NF2 Productions presents the Salt Lake City workshop production and premiere of Steven Fales’ ‘MORMON BOY TRILOGY: Three Solo Plays in Repertory: Confessions of a Mormon Boy, Missionary Position, and Prodigal Dad at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center through Dec 30. Tickets are through saltlakecountyarts.org and more information is available at www.mormonboy.com.
There is a weekend of previews for each solo play and then all three shows will open in
repertory and for review as the Salt Lake City premiere for 12 performances Dec. 20 –
30 over three consecutive nights, over two weeks Dec 20-22 and Dec 27-29 at 7:30 p.m.
or all three in a single day for “the Morm-a-thon” on Dec. 23 and 30 (Confessions at 1
p.m., Missionary Position at 4 p.m., and Prodigal Dad at 7:30 p.m.). The shows will be
filmed live on Dec. 23. All evening performances start at 7:30 p.m. Sunday matinees are at 1 p.m.
After two years of ‘pandemic sabbatical,’ Steven Fales launches MormonBoy 2.0 and his Mormon Boy Experience with Mormon Boy Trilogy in Salt Lake City in the same theatre where he presented the world premiere of his award-winning solo play Confessions of a Mormon Boy, over twenty years ago, the day after Thanksgiving, 2001.
Based on original direction by Tony Award Winner Jack Hofsiss (The Elephant Man),
Confessions of a Mormon Boy has since played acclaimed runs Off-Broadway at the
SoHo Playhouse (Outer Critics Circle Award Nominee), across the country, and around
the world. Fales last performed the groundbreaking solo show for a return sold-out run
in Melbourne in Feb. 2020 — just before the pandemic hit. The rest of his international
tour was then cut short. He then hunkered down and started working on new projects.
Once a Salt Lake resident, Fales now resides in Palm Springs. “It’s really symbolic and I
think dynamic to return ‘home’ to Utah where so much of my story takes place and
where I helped raise my grown children,” he said. “And the Rose Wagner Performing
Arts Center is my favorite theatre to play. And I get to work with my first and favorite
stage manager again, Laina Thomas. It was only natural to dust off my autobiographical
scripts and storytelling in Utah where it all began and where I have so much history.”
Fales added: “The plays are about a lot of events, adventures, and topics filled with
intrigue with the Mormon Church, the sex industry, recovery, reparative therapy,
HIV/AIDS and so many other important issues still facing us today. But most of all, my
work is about family dynamics, personal transformation, and becoming self-aware.
That’s why I got into the theatre in the first place. It wasn’t about politics but to explore
the mysteries of what make each of us really tick, including myself. I’m also writing as a
dad to leave clues for my kids and their kids about how to navigate life and the human
experience/experiment. Because a young dad grew up with a lot more to say! And I
write to give my own unique humorous, post-postmodern spin to just about everything.
I’ve never quite fit in on the left or the right, I’m an OxyMormon! Maybe I’ll be the first
gay prophet someday, if they’ll have me back.”
Fales is an award-winning actor/writer/producer who was born in Provo, Utah while his
parents were attending Brigham Young University. When he was one, his family moved
to Los Angeles where his father attended USC Medical School. They later moved to Las
Vegas to be near his mother’s large Mormon family. He is a sixth-generation Mormon of
pioneer ancestry formally excommunicated from the LDS Church for ‘the practice of
homosexuality.’ He has two grown children from a previous marriage to
actor/writer/producer Emily Pearson, daughter of celebrated Mormon poet/playwright
Carol Lynn Pearson. His step-grandfather was popular LDS General Authority, Hartman
Rector, Jr. His father is a Mormon bishop.
Fales writes about the Mormon American experience from his ‘creativity cottage’ in
Palm Springs. Before specializing in solo performance, he worked extensively as an actor
in classical plays and musicals in regional theatre and in film and television. His first
book, ‘Confessions of a Mormon Boy: Behind the Scenes of the Off Broadway Hit,’ was a
Lambda Literary Award Finalist. The play has been performed Off-Broadway at the SoHo
Playhouse (Outer Critics Circle Award Nomination), across the country, and around the
world from London to Melbourne. ‘Confessions’ and is now Part One in ‘Mormon Boy
Trilogy.’ He is currently expanding ‘Mormon Boy Trilogy’ into a book of several volumes
called ‘Oxy-Mormon Memoirs.’ In addition to his solo work, he has several plays and
musicals in various stages of development.
Fales was performing at Caesar’s Palace and other resorts on the Las Vegas Strip in high
school. He attended the Boston Conservatory as a freshman on scholarship. After
completing a two-year mission to Portugal for the LDS Church, he transferred to BYU
where he earned his BFA in music/dance/theatre. He did graduate studies at UNLV and
earned his MFA in acting from the University of Connecticut/Connecticut Repertory
Theater, and later trained at the American Comedy Institute. He has studied acting
privately and in group classes with Larry Moss. He has taught at the prestigious
Waterford School in Salt Lake City and has been a guest speaker and lecturer at other
schools including the Phillips Academy Andover/Exeter and colleges from the University
of Maine to the University of Redlands.
All three in repertory for review and filming Dec. 23
0 Comments