A Ride Upon the Stage through Queer American History
Book and Lyrics by Jeffrey Solomon with Original Music by Raliegh Neal
This new, original musical is part of The Past Is Always Present Educational Theater Project, a collaboration between Houses on the Moon Theater Company and History UnErased, Inc.
Directed by
Jeffrey Solomon
Music Created & Directed by
Raliegh Neal II
CAST
Brogan Nelson
Christopher Schultz
Jalen Bunch
Liam Delaney
Peter Kolodziej
Sabrina Reed
Sarita Alvarado
Valerie Whiteneck
Yleani Munoz
Jocardo Ralston
Cheyenne Fox Tree
Stage Manager
Erin Caoilinn
Costume and Props
Valerie Whiteneck
Tech and Lighting
John Bachelder
Jeffrey Solomon, Book and Lyrics/Director
Jeffrey Solomon is co-founder of Houses on the Moon Theater Company. Playwright: Tara’s Crossing (Tenement Theatre, NY), Building Houses on the Moon (City Theatre, Pittsburgh), and De Novo, which he also directed (New York Theatre Workshop/Next Door and 59E59 St. Theaters, Palacio Tecleño, El Salvador). Writer/Performer of MotherSON (HERE Art Center), Fourth Floor (Mumbai, India), The Barefoot Café (Colombo, Sri Lanka), The Cultural Center of the Philippines, New End Theatre and Oval House Theatre (London, UK), Edinburgh Fringe and Theater Works in Melbourne, Australia. ... Joseph Jefferson Nomination for Best Actor (Bailiwick Rep, Chicago). Audience Favorite, Best Playwriting, and Best Male Solo Performer (National Gay and Lesbian Theatre Festival). Best Male Performance (Absolut Gay Theatre Festival in Dublin, Ireland). Jeff's other solo play, The Santa Closet (formerly Santa Claus is Coming Out), premiered at the Kirk Theatre on Off Broadway’s Theatre Row (Penguin Rep), revival Houses on the Moon Theater Co (Teatro Circulo). Diversionary Theatre (San Diego), Celebration Theatre (Los Angeles), and the Dublin International Gay and Lesbian Theatre Festival. The play received the Award for Best of the National Gay and Lesbian Theatre Festival. Jeff wrote the Television pilot for Jim Henson’s CityKids, which received an Emmy nomination for Best Children’s Special and an Ollie Award for Excellence in Children's Programming, and was a staff writer for the same program. Jeff is a MOTH Grand Slam Champion and has been featured on NPR’s The Moth Radio Hour. He is the host, director, and co-producer of the Houses on the Moon Podcast, available on all podcast platforms. "Thanks to Houses and History UnErased for giving me the opportunity to return to my first theatrical love language: The Musical! Love to the whole family, my dear friends, and to my hubby and son holding it down in Los Angeles so I could be here." Read more
Raliegh Neal II, Composer/ Music Director
Raliegh Neal II has 50 years of music exposure, beginning at the age of four with his father teaching him the Ukulele. Raliegh attended the University of Miami Music School, which then launched a career of over 3 decades of playing the piano and sharing the stage of musical legends like Herbie Hancock, Carlos Santana, Omar Lye-Fook, Nile Rogers, John Mayer, Guru, Stacy Lattisaw, Be Be Winans, Malik Yoba, and countless others. In 2006, Raleigh joined Michael Franti & Spearhead for a 9-year run touring worldwide through Europe, South America, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, ... South Africa, the continental U.S., and Canada. As a Composer, Raliegh has an eclectic catalog of pieces registered with ASCAP that are played around the world. Some of his creative efforts specialize in “youth empowerment” and have appeared on Nickelodeon and ABC’s Saturday morning children’s programs. Raliegh also has over 12 years of experience working with inner-city youth in the field of Youth Development through the Arts. Hired as the Music Director for The CityKids Foundation, Raliegh had the opportunity to cultivate the musical and performance talent of hundreds of youth through theme-based performances touching on teen pregnancy, racism, culture and relationships. He was the Music Composer for the Emmy-nominated TV show “CityKids,” a project involving the Jim Henson Company. At present, Raliegh is an Artist Master Teacher with the People’s Conservatory in Oakland. Some of his classes are general music, Piano, Guitar, Bass, computer music, and music composition. He enjoys scoring for TV, podcasts and films, providing session work, and performing with artists worldwide as well as with his own Steely Dan tribute band, “The Dans of Steel.” Read more
Brogan Nelson (she/her) is a graduate of The Boston Conservatory (BFA in Musical Theatre). Her recent professional productions include The Paparazzi at AMT Theater (Christie), Rent at North Shore Musical Theatre (Ensemble), The Reunion: A Pop Punk Musical (Reilly, Young Chris), and Laughs in Spanish at Speakeasy Stage Company (Jenny). Brogan would like to thank her mom and brother for their endless support, and dedicates this performance to her dad and to Mr. (Paul) Aikins, who watches over and guides her every day.
