713: Hot Pirate Booty with The Great Age of Sail

Welcome back to Lez Hang Out, the podcast that will literally never shut up about queer pirates.  This week Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out with Adam Korenman (@officermankorn), Seth Bowser (@sethypoo88), Nat Leykam (@natleykam), and Jaime Rockafellow (@warriorcatprincess) to talk about their currently in-production queer pirate musical, The Great Age of Sail (@the_great_age_of_sail).  Unless you are brand new to Lez Hang Out (which, if you are, welcome!), you are likely very familiar with our love of queer pirates, queer musicals, and queer pirate musicals. So in love in fact that we have spent the past 3 years working on one of our own. So, when we found out about The Great Age of Sail, we could not resist getting together with the creative team to talk about our mutual love of pirates, musical theater and all things gay.  In 2020, the TikTok sea shanty craze hit and Adam was hooked instantly. He began writing his own shanties, but they were not enough to scratch the itch. The more shanties he wrote, the more a story began to emerge and Adam realized there was a perfect opportunity to develop it into a musical. He shared his shanties with Nat, who saw their potential and brought Seth on board as a composer. From there, they developed enough of a musical to do a small stage reading where they met theatrical Swiss Army Knife Jaime who turned out to be the final piece of the puzzle they needed to shape the musical into what it would become today.  Musical theater is a magical space for both self-exploration and self-expression, which is probably why so many queer people find themselves drawn to it. We talked with Adam and co about what each step of the creative process has been like over the last 4 years since writing that first sea shanty, why queerness is a central element to any good pirate story, and what goals they have for the show. After an overwhelmingly successful crowdfunding campaign and well-received small stage reading, The Great Age of Sail is in the workshop stage of production with a more advanced stage reading planned for this summer. We personally cannot wait to hear it! Follow us on Twitter: Lez Hang Out (@lezhangoutpod) and answer our Q & Gay questions at the end of every episode. You can also join us on Facebook.com/lezhangoutpod and follow on Instagram (@lezhangoutpod). Find us individually on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok at Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida).  You can support Lez Hang Out while unlocking a bunch of awesome perks like access to our exclusive Discord, monthly full length bonus episodes, weekly ad free episodes, and more by joining us on Patreon at bit.ly/lezpatreon. You can also support the podcast by buying our original merch at bit.ly/lezshop and purchasing our original Lez-ssentials songs for as little as $1 each on Bandcamp! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices