As Steven reads his adventures, his audience, mainly gay Episcopalians, is with him. There are rueful laughs and collective sighs. By journey’s end, the audience is won over completely. Steven’s long road to self-acceptance is one many of them have traveled. Several years after being excommunicated from the Mormon Church, he joined Epsicopalianism. His new church received him with open arms. Saint Bart’s, as it’s affectionately called, offered Steen a reading with a buffet lunc ahead of time and coffee and dessert afterward. His reading is held in the Terrace Room, a handsome, wood-paneled room that seats a hundred. Most of the chairs are filled.

Steven does an uncanny job of capturing the universal struggles of adolescence. Who as an adolescent hasn’t suffered from an unrequited love? Mine was over a boy named Bob O’Leary. Early this year I got an e-mail from Lynne Burke, the girl he married instead. Did I remember her? she wondered. For my part, howe could I forget? Listening to Steven’s recollections, I wince at their poignancy. I join the crowd in prolonged applause as Steven’s show draws to a close.

From The Creative Life by Julia Cameron coming out this fall by Tarcher/Penguin.

“Your hair! It looks wonderful! So youthful! So elegant!” He swoops me up in a bear hug. I kiss his cheek, leaving a crimson kiss. We settle onto a leather couch, giving each other a quick once-over. To my eye, Steven looks wonderful. He has just come back to New York after a grueling but satisfying run of his cabaret act, Mormon American Princess, in Provincetown, Massachusetts. He swapped his way through three venues, each one better than the last.

“I went to see ____.” He names a friend of mine who is still in the hospital. “He couldn’t talk, but we managed to have a lovely visit, reading lips.”

“That’s great.”

“He had a sparkle in his eye. I thought, Oh, good. He’s going to make it.”

“Yes, I think he is,” I agree. It occurs to me that our friend must have mixed feelings about our visits. He doesn’t want word to get out that he is ailing. He is in the midst of planning a one-man show, and a noted actor has expressed interest in playing him. Our friend would direct. It would be quite a coup if it all happened. There would be layer upon layer of artistry.

“I hope it all works out,” says Steven. “There was an actor friend of his there at the same time. He is in a Broadway show right now.”

Steven himself had a very successful off-Broadway show, Confessions of a Mormon Boy. Our ailing friend helped him to shape that show. Steven values him as a mentor.

“I have a present for you,” I say, taking out a copy of Prayers to the Great Creator, a compilation of four prayer books I have written. “I feel a little strange giving you a prayer book, knowing you have a whole collection of Mormon prayers.”

“Oh, no,” Steven says eagerly. “I’m open to any prayers. Mormons don’t have set prayers.”

“Well, then, good,” I say. “These are the concepts that undergird The Artist’s Way.” I open the prayer book to a selection from Blessings.

Steven avidly reads the prayer. ”I’m going to like having this,” he says.

Conversation turns to Steven’s career. His cabaret act went over well in Provincetown. He hopes to shape it further. He is set to make a documentary of Confessions of a Mormon Boy, and he has a date slated for a reading of this third work, Missionary Position. He is writing daily, hard at work on a memoir.

“It all sounds wonderful,” I tell him.

“It all feels good,” he answers. Then he checks his watch and does a double take.

“I’m due uptown,” he apologizes.

“Let me get you a bag for your book,” I offer.

“Thanks for the visit.”

“Thank you for the visit.” With another bear hug, he is out the door. He has an uptown meeting at four and then a pot-roast dinner party at seven. As I watch him walk to the elevator, I think he is a delightful mix of show business and apron strings.

From The Creative Life by Julia Cameron. Coming this fall and published by Tarcher/Penguin.

The next year, our senior year, we both played opposite each other as leads (Tony and Polly) in the musical The Boyfriend at UNLV! GLEE has nothing on us!

Years went by. Missions. Marriages. Children. But we have still stayed true to our musical careers. And I am thrilled that Melissa will be joining me as a special guest when I do Mormon American Princess, July 26 at 7:00 pm at the Tavernacle Social Club in Salt Lake City.

Melissa was singing/acting by age 7. Her performance as Ruby in “Dames at Sea” earned a best actress nomination for the prestigious John Mchugh award. She received scholarships in musical theatre to the University of Utah and Boston Conservatory. She traveled the South Pacific entertaining our troops. She fronted the Joe Muscolino Band for 10 years. She loves singing with her own quartet around her home town, Salt Lake. She sings regularly with the New Deal Swing Band. She’s been a guest with the Utah Symphony several times. She has an extensive resume of film and television roles from “Walker Texas Ranger” to a Sundance Film Festival premier. She has recorded four jazz albums, “When I Look at You”, “Am I Blue?”, “A Little Jazz With Your Mistletoe” and “Calm & Carefree”. www.melissapacetanner.com.

