It started with a simple observation.

Peter Reynolds, assistant professor of theater, heard how his students discussed sexuality — in all its forms –with one another. They were conversations that he never experienced when he was in college.

“I sensed a difference in their attitude toward queerness,” he says.

The conversations were open and not enveloped by social stigma. It was a phenomenon that Reynolds wanted to explore creatively.

He teamed up with Associate Professor Scott Gratson, STRC, and together, they received a seed grant from Temple’s Office of the Provost to create a play about today’s young LGBT community.

The result is que[e]ry, which was featured April 29 at the Equality Forum, a global LGBT summit held in Philadelphia each year, in Gershman Hall, 401 S. Broad St. It ran on campus from March 13 to 15.

Reynolds, who directed the show, cast an ensemble of 21 students with no script and only a perception of what the resulting show would be, which he says was equally exciting and horrifying. Over the next four months, the ensemble members shared their own stories and interviewed others to create the script from scratch.

“What I found out was that there is just as much hatred, bigotry and violence as when I was in school,” he says.

The show consists of more than a dozen vignettes based on real-life experiences. None of the actors tell their own stories – Reynolds says the rehearsal process revealed that the scenes were more powerful when approached from the outside as an actor. All of the pieces were anonymously submitted by students and performed by other students in the ensemble.

Calvin Atkinson, a junior theater major, says the rehearsal process was unlike any other he experienced.

“The first time I saw [the piece I wrote], it was really strange,” he says. The actor went a different direction than what Atkinson truly had experienced. While at first taken aback, he soon was comforted by the separation of the piece from true life. “It’s not necessarily about my exact feelings being transferred to the stage,” he says. “But it keeps my story alive.”

On the opposite side, Atkinson says the first time he performed a piece he knew someone in the room had written was intimidating; he hoped he did it justice. “My monologue was a very true experience. It was so specific and had a strong character,” he says.

While some of the stories touch on dark issues, the students made sure to include a lot of humor into the show.

“We didn’t want it to be The Laramie Project,” says Cody Long, a religion major in the ensemble. “This is not a pity party about bullying or about hate crimes. We do make mistakes and have a variety of experiences that aren’t all bad.”

Julia Freeman, a sophomore majoring in theater and Spanish, calls que[e]ry one of the most collaborative efforts in which she has ever played a part. “Every single person involved in the production was more involved with the greater good of the production rather than the greater good of their career,” she says. “This was our baby.”

When parts of the script weren’t working as a fluid aspect of the show, cuts were made and no one left with injured egos.

Gratson says the stage is a powerful tool to deliver the messages behind que[e]ry.

“Theater provides a platform for audiences to see [this] narrative brought to life,” Gratson says. “Also, theater allows for students to emerge as true citizen artists, giving voice to an important and growing movement in the United States. That voice, especially when coupled with the multimediated motifs that we included, really is accentuated through theater.”

It’s not just the audiences that have learned lessons from que[e]ry.

“I learned that I never cease to be amazed at the ability of our students. The students involved in this production came to the piece from throughout the university. They had a chance to not only work with other students from fields that were atypical of their usual studies but got to learn about an important part of human identity,” Gratson says. “The complexity of that identity and the dedication that our students have to better understand it — that was a lesson well-learned. Coupled with their drive toward achieving true inclusion and understanding of the queer community, this really became an amazing experience.”

Watch ensemble member Craig Bazan discuss the show on The 10! Show