Performance art meets activism in Lavender Fest’s third season

Several years ago, performer and playwright Ty Autry had the idea of bringing together an Atlanta performing arts festival for the LGBTQ community. Now, his Lavender Fest is about to open its third season, and every aspect of the rainbow spectrum — “bisexual, poly, queer, trans, nonbinary, gay and everything in between you can think of” — is on tap.

The 2026 event will hold a kickoff celebration at the Atlanta Eagle on Aug. 5, and will follow with four days of performances Aug. 6-9 at Out Front Theatre Company.

Lavender Fest's "Unerasable" theme is "a wonderful way to highlight the fact that not only do queer stories exist in our past canon but that they are also being written today,” festival director Ty Autry says. (Courtesy of Ty Autry)

For Lavender’s third season, Autry and his team decided to embrace the title and theme “Unerasable.”

“We felt that was a wonderful way to highlight the fact that not only do queer stories exist in our past canon but that they are also being written today,” he said. “The act of writing queer stories today is an act of rebellion and resistance, to proclaim that we cannot be erased that easily.”

The theme came to him in October, heavily influenced by what is happening in the world. “Our current federal government was going really heavy and hard that season, erasing gay history and trans history, erasing documents off the White House website that involved support and help. It got me thinking: What can we do as an organization that cannot get political? We are not here to endorse any political candidate. How do we use art in our messaging to make a stance and make it clear that what we see, we do not support? And how does performance art fit into activism?”

Five of the eight shows this year are world premieres, and seven are by Atlanta artists.

"ManBoy," by Nick Eibler, is described as a "coming-of-age story that ... will reinvent the wheel on how we look at those." (Courtesy of Lavender Fest)

One show Autry said he is particularly looking forward to is Nick Eibler’s “ManBoy.” “It’s a really interesting coming-of-age story that I think will reinvent the wheel on how we look at those,” the festival producer said. “Sometimes (those stories) can be a little tried and true, and we’ve seen a lot of them over the ages, but his idea and through line of where that transition is — between going from boy to man, especially as a queer kid to queer man — that discovery is fascinating. It’s something I think we can all tap into to some degree.”

When he was younger, Eibler said, he always yearned to be older. “Over the course of the show, I take the audience on this journey about this desire to be seen and treated like an adult,” he said. “I wanted to be taken seriously and seen as a legitimate theater actor at 9 years old. That also intertwined with my coming out journey.” The journey included a life-changing event at a theater camp.

"Then, Eve," by Billie Jane, tells the story of Eden through a queer lens. (Ashleigh Ann Gardner/Courtesy of Lavender Fest)

Another recommendation from Autry is “Then, Eve,” from Billie Jane, an Orlando performer. Jane tells the story of Eden through a queer lens.

“As someone who also wrote a show about growing up in the Deep South and Christianity, I am fascinated by any kind of narrative that takes the Bible and turns it upside down a little bit,” Autry said. “This concept of God creating Adam and Eve creating herself is brilliant, as is the idea that Eve is a trans woman and what does that mean, exactly?”

One production with Atlanta angles is “The F-Word,” by Markell Williams, who has lived in the South all his life and has been in Atlanta since 2005. The playwright calls “The F-Word” a raw, comedic solo piece that follows himself — a Black queer man — as he journeys though identity and performative acceptance. “It’s about reclaiming the power back from a word that stole so much,” Williams says.

Williams adds that the show is really about being named without one’s permission. “When I thought about writing this and using my life as the source material, it only made sense to use it about a word that created such a dark shadow of my life and affected so much,” he said.

Other Lavender Fest performances include Atlanta playwright John Mabey’s “Mischief & Moonflowers,” which Autry said involves film noir, spies, agents, lust and love; “Queer Girl, Straight Guy: Tales from the Polyverse,” by Lily Kerrigan and Matthew Marcus; and “Oops, Can’t Say That,” by Olive Zhang. Two special events will also take place: a staged reading of Àse Freed’s “Another Dimension Girl” and comedy by Matthew English.

Besides the shows on tap, Autry is excited that Lavender Fest has tripled its budget. That means the company can pay its artists.