{"id":384294,"date":"2026-07-02T23:33:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T23:33:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/384294\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T23:33:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T23:33:25","slug":"fellow-travelers-opera-comes-to-san-diego-starring-andy-acosta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/384294\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Fellow Travelers’ opera comes to San Diego, starring Andy Acosta"},"content":{"rendered":"

In January 2007, Thomas Mallon published his novel, \u201cFellow Travelers.\u201d The story follows college graduate Timothy Laughlin, who moves to Washington, D.C., to join the fight against communism. There, he falls into a secret relationship with a State Department official during the anti-gay purge known as the Lavender Scare<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a period in the 1950s in the U.S. where Sen. (Joseph) McCarthy led the charge to actually persecute and fire people that were suspected to be gay or queer in our government,\u201d Andy Acosta, who plays Timothy, said.<\/p>\n

Ten years later, composer Gregory Spears, librettist Greg Pierce and director Kevin Newbury created the opera<\/a> adaptation, which has toured the country ever since. As part of this year\u2019s tour, one stop is San Diego.<\/p>\n

Acosta is a San Diego native who said he\u2019s loved singing for as long as he can remember. He took over the role of Timothy soon after the novel was adapted into an opera.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ll never forget. I was a young artist, and I was in my college apartment, and I read through it beginning to end, and I was just in tears because, for me, it was the first time that I saw representation of myself in the art form that I love.\u201d<\/p>\n

The consortium, Up Until Now<\/a>, created the tour, and the San Diego Opera is one of the many opera companies hosting the production across the country.<\/p>\n

Unlike most opera productions, which typically feature a new cast, director and conductor each season, \u201cFellow Travelers\u201d has retained much of the same creative team throughout the year.<\/p>\n

\"Andy<\/p>\n

David Jaewon Oh\/Seattle Opera<\/p>\n

Andy Acosta (right) and Joseph Lattanzi (left) play Timothy Laughlin and Hawkins Fuller in the opera adaptation of \u201cFellow Travelers\u201d in Seattle in 2026.<\/p>\n

David Bennett is the CEO of San Diego Opera<\/a>. He said stories centered on queer people are still uncommon in opera.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are certainly gay characters, but stories that really focus on a gay couple is fairly rare. So, I’m thrilled about this opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

San Diego Opera has been presenting opera for 60 years, bringing talented artists from all over the world. This is the second time Acosta has worked with the company.<\/p>\n

Acosta said this role gave him the chance to explore his own identity in a deeper way.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe question that immediately came to my mind was: ‘Am I going to be strong enough? Am I going to be courageous enough to tell this story as someone who was raised Catholic, as someone who does come from an immigrant family, as someone that has struggled with my connection with my family as a result of my queerness?’\u201d Acosta said.<\/p>\n

\"Andy<\/p>\n

David Jaewon Oh\/Seattle Opera<\/p>\n

Andy Acosta as Timothy Laughlin in the opera adaptation of \u201cFellow Travelers\u201d in Seattle in 2026.<\/p>\n

In every version of \u201cFellow Travelers,\u201d Timothy grapples with his sexuality and his faith while living under government persecution.<\/p>\n

Acosta said the opera reminds audiences that everyone carries multiple identities before we make assumptions about them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think too often we’re too quick to judge each other and put each other in a space where we’re unwilling to hear each other’s side,\u201d Acosta said. \u201cI think the beauty of life is the curiosity about one another\u2019s stories because it’s the thing that I think leads to the fulfillment of humanity. I think that is the point of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though the opera will be performed at the historic Balboa Theatre<\/a>, Bennet said there were some challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re in this beautiful theater, but cramming all of the sets of this opera into this theater is a challenge, and because we are presenting it, not producing, that means that they’re here together in the theater for a very short period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Usually, the company would spend three to four weeks preparing in the venue, but in this case it has only one.<\/p>\n

Bennett wants people not to feel intimidated by opera. He said every production tells its story differently, and \u201cFellow Travelers\u201d is a particularly powerful example.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s devastating, the music is gorgeous, it’s an American story of our time, and it’s a story of two men in love,\u201d Bennett said. \u201cSo, those are things that we don’t often find in opera. And I walked away from it just so excited to be able to bring this to San Diego and have people see what this kind of opera can be like.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

David Jaewon Oh\/Seattle Opera<\/p>\n

A wall of photos collected by The Lavender Names Project is displayed at the end of a \u201cFellow Travelers\u201d performance in Seattle in 2026.<\/p>\n

The same consortium that organized the tour also created The Lavender Names Project<\/a>, in partnership with the American LGBTQ+ Museum. The project collects stories of queer people who lost their jobs because of discrimination.<\/p>\n

Their portraits appear at the end of each \u201cFellow Travelers\u201d performance as a living memorial.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd 10 years ago, when it was originally produced, that was all stock photography. But now each portrait is a person that actually lost their jobs because of being openly gay. And many of them in this production that you’ll see on stage are people from San Diego,\u201d Bennett said.<\/p>\n

This is especially important because of San Diego\u2019s large military population, where many service members lost their jobs under the military\u2019s “Don’t Ask, Don\u2019t Tell\u201d <\/a>policy, which was in effect from 1994 to 2011.<\/p>\n

Acosta said he hopes this show makes people feel seen.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy hope always is that some person comes into this show and says, \u2018Oh my God, this reminds me of myself,\u2019 or \u201cI wish I would have seen this years ago,\u2019 or \u2018I was that person on that stage,\u2019 or \u2018This is what my son is going through,\u2019 or \u2018I should come back and bring my nephew, who I know maybe is exploring themselves but hasn’t quite seen that themselves reflected.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFellow Travelers<\/a>\u201d runs July 10-12 at Balboa Theater. Performance times vary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In January 2007, Thomas Mallon published his novel, \u201cFellow Travelers.\u201d The story follows college graduate Timothy Laughlin, who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[74,76,75],"class_list":["post-384294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}