The Story of Fellow Travelers started as Thomas Mallon’s best-selling 2007 novel, then became an Aqard-Winning Showtime television miniseries in 2023 starring Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey, and it became an opera in 2016 by composer Gregory Spears and librettist Greg Pierce,  and which is about to be performed at the Guggenheim Center in New York.  And who said gay romance was dead! 

It’s the story of a decades-long romance between two men who first met during the height of McCarthyism in the 1950s and is set against the backdrop of a forgotten chapter of LGBTQ+ history known as the Lavender Scare. After a chance encounter in Washington, D.C., in the 1950s, Hawkins Fuller and Timothy Laughlin start a volatile romance that spans “the Vietnam War protests of the 1960s, the drug-fueled disco hedonism of the 1970s and the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, while facing obstacles in the world and in themselves”.

UP UNTIL NOW is a collective of artists and thought leaders co-founded by Kevin Newbury, Jecca Barry & Brandon Kazen-Maddox in the Summer of 2020 at the height of the global pandemic  and is producing a tenth anniversary tour in 2026–27 that will bring the work to more than ten venues across the U.S., including Seattle Opera, Portland Opera, San Diego Opera, Glimmerglass Festival, Austin Opera, and others to be announced, shedding light on this history while building community within the opera industry and across the country. At Works & Process, Newbury, Barry, and opera company leaders will participate in a moderated discussion exploring collaboration and new production models. Cast members will perform highlights from the opera.