Douglas Lyons brings his ‘Pure Glitter’ to Uptown Players for a Texas premiere

Pure Glitter — written by Douglas Lyons, directed by Emerson Collins and presented by Uptown Players — opens March 20 and runs through March 28 at the Kalita Humphreys Theater. (Photo by Mike Morgan)

In the play Chicken and Biscuits, Douglas Lyons centered the story on family dynamics — particularly with the same-sex couple at the center of the drama at, of all places, a funeral. Uptown Players held the regional premiere of the show in 2023.

This weekend, the theater and the playwright are at it again — only this time it’s for the Texas premiere of Lyons’ new queer comedy, Pure Glitter.

Set during a surprise 10th anniversary celebration, Pure Glitter revolves around a group of close friends celebrating over food, laughs and fellowship. But the kiki is interrupted when unexpected guests arrive — and unresolved history resurfaces.

The night goes from a festive party to a shadefest of sharp wits and confessions.

The show has been presented but not properly staged. For Lyons, going into this weekend is an exciting moment.

“I am beyond thrilled about this first proper staging. I think it’s such a joy bomb of a play,” he said.

Pure Glitter opens March 20 and runs through March 28 at the Kalita Humphreys Theater. The show features Kelly Groves, Ian Mead Moore, Galileo Segura Rady, Jake Shanahan, Gerald Taylor II and Lee Walter and is helmed by Emerson Collins, who was invited to serve as the show’s guest director.

“This is my first time directing in Dallas and, truly, my first solo directing theater gig,” Collins revealed. “It’s an honor, and to have my hands in with so many genius artists — if anything, they will make me look good.”

The former Dallas resident has an extended history with the company and its founders and co-producers, Jeff Rane and Craig Lynch, having known them before Uptown Players was founded and even having starred in some of the company’s early shows. So his comfort to return for this gig was high.

And Rane and Lynch had been searching for a show for Collins to direct.

When Collins received the script for Pure Glitter, he found in it the queer joy that Lyons intended.

“It’s this heartfelt incisive piece and an heir to The Boys in the Band. This show captures so much of the gay men my age who came up in the age of AIDS, all the way to Gen Z gays who are freed by PrEP. This gives attention to us in-between gays.”

Mart Crowley’s seminal 1968 gay play The Boys in the Band centers on a group of gay friends coming together but with a tension in the air. Collins says with Glitter, their vocabulary of queerness has expanded. Where Crowley’s characters represent archetypes, Collins described Lyons’ characters as more fluid.

“First, this is much lighter and funny. But also, Lyons shows the evolution of gay friend groups, and here there’s so much more love among them,” he said.

And in Boys, there was ultimately a closet, still, for the characters.

“They could be out with each other, but beyond that, I doubt it,” Collins said of the characters in Crowley’s play. “Here we see these characters however they are, and they likely go out into the world the same way. And I love that generational growth shown through a tender and funny lens.”

The play is inspired by some classic queer sitcoms —The Golden Girls, Will and Grace, Living Single, Designing Women — but also by Lyons’ own gaggle of friends.

“To me, having pure glitter is having that chosen family unit, and they get us through those tough moments in life,” Lyons said. “This is a celebration of that but is also inspired by a dinner party I went to in 2023.”

At that dinner, he discovered the unique dynamic created when a bunch of gay friends got together to celebrate a friend’s going away.

“It was shady and hilarious,” he said. “And I loved how we’d all lie to each other when we didn’t want to reveal our true selves at that moment. I thought that this was certainly a play.”

Lyons added that the people you meet are the people you lean on outside the family. He found his chosen family, and that chosen family kept him lifted up even while his own immediate family was supportive.

So where does “pure glitter” come from?

“The term is in a monologue. I like to be very specific about my titles and want them to be evocative,” Lyons said. “For me, ‘pure glitter’ feels twofold: The purity upholds the clarity and truth among friends and, well, glitter is for all of us gays.”

Lyons doesn’t seek to get all that political, but, even when intended as a comedy, a Black, queer play is inherently political. Telling those stories for Lyons is both an assertion and a solution.

“Writing plays like this is an act of rebellion, and we will laugh even when you try to harm us,” he said. “This is my superpower. I open my computer, and I write about the joy and love to put in the world. Theater is healing for me, and that is a thread in my shows. So I can still fight for joy but also help to heal from a regime trying to erase our existence.”

For tickets visit UptownPlayers.org.

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