By Evan Borman
Boulder Weekly
DENVER | “Always a Boy” is a coming-of-age stage play co-written by mother and son Jo and Jeremy Ivester - inspired by Jo’s award-winning memoir “Never a Girl, Always a Boy,” which follows a family’s journey through Jeremy’s coming-out story by uniting humor, affection, and acceptance.
“Storytelling is a powerful way to combat prejudice. “Always a Boy” is an adaptation of my story and transition,” former University of Colorado Boulder student Jeremy said. “It’s easy to dehumanize and hate what you don’t understand, and my hope is that the play shows just how human I am — that we are just people and therefore deserving of love, respect, and the ability to exist in this world.”
Adapting Jo Ivester’s memoir into a visual medium required greater conflict between the family to fulfill certain theatrical structures.
“The big way it’s fictionalized is that for theater to work, for the audience to come along on the story, there has to be some tension,” Jo said. “The reality was that our family was very accepting of Jeremy from the time he was a little kid. There were no battles about it.”
The writers decided to personify the internal fears Jeremy experienced as he approached coming-out through fictionalized characters to develop complex new plots that would grab hold of the viewers' attention. Their collaboration revealed previously unshared emotions and brought mother and son closer.
“There are three characters based on my son, not just one,” Jo said. “As we go through chronologically seeing the different ages portraying the scenes, we also very importantly hear the three of them talking together. That interior monologue all of a sudden becomes an outward scene.”
The main character, Joshua, is played by Caden Pazo, a local actor and trans man who graduated from MSU Denver and founded Absurd Rodeo Theater Company in Colorado.
“What I really enjoy about this play is that I feel like it offers an opportunity for those who are not trans and will never go through that experience to witness that struggle,” Pazo said. “The struggle is so internal and it’s very vulnerable to try to explain that to a loved one in person.
“I think that this play allows people to see that struggle almost in real time as the characters encounter it. I think that just creates a lot of opportunities for empathy.”
Most of the production team is trans and non-binary, and working with cis-gender members of the crew cultivated greater sense of understanding and advocacy.
Lisa Scheps, the director of the play, is a trans woman and founder and executive artistic director of Ground Floor Theater - whose mission is to concentrate on works by and for under-represented communities.
“Always a Boy” first premiered in 2024 at Ground Floor’s original theater in Austin, TX - and Scheps expanded the Denver performance by incorporating magical realism and a greater focus on the mother.
“As someone who transitioned… the idea of being rejected by the people that you are close to is frightening,” Scheps said. “Support was vitally important to my well-being as a human and as someone that walks on this earth and needs to operate day by day. If I didn’t get that support, it wouldn’t nearly be as easy. That’s why a show like this is important to show the world how a supportive family can help elevate a child versus alienate them.”
According to the Trevor Project, the world’s largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBT+ young people, over 50% of transgender and non-binary youth experience depression.
“Family is the first place where you interact with the world. When the first touchstone that you have with trying to connect to someone else is unsupportive, it can be devastating,” Pazo said.
“One adult accepting can make the difference between a kid thinking about suicide or not. We need adults to be accepting, and family members in particular are in this incredible position to give support,” Jo said.
“My hope is that with this play, it raises awareness about what it means to have a trans kid and how you can be accepting and what a huge difference that can make. If one family ends up more accepting because a friend of theirs saw the play, and talks about it, then we’ve accomplished something huge,” Jo said.
The Neustadt JAAMM Festival is presenting “Always a Boy” in collaboration with the Ground Floor Theatre. The play will run from Friday, Oct. 9 to Sunday, Oct. 25 at the Mizel Arts and Culture Center in Denver.
