OUR HISTORY

TOSOS opened its doors in 1974 as New York City’s first gay professional theatre company, founded by a trio of artists: Off-Off-Broadway veteran playwright Doric Wilson, cabaret star Billy Blackwell and writer-actor-director Peter del Valle. They defined their venture as “a non profit workshop of the Performing and Visual Arts committed to an open and honest exploration of the many expressions of the gay life style; the purpose of TOSOS is a pursuit of self-identity and respect, and a broadening of gay and straight attitudes through the creative process.” After just three years and 21 productions of work by notable playwrights like Noël Coward, Lanford Wilson, Robert Patrick and Terrence McNally, TOSOS closed its doors — artistic director Doric Wilson’s bartending tips no longer able to cover expenses.

Wilson, himself a noteworthy playwright who was present at the birth of Off-Off-Broadway at the Caffe Cino in the 1960s, continued writing — his most renowned pieces being A Perfect Relationship (1979) and his seminal work, Street Theater (1982), which brings to life the day of the Stonewall Uprising in 1969, allowing audiences to meet the denizens of Christopher Street, just before the riots begin later that night. Street queens and leather daddies, flower children and closet cases, with the Mafia owner of Stonewall and a couple of undercover cops as constant thorns, are among the creatures that inhabit the world that became Wilson’s most-produced play, which has been staged around the country and internationally.

All along, however, Wilson kept the concept of TOSOS in the back of his mind and, 25 years after its closing, he decided to resurrect it, feeling strongly that the world still needed a company like The Other Side of Silence. Along with artistic director Mark Finley and managing director Barry Childs, this new artistic trio began producing under the TOSOS name in 2002 with a series of readings of pre-AIDS gay-themed plays — like Jane Chambers’ Last Summer at Bluefish Cove (1980) and Robert Anderson’s Tea and Sympathy (1953) — at NYC’s LGBT Community Center and a 20th anniversary revival of Doric Wilson’s Street Theater at The Eagle NYC. The award-winning company has been presenting plays ever since and is now considered NYC’s oldest and longest-producing LGBTQIA+ theatre company.

In 2004, TOSOS was honored by inclusion in the new permanent theatre exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York. In 2007, founder Doric Wilson received the New York Innovative Theatre Foundation Award for Artistic Achievement. In 2017, a Board of Directors was formed in response to the increasing undermining of LGBTQ+ rights by policies implemented by governing authorities, both nationally and locally. In 2019, TOSOS was awarded the prestigious Caffe Cino Fellowship Award by the New York Innovative Theatre Foundation, recognizing TOSOS as an indie theatre company that consistently produces outstanding work in Off-Off Broadway.

In addition to producing full-length plays, the company curates a free play-reading series for our community. The Doric Wilson Playwrights Project not only provides current LGBTQIA+ artists a much needed first hearing of original work, but it allows audiences to “re-hear” important pieces of the established LGBTQIA+ literary canon, which are often ignored by mainstream theatre outlets. It serves as a pipeline for future premiere productions, as well as revivals of previously produced works. This series is a central component in our family-building effort, which also includes free holiday events in winter and spring. TOSOS seeks to provide a community for LGBTQIA+ and ally actors, writers, creatives, and audiences.

Read more about our history in the article “New Season from TOSOS, the Historic LGBTQIA+ Theatre Company” by Chris Andersson for QueerForty.