Several years ago, I performed in a benefit reading of THE LARAMIE PROJECT—a play about a community’s response to the anti-LGBTQ+ hate crime that took the life of Matthew Shepard—to raise funds for Courage MKE, Milwaukee’s only group home for LGBTQ+ youth in and out of home care.  In the standing-room-only audience were people I’d never seen in a theater before.  People who often feel that theater isn’t meant for them.  As the only out gay woman in the cast of 30 that night, I saw clearly how rarely LGBTQ+ youth see their experiences in plays and musicals.  I already knew how rarely queer actors play characters like themselves, who fall in love with who they actually fall in love with.

That moment clarified what I knew in my bones.  More stories must center queer and trans youth, honestly but with hope.  We need more roles that allow LGBTQ+ performers to play fully human versions of themselves.  We need stories that allow audiences to say, “That’s me.”  Or, “I know someone like that.”  Or even just, “I hadn’t thought about that before.”

This new musical was born in that moment and has grown through hundreds of interviews across Wisconsin’s LGBTQ+ community.  Every conversation expands the project’s lens to include queer youth navigating group homes, foster care, and correctional facilities, and the organizations working so hard to support them.  These are Wisconsin stories.  They center our community and speak directly to what it means to build chosen family when the systems meant to care for you fall short.

This kind of piece almost never makes it past the early idea stage.  But—driven by community—ours did.  After years of self-funded development, First Stage produced a workshop reading in its Amplify series.  And Milwaukee Chamber Theatre has committed to bringing this new Milwaukee musical to the stage.

Producing musicals is expensive.  Developing a new one even more so.  With MCT’s commitment, we are for the first time seeking the external financial support necessary to bring this groundbreaking and necessary new musical to the stage. 

The momentum is real.  The moment is now. 

I hope you’ll join our community.

With Love,

Elyse