Age Recommendation: FIGARO/FAGGOTS contains mature subject matter and nudity. It is recommended for viewers 18 and over.
W.A. Mozart never imagined his classic opera The Marriage of Figaro would be transformed with words and scenes from gay rights activist Larry Kramer’s incendiary novel Faggots and performed by countertenors, dancers, and actors – but it has, and this is it.
Part theatre, part opera, and part disco – this project is set on Fire Island in 1977 at a ‘utopian’ moment of liberation. FIGARO/FAGGOTS investigates the complexities of same-sex partnership and fight for marriage equality through documentary, devised choreography, transfiguration of objects, and the most glorious music ever f#*king created.
The 90-minute chamber work has a score by W.A. Mozart, with a new libretto made entirely from texts by Larry Kramer – renowned playwright of The Normal Heart. While that play focuses on the rise of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in New York City, FIGARO/FAGGOTS encounters his roman à clef just four years prior in a thinly veiled true love story.
Score and Libretto Co-Adapted by Kevin Carillo and Sean Forte
Book by Kevin Carillo
Based on the Novel ‘Faggots’ and Other Literary Works by Larry Kramer
Inspired by the Opera ‘Le Nozze di Figaro’ by W.A. Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte
Produced by Little Cart Theatricals
Sean Peter Forte, Music Director and Arranger
Bryce McClendon, Associate Music Director
Annie Guo, Production Stage Manager
Noah Latty, Assistant Stage Manager
Cast
Toni Jenkins
Anthony J. Costello
Bryce McClendon
Jay St. Flono
Luk Rosario
León Tak
Tom Gold
Creative
Kevin Carillo, Scenic Designer
kindall almond, Costume Designer
serena wong, Lighting Designer
Germán Martínez, Sound Designer
Katerina Vitaly, Video Designer
Tommy Kurzman, Wig Designer
Liv Rigdon, Props Designer
Dezi Tibbs, Dramaturg
Andrew Aaron Valdez, Intimacy Director
FIGARO/FAGGOTS is made possible with funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
FIGARO/FAGGOTS is made possible, in part, by a grant from the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts.
All details subject to change.
Kevin Carillo is a theatermaker who writes, directs, choreographs, and devises new musical works. Awards/Fellowships: NYSCA Artist Grant; William R. Kenan, Jr. Excellence Award; Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation Award; William R. Kenan, Jr. Fellowship at Lincoln Center; Director Assistantship at Williamstown Theater Festival; Apprenticeship with Ivo van Hove at Internationaal Theater Amsterdam; Columbia University Theatre Program Scholarship. Commissions/Residencies: NYC AIDS Memorial; Mercury Store; Baryshnikov Arts. Education: University of North Carolina School of the Arts (BFA, Drama); Columbia University (MFA, Theatre Directing).
Sean Forte is a Brooklyn-based musician working in a variety of genres, styles, and settings. From 2023 – 2024, he was the associate musical director for Illinoise from Bard Summerscape to Chicago Shakespeare Theater to the Park Avenue Armory and ultimately to Broadway. In 2022, he was the musical director for Daniel Fish’s Most Happy, a reimagining of Frank Loesser’s masterpiece, at Williamstown Theatre Festival. Sean also works as a musician for shows around town that have included Sunset Boulevard, Cabaret, Here We Are, and Hadestown.
Graphic Design by Joshua Burcham