FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact: Daisy Blake Perry (801) 604-7845
Solo Salt Lake presents
Steven Fales’ one-man comedy
MY MORMON VALENTINE
The Original Utah Version of Confessions
of a Mormon Boy
(featuring Heavenly Mother and Jimmy Flinders in the
Pre-Existence
and St. Peter in the Celestial Kingdom)
Feb. 11 — March
5
at The Leonardo
“Fales knows how to sell it.”—New
York Times
“A fine actor and writer.”—Chicago Sun-Times
“A masterful storyteller and one hell of a writer.”—San Francisco Examiner
“Steven Fales is
easily among the best, if not the best, solo performers in the business."
—BroadwayWorld.com
Solo Salt Lake is proud to present internationally
acclaimed solo performance artist
Steven Fales in the return of his solo
comedy
MY MORMON VALENTINE: The Original Utah Version of Confessions of a
Mormon Boy (which hasn’t been performed in fifteen years)
Feb.
11 – March 5 with show
times at
3 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the 200-seat
Leonardo Museum Theater
located at 209 E. 500 South, Salt Lake City 84111 (next to the Downtown Salt
Lake Library). Tickets start at $10 with discounts and group rates available
online at
http://mormonboylive.brownpapertickets.com or
1-800-838-3006
and at the door. More information at
facebook.com/mormonboylive;
Twitter
@mormonboy; and Instagram
@stevenfalesonline.
Please note the special
performance benefiting the Utah Pride Center Sat., Feb. 20 @7 p.m.
Thurs., Feb. 11 @7 p.m. PREVIEW ($10)
Fri., Feb. 12 @7 p.m. OPENING NIGHT (reception to follow)
Sat., Feb. 13 @7 p.m. Sun., Feb. 14 @3 p.m. VALENTINE’S DAY
SPECIAL (2-for-1 “Bring your Mormon Boy” discount)
Sat., Feb. 20 @7 p.m. BENEFIT Utah Pride Center (VIP $50
w/catered reception)
Sat., Feb. 27 @3 & 7 FILMING (Bring your ticket stub to
get in for free to both shows)
Mon., Mar 1 @7 p.m. FAMILY NIGHT w/talk back afterward
(Pay-what-you-can-but-please-pay- something)
Sat., March 5 @7 p.m. CLOSING NIGHT
IndieGoGo crowd-funding campaign for filming will begin Feb 15th.
Steven Fales’ original solo “comic valentine” to Mormonism
and his kids, MY MORMON VALENTINE: The Original Utah Versions of Confessions of a
Mormon Boy is peppered with all kinds of delicious Utah/Mormon in-humor
and takes place somewhere in Mormon Eternity after Judgment Day. Dressed in a telestial
holocaust pinstriped jailbird jumpsuit with a pink triangle on his back, Fales escapes
from Mormon Outer Darkness to find himself trying to get St. Peter (the token
Catholic in Mormon Heaven) to let pass through the Pearly Gates. When his name isn’t on the list for
Heavenly Mother’s Celestial Tea Party all heck breaks loose. Will Steven make
it into the Celestial Kingdom to see his kids? Will he ever get to marry “Jimmy
Flinders”? Who else does he find waiting for him on the other side of the
Celestial Red Carpet?
My Mormon Valentine:
The Original Utah Version of Confessions of a Mormon Boy first started as a stand-up routine at Caroline's on Broadway and then a reading at the 2001 Sunstone Symposium simply titled Confessions of a Mormon Boy. The world premiere was at the Rose
Wagner Performing Arts Center over Thanksgiving Weekend 2001. It
has never been performed since. Recently dusted off, it has now
been re-titled My Mormon Valentine to
distinguish it from his wildly successful off-Broadway version Confessions of a Mormon Boy now titled XXX’d.
