Diversionary Theatre Premieres SEXTET, 9/30-10/4

What do Walt Whitman, the rapture, and a gay bath house all have in common? Those are among the unusual subjects explored in the new gay opera Sextet, with music and libretto by San Diego composer Nicolas Reveles. Sextet sheds light on various aspects of gay desire: for community, for power, for acceptance, for family, for sex and for love. Diversionary Theatre will produce the world premiere of this new gay opera as part of its Queer Theatre-Taking Center Stage program, underwritten in part by The James Irvine Foundation. Sextet will be presented for only four performances between September 30-October 4.

Nicolas Reveles is The Geisel Director of Education and Outreach for the San Diego Opera. The premiere will be directed by Cynthia Stokes, who recently directed Romeo et Juliette for the San Diego Opera. The cast of six features Abdiel Gonzalez, Noah Longton, David McBean, Will Earl Spanheimer, Matthew Starkey and Enrique Toral. The creative team is: Music Director - Steve Schwarz; Choreographer - Peter G. Kalivas; Design team - Robin Roberts (set), Corey Johnston (costumes), Ashley Jenks (lighting), David Medina (properties); Stage Manager - Diego San Miguel.

Diversionary presented a workshop of Sextet in the fall of 2009. Through its Queer Theatre program, Diversionary has commissioned and premiered the family-friendly musical The Daddy Machine, the Harvey Milk tribute play, Dear Harvey, and an annual program of dance through Dance/Theatre. Diversionary Executive & Artistic Director Dan Kirsch: "We feel compelled to create new work that tells lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender stories of, by and for our community. We are grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with local artists and present these stories through performing arts mediums to our audience. Our special thanks to The James Irvine Foundation for providing grants that encourage, commission and premiere this new work."

In his composer notes, Reveles reveals how Sextet was created. "Sextet is a queer opera in six scenes. It is nearly completely sung throughout in a style that I would call "American eclectic". My influences are many: Aaron Copland, Ned Rorem, Benjamin Britten, church music, jazz...but I spend a lot of time trying to chase all of the composers out of the room while I'm working. They nag.

"Sextet came to me in a dream. After deciding that I wanted to write a chamber opera for a small space, I was awakened at three in the morning with the scenarios of four of the six works pretty much complete. The dialogue came easily. The music, however, took three or four years of percolating, writing in fits and starts, waiting for the right forms and structures to match these six unrelated episodes - unrelated in the narrative sense. Thematically, they are explorations of gay male desire...desire for power ("Dinner Party"), for sex ("Vulcan"), for belonging ("Ugly Duckling"), for intimacy ("Walt's Boy"), and for stability ("Quartet" and "Cruise", two sides of the same coin). They all reflect things that have been special or unique in my own life, a search for the real Jesus and spirituality, a love for fairy tales, for the horror genre and grand guignol, a deep respect for Walt Whitman, who I believe was not only our greatest poet but our greatest gay poet, and for those little domestic tragedies and tender moments that brush by us every day."

Composer, pianist and lecturer Nicolas Reveles has produced theatre scores for The Old Globe Theatre, North Coast Repertory Theatre and Arizona Repertory Theatre. Sextet is his third opera, with The Sleeping Beauty and Rumpelstiltskin having been written in collaboration with librettist J. Sherwood Montgomery for the San Diego Opera Ensemble. In February 2009 Rumpelstiltskin was produced by Lyric Opera San Diego. Reveles holds a Master of Arts in Choral Conducting from the University of Redlands and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance from the Manhattan School of Music. Since 1998 he has been the Geisel Director of Education and Outreach for San Diego Opera leading one of the largest outreach programs of its kind in the country. He is the host of UCSD TV's OperaTalk with Nick Reveles.

Stage Director Cynthia Stokes directed Romeo et Juliette and Cosi fan tutte (student touring production) for San Diego Opera and Madama Butterfly for Opera Company of Philadelphia, among others. She co-wrote Murder at the Opera with composer Edward Barnes which she directed for Los Angeles Opera. As a theatre director, some credits include: Urinetown, Waiting for Lefty, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Diary of a Scoundrel, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Ms. Stokes started La Jolla Playhouse's Summer Conservatory (now in its 15th year) and San Diego Opera's Summer Opera Institute. She has taught acting and directing at The UCSD's Department of Theatre and Dance where she received her M.F.A. in Directing.

Diversionary Theatre was started in 1986 and is celebrating their 25th Anniversary Year during the 2010-2011 season. The mission of the theatre is to produce plays with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender themes that portray characters in their complexity and diversity both historically and contemporarily. Diversionary's Queer Theatre - Taking Center Stage play development program honors the ideas, the energy and commitment people have made to tell LGBT stories.

Sextet previews Thursday , September 30 at 7:30pm; opens on Friday, October 1 at 8:00pm; and has additional performances on Sunday, October 3 at 2:00pm and Monday, October 4 at 7:30pm. Thursday preview tickets are $24. Friday, Sunday and Monday performances are: $39 Premium Seating; $29 general admission (with discounts available for students, seniors [60+], military and groups). For information, call the box office at 619.220.0097 or log on to www.diversionary.org.