Lavender Men Wins Best Narrative Feature, Festival Favorite & Best Actor
Michael O’ Hara, Natasha Dewhurst, Mia Ellis, Lovell Holder, Cherie Corinne Rice, Alex Esola, Roger Q. Mason, Philippe Bowgen, Mia Chang, David Gonzalez, Shirley Luong, Tyler Woehl, Seth Dorcey, Linnea Liu Dakin, Talya Klein. Photo credit: Charles Reese.
Directed by Lovell Holder
Screenplay by Roger Q. Mason & Lovell Holder
Based on the stage play by Roger Q. Mason
Lavender Men, a new film directed by Lovell Holder and written by Holder and Roger Q. Mason, based on Mason’s critically acclaimed stage play, has been touring the festival circuit this fall with screenings at the OutSouth Queer Film Festival in Durham, North Carolina, Charlotte Film Festival in Charlotte, NC, Cinema Diverse in Palm Springs, CA, Hell’s Half Mile Film & Music Festival in Bay City, MI, Out on Film in Atlanta, GA, Ashland Independent Film Festival in Ashland, OR, Seattle Queer Film Festival in Seattle, WA, OutReels in Cincinnati, OH, Micheaux Film Festival in Los Angeles, CA, We Make Movies International Film Festival in Los Angeles, CA, and Yellowstone International Film Festival in New Delhi, India.
The film was awarded a Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature at the Charlotte Film Festival and named a Festival Favorite by audiences at Cinema Diverse. Roger Q. Mason won Best Actor at the Micheaux Film Festival. The film was also nominated for Best Screenplay (Roger Q. Mason & Lovell Holder) at the Micheaux Film Festival and Best Feature and Best Performer (Roger Q. Mason) at We Make Movies International Film Festival.
While working on a poorly-attended play about Abraham Lincoln, the long-suffering stage manager Taffeta interfaces with difficult people both onstage and off. After a particularly miserable evening, Taffeta plunges into their daydreams, crafting their own retelling of the Lincoln myth by inserting themself into the likely true love story between Abe – then just a young lawyer in Springfield, Illinois – and Elmer Ellsworth, a dashing army sergeant. As Taffeta churns through every possible identity to bring themselves as close to connection and intimacy as they can, they must question why they have chosen to tell a tale that may never have been for them in the first place – and how to finally live a life of their very own. Part chamber drama and part exorcism, Lavender Men presents a fundamentally queer story where theater, cinema, history, and memoir collide into one singular, breathtaking fantasia.
The cast features Roger Q. Mason (Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution on Netflix) as Taffeta, Pete Ploszek (Michael Bay’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise; the upcoming final season of You on Netflix) as Abe, and Alex Esola (Bart Freundlich’s After the Wedding at Sundance; The Young Pope on HBO) as Elmer. The supporting cast includes Philippe Bowgen, Chad Callaghan, Linnea Liu Dakin, Natasha Dewhurst, Mia Ellis, Cherie Corinne Rice, Ted Rooney, Charlie Thurston, Tyler Woehl, and Gillian Williams. Lavender Men was produced by Mia Chang, Mia Ellis, Lovell Holder, and Roger Q. Mason with Executive Producers Rob Massar, Christopher Donaldson, Paul Hart-Wilden, Gary Grossman, Jon Lawrence Rivera, and Cece Suazo, Co-Executive Producers Gillian Williams and Matt Plaxco, Co-Producer Shirley Luong, and Associate Producers Letitia Chang and Seth Dorcey. The production team included Director of Photography Matt Plaxco, Editor Morgan Halsey, Production Designer Stephen Gifford, Composer David Gonzalez, Original Song “I Am a Chandelier!” by Kevin JZ Prodigy, Choreographer Jobel Medina, Vogue Choreographer Cece Suazo, Intimacy Coordinator Talya Klein, Original Theatrical Intimacy Coordinator Ann C. James, Theatrical Lighting Consultant Dan Weingarten, Theatrical Costume Consultant Wendell Carmichael, Theatrical Sound Consultant Erin Bednarz, and Headdress and Jewelry Design by ONCH.
In 2019, Roger Q. Mason’s original play Lavender Men received a public workshop on Broadway at Circle in the Square, directed by Lovell Holder and starring Mason, Charlie Thurston, and Garrett Clayton. The play’s world premiere was subsequently scheduled for April 2020 at Skylight Theater in Los Angeles, following its development as part of the theater’s SkyLab. After the premiere’s cancellation due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the play was named to the 2020 Kilroy’s List. Holder and Mason subsequently adapted a section of the play into the short film Taffeta, starring Mason and directed by Holder. The short film screened at Outfest, BFI Flare, Bentonville, Hollyshorts, and the SCAD Savannah film festival, where it received a jury prize. In 2022, the play premiered at last in Los Angeles, produced by Skylight Theater and Playwrights Arena, where it was named by TheaterMania as one of the six “Best Regional Productions in America of 2022.” Charles McNulty of the Los Angeles Times called Mason “A daring theatrical talent…evoking the mingled visions of Suzan-Lori Parks, Jeremy O. Harris and Michael R. Jackson.” Following the play’s critically acclaimed debut, Mason and Holder began the process of adapting the piece for film.
Lovell Holder (Director/Producer/Co-Writer) has produced the feature films Peak Season, Midday Black Midnight Blue, The End of Us, Working Man, Some Freaks, and Loserville (which he also directed). Collectively, his films have screened at over 100 film festivals, including SXSW, Fantasia, Santa Barbara, Shanghai, SCAD Savannah, Outfest, and BFI Flare. In theater, he directed the Broadway workshop of Lavender Men at Circle in the Square, and in Los Angeles he has directed at Skylight Theater, Playwrights Arena, Echo Theater Company, Celebration Theater, and Rising Phoenix Rep. His debut novel, The Book of Luke, will be published by Grand Central Publishing (an imprint of Hachette) in hardcover and audiobook in Fall 2025. Originally from Charlotte, North Carolina, he is a graduate of Princeton University and Brown University. Instagram: @lovell.holder
Roger Q. Mason (Co-Writer/Producer/Performer) (they/them) is a writer and performer who uses the lens of history to disrupt the biases that divide rather than unite us. Their playwriting has been seen on Broadway (Circle in the Square Reading Series), Off and Off-Off-Broadway, and regionally. They are a recipient of the inaugural Catalyst Fellowship, awarded by the Dramatists Guild Foundation, in celebrations of theater makers whose work impacts social justice and civic change through art. As a filmmaker, Mason has been recognized by the British Film Institute, Lonely Wolf International Film Festival, SCAD Film Festival, AT&T Film Award, and Atlanta International Film Festival. Their films have screened in the US, UK, Poland, Brazil, and Asia. Mason holds degrees from Princeton University, Middlebury College, and Northwestern University. They are a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, and an alum of the Ma-Yi’s Writing Lab, Page 73’s Interstate 73 Writers Group, and Primary Stages Writing Cohort. Mason currently produces a memoir/cooking segment on Instagram called Cooking with Q: A Playwrights Guide to Telling My Trouble. Previously, they co-hosted the podcast Sister Roger’s Gayborhood and hosted This Way Out Radio’s Queerly Yours: Portraits in Courage. Mason has served as lead mentor of The Marsha P. Johnson Institute’s Starship Fellowship, the New Visions Fellowship, and the Shay Foundation Fellowship. They are currently on faculty at CalArts. Instagram: @rogerq.mason
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