Out Front Theatre Company will host the inaugural season of the Lavender Performing Arts Festival – Lavender Fest for short – from June 19-23.
Lavender Fest will be a series of nine shows over a five-day period, featuring queer talent from across the U.S and internationally, according to a press release. Festival Director Ty Autry brought the idea to Out Front Founder and Producing Artistic Director Paul Conroy about two years ago. Autry serves on Out Front’s Artistic Advisory Council, and had always wanted to start a performing arts festival.
Autry debuted his one-person show, “A Southern Fairytale,” at the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival in 2019. The show follows a young, gay Christian growing up in Georgia. Growing up queer in the south is a theme that runs through a lot of Autry’s work.
“The thing about fringe festivals or performing arts festivals like this is that we allow young artists to experiment with work, and also to share stories that are avant garde, or weird, or odd,” Autry said. “When you come see a show at one of these festivals, you may never see it or something like it ever again.”
“What’s unique about growing up queer in the south is we face so many conservative ideals,” Autry said. “I think that’s a rural thing too, that you see even in the north, midwest and in the west, but it’s particularly heightened in the south due to a Christian narrative that can feel very demanding.”
Even with that heightened sense of rejection, Autry said there’s still a lot of love for the south and a longing to be accepted. They said that while there will be some serious themes in the shows that play at Lavender Fest, the focus won’t be on queer southern trauma.
“We need to see stories of people just living their authentic truth and not traumatized, or the main part of the story being about working through that,” Autry said. “We want to show people that we’re here, we’re queer. We’re living everyday normal lives.”
Autry said they chose the shows deliberately, hoping to capture stories from across the LGBTQ+ spectrum as well as a variety of genres and styles of performing.
The lineup for Lavender Fest will include: “The Real Black Swann: Confessions of America’s First Black Drag Queen,” by Les Kurkendaal-Barrett; “You Are Not Your Face,” by Sof Delgado; “Drag Reflex,” a drag show featuring local Atlanta drag performers; “By the Light of the Moon,” by Quinlan Orear; “Open,” by Davin Grindstaff; “The Heterosexuals,” by Johnnie McNamara Walker; “Very Queer Comedy Hour,” featuring Jessica, Richard, Dani, & Twiggs; “Strings Attached,” by Chayton Pabich Danyla; and “Moonshot: A Musical Comedy,” with a book by Marc Erdahi & Tyler Oberle and music and lyrics by Corey Everly.
Tickets for Lavender Fest can be purchased online.