Last year’s lineup included nine offerings, such as “The Real Black Swann: Confessions of America’s First Black Drag Queen” by Les Kurkendaal-Barrett. (All photos by Sydney Lee Photography)
In the five years that he was able to travel around the world with his plays A Southern Fairytale and At Birth, actor and playwright Ty Autry was fortunate enough to be part of several performing arts fringe-like festivals. Now he hosts his own here in Atlanta: Lavender Fest, which opens next week with five nights showcasing LGBTQ+ artists and performances. Season Two, titled Celebrating Every Letter, runs at Out Front Theatre Company July 16 through July 20.
A few seasons ago, Autry was on the artistic advisory board for Out Front Theatre Company. One question that came up was what the theater could add to programming if it had additional resources. His suggestion was to start a performing arts festival, especially since the only comparable one locally is the Atlanta Fringe Festival. From there, he and his team got to work, and Lavender Fest bowed successfully last summer. He’s been especially excited about his audience’s hunger and passion for these productions, especially the premieres.
This year, the event is being staged by Autry’s nonprofit organization, Qreative Voices, which started this winter and amplifies Southern queer storytelling through the performing arts.
Last year’s festival had nine offerings and 2025 has 11. One highlight of this season’s Lavender Fest is Yesterday is Dead, a one-person show by Atlanta’s Maria Chryssopoulos. In it, the playwright looks at Ellen Lois Frazar’s coming out (and unpublished) manuscript from the 1920s and how it compares to her own story — both the parallels and the disconnects.
It’s the first play from Chryssopoulos, a recent graduate of the University of Georgia. Initially, she wanted to do more of a piece about the life of Frazar, who was also a community activist in Athens. Yet, the more the playwright tried to do research, the more she found dead ends, so her teacher asked her to re-examine and re-evaluate the story. “Every time I thought about this, I was left with the feeling that I know this story — but I didn’t live it,” says Chryssopoulos.
Being staged at Lavender Fest, and in Atlanta, means a lot to the playwright.
Other local components include One Morning At The Office by Vandy Beth Glenn, The Lily Show by Lily Kerrigan and two weekend cabarets — I Thought I’d Be Famous By Now by David Cohn and With Love, Women by Hannah Marie Smith. The opening night party will be at the Atlanta Eagle.
Valuable lessons come in different waves for Autry as a festival director. This year, his team is tightening the schedule, taking 15-minute breaks between shows rather than 30. “We’re packing it in a bit more so that people don’t have to be at the theater as long to see as many shows,” says Autry.
The rainbow aspect, as he calls it, of what he presents is vital. “I want to try and hit as many categories as possible in the beautiful alphabet we have in our queer nomenclature.” It was important, as well, to make sure that at least half of the shows are Southern based or by a Southern creative. This year, Autry is pleased that all of the offerings meet that criteria.
Autry looks at his submissions process through a marketing viewpoint, wanting a collaboration between the festival and the artists. “I don’t look at the script at all,” he says. “I want to know if these artists can talk about their show and pitch them so we can have a partnership in developing a season together. If they do, I have confidence the script and production values will follow.”
Autry graduated from Georgia Tech with a degree in electrical engineering and turned down a lucrative job to pursue performing. After working as an apprentice at Georgia Ensemble Theatre, he moved to New York and learned how to be an all-around artist. It was there he discovered playwriting and self-produced A Southern Fairytale. That initiative led to another tour and then relocating back in Atlanta. “Young actor me never thought I would be sitting as a festival director starting my own nonprofit. My heart has always been in telling stories.”
Included in this year’s Lavender Fest will be a staged reading of Autry’s own play, Conversations on How to Get Your Mom Laid, which explores sexuality and is loosely autobiographical. “It’s exactly what it sounds like,” he says. In the play, his mother is a straight-laced Southerner who finds out about her son’s open lifestyle, pushing her to explore her own sexual needs as a single woman.
Autry feels it is vital that audiences understand that art is resistance and wants people to find joy in the authentic material.
“I love that this festival offers artists of multiple generations [the chance] to tell their stories, stories that matter to them. This is a moment to see yourself onstage and a huge range of other people’s narratives and experiences you don’t get on a daily basis.”
Where & When
Lavender Fest is at Out Front Theatre Company July 15 through July 20. Ticket packages vary.
999 Brady Ave.NW.
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Jim Farmer is the recipient of the 2022 National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Award for Best Theatre Feature and a nominee for Online Journalist of the Year. A member of five national critics’ organizations, he covers theater and film for ArtsATL. A graduate of the University of Georgia, he has written about the arts for 30-plus years. Jim is the festival director of Out on Film, Atlanta’s LGBTQ film festival, and lives in Avondale Estates with his husband, Craig.
