LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Pandora Productions is a one-of-a-kind theatre company in Louisville because it is the only one in the metro region dedicated to only telling the stories of the LGBTQ+ community. Its latest production, Southern Comfort, is a musical authentically cast with transgender actors playing transgender characters.

“This is my first time back on stage since high school,” Kasen Meek told Spectrum News 1, regarding his role playing Jackson in Pandora Productions’ latest show, "Southern Comfort." 

It’s also Meek’s first time acting with Pandora Productions in Louisville, which gave him another first-time opportunity, being cast in a role Meek so closely identifies with.

“This is a very different role for me in that I am a trans actor who is portraying a trans man, and so there’s actually a lot of overlap between Jackson’s story, Jackson‘s the character I play, and things that I’ve experienced in real life,” Meek said.

The musical "Southern Comfort" is based on the documentary about Robert Eads, a transgender man who had issues with seeking treatment for ovarian cancer in the mid-1990s due to the stigma of being transgender. However, the musical mainly focuses on Eads and his group of transgender friends living in rural Georgia, and their reaction to him introducing his love interest, Lola Cola, to the group.

“So the very first real scene, Robert has a line where they are celebrating Easter and all these people are gathered, and he says, ‘Well I know that y’all can’t be with your biological families today, but I’m glad that you’re here with me.’ So it’s really about that, about ‘chosen family,’” Meek explained.

The cast of "Southern Comfort" rehearses a scene for the musical inside the Henry Clay Theatre in Louisville, which is the home theatre for Pandora Productions. (Spectrum News 1/Eileen Street)

Pandora Productions was founded in 1995. However, since Producing Artistic Director Michael Drury took the helm in 2001, Pandora Productions has focused solely on telling the stories of the LGBTQ+ community. 

“The thing that makes people accept people who are different than them, really is just knowing what their story is,” Drury told Spectrum News 1.

Since Pandora Productions’ founding, over 80 shows have been produced, with the majority of those being after 2003. However, Drury said Southern Comfort is only the second production by Pandora that tells a transgender story.

“There are not a lot of shows about transgender people, and this show, when it came up, I was very excited about it,” Drury explained. “And we put it in a season several seasons ago, and we had not done a lot of trans shows, and so we didn’t have those people in our sphere of influence, yet. And we learned pretty quickly, you know, that it’s going to be hard to cast because we don’t know them.”

So Drury postponed the show by a year so Pandora Productions could get to know the transgender community better to find its cast. Five out the six roles in Southern Comfort are transgender characters. The other role is a cisgender character, a person who identifies with their birth sex. However, the musical was originally written for cisgender actors to play transgender roles. 

“And I think because we have an authentically cast show, the stories have become even more urgent, and more important, and consequently sweeter because these people identify with these characters. They are totally bringing them to life,” Drury said.

Drury, who is cisgender, also listened to his cast during rehearsal, since transgender actors, not cisgender actors, were now playing transgender roles in "Southern Comfort."

“There is some problematic language in some scenes and whatnot, and we felt very empowered to be able to say, ‘Michael, trans folks, we don’t say this. We don’t out each other. We don’t talk about our dead names or our birth names. Those are people that we never were, and so we don’t want to talk about that or focus on that,” Meek explained.

“And being cisgender himself, he was always willing to listen and say, “You know what, you are right. We are going to fix this or this is probably what the writers were trying to get at.’ So there’s been a balance of keeping the integrity of the intention of the playwrights but also respecting ourselves and the trans community and telling the story,” Meek said.

In his own life, Meek said there has been a lot of personal healing over the past two years, which overlaps with his character in "Southern Comfort."

“So Jackson kind of goes on this journey dealing with family relationships, dealing with romantic relationships, his ‘chosen family,’ and all of those things, when I get in the mindset of the character, I’m able to relate those back to real life experiences I’ve had,” Meek said.

For example, there is a scene in "Southern Comfort" when Jackson’s Dad, Patrick, leaves a voicemail for his son.

“And on the voicemail, his father uses his name. He says, ‘Jack,’ and that’s the first time that he hears his father say his name, and there’s a specific point in time that I can remember hearing my dad use Kasen, and it was like this weight had been lifted, and all of the emotions that I get to put into playing Jackson in that moment, I have felt in real life,” Meek said.

For Meek, playing Jackson has also been about more than just being back on stage.

“See, at the beginning when we started rehearsing, I wasn’t really speaking to my family, and now here we are three years later, and it’s a very different atmosphere. So I’ve really truly been on a journey with Jackson, and you couldn’t plan that,” Meek said.

A journey with Jackson that Meek also called affirming.

“The way that stories come to life and you can relate them back to your own life, and you walk away with different perspective and almost like a weight has been lifted, that’s extremely powerful. So theater is a healing tool for sure.”

"Southern Comfort" was recorded live at the Henry Clay Theatre in Louisville and is presented virtually on demand until Wednesday, June 30, 2021. Tickets are $22. Once purchased, the musical is available for 48 hours to watch. To purchase tickets, click here.

For more information on Pandora Productions, visit its website or call 502-216-5502.