Christopher Shultz is delighted to join Your Hands Are the Road . A Boston‑based New England actor, his recent work includes Scrooge in A Christmas Carol (The Wick Theater), the Narrator in Blood Brothers (Theater UnCorked), and Sweeney in Sweeney Todd (Cotuit Center for the Arts), along with leading roles in several regional independent films. He is the father of two children and is proud to help nurture their curiosity, compassion, and sense of the world through art and through works like this. He is grateful for the chance to help bring this piece to life and is excited to be part of this journey.
Jalen Bunch (they/them) is a multidisciplinary, non-binary, queer artist from New York and a graduate of the Boston Conservatory at the Berklee School of Music. They have performed on notable stages such as Carnegie Hall and Radio City Music Hall. They are best known for their role as Lucas/Demogorgon in the original off-Broadway cast of Stranger Sings!: The Parody Musical . jalenbunch.com
Liam Delany is a Boston-based actor and writer committed to telling stories by and about queer people. A recent graduate of Brandeis University, some of his previous credits include Spring Awakening (Hanschen), Everybody (Everybody), Twelfth Night (Sir Andrew), Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons (Oliver), and Sense and Sensibility (Col. Brandon). He was most recently seen in a staged reading of his original play Don’t Leave Me Alone (Gabe). For more about Liam, follow his Instagram @liamrdelaney. He would like to thank everyone for supporting this project, and he hopes you enjoy!
Peter Kolodziej (he/they) is a Boston-based actor, singer, and recent graduate of Emerson College's BFA Acting program. Credits include Mark Antony in Julius Caesar (Emerson Stage), Ensemble/Margaret Mead ( Hair ), Roy-Pete-Mark-Bobby Jeremy in Fun Home (Musical Theatre Against the Grain). When not acting, Peter can be found pouring drinks at Cathedral Station in the South End, biking along the Esplanade, and teasing drag wigs up into the stratosphere. Huge thanks to family and friends!
Sabrina Reed is a New York-based actor born in Akron, OH. She received her education and training from Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. She is excited to join this project and get to play and perform with the creative team and cast!
Sarita Alvarado (they/them) is thrilled to be performing in Your Hands Are The Road. Sarita spent five months on the road with Lexington Children's Theatre in the winter of 2025, where they originated the role of Lali in Quetzali and the Comic Book Queen VS. The Alebrije of Darkness by Alvaro Saar Rios. Professional: Carla, In the Heights at Firehouse Center for the Arts, Learn Your Lessons Well, Godspell at Hackmatack Playhouse. This is Sarita’s first show back since suffering a broken ankle last July, and they are so thankful to everyone who made it possible for them to take the stage again.
Valerie Whiteneck (they/them) is a Boston-based actor and lifelong crafter. They have relished the opportunity to channel their DIY proclivities into bringing these colorful stories to life. Their recent regional theater credits include Trinculo, The Tempest; Picasso, Picasso at the Lapin Agile; Cheryl, Evil Dead: the Musical; and Scrooge, A Christmas Carol.
