UNDERNEATH THE SKIN is the latest by renowned multiple Obie and Bessie award-winning performance artist John Kelly. It is based on the fantastical life of Samuel Steward (1909-1993), a gay novelist, tattoo artist, author of erotic fiction, and unabashed carnal adventurer. A gifted scholar, Steward left academia to reinvent himself as one of the 20th century’s most influential tattoo artists (aka Philip Sparrow), and as a writer of gay erotic fiction (aka Phil Andros). He attracted the friendships of Gertrude Stein and Andre Gide, was lovers with Thornton Wilder, and had trysts with Rudolph Valentino, Lord Alfred Douglas, and Roy Fitzgerald (aka Rock Hudson).

With this movement-theater work for 4 performers, Kelly virtuosically combines Steward’s actual words (culled from his letters, publications, and manuscripts) in tandem with extensive video projections (including digital animations of Steward’s tattoo designs and erotic illustrations) and ensemble movement into a kaleidoscopic series of dramatic vignettes that salute a queer rebel.

Samuel Steward struggled during The Great Depression, outlived the McCarthy era and The Lavender Scare, took part in the strides that resulted in the Stonewall uprising, and witnessed the AIDS epidemic. While the lives of pre-Stonewall LGBT+ people have largely been undocumented, erased, or forgotten, what makes Steward unique is that he was an obsessive documenter, and his papers and other ephemera survive, providing a unique window into a gay man who lived his life authentically. UNDERNEATH THE SKIN celebrates the brave life of a creative spirit and reaffirms the persistence and mettle of social outsiders.