Creative Quaker Outreach

A Theatrical Performance Activist

Thoughtfully and humorously exploring queer issues

Although Friends meetings are not typically known for theater,

I want to bring performance art into our meetings houses as public events.

As I do this, I also feel a leading to assist Quaker meetings as they connect with those who might be interested in Friends and our ways.

Here's how it works:

We decide what presentation that I will do, and I provide you with posters and promo materials
I come to your area (either because you bring me or because I am already coming to do a presentation nearby)
You promote the event through e-mail, posters, community calendar listings, etc
I present, and you provide snacks along with friendly Friends to meet and greet
We can then take an offering that will go to help support my expensives (with a percentage for a local or global concern of the meeting)

If you are interested in looking into the creative outreach for your meeting, check out the following links.

To find out if I am already scheduled to perform near you, you can view my current presentations here.
See a full listing of my presentations, click here.
To contact me, e-mail: peterson@petersontoscano.com

To find out more about how Hartford Meeting supports me:

Read my travel minute
Read my support committee's report to Hartford Meeting, click here.
Read my report to Hartford Meeting and a list of Quaker venues where I have presented, click here.

I look forward to hearing from you,

-Peterson Toscano, Hartford Friends Meeting, New England Yearly Meeting

Mary Helen Lauris, Salmon Bay Friends Meeting, Seattle, WA writes:
On November 21, 2008, our meeting hosted Peterson performing excerpts from his show as our first-ever outreach effort. We are grateful for the opportunity to welcome spiritual seekers with Peterson’s warmth, humor, and message of integrity. His ministry enabled us to broaden ours.

Some further thoughts on outreach through the arts

As a refugee to the Religious Society of Friends, I feel grateful that Quakers in my community did not hide their light under a bushel but instead let others know of their involvement in the Religious Society of Friends. Once I walked into the doors of the Hartford Friends Meeting, I found a rich and welcoming home, an embrace and interaction that has deepened my faith and changed my life.

Many people do not even know that Quakers exist. Many desire to be part of a vibrant community that values social justice, peace, reflection, listening, simplicity and thoughtful practices. As I have traveled in the US and Europe doing my presentations in Quaker venues (meeting houses, colleges, study centers, schools) hundreds of people have walked through the doors to see a show, many of them connecting with Friends for the first time. Some of these now find their spiritual home among Friends. Others have been influenced by Quaker practices and procedures like Clearness Committees and silent worship. They may have taken many steps in the process to convincement, but walking in the door was an essential one.

Hartford Friends Meeting has endorsed a Travel Minute encouraging me to seek truth and reconciliation through storytelling and drama, particularly in regards to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender concerns. As I do this, I also feel a leading to assist Quakers meetings connect with those who might be interested in Friends and our ways. Although our meeting houses are not typically known for theater, I want to bring performance pieces and plays into our meetings as public events. In so doing we communicate to the greater community our stands and values specifically in regards LGBT people.

In some communities transgender people in particular do not find full inclusion even among gay and lesbian organizations and welcoming congregations. We can demonstrate our radical inclusion by hosting a play like Transfigurations--Transgressing Gender in the Bible, a play about gender variant Bible characters.

A performance of an LGBT-friendly play will not only communicate that we welcome, affirm and stand with LGBT people in the work of full inclusion and equality, it also gives us an opportunity to introduce individuals and the community to Friends. As they speak with us before and after the show, they walk around the meeting house and read our literature, they can get a sense of what we do in Quaker meeting for worship and who we are as Friends.

We have many ways of reaching out to our communities. Hosting a performance by a Quaker artist is one of them. Please feel free to contact me about when I will be in your area or to about bringing me to your Meeting for Worship as part of my ministry.