One Pride for All

So it's Gay Pride season and I've been thinking once again that there really should be just one day a year officially called "Gay Pride." This is blasphemy to some, but I have a lot of good reasons for this. I'll be writing an essay on it. We'll see what happens. The last Sunday is June is Gay Pride. Accept no substitutes. Too many Prides dilute the message. More to come.

My Mormon Boy Update Email Blast

Dear Friends,

Greetings from fabulous Utah! (Ahem.) There is so much happening! Thanks for letting me share these links to my work. I hope you’ll find them exciting, inspiring, and FUN!

NEW ALBUMS – LIVE FROM LONDON!

Confessions of a Mormon Boy (Live from London) is getting 5-star reviews! Now on iTunes and Amazon! BroadwayWorld.com 5-star review: http://offbroadway.broadwayworld.com/article/BWW-Review-Inspiring-CONFESSIONS-OF-A-MORMON-BOY-LIVE-FROM-LONDON-is-Moving-and-Provocative-20130314

Get the album for free when you contribute $10.00 to my Mormon Boy Trilogy IndieGoGo Campaign now thru June 15^th (link includes new “Mormon Boy Theme Song” Slide Show!) http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-mormon-boy-trilogy/x/3023743

Mormon American Princess Live album is currently being mixed and engineered. It’s touching and hilarious! Here’s a sneak peek at one number I wrote called (ahem) “Narcissus”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua-ZBRszFb4

“Broadway Mormon Medley”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq6lhulElJk

“Prodigal Dad Medley”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRWR2flfumA

UPCOMING SHOWS – THE MORMON BOY TRILOGY

After recent runs in Houston and Halifax, Confessions of a Mormon Boy at Buffalo United Artists on September 30th and at the University of Maine Oct. 17th! Here’s a sexy and harrowing scene from Confessions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy2v1aeTa-0

The Mormon Boy Trilogy will open off Broadway after an out-of-town tryout at Richmond Triangle Players in Virginia Jan/Feb 2014. See Confessions of a Mormon Boy, Missionary Position, and Prodigal Dad in repertory!  Another international tour is in the works.

NEW CABARETS – MORMON AMERICAN COWBOY

Mormon American Cowboy on Oct 25 and A Mormon Boy Christmas on Dec 23 at the Metropolitan Room in New York. Here’s a new song from the show! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esOcbyYlqxI

My new stand up show in development is called When All Else Fales! Moving beyond Mormon!

NEW BOOKS – LATTER GAY SAINTS

Latter Gay Saints, a new anthology I’m honored to be part of comes out July 15^th. It features excerpts from my new show Missionary Position and it’s getting incredible press already! See this Huffington Post Article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/24/gay-mormon-characters-in-the-arts-step-out-of-the-shadows_n_3323515.html

My new book Mormon Boy: A Memoir of Royalty and White Trash in America is currently being shopped by my agent in New York. I’ve been working on it for years! Fingers crossed.

My first Lambda Literary Finalist Book Confessions of a Mormon Boy: Behind the Scenes of the Off-Broadway Hit is still available on Amazon! High school students are winning state drama awards with these monologues all over the country! Check out this student  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Evz7IhJAoN4

WORKSHOPS

“The Extraordinary Artist.” This one-day workshop will inspire anyone to produce what they create.  June 22^nd in Salt Lake City! “Steven has a gift for igniting the creativity of others.”—Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way. I’m featured in her new book The Creative Life: True Stories of Inspiration http://www.amazon.com/The-Creative-Life-Tales-Inspiration/dp/1585428248

FUTURE FILM & TV

The DVD of Confessions off Broadway is in the works. Excommunication scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwCXiL61fCI

Mormon Boy is an epic documentary film about a storyteller compelled to keep sharing his stories all over the world.  You should see the footage we shot in Edinburgh and London!

And would you watch a web series called The Mormon Boy Cooking Show? Fashion, fitness, faith, and FOOD! It’s something up my sleeve like Mormon Boy jeans? “When you wear Mormon boy, you’re wearing the truth!”

Just for fun, the national “Ski Utah” commercial some of you might have recently seen! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FESd7TuQcXQ

 

It’s been a very challenging few years post-Recession. I’m moving back to NYC in July after two wonderful (and humbling) years being available to my kids in Utah. They are now basically all grown up and daddy is returning to the Big Apple a lot more sober and a whole lot wiser.

The one thing that has remained constant has been creating new work—and there are a lot more projects ahead that I will share later. (I’ve already gilded the lily!) Thank you for all your support as together we take things to the next level!  I can’t do this alone. I’d love to hear from you!

Keep smiling!

Steven Fales

https://www.facebook.com/Fales.Steven

Twitter @mormonboy

http://www.stevenfales.blogspot.com

"Steven Fales is easily among the best, if not the best, solo performers in the business." --BroadwayWorld.com

"The Smile" on Andrew Sullivan's THE DISH

I want to archive my mini essay "The Smile". It was featured on a blog post by Andrew Sullivan. Check me out on The Dish as he dishes on Mitt Romney's laugh. http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2012/05/23/the-romney-laugh-ctd-2/

Note from the Playwright

“The Smile”

            The Mormon Smile is made by first thinking how deeply grateful and blessed you are to belong to “the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth.” As one of the chosen, this thought brings you incomparable glee that just can’t be contained. Your smile’s size is proportionate to just how many Mormon pioneer ancestors you had sweat and freeze across the Plains. If you are truly Mormon royalty, your smile will be enormous! Imagine your favorite hymn or Disney’s “It’s a Small World” playing over and over in your head as you compulsively smile your charming, wholesome, flashy, adorably irresistible perky Osmond smile.

