CONFESSIONS OF A MORMON BOY and MORMON BOY TRILOGY to Play Pride Arts Center

Steven Fales, whose one-man show CONFESSIONS OF A MORMON BOY was a hit at the former Bailiwick Arts Center in 2005, will bring that autobiographical play back to Chicago along with staged workshop readings of two new pieces that detail an earlier period and a later period of Fales' life. CONFESSIONS OF A MORMON BOY will be performed Thursday September 7, Friday September 8 and Saturday September 9 at 7:30 pm each evening. The entire MORMON BOY TRILOGY of CONFESSIONS, MISSSIONARY POSITION and PRODIGAL DAD will be performed as a one-day marathon on Sunday September 10, when the fully-staged CONFESSIONS OF A MORMON BOY will be performed at 2 pm; followed by staged readings of MISSIONARY POSITION at 5 pm and PRODIGAL DAD at 7 pm. Critics are invited to review any of the performances.

Tickets for CONFESSIONS OF A MORMON BOY are $30 general admission and $40 reserved. There is a separate $20 admission to attend either or both the staged workshop readings of MISSIONARY POSITION and PRODIGAL DAD. All performances will be in The Broadway, Pride Arts Center, at 4139 N. Broadway. The three plays are all stand-alone, self-contained works that can be enjoyed either individually or as the complete trilogy.

CONFESSIONS OF A MORMON BOY: A True Story

A story of extremes-from perfect model Mormon in Utah to perfect rent boy in Manhattan-outcast Steven Fales ultimately finds a middle ground and learns what it means to finally come home.
(Photo by David White)

After conversion therapy, excommunication, divorce, prostitution and drugs, an exiled sixth-generation Latter-gay Saint reclaims his kids and Donny Osmond smile. This extraordinary, life-affirming journey to heck and back is told with humor, song, and The Book of Mormon. Originally directed Off Broadway by Tony Award-winner Jack Hofsiss (The Elephant Man). Since 2005, it has been performed in cities across the United States and in a successful Off-Broadway engagement in 2006.

MISSIONARY POSITION: A Coming-of-Age Tale

This raucous, poignant prequel to CONFESSIONS OF A MORMON BOY-based on Steven Fales's journals from his LDS mission to Portugal-takes audiences on an exuberant solo journey behind the Mormon Machine's global religious colonization, including the secret cult rites of the temple ceremony never before seen onstage. This "mission statement" tenderly sets the stage for Fales' upcoming fall from grace in CONFESSIONS while verging on high camp with outrageous fantasy sequences as Elder Fales wrangles with Portuguese Conquistadors, Porn Czars, Mormon Oompa-Loompas, and finally his perky, pious nineteen-year-old self out to re-convert him. Mission impossible? Come get converted yourself by assuming the position. What happens in a mission, stays in a mission-until now. Like CONFESSIONS, MISSIONARY POSITION has enjoyed successful engagements across the United States.

PRODIGAL DAD: A Manic Memoir-Meditation

In this sequel to CONFESSIONS, a penniless non-custodial dad returns home to Utah at the height of the Great Recession only to find himself fighting for his life and rights as a father in this compelling family courtroom drama. As he looks to answers from his lost Greco-Mormon heritage, he comes face to face with his own demons and conjures his greatest nemesis, shattering myths and family secrets in an underworld where bipolar ghosts and mortals collide. Will this prodigal ever receive the father's blessing he craves and that his own bishop father can't seem to bestow? Greek and biblical in its themes, all is redeemed and the "sins of the fathers" forgiven by the end of this often dark, powerful, but surprisingly funny solo dramedy. PRODIGAL DAD is the newest play of Fales' MORMON BOY TRILOGY and has been seen in Richmond, Virginia and Houston, Texas.

The three plays of MORMON BOY TRILOGY will be produced Off-Broadway, and performed in repertory, in 2018. Richard Frankel Productions (ANGELS IN AMERICA, HAIRSPRAY, GYPSY with Patti LuPone, and THE NORMAN CONQUESTS) will be Executive Producer.

Steven Fales is an award-winning actor/writer/producer best known for his one-man play CONFESSIONS OF A MORMON BOY (Outer Critics Circle Award Nomination). It was originally directed off Broadway at the SoHo Playhouse by the late Jack Hofsiss (Tony Award for THE ELEPHANT MAN), and Fales was nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award for solo performance. (Photo by Kevin McIntyre).

Following that off-Broadway engagement, CONFESSIONS enjoyed acclaimed commercial runs at the Coast Playhouse in Los Angeles and Charing Cross Theatre in London's West End. CONFESSIONS OF A MORMON BOY is now Part One in MORMON BOY TRILOGY which includes MISSIONARY POSITION and PRODIGAL DAD.

Fales was born in Provo, Utah while his parents were attending Brigham Young University. He is a sixth-generation Mormon formally excommunicated from the LDS Church for the practice of homosexuality. He has two grown children from a previous marriage to actor/writer/producer Emily Pearson, daughter of legendary Mormon poet/playwright Carol Lynn Pearson.

Steven writes about the Mormon American experience from his writing studio in the Rocky Mountains where he exports his work from Salt Lake City. His first book, CONFESSIONS OF A MORMON BOY: BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE OFF-BROADWAY HIT, was a Lambda Literary Award Finalist. He is currently expanding his MORMON BOY TRILOGY into a book called OXY-MORMON MEMOIRS. Before specializing in solo performance, Steven worked extensively as an actor in plays and musicals in regional theatre and in film and television. He also has several plays and musicals in various stages of development.

From Los Angeles to London, Houston to Halifax, Salt Lake to SoHo, actor/writer/producer Steven Fales has been performing his award-winning solo work for over a decade at venues ranging from church sanctuaries to BDSM clubs; fringe festivals to old historic movie houses; coffee shops to cabaret rooms; gay resorts to regional theatres; concert halls to the Mitzi Newhouse Theatre at Lincoln Center. For more information about his professional credits, education/training, and background go to stevenfales.blogspot.com

Pictured: Steven Fales. Photo by Weston Hall.