The Subtext is a podcast where playwrights talk to playwrights about the things usually left unsaid. In a conversation that dives into life’s muck, we learn what irks, agitates, motivates, inspires, and ultimately what makes writers tick.

This month on The Subtext Brian meets playwright Roger Q Mason at the Public Theater in New York City. Roger is a Black, Irish, Filipino, plus-sized, queer, gender-non-conforming writer/performer of color who grew up in Koreatown in Los Angeles, Calif.

He comes from an arts-loving family, but his father was resistant to Roger becoming an actor and forbade him from performing, which set him on the trajectory to becoming a writer. But the path was far from smooth. From a kerfuffle in the drama department at Princeton, to initially being rejected from MFA programs, Roger battled through it all to find his voice as a writer.

Roger’s play The White Dress, a genderqueer coming-of-age story, is playing at Access Theater in New York City until July 20.

Download the episode here.

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