Preview: The Chosen Ones at Thunderclap Productions

When Aaron Alon tells people that his latest musical, The Chosen Ones, which Thunderclap Productions is days away from world premiering at the MATCH, is set in a conversion therapy summer camp, he often gets the same reaction.

“I get a lot of, ‘Wait. That’s still a thing?’” says Alon. “There’s this lack of awareness about it.”

Conversion therapy refers to a range of discredited practices that attempt to change a person’s gender identity or sexual orientation. Today, there are more than 1,300 conversion therapy practitioners across the United States, with Texas claiming the second-highest number of practitioners in the country.

But the seed for the show was planted while Alon volunteered with Hatch, an LGBTQIA+ youth and young adults group run out of The Montrose Center. It’s an experience he describes as “amazing.”

“One of the really impressive things about Hatch is in their, at that time, 25-year history, they never lost a kid to suicide. Not one,” says Alon. In particular, Alon recalls how former Hatch leader Deb Murphy, whom he counts as one of his best friends to this day, would greet new “hatchlings.”

“One thing that she always did is when kids would walk in the door, she would say, ‘Welcome home.’ It was such a powerful reminder of the power of community and what it means to just be seen and accepted for who you are,” says Alon. “I heard so many stories from young people, and listening to how much they had struggled and what this organization meant to them really cemented some of the ideas in me that led to this musical.”

Alon says the experience made him “a great champion” of the concept of “family of choice,” which he carried over into The Chosen Ones. The musical focuses on six LGBTQ+ teens in a conversion therapy summer camp led by an “ex-gay” pastor.

“Despite how horrible this place might be for them, there’s still something really beautiful about coming together with other people who share these LGBTQ identities,” says Alon.

According to Alon, director-choreographer Aisha Ussery did “beautiful work” in helping to individuate the six teens, as have the actors.

“Each of them has found little quirks about their characters that are not in the script that have just brought these people to life. It’s been really amazing thing to watch,” says Alon. “I think it’s easy to lump people together – ‘Oh, queer kids’ – but every one of them has their own background and story and inner life, and I really wanted to try to capture that. I think one of the powerful things about musicals is that you can, because you’re able to give each of them not only a different speaking voice, but a completely different musical style.”

As the story is primarily about six teenagers, five cast members are current college undergraduates: Nicole Campos, Abraham “Abe” Garcia, Isaac A. Gonzalez, and Sarah Rivers from Sam Houston State University and Santiago Pena from the University of Houston.

“They’re incredible performers, and they’ve brought so much to this work. And,” Alon adds, “I think it’s just more believable because they are very close to the ages of the characters they’re playing.”

Amaan Atkins, who recently earned a Master of Music at the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music; Ashley Duplechien, a member of the Houston Grand Opera chorus since 2014; and Tyler Galindo, who previously starred in Thunderclap’s production of Melville & Hawthorne, round out the cast.

Alon says the casting process was challenging, with one role needing to be cast three times after the first two actors were forced to drop out prior to rehearsals. “Somehow, despite all the chaos of replacing actors and trying to work this all out, we ended up with an astonishing cast.”

The hardest role to cast, Alon says, was Jo.

“Jo is, first of all, a baritone role, and it’s hard to find young men in musical theater. There’s a dearth of them,” says Alon. “It’s also hard because it’s a trans role. The actor who plays it is not trans, but finding someone in the current cultural climate who’s willing to take that on is hard, let alone finding one who’s also an incredibly strong actor, singer, and baritone.”

The role eventually went to Garcia, who Alon says is primarily an actor.

“Doing a musical is brand new to him. It’s also a show that includes choreography, and he’s disabled, but the director was able to find ways of making the choreography effective that still worked for the way his body works,” says Alon. “And I was so excited by that, because it is fundamentally, in some ways, a show about diversity, and that enlarged that scope in a really beautiful way.

“I will be shocked if people are not in tears in at least two of his scenes. I’ve seen the show a whole bunch of times at this point, and I still find myself tearing up because he brings so much beauty and authenticity to the role.”

