Jay Perry is returning to Plan-B Theatre’s “Facing East” in a different role: He played Marcus in the 2006 premiere and now plays Alex, the father of the son at the center of the play’s grief. The anniversary production in Salt Lake City is sold out. Carol Lynn Pearson’s play follows Latter-day Saint parents Ruth and Alex after their son Andrew dies by suicide, including their first meeting with his partner, Marcus, at Andrew’s gravesite.
The anniversary production is scheduled for Oct. 22 through either Nov. 6 or Nov. 8, 2026, depending on the listing — the seed reporting from The Salt Lake Tribune cites Nov. 6, while the official Salt Lake County Arts & Culture event page lists Nov. 8. The run takes place at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, according to the Tribune's reporting. Plan-B Theatre confirms on its own site that the entire run, including added performances, is sold out, though a waitlist remains available, per Plan-B Theatre, and according to Plan-B Theatre.
Pearson wrote “Facing East” after seeing Mormon families grapple with gay children; the play explores faith, identity, love, acceptance and a family’s grief after a son’s suicide, The Salt Lake Tribune reported. The Tribune also reported that Pearson considered the play still relevant and said her writing about it had helped save someone who planned to take their own life. Pearson died in 2026 at age 86. Plan-B Theatre dedicated the anniversary production to her memory, as well as to donor Bruce Bastian and actor Charles Lynn Frost, who originated the role of Alex.
A Role Reversal for the Anniversary Cast
The anniversary cast features Kaplan Keener as Marcus, Christy Summerhays as Ruth and Jay Perry as Alex — but Perry's casting carries its own twist. He played Marcus in the original 2006 world premiere and now, two decades later, steps into the role of Andrew's father, Alex, as reported by The Salt Lake Tribune and according to Plan-B Theatre, which calls the casting serendipitous.
“Facing East” first premiered at Plan-B Theatre in Salt Lake City in November 2006, per the Tribune's reporting, and it played to sold-out houses that fall and the following spring, according to Playbill. The production later transferred off-Broadway to Atlantic Stage 2 in New York for a run that began previews May 25, 2007 and played through June 17 as an intermissionless 75-minute staging, Playbill reported. From there it toured to Theatre Rhinoceros in San Francisco that August, and has since been produced across the country and in Mexico, per Plan-B Theatre.
A Family History Behind the Funding
Bastian, who grew up in a Latter-day Saint family and came out as gay, supported “Facing East” during its first run. The Salt Lake Tribune reported that Michael Marriott, executive director of the B.W. Bastian Foundation, said Bastian wanted to draw attention to challenges faced by LGBTQ+ people, particularly in the Mormon community.
The Salt Lake Tribune also reported that former Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski recalled Utah’s lack of marriage equality and efforts to build families through adoption. The state did not legally allow same-sex marriage until 2013, the Tribune noted. The outlet also reported that the Latter-day Saint church supported California’s Proposition 8 in 2008, which defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
A Church and Its Members Keep Shifting
Elbert Peck told The Salt Lake Tribune that Mormon culture has moderated over time, though not necessarily in doctrine, and that more Mormons now believe gay people should be able to have love in their lives. He also described gay people as remaining second-class citizens within Mormonism. Separately, a Pew Research Center analysis found modest shifts toward more liberal views among Latter-day Saints on some social and political issues, including homosexuality, since 2007. Pew also found that about 28% of adults raised in the faith were religiously unaffiliated in 2023-24, twice the share in 2007.
The Salt Lake Tribune has reported that support among Latter-day Saints for LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections rose 12 percentage points from 2015 to 2021, reaching 84%, above the national average. In contrast, a 2021 PRRI survey found that 46% of Latter-day Saints supported same-sex marriage, the Tribune reported. The outlet has also reported that nearly a quarter of former Latter-day Saints identified as lesbian, gay or bisexual, compared with 2% of lifetime members.
What student-health data can—and can’t—show
The available figures offer national context, not Utah-specific results or an explanation for any individual death. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analysis of 2023 U.S. high school survey data found that approximately 26% of transgender and questioning students reported a suicide attempt in the past year, compared with 5% of cisgender male students and 11% of cisgender female students. These findings concern transgender and questioning students; they do not establish the circumstances behind any one person’s death.
Plan-B Theatre says its sold-out run will include free student matinees for high school juniors and seniors through its A Week With A Play program. The production’s return thus brings the play to a new group of students alongside its anniversary audiences.
