories with care and accuracy.”
Gillespie began practising archiving and archival research in 2020, and in 2026, she was awarded four grants for her research. These years of experience have helped provide her with access to materials otherwise inaccessible to the everyday playwright, such as the rights to Leigh’s cover of “Bad Girls” by Donna Summer. Gillespie has permission from the executor of Leigh’s estate Katherine Marquez to use any media from her film repertoire.
Gillespie describes her play Victoria Schneider: Verified as blending elements of documentary theatre, courtroom drama and biting humour. “I love a little sass, and Victoria is incredibly sassy,” says Gillespie.
“With the script, where I felt things were a bit dry, I would have a conversation with Victoria, and I would say, ‘Here’s what I’m thinking for this part, what do you think?’ She would explain the memory, and it would give me a better idea, then I would re-work it based on her voice. For humour bits, it’s partially me, partially her humour, but we have similar absurdist humour.”
As an end-of-life doula and a PSW specializing in geriatric and palliative care, Gillespie believes in the power of celebrating people before their death.
“I really believe in the concept of giving people their roses while they’re alive, instead of mourning them later,” says Gillespie. “I also love the idea of living funerals, where all your loved ones will say what they would have said.”
Gillespie believes that theatre is not only a cost-effective art medium, but one that is more accessible, a form that Gillespie says allows her to invite audiences in to challenge systems of power.
“In spite of police in the city trying to cover up their own doing, ... [Victoria] won,” says Gillespie. “Also, more importantly, this created a precedent such that there was a policy revision in the San Francisco police department, where as any person who is charged with a misdemeanour crime, who wasn’t suspected of having contraband, weapons, drugs, etc., they were not allowed to be strip searched.”
Gillespie believes that creating a piece of art about Schneider’s lawsuit and friendship with the late Leigh not only honours Leigh’s legacy, but tells a story that represents a hard-won battle for human rights.
“Victoria’s struggle and suffering benefited many women,” says Gillespie. “Many people, period. That’s why this is an important piece of theatre.”
NEED TO KNOW
Victoria Schneider: Verified
Hamilton Fringe Festival
July 17 to 26
The Westdale
Show times and tickets here
