Lorenz Qatava

Lorenz Qatava

Lorenz Qatava is the playwright of Speak My Words, Tell My Truth, a performance piece based on the stories and writings of five Black gay writers. He also wrote and published a gay romance novel set in the Southern Oregon wildfires called Rain After the Fire.

Plays

  • On the Verge
    On the Verge is the story of a chosen family of gay friends reacting to the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. An interracial gay couple navigate their relationship and one of them recalls struggles with anti-blackness and anti-gayness with an older Black gay friend. A young Black gay student gains notoriety from his participation in a protest while struggling with self-identity, a recent HIV diagnosis, and a...
    On the Verge is the story of a chosen family of gay friends reacting to the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. An interracial gay couple navigate their relationship and one of them recalls struggles with anti-blackness and anti-gayness with an older Black gay friend. A young Black gay student gains notoriety from his participation in a protest while struggling with self-identity, a recent HIV diagnosis, and a romantic relationship with a gay asylum claimant. During an end-of-year Kwanzaa celebration, they all reflect on lessons of the past and on the individual and collective challenges ahead.
  • Speak My Words, Tell My Truth
    The life stories and achievements of five Black Gay writers are presented by five color-coded characters who symbolically represent Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Essex Hemphill, E. Lynn Harris, and Tarell Alvin McCraney. Their imagined intergenerational dialogue with a young man helps him understand how their works influenced his own life and transformed American culture, race relations, and acceptance of homosexuality.