THE PANSY HOUR to Make Baltimore Debut With Immersive Queer History Experience This Fall

In celebration of Pride Month, Submersive Productions has announced The Pansy Hour, a new immersive theatrical experience premiering in Baltimore this fall. Created by an all-queer Creative Team and brought to life by a predominantly queer cast, The Pansy Hour is a vibrant, magical journey into queer history—one that honors the past while imagining liberatory futures.

Set against the backdrop of the Pansy Craze of the late 1920s and early 1930s—a brief but dazzling era of queer visibility, nightlife, and artistic expression—The Pansy Hour invites audiences to step into a secret speakeasy where dreamers, artists, lovers, and outsiders gather to create a world of their own. Blending immersive performance, ritual, drag, music, and storytelling, the production asks: What if queer people, even in one of history's most oppressive eras, carved out a pocket of joy for themselves?

The Pansy Hour invites audiences to step inside that world. The performance becomes a shared space—one shaped as much by the audience as the artists themselves. It's not just a show—it's a living, breathing experience of history, community, and possibility.

At its heart, The Pansy Hour is not a historical reenactment, but an act of historical imagination—grounded in truth, shaped by a belief in a better future, and animated by the enduring spirit of queer resilience.

“This project has been percolating in my mind in some form for years,” said Josh Aterovis, Creative Team Lead for The Pansy Hour. “It's deeply personal—an opportunity to center queer identity, joy, longing, and community in a way I never have before in my creative work. At a time when queer people are once again being politicized, erased, and attacked, The Pansy Hour is both a love letter to our ancestors and a reminder that queer people have always found ways to gather, dream, and create beauty.”

The cast of over 20 local artists is currently in active devising and rehearsals, collaboratively building the world of the production through movement, ritual-making, character development, and deep dramaturgical exploration. The ensemble is drawing direct inspiration from Baltimore's own queer history and working closely with local queer historian Ben Egerman, creator of mdhistory.gay and The Little Gay History series at The Club Car, to root the production in authentic local stories and forgotten histories.

“One of Submersive's core values is creating ambitious, artist-driven work that invites audiences into transformative experiences,” said Glenn Ricci and Ursula Marcum, Co-Artistic Directors of Submersive Productions. “Projects like The Pansy Hour matter because they make space—for underrepresented voices, for untold stories, for joy, for grief, for imagination, and for community. Supporting queer artists in telling queer stories is not only culturally important—it's vital.”