Roger Q. Mason's THE PRIDE OF LIONS Will Headline Trans Theatre Festival at The Brick

Acclaimed Black Filipinx playwright and Kilroys List honoree Roger Q. Mason will receive a staged reading of their play THE PRIDE OF LIONS, directed by é boylan with original dramaturgy by Gaven Trinidad, at The Brick (579 Metropolitan Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211) on Thursday, June 5th at 8pm, as part of the T4T Fest, a festival of plays by trans artists for trans audiences. 

It is 1928, and five fabulous drag queens were about to become dolls of Broadway in a Mae West play, until the New York vice police took them in. Now, stuck in the pen with a curious yet cringy warden, the girls conjure the magic of queer storytelling to save themselves (and us) from the clutches of invisibility.

The cast will feature Jack DiFalco (Broadway: The Ferryman, Torch Song Trilogy), Noah Pyzik (Broadway: Purlie Victorious, Our Town), Arewá Basit (MTV's Are You The One), Ianne Fields Stewart (In the Amazon Warehouse Parking Lot), Wesley Han (Emily The Criminal), and Adin Lenahan (Lincoln Bio), with Alex Michaels, aka Alexis Michelle (9th Season of RuPaul's Drag Race; TLC's Dragnificent) as Madam Red Hook.

"The events which inspired this play took place almost 100 years ago, yet the homophobic and transphobic attitudes it explores have not changed," said playwright Roger Q. Mason. "The Pride of Lions is a testament to the everlasting resilience that queer folks have had to muster to survive in America. But more importantly it is a celebration of the love which surpasses hate - then, now and forever."

Roger Q. Mason (Playwright) (they/them) is an award-winning writer, performer and educator who satirizes and revises history to disrupt the biases that separate rather than unite us. Their playwriting has appeared on Broadway; Off/Off-Off-Broadway; and regionally. Their recent productions have garnered five Barrymore Award nominations in Philadelphia, a Jeff Award Recommendation in Chicago and the San Francisco Chronicle's prestigious Datebook Pick. Mason's World Premiere of Lavender Men was lauded by the Los Angeles Times as "evoking the mingled visions of Suzan-Lori Parks, Jeremy O. Harris and Michael R. Jackson." They received 2024's Playwrights' Center McKnight National Playwright Commission, the inaugural Dramatists Guild Foundation Catalyst Grant Award, a Hermitage Residency, a Lucille Lortel commission, a Kilroys List nod, and the Chuck Rowland Pioneer Award. Mason is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, and an alum of the Ma-Yi's Writing Lab, Page 73's Interstate 73 Writers Group, the Fire This Time Festival, and Primary Stages Writing Cohort. They currently produce a memoir/cooking segment on Instagram called Cooking with Q: A Playwright's Guide to Telling My Truth. Previously, they co-hosted the podcast Sister Roger's Gayborhood and hosted This Way Out Radio's Queerly Yours: Portraits in Courage. As an educator, Mason has served as a mentor for Lambda Literary, Workshop Theatre, the Marsha P. Johnson Institute's Starship Fellowship, the New Visions Fellowship and the Shay Foundation Fellowship. They are currently on faculty at CalArts. Mason holds degrees from Princeton University, Middlebury College, and Northwestern University. Instagram: @rogerq.mason

é boylan (Director) (they/them) is a NYC-based director, creator, and composer developing new work towards trans liberation. é has collaborated in spaces like LCT3/Lincoln Center, Roundabout Theater Company, Manhattan Theatre Club, BAM, the O'Neill, Joe's Pub, Birdland, Studio Theatre, and elsewhere. In 2022, é received an honorable mention for the Relentless Award and was a finalist for the Jonathan Larson Grant. A graduate of The University of Chicago and NTI, they have served as 2019 Trans Lab Fellow, 2019-20 MTC Directing Fellow, 2021 JMF Songwriter, Member of 2020-22 Roundabout Theatre Company Directors Group, New Writer in Residence at Lincoln Center Theater, and currently serves as a member of Musical Theatre Factory's Makers Cohort II. www.eboylan.com

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