Roger Q. Mason’s The Pride of Lions to Receive Industry Reading | Playbill

Readings and Workshops Roger Q. Mason’s The Pride of Lions to Receive Industry Reading

Set in 1928, the play centers on five fabulous drag queens who were about to become dolls of Broadway in a Mae West play, until the New York vice police took them in.

Roger Q. Mason Bronwen Sharp

Black Filipinx playwright Roger Q. Mason's new play The Pride of Lions will received a staged reading February 24.

Directed by Ann James with dramaturgy by Gaven Trinidad, the reading will be staged at The Tank.

Set in 1928, the play centers on five fabulous drag queens who were about to become dolls of Broadway in a Mae West play, until the New York vice police took them in. Now, stuck behind bars with a curious yet cringy warden, the girls conjure the magic of queer storytelling to save themselves (and us) from the clutches of invisibility.

The reading will feature Doug Plaut (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), Charlie Thurston (Julia), Sis (Oklahoma!), Garnet Williams (Cats: The Jellicle Ball), Mrs. Kasha Davis (RuPaul’s Drag Race), Wesley Han (Emily The Criminal), and Adam Fontana (The Civil War).

"The events which inspired this play took place almost 100 years ago, yet the homophobic and transphobic attitudes it explores have not changed,” said Mason. “The Pride of Lions is a testament to the everlasting resilience that queer folks have had to muster to survive in America. But more importantly it is a celebration of the love which surpasses hate—then, now, and forever."

Mason is an award-winning writer, performer and educator whose playwriting has appeared on Broadway, Off/Off-Off-Broadway, and regionally. Their recent productions have garnered five Barrymore Award nominations in Philadelphia, a Jeff Award Recommendation in Chicago and the San Francisco Chronicle's prestigious Datebook Pick. They received 2024's Playwrights' Center McKnight National Playwright Commission, the inaugural Dramatists Guild Foundation Catalyst Grant Award, a Hermitage Residency, a Lucille Lortel commission, a Kilroys List nod, and the Chuck Rowland Pioneer Award. 

 
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