The Los Angeles-based, LGBTQ+-focused Celebration Theatre will pay tribute to writer-performer Roger Q. Mason June 9 during its Chuck Rowland Pioneer Award Ceremony. The digital event will take place on YouTube (available here) at 9 PM ET (6 PM PT).
Set to take part in the festivities, helmed by Ann James with guest directors Lovell Holder and June Carryl, are Travis Coles (David Makes Man), Garrett Clayton (Hairspray Live!), Drew Droege (Happy Birthday Doug), Gillian Williams (David Makes Man), Duane Boutte (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), Philippe Bowgen (The Mick), Devere Rogers (My Spy), Adam Hyndman (Hadestown), Nicky Enders (One Day at a Time), and Nathan Frizzell (Twin Peaks).
The group will perform selections from Mason’s works, which include Onion Creek, The White Dress, The Pride of Lions, and Lavender Men (the latter, exploring the possible queerness of Abraham Lincoln, received a reading at The Circle Series last year with Clayton and Charlie Thurston).
Celebration Artistic Director Michael A. Shepperd will host a virtual after party, including an interview with Mason, on Instagram Live following the event. Proceeds will go toward 100 Black Men and the Minnesota Freedom Fund.
Mason, a Black-Filipinx gender-queer writer-performer, has kept busy under quarantine, creating works for The 24 Hours Plays, for which he wrote the monologue “Nadine” (performed by Wayne Brady) and the monologue “From Kaya,” performed by A Strange Loop alum L. Morgan Lee.