mormon boy experience

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          It’s been 15 years since playwright/performer Steven Heard Fales (Outer Critics Circle Award Nominee) opened his groundbreaking Confessions of a Mormon Boy Off-Broadway at the SoHo Playhouse directed by Tony Award-winner Jack Hofsiss (Feb. 3, 2006), and nearly 20 years since its world premiere at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center in downtown Salt Lake City (Nov. 23, 2001)—where it became a sold-out, word-of-mouth counter-culture phenomenon. Since then, the independently produced, critically acclaimed autobiographical solo play has been performed over 2,000 times across the country and around the world from Los Angeles to London, Houston to Halifax, San Diego to Sydney.

          Steven Heard Fales is a classically trained actor (MFA) who started writing and performing solo work after his “perfect” Mormon world fell apart following his formal excommunication from the LDS Church and subsequent divorce in 2000. He was married to actor/writer Emily Pearson with whom he fathered two children.

          “I originally wrote Confessions for my kids. I wanted to make sure I left a personal record, because when I came out, you were expected to get AIDS and die. That’s the template I was given. I wanted to make sure my kids knew what happened to their dad and how much I loved them before I might run out of time like it did for my gay father-in-law, Gerald Pearson.”

Steven is the former son-in-law of celebrated Mormon author Carol Lynn Pearson who wrote about bringing her ex-husband home to die of AIDS in San Francisco in her bestselling memoir Good-bye, I Love You (Random House, 1986). 

          With Confessions of a Mormon Boy, Steven Heard Fales became the first gay Mormon to artistically tell his story in any kind of mainstage/mainstream way. 

          “I believe it’s our duty to tell our own stories in our own words in our own way in our own time on our own terms and often on our own dime. That’s what I’ll continue to do. It seems that a young dad grew up with a lot more to say!” Steven Heard Fales is the founder of the Solo Performance Alliance that encourages/supports/mentors others to tell their stories and advances the solo theatre genre.

          Confessions deals with . . . 

          Confessions of a Mormon Boy was last performed February 2020 for a sold-out run at Chapel Off Chapel in Melbourne, Australia following a seven-month residency in Palm Springs, California and sold-out runs at the National Arts Festival in Makhanda and later Cape Town, South Africa; Oslo, Norway; and Evolution Theatre in Columbus, Ohio—all in 2019; and turns at Gay Days Anaheim at Disneyland and Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor in 2018. The pandemic forced him to cancel the rest of his global tour that included New Zealand, Taiwan, Mexico, and ultimately India, Israel, Brazil, et al.  

Fall 2022 Steven Heard Fales will launch his “Mormon Boy Experience” with an updated Confessions that will continue to tour nationally and internationally on its way to a commercial revival in New York City, along with other solos, plays, books, and music including the rest of his Mormon Boy Trilogy and his latest solo dramedy Mormon Outlaw: Overcoming the Criminal Mind, about his American Western ancestry and colorful Trump worshipping Mormon family. During the pandemic he has been working on a 5-volume epic: Oxy-Mormon Memoirs from his “creativity cottage” in Palm Springs, California which he now calls home and from whence he exports his work to New York City, etc. 

         Pre-order Confessions of a Mormon Boy: Behind the Scenes of the International Solo Sensation, a follow-up to his Lambda Literary Award Finalist Confessions of a Mormon Boy: Behind the Scenes of the Off-Broadway Hit (Alyson Books, 2006) which includes the script at www.mormonboy.com. His Mormon Boy podcast begins March 2022. Check out his Mormon Boy Blog and YouTube Channel. He is on Twitter, Instagram, etc. 

MormonBoy 2.0 "Let the transformation begin . . . again." 

Originally directed Off-Broadway by Tony Award Winner, Jack Hofsiss (The Elephant Man), Outer Critics Circle Award Nominee, Steven Fales' MORMON BOY has played London, Dublin, Oslo, Edinburgh, Melbourne, Sydney, Cape Town, Makhanda (Grahamstown), and Halifax. Nationally, it’s had runs in New York, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, San Diego, Hartford (Storrs), Atlanta, Buffalo, Houston, Dallas, Austin, Salt Lake City, Miami, Orlando, Ft. Lauderdale, Columbus, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Orange County, Phoenix, Tucson, Sag Harbor (the Hamptons), Provincetown, Cherry Grove (Fire Island), Richmond, Portland (OR), Portland (ME), Andover (NH), New Hope (PA), Denver, Palm Springs, etc.—often returning to venues again and again. Commercial to regional to special events from the SoHo Playhouse to the Mitzi Newhouse (Lincoln Center) to Charing Cross Theatre to Bay Street Theater to the Coconut Grove Playhouse to Disneyland to the Phillips Academy and fringe after fringe after fringe festival. And that’s not counting the cabaret acts that have played Joe’s Pub to stand-up clubs like Caroline's On Broadway where Steven got his start. This self-produced “little solo show that could” has put on a lot of miles. And used up just as many smiles. Where and what will the all new MormonBoy 2.0 (and other shows) go and do? Stay tuned!

 For further reviews, endorsements, play history, past productions, bios, photos, awards, etc. and information about other "Mormon Boy" projects, please continue to peruse this site. Thank you. And keep smiling! 

Welcome to Steven Heard Fales' "Mormon Boy Experience" where you will find all things "Mormon Boy" and so much more. Because it's not just about being Mormon. It's a human thing . . .

It all started with the world premiere of  Fales' groundbreaking Confessions of a Mormon Boy in Salt Lake City, Utah in 2001. Since that initial sold-out run, his award-winning autobiographical solo play has played Off-Broadway, across the country, and around the world—becoming a celebrated one-man phenomenon and truth-telling movement. Ahead of its time, Mormon Boy is now just in time with its universal themes, contemporary relevance, humor, and generosity of spirit.

