Playfully exploring the worlds of gender, religion, and climate change
Using theatre, comedy, and character-driven one-person shows, Peterson explores LGBTQ issues, privilege, religion, and climate change. Peterson Toscano's unique personal journey led him to performance art. After spending seventeen years and over $30,000 on three continents attempting to de-gay himself through gay conversion therapy, he came out as a quirky queer Quaker concerned with human rights and comedy. At universities, Toscano often presents “performance lectures,” hybrids of performance art and scholarly talks. He asks himself and his audiences unusual questions: Who are the gender outlaws in the Bible? What is a queer response to climate change? How can comedy help us better understand our most tragic losses? In 2017 Peterson produced Transfigurations—Transgressing Gender in the Bible, a film about gender non-conforming characters. Toscano studied theatre at City College of NY and has authored eleven performance pieces. He is also the host of Citizens’ Climate Radio.