Yleani Thomas-Muñoz is currently a Middlesex Community College student working towards a degree in theatre. She began doing theatre at 11 years old (just for fun), but quickly fell in love with the art of storytelling and performance. Yleani would like to thank her friends and family for their support, especially her mom, for her constant encouragement. Yleani is so excited to be part of the cast of Your Hands Are the Road and hopes you enjoy the show!
Erin Caoilinn is a multifaceted theatre artist excited to work on this production. She has held various technical, acting, and teaching roles across Minnesota, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and the greater Portland, Maine area over the past two decades. She was most recently the Assistant Stage Manager for the Jeans Playhouse production of Bat Boy: The Musical in Lincoln, NH, and, for an upcoming project, she will be back for her second summer teaching drama to K-8 students at Meadow Breeze Day Camp in Lexington, Massachusetts! Special thanks to this cast and crew, along with their mentors, parents, and friends.
Jocardo Ralston is a teaching coach, content developer, and residency facilitator for History UnErased and Your Hands Are the Road musical. He is a veteran special education educator, working with students within restrictive classroom environments. He is in the last year of his doctoral studies in the Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education Ph.D. program at the Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania. Jocardo has an undergraduate degree in script writing and theater, and he is weaving all of his talents into this educational theater project.
Cheyenne Fox Tree Anderson is History UnErased’s Indigenous Consultant. Cheyenne is a 2Spirit multiracial Indigenous Social Work Psychotherapist and founder of Two Feather Wellness, a therapeutic and consulting practice grounded in Two-Eyed Seeing, trauma-informed care, and decolonizing approaches to mental health and systems change. She also has a background in theater in the Greater Boston area. She is originally from Massachusetts and is now based in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Cheyenne is honored to support this premiere staged reading and witness this powerful story finally come to life after years of imagining this moment with our team. During the development of this show, she emphasized the importance of Indigenous Seven Generations Teachings, making it the underpinning of The Past Is Always Present Educational Theater Project.
Seven Generations Teaching holds that our choices and how we interact with our environment and community influence seven generations ahead. It also means we are carrying the influence of seven generations before us.
Angela Alés, artist and Lowell resident, captures the spirit of this teaching in her painting, Building a Nation (2018).
BUILDING A NATION teaching materials with a video introduction by Angela Alés
Construyendo una Nación
Seven Generations Time Capsule
Geminai LLC will have its hologram recording equipment in the Recital Hall on the second floor after the performance and post-show talkback. We invite audience members to record a contribution to our "Seven Generations Time Capsule" that will become a part of this theater project's vision of reflecting and connecting all of us as we continue to build this nation.
Cheyenne Fox Tree and Joanne Stanway, owner of Geminai LLC.
Tribal Land Acknowledgement
Your Hands Are the Road respectfully acknowledges that it is holding its premiere staged reading on the unceded and stolen land of the Pawtucket and Massachusett tribes. This land was a seasonal fishing and gathering site for the Pawtucket people until it was turned into a “praying town" by colonial settlers in 1653 and named Wamesit.
The creators and collaborators of this performance stretch across Turtle Island, including the lands of the Abenaki Cowasuck Band of the Pennacook, the Massachusett nations, the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg Nations (Naakowe, Mississauga, Odishwaagaamii’ininiwag, Amikwaa, Boodiwaadmi, Ojibwe, Odaawa), Haudenosaunee, the Wendat Peoples, Lūnaapéewak, and Attawandaron, Lenape, Tongva, Ramaytush Ohlone. We are honored to showcase this new work on this land.
About Houses on the Moon Theater Company
For 25 years, Houses on the Moon Theater Company has partnered with community organizations to create original plays around people and stories not typically represented in American theater. Using first-person interviews, storytelling workshops, and creative residencies, their productions illuminate urgent social needs and amplify the voices of individuals living in public housing, families impacted by gun violence and mass incarceration, the LGBTQ+ community, asylum seekers, sex workers, undocumented youth, and more. Houses’ work is produced Off-Broadway and has toured to 18 U.S. states and internationally in free performances at libraries, hospitals, community centers, public housing complexes, K-12 schools, and universities. Their robust educational programs for teens and young adults include annual storytelling residencies at middle and high schools across New York City and nationally. They are the NY Independent Theater Award’s 2024 Caffe Cino Award winner, recognizing Houses' commitment to producing outstanding, community-centered theater.
