D-Tours
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Generously supported by:
US Bank Foundation
Allison Rossett & Sue Reynolds
The Next Chapter of Arts Education: D-Tours
We will be touring Dispatches from Dear ONE, Selections from the full-length play Dear ONE: Love & Longing in Mid-Century Queer America, by Joshua Irving Gershick in area schools March 21st – May 26th, 2022.
We are proud to be touring at Wilson Middle School, Hoover High School, Mann Middle School, Morse High School, and Canyon Crest Academy this year.
D-Tours is available for booking now through May 27, 2022! To book your school, email ssullivan@diversionary.org.
About D-Tours:
D-Tours is a partnership with the San Diego Unified School District bringing LGBTQ+ themed shows to high school campuses across San Diego County. This traveling program provides an important opportunity to meet the students where they live and work with a powerful performance exploring LGBTQ+ themes and issues, providing exposure to the theater arts for youth from a broad spectrum of socioeconomic backgrounds. D-Tours reaches over 2,000 students annually in the San Diego Unified School District and is provided FREE of charge to schools.
At Diversionary Theatre, we believe it’s important to provide students from diverse backgrounds with the opportunity to experience live theatre, as well as have access to content that explores LGBTQ+ themes and issues. That’s why we created D-Tours, which allows us to connect with schools and students otherwise unable to participate in our Student Matinee series or other programming we offer as a way to ensure that educators across San Diego have the opportunity to provide their students with this unique experience.
Are you a student who enjoyed D-Tours and would like to get involved? Check out our Teen-Versionary page for more information on how to join in and become part of the Diversionary family of performers!
2022 Tour:
DISPATCHES FROM DEAR ONE
Dear ONE: Love & Longing in Mid-Century Queer America
Reach out to us if you would like to arrange a show!
Dear ONE: Love & Longing in Mid-Century Queer America, by Joshua Irving Gershick, illuminates the lives of ordinary Queer Americans as recounted through letters written between 1953 and 1965, to L.A.’s ONE Magazine, the first openly gay & lesbian periodical in the United States. Looking for love, friendship or understanding, they wrote of loneliness and longing, of joy and fulfillment, and of their daily lives, hidden from history. Adapted from material from the ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries, the largest repository of LGBTQ materials in the world.
Cast
Frankie Alicea-Ford (He/Him/His) is a San Diego-based, New York City-trained theatre artist who has been working professionally since 2012. After receiving his BFA from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, Frankie has worked as a performer, deviser, educator, and administrator throughout the US and abroad. He has created and spearheaded multiple theater education programs throughout Connecticut and New York and worked as the Residential Director of The Center for Creative Youth, based out of Wesleyan University.
He currently works as a teaching artist with La Jolla Playhouse, New Village Arts, and Diversionary Theatre and has extensive training in devised theater techniques, arts integration, and trauma-based theater practices. He was most recently an Artistic Associate and the Artist-In-Residence at New Village Arts in Carlsbad, CA, and currently serves as the Associate Artistic Director of Diversionary Theatre.
ANDRÉA AGOSTO (she/they) is thankful to be back at Diversionary. Agosto is an award-winning filmmaker (Kansas City Film Fest) and actor (International Model & Talent Association). Their credits include: A Kind of Weather, Bull in a China Shop, Cardboard Piano, Homos, or Everyone in America (Diversionary), Dance Nation (MOXIE), The Magic in This Soul (Blindspot Collective), Avenue Q (Ocean Beach Playhouse), You Can’t Take it With You (Lamb’s Players), Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (FUSION), and Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters (The Coterie). For more information, please visit: www.andreaagosto.com
Rachael VanWormer (She/Her) Diversionary Theatre: Plot Points In Our Development; The Mystery of Love and Sex, Regrets Only, Birds of a Feather, Speech & Debate, Corpus Christi, Beautiful Thing; La Jolla Playhouse: Froggy (workshop), #SuperShinySara; Cygnet Theatre: Angels in America: Parts 1 & 2; When the Rain Stops Falling, The Vortex, Hay Fever, The Importance of Being Earnest, Travesties, Arcadia, The Matchmaker, The Little Foxes, Curse of the Starving Class; Lamb’s Players Theatre: Babette’s Feast, Ring Round the Moon, Silent Sky, Dinner With Marlene, An American Christmas; San Diego Rep: boom. North Coast Rep: Faded Glory, A Christmas Carol; New Fortune: Henry V; PCPA TheaterFest: The Wizard of Oz, Lifeboat, The Reluctant Dragon; ion Theatre: Reason to be Pretty, In the Heat of the Night, bash: latterday plays (Critics Circle Award), In a Dark Dark House.
About the Playwright
Joshua Irving Gershick is a writer whose books, plays & films illuminate the lives of LGBTQI Americans who’ve been hidden from history. His works include the GLAAD-award-winning play Bluebonnet Court and the short film Door Prize, winner of the Alfred C. Kinsey Award, honoring film that furthers understanding of gender or sexuality. He is the author of two acclaimed oral histories – Gay Old Girls and Secret Service: Untold Stories of Lesbians in the Military. He is a Lambda Literary Award Finalist and a two-time winner of the ForeWord Book of the Year Award for LGBT Nonfiction. A former news reporter and editor, he earned an MPW from the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts & Sciences & an MFA from the USC School of Dramatic Art. He loves dogs, indie bookstores, and vintage radio drama.
Arts Education Spring Sponsor
Many Thanks to:
About Our Arts Education Programs and Outreach
Arts Education is thriving at Diversionary Theatre, and our programs spread the seeds of understanding and tolerance around our unique mission as the third oldest LBGT theater in the country. Watch this video to learn more about each of our education programs.
By sharing LGBTQ stories with our community we bring stories that need to be told, directly into people’s lives. We provide a safe place for all students, and we are excited to extend a lifeline to our LGBTQ youth who may not have the support at home or at their school. We are giving people permission to be who they are, and for many this might be a life saving experience.
Make a Difference
All of these programs are only made possible by the generous support of our donors and our community.
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