Hello! 

This upcoming summer, Theatre 4the People is proud to be partnering with Lavender Public to help their team develop a new musical fairytale entitled Pete & James [working title]. Lavender Public is a new production company that aims to empower Queer artists to explore the reaches of their voice through the means of storytelling. 

For the past two years, Lavender Public has been working on this show which reimagines the origin stories of Captain Hook and Peter Pan as childhood best friends who fall in love. The idea is born out of a love of fairytales, the escape they provide, and their innate theatricality. It comes from a desire to create a Queer story where the story isn’t solely about the trauma but the joy as well; one that paints a more three dimensional version of LGBTQIA+ people. Queer people rarely have the chance to see themselves represented in this kind of story. Lavender Public endeavors to change that with an entirely Queer creative team, allowing queer youth to see a story created for them, by them.

Book writer, TJ Young (he/him), and composer/lyricist, Leora Malka Mitzner (she/her), are creating a sweeping yet intimate story with a score based on the familiar forms and instrumentation of maritime music - rich sea shanty harmonies, intimate forecastle ballads, and the bold dynamics of contemporary folk rock. They are accompanied by the direction of Tom Delbello (they/them) and a producing team consisting of Nick Eibler (he/they) (The Prom, Broadway), Kaycee Swierc (she/her) (Jagged Little Pill, Broadway; The American Repertory Theater at Harvard University), and Carlos Javier Rodriguez.

While Lavender Public has managed to create this musical with creatives spread all across the country (New York City, Los Angeles, Cambridge, Pittsburgh, and throughout the state of Texas) via Zoom. But now it is time to get their team in the same room and take this show to the next level. That is why we at Theatre 4the People are excited to partner with them in order to make that next step possible. Through this partnership, they will take part in our @theBarn Initiative in July, which provides artists the space and resources to realize their vision. The team will follow that up with a larger-scale workshop that is a part of the Harrison New Works Commission and Guest Artist Series at Texas State University, a nationally recognized theatre and dance program (and the alma mater of much of our creative team). In order to support both of these workshops, we need to raise $6.5K to cover travel expenses and compensate the artists for their time in creating this piece. If you and 99 others can donate just $65 each, we can achieve this goal in no time.

Theatre 4the People and Lavender Public fully believe in the potential for this work to change lives as an exciting piece of theatre that shows the possibilities of what Queerness can look like on stage. With your donation, you have the chance to be at the forefront of contributing to work that strives to challenge the norm. You are supporting Queer artists striving to create work and allow LGBTQIA+ identifying creatives to tell stories that authentically portray who we are.