            The smile comes through the eyes, not just the teeth—they twinkle and sparkle, eyebrows raised high. As you smile, your head is cocked a little to the right to show the world just how cute and sincere you are. There’s maybe a little shrug and a giggle of delight—perhaps an unconscious condescending wink. There’s a spring in your step. You want to have the best smile possible, so brush and floss your teeth after every meal. Teeth-whitening is rarely necessary because, as a good member of the Church, you don’t drink wine or coffee or use tobacco in the first place. The most precious and righteous Mormons do not need braces. Many find that their smiles help them read in the dark. They also find it hard to kiss, as puckering is difficult with overdeveloped smiling muscles.

            Your smile can be used for many things, but its official purpose is to attract others to the Church (and other multilevel marketing schemes—think Amway). You smile all the time because you never know how or when your smile might convert another to the source of true happiness—“mainstream” Mormonism. (Just one smile can metastasize the world!) If you’re ever caught not smiling, you will be held responsible for all the souls who would have been saved had you been smiling as you should have been. Some of your salvation may be deducted in the next life if you’re not careful. You must avoid this and any guilt with every fiber of your being. As it says in the bible, “Let your light so shine.” So smile brightly! Sing an hymn: “Scatter sunshine all along your way . . .” or “Jesus wants me for a sunbeam to shine for him each day . . .”

            Remember, in the end it’s all about who wins. . . er . . .can be the nicest. And nice winners smile. Even when crying, continue smiling at all times—even when you are alone. (Someone may be watching!) And if you ever feel like swearing, smile instead. (Kill ’em with kindness!)

            But don’t think because Mormons smile ad nauseum they don’t know what pain and suffering is. They do. It’s just that they have a hope and uncompromising optimism that comes from their faith—and their proud pioneer legacy. They can endure all things, including any tragedy, because one day they will live eternally with their “elect” loved ones again in paradise. They live into a glorious future (they believe that they will one-day become gods themselves) that transforms their present, making them extraordinary neighbors. (And they live an average of ten years longer than you will—having the last laugh. They will be re-writing herstory.) Their burdens are lighter than others because they alone lay claim to the gift of the Holy Ghost—sent to comfort them in their times of need. But only if they are worthy of such blessings. And, as luck would have it, they usually are. Well, most of them are--the straight ones.

5-Star London Album Review from www.Stagezine.com

It was quite a Memorial Day yesterday. One year since I broke up with someone I was hoping would be Mr. Right. It's been a year now and I'm willing and able to move on. When I love, I love powerfully--it takes time to heal.

The evening ended with a Google Alert. I received a five-star review for my album "Confessions of a Mormon Boy (Live from London)" from Scott Harrah of www.StageZine.com.

"This must-have recording is that rare soundtrack of a solo show that you will want to listen to over and over again. Anyone will find much to savor in this spoken-word gem!"

Here's the link that will take you to the full reviews and the links to the album on iTunes and Amazon! http://www.stagezine.com/mormonboysoundtrack.html

Top 25 Gay Mormon Plays

I seem to have made the list of 25 plays in the last 20 years that deal with the gay Mormon experience. I have written four of the 25 and I have more to come: Sacred Strain and Cleft both go further than ever before.

Sex Sells! Day 30 Photo

Sex sells. And boy do I know. This photo got me into so much trouble. But I'm using it now to raise money in a more legitimate way. Help me tell my story about getting OUT of the sex industry just in the nick of time by donating to my "The Mormon Boy Trilogy Off Broadway 2014" IndieGoGo Campaign.

Donate $10 and get my new album "Confessions of a Mormon Boy (Live from London)!" Please donate right away. Only $6,900 and 30 days left to go! I need your help and can't fund my work alone. http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-mormon-boy-trilogy/x/3023743

Over eleven years clean from my sex work "experiment"!

Sugar Daddy Free!

18 Months of Living Clean

And so today I have eighteen months clean and sober. I have had "one year" several times on this journey but eventually I would fall through the cracks due to a move or even a break-up or being broke or any other resentment that might flare up. So this is an important milestone for me--the most "clean time" I've had since starting this journey in October 2003.

I started "binging" on alcohol after my divorce and excommunication Aug 2000. I was 30 years old. Within a year I was introduced to crystal meth in a penthouse in New York. I didn't know what was about to hit me. It blew my gaskets and my pleasure centers were thrashed! The crash was beyond demoralizing. I was addicted the first time I used.

There is no way to tell all my story right now and at this time. It was hard to admit I had a problem because I seemed so "normal" and no one around me thought I had a problem. But deep inside I knew I did. It was like a tsunami ready to crash upon me all the time--and it did.

I am grateful that recovery found me within two years of binging and that the programs I started held my hand until I could have enough bottoms to surrender.

I am so grateful for this journey. Recovery is something I learned I could not do perfectly. This is a hard thing to accept for a "Mormon boy." Humility is something that I lacked.

So here is to another 18 months one day at a time. Easy Does It. First Things First. May I continue to show up for life, learn how to serve others and to still be able to say at the end of each day (like I do at the end of Confessions of a Mormon Boy), "Heavenly Father, thank you for my life."

I would be happy to hear from anyone privately who thinks they might have a problem. Maybe together we can talk about a solution that could work for you. It seems to be working for me at this moment. And I see it work for others with much more time and experience. God bless.

fales.steven@gmail.com