In this moving evening of intergenerational mixed-media theatre, a diverse youth ensemble performs monologues drawn from OUTWORDS’ oral history interviews with LGBTQ+ elders. Live performance weaves together with original video footage from the interviews themselves, creating a cinematic dialogue across time. PASSING THE TORCH is a fierce celebration of queer joy, the trailblazers who paved the way, and the next generation who will carry on their work. Following the performance, join the cast, creative team, and elders for a Q&A.
Participant Bios
DIRECTOR:
Director and creative multi-hyphenate Petey Gibson (he/him) is deeply passionate about elevating queer stories and building sparkling queer futures.
An avid community guy, Petey serves as Producer for Celebration Theatre’s Trans Lineage annual new works program, trans comedy + performing arts festival The Joy Who Lived, and Them Fatale, a much-loved Drag King mutual aid show in Los Angeles, raising over $55K to date for local queer and trans organizations. He’s a proud member of the LA County Queer Arts Coalition.
As an actor, TV credits include Fox’s ALERT, Broad City, Grace & Frankie, NCIS: New Orleans, and Transparent. Theatre credits include World Premieres at American Repertory Theater and La Jolla Playhouse.
PRODUCER:
Jack MacCarthy (he/they) is a writer, producer, and performer, and the Communications Director of OUTWORDS. He is co-host and co-producer of OUTWORDS’ Queering Precedent podcast. Before moving to Los Angeles, Jack spent seven years as the Executive Artistic Director of Caps Lock Theatre in New York, working with writers like Sheila Callaghan, José Rivera, Rob Askins, and Leah Nanako Winkler. As a playwright, his work has been called “a lot of fun” by The New York Times. Jack is also a published Young Adult novelist – look for SQUAD (pub. FSG) under his mortal name from before he ascended, Mariah MacCarthy – and an award-winning screenwriter. Learn more at jackmaccarthy.com.
Passing the Torch: Queer and Trans Voices Across Generations is organized by The Outwords Archive as a part of the 2026 Circa: Queer Histories Festival, presented by One Institute.
The Outwords Archive (OUTWORDS) was founded in 2016 to record, preserve, and share the stories of LGBTQ+ elders. OUTWORDS believes in the deep capacity of these oral histories to strengthen the LGBTQ+ community as a whole, and to empower LGBTQ+ young people with the knowledge that they are not alone on their personal journeys and challenges, as well as context for the movement they belong to and the elders on whose shoulders they stand.
OUTWORDS has recorded over 400 interviews in all 50 states. We share our full catalog of interviews with the public, completely free of charge, on our website. Learn more at theoutwordsarchive.org or queerelders.org.