It’s been a couple of years, but when Gavin Thomas Drew returns to the stage, it will be all his.

The artistic director for Summit City Music Theatre will be the subject of the theater company’s upcoming one-man show, Equals, on Saturday, March 2, at The Local Archive at The Landing.

“It’s an experiment in a couple of ways,” Drew said of the one-night show. “We’re doing something that we don’t see a lot of in town, which is experiential theater. We’re doing it in a different space. To my knowledge, there hasn’t been anything in The Local Archive from a performance standpoint. It really is an experiment.”

Abundance of stories

The idea for the show came as Drew was looking to fill a void in the schedule and he reached out to his friend Dakota Norman.

“The whole thing was hatched because we’re old pals,” Drew said of his friend from Oklahoma. “We’ve done many shows together. I called him up just to check in and see how things were going. He had just moved to Chicago and getting his roots planted. I called him up and said, ‘I have an open spot in my season. I’m trying to figure out what to do here.’ He was like, ‘Well, what about your stories?’ I had never really considered that. 

“By the time that two-hour conversation was over, we kind of had a rough outline as to what I’d like to include. Dakota took that and kind of morphed into this thing.”

The two co-wrote the show with Norman taking over directorial duties.

“Gavin’s always had such a book of life,” Norman said, noting Drew has many stories of randomly bumping into celebrities on top of his other life stories. “I knew there had to be something there. 

“We love Gavin up here. Everyone loves Summit City Music Theatre and how during his time as artistic director it’s gone in a new direction. We love him as Igor in Young Frankenstein (for which Drew won an Anthony Award) and as Liza Minnelli in Forbidden Broadway. But Gavin has such a unique way of transforming into these wild characters. So, the challenge that was interesting to me is, can we still entertain the audience without the mask?”

Doing the math

Drew’s previous stage appearance was in Fort Wayne Civic Theatre’s Forbidden Broadway’s Greatest Hits in the spring of 2022. Since then, he’s been behind the scenes as a director.

“It’s been a while,” he said.

When he gets back in front of an audience, he will not be playing a character. He will be sharing the stories of his life, which has featured obstacles, such as going deaf.

“I was a junior in college when I lost all of my hearing,” he said. “I am completely deaf to this day. I had cochlear implant surgery, and I can hear through that in a different way. Before that, I was an actor, vocalist, and singer. It was a pretty huge and substantial loss. That sudden deafness is sort of what we focus on in this show.”

That is a focus, but the focal point of the show is the relationship between the time it takes to laugh at tragedy.

“The idea that tragedy is universal and comedy is universal,” Drew said. “It takes circumstance and time for us all to decide if something is funny. I can make a joke about my hair, but if someone else also has a receding hairline, they may not find that funny at that moment. They might not be ready to laugh about it.”

“We kind of examine the idea that comedy equals tragedy plus time,” Drew added.

That equation will be prominent in the show.

“That’s our big proof that we’re trying to dissect throughout the play,” Norman said. “Gavin just happens to be the test subject that we’re evaluating it all through. We’re hoping that an audience isn’t going to come see the show and think, ‘Oh man, that poor deaf boy. He smiled so big.’ Instead, looking at the equation and leaving with the idea of putting themselves in as the test subject. 

“We all have these tragedies, but the show is not ‘a’ tragedy. It’s way more of a comedy than it is a tragedy.”

And when you speak with Drew, his upbeat demeanor shines through.

“Seeing Gavin in a room full of people, the way he can tell an anecdote or story, it captures everybody with his cadence and charisma,” Norman said. “It’s been really easy to write a play (with him). I thought the hardest thing I’d do is write play, but having Gavin, it pretty much just came out of his mouth.”

Drew will share many of the tragedies that have occurred to him, with his loss of hearing being just one — albeit a big one.

“We talk about some really challenging things, some heavy topics of depression, anxiety,” Drew said. “I thought my life was over, because that’s what I spent my entire life working towards: being a singer and musical theater actor.

“It was slow at first,” he added about losing his hearing due to Meniere’s disease. “It stayed consistently at about a 45 percent loss in one ear. Then, the rest of it went all at once overnight. That’s a huge thing, a huge life event. It’s changed and altered my entire life. Not only going to the movies and getting a closed-captioning device, but also, ‘How do I hear my doorbell?’ Even with technology, it’s not perfect.

“All of this stuff happens to all of us. I can either pick myself up and laugh at it or I can give up.”

He definitely did not give up and has been able to continue his career in theater.

“It’s not the boohoo show,” Norman said. “It’s not the ‘Come look at the circus freak’ either, like, ‘Oh, he can’t hear, but that young man speaks nice.’ It’s about how we roll with punches. Everyone is going to get hit. No matter how big or little it is.”

Immerse self in show

Along with sharing his experiences, the show’s setting inside The Local Archive, located above Utopian Coffee at The Landing, will bring attendees into it as well.

“It’s going to be really intimate,” Norman said. “It’s not going to be like your traditional, ‘I’m sitting back here in the theater and the show is 100 yards away from me.’ From three sides, Gavin’s going to be working the crowd. That gives us a chance, not only for the audience to be so close to him, but for them to see each other — to see, ‘Oh, it’s OK that I’m laughing.’

“It’s kind of like a stand-up hour, plus a play, plus a hands-on, interactive experience. We want people to feel like they’re not watching a zoo animal behind the glass, but that they are also part of it.”

According to Norman, Drew is the perfect person to tell his own story.

“Not only is it his story that I’m trying to shape and zoom in and zoom out on, but he is such an electric presence,” he said.

“We go through the coming of age of Gavin, big tragedies, little tragedies and how the turn into big or little comedies.”

The show will be only one night, and due to high demand and proceeds benefiting Summit City Music Theatre, the space was reconfigured to accommodate an additional 120 tickets. 

So, if you want to experience this show, you’ll want to act fast.