Florida Grand Opera is traveling back in time to the not-so-distant past for its upcoming production of Gregory Spears’ Fellow Travelers. Based on the best-selling novel by Thomas Mallon, it is set during the Lavender Scare, a lesser-known but longer-lasting byproduct of Senator Joseph McCarthy’s Red Scare.
In 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10450, prohibiting homosexuals from holding government positions. Encouraged by McCarthy, who said, “The pervert is easy prey to the blackmailer,” the policy subjected hundreds of suspected gay and lesbian government employees to investigation, interrogation, persecution, resignations, and firings. Between 5,000 and 10,000 gays and lesbians quietly resigned or were fired. Many others managed to stay closeted, but curtailed their professional ambitions in order to stay under the radar. Some killed themselves. The policy remained in place until 1995, when President Bill Clinton rescinded it by executive order.
Fellow Travelers explores the romance and heartbreak between two men during this fraught era. Cuban-American tenor Andres Acosta, a Miami native, is young college graduate Timothy Laughlin, who takes his first job working in a senator’s office after a chance meeting with State Department official Hawkins Fuller. “Hawk” is played by New Zealand baritone Hadleigh Adams, returning to the FGO stage after his triumphant turn as Stanley Kowalski in January’s A Streetcar Named Desire. Metropolitan Opera soprano Adelaide Boedecker makes her FGO debut as Hawk’s assistant and best friend, Mary Johnson. Part love story and part political thriller, the plot follows Tim and Hawk’s budding romance and their efforts to avoid detection and persecution during the Lavender Scare.
The opera was co-commissioned by Cincinnati Opera and film/theatrical producer G. Sterling Zinsmeyer. It premiered at Cincinnati Opera in 2016 and since has been staged at Chicago Lyric Opera, Minnesota Opera, and Boston Lyric Opera. FGO’s production will be the Florida premiere of the piece. “We are proud to stage this important and moving piece of contemporary opera,” says FGO CEO and General Director Susan T. Danis. “Via the medium of the musical human voice and the stories of these men, we revisit a critical time in American history with new eyes and understanding.”
Tickets HERE
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