Roger Quincy Mason is a gender non-conforming performer of many talents who has brought a new project to life. Not only does Mason star as a chameleon-like character named Taffetta in Lavender Men, he also also co-wrote and produced the new film.
The play version began with Roger and author Lovell Holder teaming up to write the script which was eventually performed at the Circle in the Square Theatre in New York City in 2019. The show traveled to Los Angeles to the Skylight Theatre before landing in Chicago at About Face Theatre in 2024, where it was directed by Lucky Stiff, a previous classmate of Mason’s at Northwestern.
Lavender Men is a tale about Taffeta, a stage manager of a play about Abraham Lincoln. When challenges arise, Taffeta retreats into a dream world full of queer surprises and unique storytelling surrounding Lincoln’s legacy. History and fantasy are combined to allow the audience to form their own opinions on what may or may not have happened.
Roger said that the live version of Lavender Men enhanced the cinematic storytelling, adding, “Everyone identified as queer in the About Face production and that perspective was important to discover the intimacy possibilities. It was a very different way of looking at it as opposed to the film.”
Mason morphs into a variety of people throughout the piece, which capitalizes on the strengths of being gender-fluid in real life. He was born in Santa Monica, California and grew up in Los Angeles before attending graduate school at Northwestern.
This talented artist returned to their roots with a visit to the Windy City to talk about Lavender Men.
Windy City Times: How did Lavender Men evolve from being a play to a film?
Roger Q. Mason: When COVID canceled a previous attempt to perform the play, Lovell and I decided to create a movie version. This was in 2021, so there was already a plan to make a movie version. When the play became a hit, two days later, we started production for the movie. We were simultaneously running the play while learning some of the new lines for the movie.
WCT: What are the differences?
RQM: The middle of the piece is similar between the play and the movie. Some of the language is the same, but the setups are different. This made it easier to go between the genres.
I performed multiple ways at the same time for the camera. I was in the scene with the performers and trying to make the director’s vision come to life while performing for the editor. I had to give variances with my interpretation of each scene in order to give them the material they need to cut it all together.
WCT: Was it traumatic for you to experience some of the emotional scenes in Lavender Men?
RQM: I am frighteningly good at compartmentalizing tasks! [laughs] My mother was from the Edwardian era, so she used to say, “Keep a stiff upper lip.” I grew up with a woman who was born in Texas in 1910 and she was tough, but very resilient and graceful. That rubbed off on me, so when I do a role, that energy turns on and then I forget about it.
Lovell will tell you that I am invested seriously in that take and won’t remember a thing after it. It consumes me and then it’s over. That’s a very healthy way of living in the world.
As emotionally charged as those scenes are, I was completely there in the moment. Once the moment was over, I was able to move on.
WCT: How did you develop the characters when writing the script?
RQM: We wanted to invoke the era in a way that was true, but also satirical. At the heart of this piece, there is a camp performance. This girl, Taffeta, is telling herself a love story that she has never heard. It’s really a blues song that she is singing to herself for the man that got away.
WCT: Describe the research you did to create the project.
RQM: I have been fascinated by the Civil War era for a long time, specifically the lore of Lincoln, because he represents the myth of the American dream, where hard work equals entitlement. He’s the log splitter who became the president. What people forget is that he was married to a southern socialite who financed his career and, at one point, wanted to send Black folk to another country. He wasn’t perfect and neither was the dream.
We are seeing right now that it’s incredibly hard to make it in this country and how this country was built on the exploitation of other people. The truth is we exist in a culture of convenient amnesia and erasure. We can rewrite American mythology by exploring Lincoln’s myths.
I started in a place of intimacy because we are who we are in our bedrooms when no one is looking.
WCT: What influenced your search?
RQM: There are a couple of plays and books written about Lincoln’s queerness. The World of Abraham Lincoln covered his relationship with Mary and other people, including men. The book was controversial when describing his intimate relationship with Colonel Elmer Ellsworth. It made me imagine the life they could have had. I was able to propel my story through Taffeta. If there were any questions about it really happening, then it didn’t matter because it was this girl’s fantasies.
WCT: Do you teach somewhere?
RQM: I do, at the California Institute of the Arts. I get to work with some of the most happening minds in the world and I learn from them. They are the greatest teachers.
WCT: You are now paying it forward to students after being a student yourself in Chicago.
RQM: Chicago is where I discovered my gender queerness. It was the place where I could give it a name with body and flesh. In 2014, when I moved here, I encountered my first gender neutral bathroom. I went in it and suddenly I felt like I had a place in the world. There was a container to hold myself fully. It prompted me to think about all of the ways that my life was limited before that moment by the gender binary. All of the teasing, chiding and punishments that occurred in the world previously went away in the pisser. I was reborn in the gender neutral bathroom and my life became instantly better because I could dream and had the license to return to acting. I didn’t have to be this or that and could live a very fluid life.
Lavender Men is now available on all major digital platforms.