Help Us Make The Pansy Hour!
HAPPY PRIDE!
This Pride Month, I'm asking for your help bringing a dream to life.
Last summer, I pitched an idea that had been quietly living in my head for years: a show inspired by the Pansy Craze of the 1920s and '30s, by Baltimore's hidden queer history, and by the spaces queer people have always created for themselves when the world told them they didn't belong.
That idea became The Pansy Hour.
By the time the show opens this October, I will have been working on it for over a year. It is, without question, the most personal artistic project I have ever undertaken.
I've spent more than twenty-five years telling queer stories as a writer and more than a decade creating immersive theater in Baltimore. I've helped bring many incredible projects to life, but this is the first time I've proposed and led a production that began as my own vision. It feels vulnerable and terrifying and exhilarating all at once.
The most emotional part has been watching it stop being mine.
Over the past several months, I've watched a phenomenal predominantly queer cast and crew take this little spark of an idea and transform it into something far bigger, richer, stranger, funnier, and more beautiful than I could have imagined on my own. Every rehearsal brings new discoveries. Every conversation uncovers another piece of history. Every character reminds me why queer stories matter.
This fall, audiences will step inside a secret queer speakeasy in 1932 Baltimore—a world of jazz, glamour, ghosts, ritual, community, resistance, and joy. A world inspired by real queer Baltimoreans who found ways to gather, love, perform, and dream despite the obstacles stacked against them.
But the reality is immersive theater is expensive. If you saw the set design, you'd get it! Not to mention paying all these incredible artists.
We have received generous grant support, but we still need to raise about $20,000 to fully realize the show we are building. The sets, costumes, props, environments, and experiences we're imagining simply cannot happen without community support.
If you've ever enjoyed my writing, supported my creative work, believed in queer storytelling, or simply want to help a group of artists make something extraordinary, I hope you'll consider making a donation.
In the true spirit of Pride, help us create a space that celebrates queer history, queer joy, queer resilience, and queer possibility.
Please donate if you can. Share if you can't. Every contribution matters.