To read an excerpt from My
Mormon Valentine go to Steven’s blog When
All Else Fales : http://stevenfales.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-pre-existence-from-my-mormon.html
For more press photos: http://stevenfales.blogspot.com/2016/02/my-mormon-valentine-press-photos.html
More about MY MORMON VALENTINE: The Original Utah Version of Confessions of
a Mormon Boy
Now re-titled, updated and improved, MY MORMON VALENTINE was originally written within a year of his
divorce and excommunication from the LDS Church Summer 2000. The original
Sunstone/Utah version of what was simply called Confessions of a Mormon Boy began as standup routine at Caroline’s
on Broadway and then a reading at the Sunstone Symposium Aug. 2001 with ex-wife
Emily Pearson leading the standing ovation. That Sunstone version of Confessions of a Mormon Boy (now titled
MY MORMON VALENTINE to distinguish itself from the later off-Broadway version) went
on to have its world premiere at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center Black
Box Theatre Nov. 2001 where it became a local sold-out sensation with an extra
performance added due to local counter-culture support and the unofficial endorsement of Affirmation:
LGBTQ Mormons. It was published in Sunstone
Magazine under Dan Witherspoon (Dec. 2003). Now updated and performed for
the first time in 15 years this Sunstone/Utah version is still “PG-13” with no
swearing or nudity.
This run will transfer to Off The Cuff Theater in Cedar
City, Utah later this summer coinciding with the Utah Shakespeare Festival in
which Steven Fales once starred in The
Boy Friend and other productions.
“This was my first attempt to help end spiritual abuse and
religious violence in our churches, mosques and synagogues,” said Fales. “I was
astonished at the emails of support that poured in during and after the run. I
seemed to be onto something as I struck a universal chord so I kept going.
There was this real need to talk about these themes in the play.”
The Salt Lake Tribune
called that Sunstone/Utah version “Wistfully comic . . . a compelling play. It
feels like a sequel to Good-bye, I Love
You (Carol Lynn Pearson’s bestselling memoir) from the husband’s
perspective and a generation removed. An enormous achievement, the way he
performs his Confessions proves to be
a therapeutic and unflinchingly honest experience.”
Ivan Lincoln of the Deseret News declining to review this or
subsequent versions of the play citing ecclesiastical and personal reasons
shared in an email to the playwright.
Fales explains his reasoning behind bringing this version
back. “This valley and the Utah Gay Establishment is getting too
self-significant and is wallowing in a dangerous cycle of victim mentality. The
antidote is humor! I’ll be transforming the Leonardo Theater into the Celestial
Kingdom as I turn Mormon Eternity upside down and serve it back with all the
generosity-of-spirit an excommunicated Latter-day Saint can muster. Do we really believe eternity could possibly
look like this? I like to say I may no longer be a Latter-day Saint but
something about me will always be Mormon. That starts with good old-fashioned
hokey Mormon humor! This will always be my favorite version and I feel like
Salt Lake City, the epicenter of Mormondom, needs this more campier, wholesome
version now more than ever. I know I sure-as-heck do!” Steven recently
relocated to Utah to base his personal life where his two children are in
college and to export his “Oxy-Mormon” work from Salt Lake City.
That old Sunstone/Utah version of Confessions of a Mormon Boy later underwent significant re-writes
for “gentile” audiences when he took it back to New York and eliminated all the
Utah in-humor—including Heavenly Mother and the Pre-existence. That version,
directed by Tony Award Winner Jack Hofsiss (The
Elephant Man) became more R-rated due to the serious grittier urban content
that was added: drug experimentation and human trafficking. It went on to be
developed for a 10-week run at the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami in 2003 and
became a break-out hit of the 2004 New York International Fringe Festival (Overall
Excellence Award) before its official landmark commercial off-Broadway run at
the SoHo Playhouse 2006 (Outer Critics Circle Award Nomination) opening the
door for future shows about Mormonism and including The Book of Mormon on Broadway (consider South Park’s similar
marketing and themes).
