SHEL SILVERSTEIN ON FYRE ISLAND To Be Presented at Boulder Festival
Playwright Drake Susuras brings the stage reading to Junkyard Social Club with Fireside Ink Writers Workshop
On May 9th, 2026, Denver and NYC based playwright Drake Susuras will premiere his brand new play centered on Shel Silverstein during his Playboy years and his significance to the history of Fire Island's Cherry Grove Community.
In collaboration with Fireside Ink Writers Workshop and the 1st Annual IGNITE New Play Festival, Susuras' piece entitled Shel Silverstein ON FYRE ISLAND will be performed as a stage reading at the Junkyard Social Club (2525 Frontier Ave Suite A, Boulder, CO 80301) at 7pm. This continues the trend of Susuras' work not only supporting and highlighting LGBTQ+ stories but also the queer history that is so often lost or buried in plain sight.
Shel Silverstein ON FYRE ISLAND is one of many plays that Susuras has shared with Colorado audiences. Prior, Susuras has written for Visionbox Studio's Queer Theatre Project, the 2025 Denver Fringe Festival, and for Roshni Theatre's New American Arts Festival. His work tends to focus on the nuances of queer identity and expression with an unconventional lens such as through a high school locker room, an executive office of an NFL CEO, and now, on Fire Island through the eyes of one of America's most famous illustrators.
The play takes the audience back to the year 1965 during a time when Shel Silverstein was working for Playboy Magazine. His newest assignment: to cover what he saw on Fire Island which was America's gayest land mass at the time. By piecing a narrative together using Silverstein's actual illustrations as inspiration, Susuras is able to highlight this phenomenon at the time of a tangible American queer sanctuary.
Drake J. Susuras is a multidisciplinary theatre artist based in Brooklyn, NY and Denver, CO. He has been able to collaborate artistically and technically with some of the most prestigious theaters and companies across the country including the James Earl Jones Theater, Audible's Minetta Lane Theater, New York City Center II, The Vineyard Theater, Women's Project Theatre, the New Harmony Project, and Curious Theatre Company among others. Drake's written work has been read, workshopped, and staged throughout Southern Indiana, Colorado, and NY including a recent staged reading at the Denver Center for Performing Arts (Champa Arts Studio), a sold out run at the 2025 Denver Fringe Festival, and a performance at the New American Arts Festival with Roshni Theatre. Drake is the recipient of the Jack Reynolds Outstanding Thespian Award, the Virginia Lowell Grabill Award for Playwriting, and the 2025 Henry Award for Best Production of a Play (Downstate, Curious Theatre). He holds a BFA in Theatre Performance from the University of Evansville.
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