Diversity Rules Magazine

characters and maybe even see themselves reflected in the canon," says Brandon James Gwinn. Starring Tituss Burgess, Amber Gray, Telly Leung, Tony Award Winner Daisy Eagan and an all-star cast of Broadway performers, Place and Time will be available on Spo- fy and Apple Music on December 3. "Even as a young gay man, I always had problems fit- ng neatly into the cis and straight culture at large," admits Brandon James Gwinn, who iden fies today as queer and gender fluid. EllaRose Chary agrees. "There are a lot of us who don't feel beholden to any one label or iden ty. We exist on a spectrum. A big part of my com- ing out has been try- ing to decipher what part of the LGBTQ puzzle I fit into." Place and Time is a culmina on of Chary and Gwinn's musical and gender awaken- ing. Developed over ten years of work- ing together, songs are mostly queer- themed with emo- onal surges that are character and story driven. They in- clude "Always Heard, Never Seen," wri en from Ella's own experience of be- ing a woman in queer spaces domi- nated by cis white men and "Why I Chose," about feeling somewhere in the middle be- tween male and female, much like Brandon's real-life story. Daisy Eagan (Tony Award winner, Girls) sings "Gal Who Gets The Gig", a gender bending, feminist, mu- sical theater charm song and Tony Nominee Amber Gray and Amy Jo Jackson (The Brass Menagerie, Company XIV) sing the album's cover track, a lesbian love duet. Throughout the album, there are solid influences from folk, as well as protest songs, pop-rock radio and 70s era tracks. Also featured on the album is "The Things I Don't Say," the first song Chary and Gwinn ever wrote together, sung by Telly Leung (Aladdin, Glee). EllaRose Chary and Brandon James Gwinn are the Richard Rodgers Award-winning and Drama League nominated wri ng team who have received grants from NAMT and Anna Sosenko Trust. They are Drama sts Guild Fellows, Ars Nova Uncharted, & Rhinebeck Writers Retreat Triple R Residency alums and were recently featured in NAMT's 33rd Fes val of New Musicals. Their shows have been produced at City Center, Joe's Pub, 54 Below, Theatre C, The Tank, UArts' Polyphone Fes val, All For One Theater, Prospect Theater, and more. They created Tank-aret, a monthly cabaret series at The Tank featuring un- derrepresented ar sts. Their immersive, soundscape driven theatrical experience THE SÉANCE MACHINE was part of the Tank's 2019 Obie-Award winning sea- son. Place and Time was recorded in New York City, at John Kilgore Sound and Recording, with engineers M.P. Kuo and Jabbath Roa and at MPK Recording and Teddy Ki y Studios. It is co-produced by Kimberly Hyacinthe. Visit www.brandonandella.com. Diversity Rules Magazine | Dec 2021 | 5 Amber Gray

• Cover