Confessions of a
Mormon Boy (off-Broadway version)
has toured extensively across the country and internationally including the Dublin
International Gay Theatre Festival (Oscar Wilde Award Nomination), Atlantic
Fringe Festival in Halifax (Overall Fringe Hit Award); Edinburgh Fringe
Festival and a month-long engagement at the Charing Cross Theater in London’s
West End with John Leguizamo's Ghetto Klown following Fales' run.
Confessions of a
Mormon Boy is perhaps the most successful non-celebrity driven autobiographical
solo play to ever premiere in Utah—having grossed over one million dollars at
the small theater box office while garnering awards and critical acclaim from major national
newspapers from the Associated Press,
“the stuff of great theatre” to Chris Jones of the Chicago Tribune, “uncommonly powerful” (Critic’s Choice) to Louise Kennedy
of the Boston Globe , “feels like a
sacred gift” (Critic’s Choice) to Frank Rizzo of Variety, “Brokeback Mormon” to the late Howard Kissel of the NY Daily News, “Fales is such a
perceptive writer”. Last spring he had his fourth run in Los Angeles at the
Zephyr Theatre , “The best of the solo genre.”--LA Times (Critic’s Choice) and most recently performed at the
Interfaith Peace Chapel at the Cathedral of Hope in Dallas Nov 2015.
Steven Fales’ first book Confessions
of a Mormon Boy: Behind the Scenes of the
Off-Broadway Hit (Alyson, 2006) was a 2007 Lambda Literary Award Finalist.
It is available on Amazon.com as is his storytelling album “Confessions of a Mormon Boy (Live from
London)” (5-stars BroadwayWorld.com) also on iTunes. Steven is featured in
the book The Creative Life by Julia
Cameron (The Artist’s Way), anthologized
in Latter Gay Saints, and wrote a monthly
advice column “Ask Mormon Boy” for The
Pillar. His blog is called When All
Else Fales. Steven is currently shopping his children’s book The Valentine Maker and finishing his
second book Oxy-Mormon Memoirs which
is based on his Mormon Boy Trilogy: Confessions of a Mormon Boy, Missionary
Position, and Prodigal Dad to be
published in 2017.
Fales recently performed all three solo plays in Mormon Boy Trilogy in repertory at
Richmond Triangle Players for the Acts of Faith Festival where the Washington Post called his work, “Powerful.
Moving. Funny. A rare artistic commodity: a stand-up-infused autobiographical epic containing chapter after
chapter of absorbing spiritual and personal crisis, sly cultural commentary and
humor.” Mormon Boy Trilogy is in development
for an off-Broadway run Spring 2017.
The new title for the off-Broadway version of Confessions is called XXX’d: The Off-Broadway Version of
Confessions of a Mormon Boy as in X’communicated; X’wife; X’rated (human
trafficking).
Other work includes his cabaret act Mormon American Princess (Joe’s Pub, NYC; Metropolitan Room,NYC; Don’t
Tell Mama, NYC; Upright Cabaret LA) and last October he premiered his second
cabaret Cult Model at the Laurie Beechman
Theater in NYC. Upcoming work includes his solos Conversations with Heavenly Mother: An Uncommon Diva and Joseph III; a stand-up show When All Else Fales; a play Sacred Strain; and a musical Saltair.
More about Solo Salt
Lake: Solo Salt Lake is a new theater company bringing the best of local,
national and international solo performance to the Mountain West. Steven Fales
says, “I have so many solo colleagues that have never played Salt Lake. I not
only need a home to develop my own work but a venue to bring in amazing artists
with voices that Salt Lake needs to experience and celebrate.” Steven Fales
produced Jeff Keys’ Eyes of Babylon
at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts
Center as well as Carol Lynn Pearon’s Mother
Wove the Morning in Las Vegas. He has coached many storytellers to fringe festival
gold with his solo performance workshops. Fales is the founder of the Facebook
group Solo Performance Alliance.
