Following NYC Run, Confessions of a Mormon Boy Opens in Atlanta

Playbill News/June 18, 2006
By Kenneth Jones

A play about coming to terms with yourself, your father and your fatherhood — among other things— will open June 18, Father's Day, in Atlanta.

Atlanta's 14th Street Playhouse is hosting Confessions of a Mormon Boy, Steven Fales' solo play about his incident-crowded life as a gay Mormon actor who survived life as a drug-using sex worker.

Written and performed by Fales and directed by Tony Award winner Jack Hofsiss, the staging began a limited four-week Georgia engagement June 15.

Confessions is presented at 14th Street Playhouse by Joe Spotts, producer of Atlanta's recent hit Like a Dog on Linoleum.

Atlanta is the first stop on a Confessions tour following a four-month engagement in New York at the Soho Playhouse.

"Confessions of a Mormon Boy is Steven Fales' compelling and inspiring true story about how a young gay man went from being model Mormon Boy in a model Mormon family in Utah to a high priced call boy in New York City," according to production notes. "His captivating tale takes audiences through his excommunication from the Mormon church, divorce, male prostitution and drug abuse, as he struggles to reclaim himself, his children and his 'Donny Osmond smile.'"

Fales noted that he spent six weeks as a Mormon missionary in Atlanta prior to embarking on his formal Mormon mission to Portugal several years ago.

In the 2004 New York International Fringe Festival, Fales' play received an Overall Excellence Award. It has played engagements around the country.

"A sixth-generation Mormon from Utah, Steven Fales could have been the poster child for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church): Eagle Scout, international missionary, BYU graduate, married in the Salt Lake Temple, and father of a beautiful boy and girl," according to notes.

Steven Fales trained at the Boston Conservatory before completing his 2-year mission for the Mormon Church in Portugal, and going on to a BFA and MFA in acting and musical theatre.

Director Jack Hofsiss won the 1979 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play for The Elephant Man. His other Broadway directing credits include a 1995 revival of The Shadow Box, and the play Total Abandon.