Still at It

Playwright James Still has authored several dozen plays over his long career, many of which focus on a combination of political, cultural, and personal topics, including The Velocity of Gary, Appoggiatura, and the much-translated, globally produced And Then They Came for Me: Remembering the World of Anne Frank. But his current passion project is one that easily covers all three.

Everybody’s Favorite Mothers tells the story of Jeanne Manford, who way back in 1972 marched in what would become the Gay Pride parade alongside her gay son. It’s hard to imagine in today’s culture of de facto tolerance just how brave an act that was more than half a century ago. Manford and her husband later co-founded a support group for parents, the organization that would eventually become known around the world as PFLAG (Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays). 

But for playwright Still, Manford carrying a homemade sign boldly declaring her support was about her expressing an unconditional love – one that turned into unlikely activism.

“I am drawn to stories of reluctant heroes, and particularly this one mother who did this thing simply because she loved her son and she wanted to walk with him and show that support,” Still said. “I wanted to go back and show the courage and the fierceness of this one mother in a moment when no one had done that, no one had stepped forward as the parent of a gay kid and said, ‘I love my kid and he’s gay,’ and in this very public way.”

The work is also the first full-length play Still has written since the one-two punch that befell him – the death of his husband, and undergoing his own life-saving surgery – within the timeframe of a single month in 2022. 

“After going through that, I didn’t know what would be important enough to me to want to spend the time on, something I could look forward to working on day after day, month after month,” he said. “This story matters to me that much. And I think it’s also because it speaks to this moment now where all of us are wondering, what can we do to make a difference in the world? Maybe it’s just as simple as carrying a sign in a parade.” 

So Still is thrilled that he’s getting the opportunity to spend extra time with the work as the centerpiece of Launch Pad’s Plays-in-Process program, where Everybody’s Favorite Mothers will receive more than a week’s worth of full production preview performances, with the opportunity to make adjustments along the way. 

“I don’t write plays as literature. I write them as experiences for audiences and actors to be in collaboration in a moment,” he said. “It’s a dream team, and that’s important when you care about a project and the story so much. It’s a rare chance of having the visceral experience of seeing your play realized with these great collaborators.”

Launch Pad’s production of Everybody’s Favorite Mothers, directed by Risa Brainin runs February 22-March 2 at UCSB Hatlen Theater. Visit www.theaterdance.ucsb.edu.