If there is a bad guy in the story, Alon says it is Pastor Noah, the ex-gay minister who leads the camp, played by Galindo. But he’s no two-dimensional villain.

“I’ve met some terrible people in my life, but I’ve never met a person who gets up in the morning, rubs their hands together and says, ‘How can I commit evil today?’” says Alon. “Conversion therapy is a wide and unregulated practice, so there are people who truly torture these kids unambiguously, but there are lots of people who really believe they’re doing good work in helping these young people.”

Alon adds, “Oftentimes, the people who do the greatest harm are people who believe they’re doing good things, and I think Pastor Noah is one of those people.”

“Blissfully unaware” is how Alon describes Pastor Noah, as well as a “little bit of a windbag” who “leans into the ‘love the sinner, hate the sin’ line” and can say very hurtful and insensitive things – though he doesn’t see them that way.

“There are some things that I did write into the character that I think will rub some people the wrong way, and that’s intentional,” explains Alon, who notes, “Sometimes the kids call him on it. They’re not having it.”

Still, audiences will see Noah “struggling with his own attempts to reject his own homosexual feelings,” which will be brought to the fore by Matt, an attractive (and straight) member of the grounds team who gets paired up with Noah as prayer partners.

“This man really kicks some stuff up for him. They’re getting together, they’re praying, they’re talking – they form this intimacy between them. I do want audiences to care about Noah and to see him as a person who’s trying to do good…I think that makes him a more interesting character and makes it a more interesting story.”

For Alon, there are multiple reasons for audiences, whether part of the LGBTQIA+ community or not, to check out The Chosen Ones.

“If young queer people come see the show, I’m hoping that they find some hope in this idea that you can find your people. They can find that family of choice, and that, as awful as their childhoods may be, they are worth surviving because something better is out there. And once you’re an adult, you really can seek it out,” says Alon.

Since starting work on the musical, Alon says he’s met several people who are survivors of conversion therapy camps and found that they don’t share much about it. He hopes The Chosen Ones helps give them a voice.

“I hope that people who have suffered through this can see themselves reflected a bit in this story. I hope that they see themselves reflected, and they see that people do care and are giving this a voice. Because I do think it’s been a largely silent epidemic in a way.”

For general audiences, Alon hopes they recognize that though the largest conversion therapy network in the U.S. disbanded in 2013, the dangerous practice not only still exists, but appears to be on the rise.

“When [Exodus] disbanded, these other groups didn’t go away, but they became much harder to track. So, I don’t think we really know how many of these conversion therapy camps are around the country. The last I checked, it was illegal in 22 states, plus D.C., so in a majority of U.S. states, it’s still legal. I want people to know that this is still happening, because I think there’s a lot of suffering happening in silence,” says Alon.

Though Alon is unsure if people who support, or are on the fence about, conversion therapy will see the show, he says he would love to see The Chosen Ones move the needle on the subject. As a self-proclaimed “data nerd,” Alon says he’s hopeful as most research supports the idea that “we form our beliefs emotionally and then justify them after the fact intellectually.”

“I like reading studies, and I like digging into facts and doing deep research, but when we really want to move people, usually it’s going to be through their hearts more than their minds,” says Alon. “If we really want to move people, I do think we have to come at it through their hearts, and I hope that this story has a chance of doing that, because these are not queer youth in America as a category. These are six unique, beautiful people who deserve to be seen and loved for who they are.”

Performances are scheduled for August 28 through September 6 at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and September 1, and 2:30 p.m. Sunday and September 6 at the MATCH, 3400 Main. For more information, call 713-521-4533 or visit thunderclapproductions.com or thechosenonesmusical.com. $15-25. The August 28 preview performance is pay-what-you can with a $1 minimum.

The Chosen Ones contains adult language, descriptions of sexual acts, and content relating to conversion therapy, self-harm/suicide, homophobia, and transphobia. It is recommended for teens and adults.