Bobby Steggert On MOTHERS & SONS, Gay Rights & More

Popular rising Broadway star Bobby Steggert opens up about his own experiences coming out as gay as well as sheds some light on his new stage venture byway of Terrence McNally's MOTHERS & SONS as part of a new essay now available to read.

Steggert begins, "When I came out to my mother the night before I left home for my sophomore year at NYU, her first fear was that I was sick. Her second was that my life would be a lonely one."

Additionally, Steggert recalls, "I couldn't (and still can't) blame my mother for her initial assumptions of a gay man's fate, because I had spent the better part of my adolescence silently terrified of the same things. My earliest awareness of gay men was that they were dying from something that no one could explain, and so the only conclusion I could draw with the little information I had was that they were dying because they were gay. I was yet unaware that many good, but afraid, people were making the same naive assumption."

Also, Steggert candidly shares, "I am often shocked at the life I enjoy as a 33-year-old, openly gay actor in New York City, when compared to the early dread of what would become of me. I am happily bewildered by the fact that my struggle with sexuality has been such a key ingredient to my success, as I've gotten the chance to portray many an outsider struggling to find his place in the world."

Remarking upon the play itself, Steggert opines, "When Terrence McNally sent me the first draft of Mothers and Sons, I knew it was essential that I do it. He is, after all, our most prolific and important chronicler of the gay movement, and this play completes a career-spanning arc that left me breathless after the first read."

Concluding, Steggert says, "I think I've been waiting for this play. And I do think the world is ready for it. It's the first time a legally married gay couple with a child has ever been portrayed on Broadway, and beyond the honor and privilege it is to be chosen to portray it, I have a feeling that someday I'll be telling my own child about the gift that Terrence McNally has given us -- the gift of possibility."

Check out the complete essay here.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride