Max Wojtanowicz Brings The Pansy Craze To Trademark’s Stage
Max Wojtanowicz is the undisputed king of cabarets in the Twin Cities.
As a co-founder of the long-running Musical Mondays cabaret at Lush Lounge & Theater, Wojtanowicz has spent years combing through the musical theater catalogue, and building community.
It only makes sense that creating a new, cabaret-inspired musical would be the next step in his theatrical journey.
Meet PANSY.
PANSY is Wojtanowicz’s latest work, premiering in Trademark’s 2026 IN THE WORKS showcase. Inspired by the so-called Pansy Craze of the 1930’s, this solo show takes inspiration from the history-making queer performers, who revolutionized the underground cabaret scene.
Along with composer Michael Gruber and director Nikki Swoboda, Wojtanowicz has been slowly developing the piece since 2018, where an early draft was featured in Theatre Latte Da’s NEXT festival. But after a conversation with our artistic director, Tyler Michaels King, Wojtanowicz realized that now may be the perfect time to bring this piece back to the stage.
But Wojtanowicz didn’t just write the book for PANSY. In just a few short weeks, he’ll be taking the stage as the sole performer, as well.
We caught up with him to learn more about his inspiration for the show, and what the development process with Trademark has been like.
Max Wojtanowicz in Trademark’s production of THE OSTENTATIOUS OUTLAWS OF NEEHAI VALLEY. Photo by Studio Aura.
Q: Where did the inspiration for PANSY come from?
A: I fell down a Wikipedia rabbit hole one evening and somehow made it to the page about Bruz Fletcher, a songwriter and cabaret singer in the 1930s who led a fascinating life. I found YouTube recordings of his songs, which were witty and heartbreaking with many layers of coded meaning, and I read a biography about him. I couldn't stop thinking about this incredible artist, whose life was cut short and whose songs had largely been forgotten, and I find that when I can't stop thinking about something, it's usually worth pursuing! Initially, Pansy was going to be a tribute to Bruz Fletcher and his work, but we eventually widened the aperture to include other Pansy Craze artists and developed an original story inspired by Fletcher and many other courageous pioneers who had great success performing openly in a very dangerous time for queer people.
Q: You're well-known in town for running Musical Mondays, a monthly cabaret series. Did your experience cultivating that program influence your interest in the Pansy Craze and its cabaret movement?
A: Musical Mondays has been an ongoing education for me in cabaret performance: how to introduce a song that makes the audience lean in, how to uncover layers of the music and lyrics, and especially how context can make all the difference in this kind of setting. Watching hundreds of singers over the years has been an inspiration for me for sure!
Q: Tell us a bit about your creative process and what development of this piece has looked like for you, so far?
A: Michael Gruber (composer) and Nikki Swoboda (director) and I first pitched this idea to Theater Latté Da, and they were very generous with their support. The three of us had developed four musicals for the Minnesota Fringe, so we were used to building plays relatively quickly. A first reading of Pansy took place in their NEXT Festival back in 2018, and the following summer TLD sponsored a series of pop-up readings of the piece in different spaces (i.e. private homes, a gay bar, and smaller cabaret spaces) to see how the story would play. Then the pandemic hit. I know a lot of people who got very creative and productive during that time, but if I'm honest, I couldn't bring myself to work on the play. That was not the form my creativity took during that time! So the piece sat in my Google Drive for a few years, until Tyler and I had a conversation about it -- and here we are!
The play takes place at the end of one cultural movement, just before America enters World War II. Our initial story functioned in part as a response to the first Trump administration, its crackdown on dissent and its silencing of marginalized voices. The story has developed over the years and now, in the middle of the second Trump administration, I hope the play has big things to say about using your voice and wit and charm and humor to laugh in the face of oppression.
Wojtanowicz performing at our 2026 CUTTING ROOM FLOOR gala. Photo by Studio Aura.
Q: What are you hoping to get out of Trademark's workshop process?
A: The process has already been such a blessing. Tyler's care and insight as we've worked on the play over the last year has been invaluable, and I'm hoping our workshop can tell us a lot about the relationship between the character we've created and his audience.
Q: What part of the Twin Cities art scene inspires you the most right now?
A: We all know it's been a tough time for institutions coming out of the pandemic: arts funding is down, subscriptions are down, audiences are still being convinced that live theatre has real value. So I've been inspired by artists who are creating new work, who are investing in the future of the American theatre, who are thinking outside of the box about how to get people to leave their homes and experience stories together.
Q: What do you wish more people understood about the new works process and the value of supporting it?
A: Art -- plays as well as movies, books, TV shows, albums -- do not appear fully formed! Every story, no matter its medium, undergoes drafts, revisions, workshops, readings, just to get in front of an audience. And the future of the American theater depends on people investing in it from the beginning! Not every piece of art that gets a workshop or a reading will become Our Town or Appalachian Spring or Giovanni's Room... but all of those pieces began somewhere (incidentally, all of those started their lives at least in part at the MacDowell Artists Colony in New Hampshire) and only exist today because somebody like you believed in them.
Q: Fill in the blank! Audiences will enjoy PANSY if they like....
A: Laughing! Gay history! Breathing!
Q: Where else can audiences see you and your work?
A: My show Ball: A Musical Tribute to My Lost Testicle, about my experience with stage three testicular cancer, is getting a tenth-anniversary staging in September at Artistry in Bloomington -- be sure to get your seats before my mom buys up all the tickets!
PANSY and our other 2026 commissioned works can be seen at our IN THE WORKS showcase on June 8, 2026. Tickets and event details can be found here.