Emily Joy Weiner is Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Houses on the Moon Theater Company. Since the company’s inception in 2001, she has been creating, developing, performing, producing, and directing new works that explore the complex and sensitive issues of our time. Directing highlights include THE ASSIGNMENT (ART/New York Theatres), THE SANTA CLOSET (Teatro Circulo), and the touring storytelling production of gUN COUNTRY. Performance highlights include COMING THROUGH (American Place Theatre), OTHELLO (West End Theater), FEFU AND HER FRIENDS (Williamstown Theatre Festival), and DE NOVO (Next Door at NYTW).
Emily penned and performed in SHARED SENTENCES, which premiered in 2022 (Theater 122CC) and co-developed and toured a one-woman adaptation of Faulkner’s AS I LAY DYING with the late Wynn Handman. The League of Professional Theatre Women honored Emily with the Josephine Abady Award for her work with Houses in creating multicultural works.
About History UnErased, Inc.
History UnErased is a national education non-profit organization founded in Lowell in 2015. They are entirely dedicated to putting LGBTQ history in its rightful place — the classroom — and uniting all "We The People" with a more complete story of America. Through their "Intersections & Connections" curriculum, teacher training, special programming, corporate Lunch & Learns, and community engagement, they provide a more accurate and inclusive history that reflects the dignity and diversity of all students — and learners of all ages. Learn more
Deb Fowler is Co-Founder and Executive Director of History UnErased, Inc., and a former classroom teacher working with new immigrant and refugee students at Lowell High School.
"When I was a classroom teacher, every semester we would take a field trip to the American Repertory Theater (ART) in Cambridge, and I witnessed the powerful and lasting impact of these performances on my students. And it was the ART's production of WITNESS UGANDA that became one of the sparkplugs to found History UnErased. Partnering with Houses on the Moon Theater Company for The Past Is Always Present Educational Theater Project, and bringing this premiere staged reading of YOUR HANDS ARE THE ROAD to Lowell, is a poetic and timely gift. I am eternally grateful to everyone who has contributed, supported, and believed in this theater project." — Deb Fowler
About The Past Is Always Present Educational Theater Project
History UnErased, Inc. and Houses on the Moon Theater Company teamed up to develop The Past Is Always Present Educational Theater Project, a multi-year initiative launched with funding from the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) Program. This project is designed as both an artistic experience and an educational tool.
High school students from across the country have been involved in the musical's creative development, leaving their fingerprints on every aspect of this new work and ensuring the historical figures and questions about the past resonate with youth in today's world.
As YOUR HANDS ARE THE ROAD travels to new areas of the nation, we will be sharing state and local LGBTQ history specific to those regions.
Lowell's Connection to LGBTQ History
Marty Meehan, Lowell's native son and president of the University of Massachusetts, earned his place in LGBTQ history while serving as a U.S. Representative from 1993 to 2007. (Marty is also on History UnErased's Board.)
Rep. Marty Meehan's First Act in Congress on March 30th, 1993.
Rep. Marty Meehan on the House Floor on March 2nd, 2005.
More Lowell History Makers
Manny Dias (1909 - 1981)
David Scondras (1945 - 2020)
Airline Inthyrath ( ແອລາຍ ອິນທິຣາດ) born June 21, 1984
Teaching Materials Connected to YOUR HANDS ARE THE ROAD
Secondary and Post-secondary Level
Upper Elementary Level
Teaching Materials Connected to the Semiquincentennial
Secondary and Post-secondary Level
This premiere staged reading in Lowell, MA, where "Art is the Handmaid of Human Good," was made possible with funding from New England Biolabs, the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) Program, the Greater Lowell Community Foundation's LGBTQ+ Fund, the Equality Fund at the Boston Foundation, Eastern Bank Foundation, and our partnerships with Middlesex Community College and Geminai LLC.