Steven and Melissa after a performance of Confessions of a Mormon Boy at the Coast Playhouse in Los Angeles. Her whole family came. And her cool husband!

I cannot post myself singing this song and not give credit to the great Dorothy Loudon who put this song on the map.

presents

STEVEN FALES

in

MORMON AMERICAN PRINCESS

A Cabaret Confection

“Fales knows how to sell it!” – New York Times

“Fales boasts a kick-ass tenor voice . . . a charming stage presence, sharp wit, irreverent sense of humor, and a beaming smile that makes Fales a favorite!”

–        Backstage West

The Art House and UU Theatre is proud to present Steven Fales’ the extension of his all new cabaret confection MORMON AMERICAN PRINCESS in Provincetown:

Art House dates:

• Sun, July 5      9:00 PM
• Mon, July 6     7:30 PM
• Tues, July 7     9:00 PM
• Sat, July 18     8:00 PM
• Sun, July 19    9:00 PM
• Mon, July 20   7:30 PM
• Tues, July 21   9:00 PM

UU Theatre dates:

• Mon, July 13, 10:00 PM
• Tues, July 14, 7:15 PM
• Mon, July 27, 10 PM
• Tues, July 28, 7:15 PM

Tickets for the Art House can be purchased online at www.PTownArtHouse.com or by calling (866) 811-4111 or at the Box Office (opens at noon) at 214 Commercial St.

Tickets for the UU Theatre can be purchased at the Box Office at 236 Commercial St.

Fales is the creator of the off-Broadway hit, Confessions of a Mormon Boy which has played nationally and internationally including Boston and Provincetown. He has been featured on Tyra Banks, Logo, and Hollywood Extra!

An Oxy-Mormon, Fales confesses “I’m 100% Mormon White Trash! God has seen me through excommunication, divorce, prostitution and drugs, now we’re working on narcissism—and it’s not going well!”

Mormon American Princess is an exploration of our self-absorbed society using the multi-talented Fales as a microcosm. But with the help of his new Higher Power (She’s fabulous!), he’s beginning to see the light as he continues to put Utah on the MAP!

This hilarious and touching cabaret confection includes original songs like “The Excommunication Polka”, “Narcissus”, “Cult Rap”, and “You and Utah.” And such standards as “I Don’t Know How To Love Him”, “Fifty Percent”, “Son of a Preacher Man” and outrageous medleys and parodies of your favorite Broadway show tunes including Steven’s popular “Mormon Broadway Medley” and his signature “Mormon American Princess.”

The cabaret act has received critical acclaim at Upright Cabaret in Los Angeles and Joe’s Pub in New York as well as engagements in San Diego, San Francisco, and Salt Lake City and will play the Metropolitan Room in New York this fall.

Steven Fales’ acclaimed one-man play Confessions of a Mormon Boy has played major cities across the country and internationally. A break-out hit at the New York Fringe Festival (Overall Excellence Award for Solo Show) and directed by Tony Award-winner Jack Hofsiss, the play went on to a highly acclaimed Off-Broadway run at the SoHo Playhouse (Outer Critics Circle Award Nomination for Outstanding Solo Performance). The play was performed as a sold-out benefit for The Point Foundation at Lincoln Center and was nominated for the Oscar Wilde Award for Outstanding New Writing for the Theatre at the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival. Fales’ book Confessions of a Mormon Boy (Alyson Books) was a Lambda Literary Award Finalist.

A classically trained actor with numerous regional stage credits from around the country, Fales received his M.F.A. in acting from the University of Connecticut. He trained on Scholarship to the Boston Conservatory and received his B.F.A. from Brigham Young University. An excommunicated Mormon, he currently lives in New York City where he flies his kids in from Salt Lake City via jetBlue every chance he can get!

“Fales possesses a beautiful lyric tenor, perfectly suited to his very theatrical delivery. The musical numbers matched his narrative with great dramatic effect . . . a confident self-realized cabaret performer.” – Cabaret Scenes Magazine

“Stevens voice commands and dominates . . . . flawless and engaging. His stage presence and delivery transcend the self-centered pleadings . . . the humor in his compositions is clever and incisive.” – San Francisco Bay Times

“Steven Fales is a dream come true for gay rights advocates: provocative in his work, articulate and humorous onstage, and appealingly handsome in person. MAP is a crowning moment.” – EDGE.com

“Showtime, Broadway, and HBO all rolled up into one great big evening of song and laughter. MAP is exuberant and supremely entertaining.” – BeyondChron.org

“It’s quite an achievement to showcase an ego that is larger than Carol Channing’s in such a small room.” – Goldstar Audience Review – Four Stars!