More about Steven
Fales: Actor/writer/director/producer Steven Fales is a member of Actors
Equity Association and has performed in New York and regional theatre across
the country and in television and film. His first union job was playing Hap in Death of a Salesman at New Harmony
Theatre in Indiana. He was the dad in the national “Ski Utah” commercial
2012-2014. Locally he has worked at Utah Shakespeare Festival, Pioneer Theatre
Co., Sundance Summer Theatre, Tuacahn Amphitheatre and has developed his solo
work at the Tavernacle, Wiseguys and the ComplexSLC. He has directed at Provo
Theatre Company and taught drama at the Waterford School where he directed his
adaptation of Everyman.
Steven is a public speaker and has spoken for groups ranging
from Affirmation: LGBTQ Mormons to Gamofites (Gay Mormon Fathers) to the
Gay/Straight Alliance at the Phillips Academy Andover/Exeter. He has guest
lectured at Hunter College in New York City and at the University of Maine. He
has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity with his work including
a star-studded benefit for the Point Foundation at the Mitzi Newhouse Theatre
at Lincoln Center. He shared his experiences of surviving Reparative Therapy on
the Tyra Banks Show in which the episode “When It’s Not In to be Out” was
nominated for a GLAAD Media Award.
Steven was born in Provo, Utah and is the oldest of six
children. When he was one his family moved to Los Angeles where his father
attended medical school at USC. Steven was raised in Northern California and later
Las Vegas where he went to junior high and high school. Steven attended the
Boston Conservatory on scholarship before serving an LDS mission to Portugal.
He received his BFA in musical theatre at Brigham Young University where he was
a Young Ambassador. He received his MFA in classical acting from the University
of Connecticut and has attended the American Comedy Institute and studied privately
with legendary acting coach Larry Moss.
Fales is the former son-in-law of celebrated Mormon poet/playwright
Carol Lynn Pearson (My Turn on Earth,
Facing East, No More Good-byes) and
commissioned her portrait from the late gay Mormon artist Trevor Southey. Steven
Fales has two children with her daughter actor/writer/producer Emily Pearson (8: The Mormon Proposition; Dancing with
Crazy). Steven’s step grandfather is
LDS General Authority emeritus Hartman Rector, Jr. and step uncle was Daniel
Rector, former editor of Sunstone
Magazine. His father is currently an LDS bishop in Las Vegas where Steven
grew up and with whom he now has a very close relationship. They spend weekends doing projects together at his father's hobby ranch in Enoch, Utah.
Steven is an activist for HIV/AIDS and an advocate for the
Father’s Rights Movement and the National Parent Organization. He is in the
process of founding the Possibility Foundation that helps prevent human
trafficking in the LGBT Community and assist survivors of the sex industry
according to recent articles about him in the Huffington Post and OUT.com.
Steven purchased signed depiction releases to mention Carol
Lynn and Emily Pearson and his children in this play and all his work.
Celebrity
Endorsements for Steven Fales’ Off-Broadway Version
Judith Light: “Steven’s one-man show is a combination of an
incredibly emotional and heart-wrenching story, a powerfully written and
nuanced script, and a knock-it-out-of-the-ballpark performance. Confronting the
‘demons’ within, and seemingly around him, and ending up such an inspiring
example of true self-respect and authenticity left me deeply touched and
equally inspired.”
Bruce Vilanch: “My only regret is that I came so late to
this experience. It was wonderful, wonderful, wonderful—the best gay
coming-of-age, grappling-with-being piece I’ve seen since Dan Butler’s and you
know there have been a thousand of them ever since his. It’s really good. This
needs to be filmed.”
Lucie Arnaz: “When one can be so moved as to laugh till your
jaw hurts, wince with the sorry recognition at the pain distorted religion can inflict,
cheer with unashamed abandon at an enviable and inspiring bravery so rarely
expressed in the face of certain banishment and ridicule, you know you have had
a thrilling and emotionally fulfilling theatrical experience. Bravo, Steven
Fales and his Mormon Boy!”
