with libretto by Greg Pierce
The most powerful and tender scenes from
Fellow Travelers
An opera by Gregory Spears with libretto by Greg Pierce
March 17 & 18, 2026 7:00pm
What is Fellow Travelers about?
Set against the backdrop of the 1950’s Lavender Scare when gays and lesbians were being purged from the Federal government, Fellow Travelers tells the story of two young gay government officials who begin a romantic relationship under the watchful and vengeful eye of McCarthyism. Eventually, they are forced to make impossible choices in a story that ends with a stunning act of betrayal.
Based on Thomas Mallon’s best-selling 2007 novel, we present the most powerful and tender scenes from the opera followed by a panel discussion with the cast and creative team.
This same story was the basis for the 2023 CBS/Paramount mini-series starring Matt Bohmer and Jonathan Bailey.
Acclaim for Fellow Travelers
“[A] heart-wrenching yet musically lucid drama … The opening act is a near-perfect example of fast-flowing musical drama … With its smart music and sharp-edged romantic drama, Fellow Travelers seems assured of lasting appeal.” — The New York Times
“…the intimate power of Spears’s musical voice, which is unlike that of any composer now
working—a kind of shivery, fraught simplicity…Spears has an eerie ability to suggest interior landscapes that go unseen, interior lives that go unspoken. In giving us glimpses of hidden selves, his music becomes universal in reach.”– Alex Ross, The New Yorker
More about the Lavender Scare:
The Lavender Scare was a moral panic about homosexual people in the United States government which led to their mass dismissal from government service during the mid-20th century. It contributed to and paralleled the anti-communist campaign which is known as McCarthyism and the Second Red Scare. Gay men and lesbians were said to be national security risks and communist sympathizers, which led to the call to remove them from state employment.
It was thought that due to the stigma around homosexuality, gay people were vulnerable to blackmail, which could lead to a breach in national security. Lesbians were at less risk of persecution than gay men, but some lesbians were interrogated or lost their jobs.
The Lavender Scare normalized persecution of homosexuals through bureaucratic institutionalization of homophobia. Former U.S. senator Alan K. Simpson wrote: “The so-called ‘Red Scare’ has been the main focus of most historians of that period of time. A lesser-known element and one that harmed far more people was the witch-hunt McCarthy and others conducted against homosexuals.”
Cast and Creatives
Andres Acosta as Timothy Laughlin
Joseph Lattanzi as Hawkins Fuller
Amber Monroe as Mary Johnson
Kevin Newberry, Director
Jecca Barry, Producer
This production is a guest presentation and is not produced under an Actors’ Equity Association agreement. It is non-Equity and no Equity members are employed.