Steven Heard Fales is a classically trained actor who first started writing when his perfect Mormon world fell apart.   A true trailblazer, Elder Fales was a formally excommunicated Latter-day Saint in 2000 and the first gay Mormon dad to tell his story in any kind of mainstage/mainstream way. Sharing his poignant and crowd-pleasing Oxy-Mormon stories is part of an ongoing mission to educate, inspire, and entertain diverse audiences from every corner of the globe. More than Mormon, Confessions of a Mormon Boy has become "a human thing" and is now Part One in Mormon Boy Trilogy and the cornerstone of his "Mormon Boy Experience" and other solos, plays, books, albums, etc., including OxyMormon Memoirs. 

For more about Mormon Boy, please explore this new website that will continue to be updated in preparation for MormonBoy 2.0 launching in 2022, "Because a young dad grew up with a lot more to say!" Meanwhile, thank you for visiting. Please stay safe during the pandemic. And as Steven Heard Fales' Mormon Boy motto goes, "Cowboy up and keep smiling!"

SYNOPSIS
STYLE
WHY IT WAS WRITTEN
INFLUENCES AND INSPIRATION 

"Compelling"—New York Times; "Powerful"—Chicago Tribune; "Epic"—Washington Post; "Exceptional"—Los Angeles Times; "Superb"—Atlanta Journal-Constitution; "Riveting"—Associated Press; "Moving"—New York Daily News; "Hilarious"—Chicago Sun-Times; "Engaging"—New York Post; "A triumph"—Newsday; "Spellbinding"—San Francisco Examiner; "Absorbing"—Salt Lake Tribune; "Stunning"—Austin Chronicle; "Cathartic"— Miami Herald;  "Polished"—The Oregonian; "Satisfying"—South Florida Sun-Sentinel; "Sexy"—Village Voice; "Attractive"—LA Weekly; "Astonishing"—Boston Globe; "Breathtaking"—San Diego Union-Dispatch; "Unforgettable"—Houston Chronicle; "Gripping"—Houston Press; "Funny"—The Advocate; "Poignant"—Las Vegas Review-Journal; "Life-affirming"—Richmond Times-Dispatch; "Shocking"—Theaterlife.com; 

"Timely"—San Francisco Chronicle; "Winning"—Variety; "Gripping"—Connecticut Post; "Harrowing"—Backstage; "Ingenious"—Boston Phoenix; "Illuminating"—Boston Herald; "Hair-raising"—Metro Boston; "Dazzling"—Chicago Free Press; "Entertaining"—OUT.com; "Lively"—New York Metro; "Vulnerable"—Theatremania.com; "Captivating"—Broadway.com; "Brave"—NYTheatre.com; etc.

"An uncommonly powerful, gripping, and very moving piece of theatre. It’s far, far better than you’d guess. It’s unusually well-written and shaped. Fales is not only an actor, but also a very good one. And, onstage, he is both provocative and intensely empathetic. As with Elaine Stritch, Fales’ life simply went further to the extremes than most. And thus it’s more dramatic. Fales does not do a hatchet job on the Christian Right in general, or on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in particular. On the contrary, he’s unafraid to reveal that his alienation from his initial identity—his spiritual core, still—is what ripped him apart. Along with some truly wrenching scenes involving issues of fatherhood and childhood vulnerability, this palpable sense of spiritual longing is what makes this show so remarkably powerful. Just as he deserves personal happiness, he also merits a professional chance at the big time, in all its glory.”

CHICAGO TRIBUNE, Chris Jones, Critic's Choice 

“Wrenchingly honest, hilariously jubilant and utterly clear-eyed, Steven Fales’ autobiographical testimony is an exceptional achievement to rank beside the best of the solo genre. Fales never reviles himself or the religion he loved, nor does he let either off the hook. His narrative is richly absorbing in its immediacy. The motifs are shrewdly developed, and the climactic revelation is a hair-raising coup. You’d have to go back to Leslie Jordan or Geraldine Hughes and Julia Sweeney, to find such deeply personal material attaining so wide a reach. That accessibility distinguishes Mormon Boy, and it’s a memorable soul-baring session.”

LOS ANGELES TIMES, David M. Nichols, Critic’s Choice

“What a rare and skillful thing is Mormon Boy, Steven Fales’ engrossing, funny, and often quite harrowing tale. Fales’ tumble from grace and his road to redemption peg him as the male counterpart of the fallen woman . . . think Joan Crawford or Bette Davis playing outcasts at their most glamorously vulnerable. He’s a male Mildred Pierce, except that it’s real life. With crackerjack direction by Broadway veteran Jack Hofsiss, Fales delivers the dramatic goods with considerable economy, crisp pacing and, in the end, a simple gesture of self-revelation that’s as effective a coup de theatre as you’ll find in a dozen shows jam-packed with special effects. Best of all, we don’t see Fales’ ultimate moment of catharsis coming; it hits us between the eyes like a shot with a two-by-four. Fales is such a good mimic, capable of vivid and hilarious impersonations. Fales has lived a stunningly eventful, almost Dickensian life, and he is, by happy coincidence, a fine writer and actor. Let him make the most of it.” 

—Kevin Nance, Chicago Sun-Times

“Go! Fales is an attractive and engaging personality who wins us over with charm instead of ingratiating gestures. He’s boyish without appearing naïve, mischievous without being cynical. In his opening moments, you never know which way Fales is going to go with his story.  Not only is the material deeply personal, but so is the performance."

—Steven Mikulan, LA Weekly