Once Queerguru has settled into our summer base in Provincetown, we are reluctant to leave this magical queer spec of land at the tip of Cape Cod, but occasionally we have to head for the big world outside.  This time it’s for the world premiere of THE LAST OUT GATE, a new play by Kevin Anthony is about to open at The Chain Theater in New York.

The Last Out Gate is a coming-of-self story, set against the backdrop of the South and the violent world of bull riding.  With just two weeks to the National Bull Riding Championship and sporting a debilitating injury, champion rider Tyson Garrett’s world is turned upside-down by the unexpected arrival of his nephew who desperately needs his help.  Reckoning with how the oppressive forces of environment, religion, and family can play upon queer lives,

It’s directed by Casey Bradley and its starring Billy Oxendine (Tyson Garrett), Grant Michael Dine (Jake Welker), Rachel Ann Jerome (Shannon Barrow), Terra Layne (Lippy Welker), Camron Chapple (Charlie Duncan), and Evan Carter Hays (Doctor Steve/Shane/Jimmy Blanford)

Casey Bradley told Queerguru. The Last Out Gate is a slice of life of present-day rural Texas, with its finger right on the pulse of the complex conversations within families around queerness, community, and identity. The play follows two characters, both from the same family, with parallel experiences across time, and how they both deal with the (often-oppressive) forces of environment, religion, and family. There is a beautiful symmetry in the parallel experiences of Tyson and Jake, both silently grieving the loss of a partner, and both grappling with their own queerness growing up in the same town, with the same family, and the same fears. In attempting to help his nephew, Tyson begins to heals some ancient wounds and beginsto find his voice in a new way.

More a coming of self story than a coming out story, the play examines how the culture of hypermasculinity, amplified through the lens of bull riding culture, and religious forces can influence and manipulate and shape one’s sense of place, community, and self. The play reminds us how present the past can be in our day-to-day lives, and how it can unlock the way forward if we can only allow ourselves to listen.  I love how this play explores each character’s point of view with empathy and seeks to present the complexities in the truths without trying to fix something that is inherently present in the culture in present day America.

The ranch represents to me how transformative and healing the power of place and community can be, especially for the queer community. There is a radical expansion that we see across the play when our young protagonist experiences more – digerent perspectives, environments, and voices – and how healing it is to simply be seen. A lot of plays about queer lives focus on trauma and I don’t always think centring the story on this is necessary or correctly represents the totality of an experience, and I question who the intended audience for that portrayal is. We need more stories that centre queer joy, love, community, and honestly just day to day life, and when it comes to the complexities of the harder moments – for the portray to be just that – complex and honest. I appreciate that this play holds all those shades and that the drama of the playis not that a character is queer, but rather within the complexities of how people, placesand things can shape an experience and the points of view within that.

The play contains what feels like a million multitudes – each character is grappling with their own experiences, and the play collides them all and folds them in around each other. Alongside following the story of Jake coming out to his conservative parents, we have two veterans dealing with healing from PTSD, a mother trying to survive an abusive marriage with a member of the church, a champion bull rider aged and injured out of his career struggling to let go, and friendships that feel like family being challenged. It was extremely important to me who was telling this story, and to have queer and informed voices within the ensemble of artists telling this story. I’m so grateful to be working with a group of grounded, intelligent, talented individuals who all care deeply about the material, who have a commitment to truthful and honest storytelling, a care for the act of storytelling, and a respect toward our audiences. As a queer person myself, I’ve experienced the expansive and connective power of representation and community, and I feel very excited to be working on a piece that centres these values both in content and in the act of creation.