Peterson Toscano, a queer quirky Quaker has shaken up Bible academics and received high praise for his ground-breaking, genre-bending, gender blending Bible scholarship. By unearthing the stories of gender-variant people in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, Toscano’s one-person play deepens well-known (and lesser-known) Bible stories and presents an array of Bible characters with an array of genders.
November 15, 2014 7:00 PM
Freedom Friends Church
2425 13th St. SE
Salem OR 97302
503-269-8207
Toscano's excellent theater chops morph characters and identities in that world-changing way only performance allows. His writing and philosophy educate and loosen the tightest knots of queer and religious entanglements. But it's his heart, which his engaging presence radiates, that will pull you in, warm you up, and leave you pleading for an encore.
For the past decade, Peterson Toscano has dug deeply into the intersection of faith and queer culture, coming up with pieces that are incisive, explanatory, thoughtful, kind to all parties, and moving. He has paired these performances with lectures and discussions that draw in viewers of all sorts of backgrounds, getting them to truly engage with the material.
A brilliant theologian and playwright, the work of Peterson Toscano not only shifted my own connection to biblical texts, but helped me reimagine how working within communities of faith might be possible. A necessary artist to know for LGBTQ activists, environmentalists, faith leaders and humans everywhere.
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