The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey Comes to the Stage

937 views · Published 6 July 2015 · 2:44 · Indexed 10 November 2026

Channel: theatermania · 2015 · Entertainment

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How do you turn a sprawling young-adult story into a solo show? That's the question for James Lecesne, the Trevor Project cofounder who recently transformed his book Absolute Brightness into an acclaimed solo performance called The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey. After a lauded run at Dixon Place, Lecesne and his drama, which explores a town's reaction after a harassed gay youth goes missing, move uptown to the Westside Theatre. Alongside director Tony Speciale and producers Daryl Roth and Darren Bagert, Lecesne discussed the timeliness of the show and the amount of work it takes to distill a whole novel into theatrical form.

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