FELLOW TRAVELERS, A Gay Love Story Set During The Lavender Scare, Comes To Seattle Opera

This February, Seattle Opera will present the trailblazing opera Fellow Travelers, a gay love story set during the Lavender Scare, a McCarthy-era witch hunt that ousted thousands of gay and lesbian employees from the federal government. Created by composer Gregory Spears, librettist Greg Pierce, and director Kevin Newbury, and based on Thomas Mallon's best-selling 2007 novel, Fellow Travelers is one of the most critically acclaimed and widely produced operas of the past fifty years, selling more than 25,000 tickets over 14 productions across the United States.

The opera portrays the experiences of government employees who were subject to humiliating investigations because of their sexuality. In 1953, the young, idealistic Timothy Laughlin arrives in Washington, DC, eager to join the fight against Communism. A chance encounter with Hawkins Fuller, a State Department official, results in Tim's first job and his first romantic relationship with a man. As Tim struggles to reconcile his newfound love with his beliefs, the baleful force of McCarthyism threatens to cost Hawkins his job and his freedom.

“There's a reason Fellow Travelers has proven to be so popular with audiences all across the country,” said General and Artistic Director James Robinson. “It's a compelling love story with an emotionally trenchant score that audiences connect to on a deep emotional level. I am honored for Seattle Opera to be the first stop on the tenth-anniversary tour celebrating this beautiful and impactful work.”

Seattle Opera's performances in February 2026 kick off a national tour that will bring this story to over ten cities across the US in 2026 and 2027, in one of the largest consortium projects ever attempted in the US opera industry. The tour is being co-produced by the Up Until Now Collective. After Seattle, the tour travels to Portland Opera (March 7–15), then to San Diego Opera (July 10–12) and New York's Glimmerglass Festival (July 18–Aug. 16). Then in its second year, the tour comes to Austin Opera (February 2027), with additional cities to be announced.

“At a time when living ‘in the closet' is becoming increasingly rare, it seems important to put characters like Tim and Hawk on stage,” said composer Gregory Spears and librettist Greg Pierce. “Not just as historical victims struggling against homophobia, but also as ordinary people fighting through life in an era where a public expression of love could threaten to destroy one's world. Our hope is that the nuanced machinery of opera might play some small part in reminding us of this history, while also preserving onstage the dangerous counterpoint that so often defined the gay experience in the mid-20th century.”

“As we prepare to celebrate the tenth anniversary, I have been reflecting on my values as an artist, especially as a Queer artist making work during these uncertain times,” says stage director Kevin Newbury, who also directed the premiere of Fellow Travelers at Cincinnati Opera in 2016. “I believe that we stand on the shoulders of the people who came before us and who fought so hard and sacrificed so much for us to have the rights we have today. I believe in the power of art to build community. And I believe in the power of a good love story. And Fellow Travelers is, first and foremost, a good love story.”

To explore the opera's broader impact, the Fellow Travelers tour consortium is partnering with the American LGBTQ+ Museum on the Lavender Names Project, a nationwide, grassroots archival research and community outreach initiative that will share the stories of LGBTQ+ community members who were fired by or faced discrimination at the hands of local and federal governments. Photos will be included in an ever-growing visual archive that will appear on stage at the end of each performance of Fellow Travelers.

In 2023, CBS/Paramount premiered the Emmy-nominated mini-series adaptation of the novel starring Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey.

Cast and Creative Team

Double-cast in the principal roles are a pair of singers making both their role and company debuts, tenor Colin Aikins as Timothy Laughlin and baritone Jarrett Ott as Hawkins Fuller, and a second pair returning to Seattle Opera who have appeared in Fellow Travelers together many times, tenor Andres Acosta (Nemorino, The Elixir of Love '22) and baritone Joseph Lattanzi (Steward, Flight '21). Soprano Amber R. Monroe makes her Seattle Opera debut as Tim and Hawk's trusted friend Mary Johnson while soprano Vanessa Becerra, who appeared this fall as Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance, returns as the conspiring Miss Lightfoot.

The cast also features baritone Marcus DeLoach (Schaunard, La bohème '07) as Senator Joseph McCarthy/Estonian Frank/Interrogator and the Seattle Opera debuts of soprano Elisa Sunshine as Lucy, baritone Randell McGee as Tommy McIntyre, bass-baritone Kyle Pfortmiller as Senator Charles Potter/General Arlie/Bartender, and baritone Jeremy Weiss as Senator Potter's Assistant/Bookseller/Priest/Technician/Party Guest.