Igor Goldin and Mark Finley, TOSOS Gala 2026

TOSOS IN THE NEWS!

TOSOS HONORED by NYC & NYS governing bodies

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the founding of TOSOS in 1974, we received proclamations from New York State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, New York State Assembly Member Tony Simone, and New York City Council Member Erik Bottcher, whose Chief of Staff, Carl Wilson, presented it to us. Chanel Lopez, Deputy Director of LGBTQ Affairs in the Office of Governor Kathy Hochul, joined in the fun with a lovely speech to the crowd. We are over the moon!

Pictured: Mark Finley (Artistic Director), State Senator Hoylman-Sigal, State Assemblyman Simone, Chanel Lopez, Chris Andersson (Board President)

Article published December 14, 2024 with interviews with Mark Finley and Chris Andersson. [Photo: Playwright Robert Patrick (“Kennedy’s Children”), playwright Doric Wilson (“West Street Gang”) and playwright Harvey Fierstein (“Torch Song Trilogy”) sitting in front of their show posters at Phebe’s Bar in the East Village, 1982]

Chris, Mark and the board have not only raised the profile of the company through fundraising and publicity drives, but have taken on the job of preserving Doric’s work through archiving. “We want scholars, historians, journalists, students — anyone who might be researching Off-Off Broadway, LGBTQIA+ theater history, or New York City theater history — to see that we should be in the conversation,” said Chris.

TOSOS CELEBRATES 50 YEARS OF LGBTQIA+ THEATRE AND COMMUNITY

For [artistic director Mark] Finley, who has lived “on either side of 10th Avenue” since he moved to the neighborhood in 1994, his association with TOSOS began upon meeting Doric in 1999. “We hung out at the Film Center Cafe until about four in the morning, talking about acting and playwriting and the union and all of this stuff,” said Mark.
“And the next day he called me up and said, ‘I want you to be my director.’ I was like, ‘Would you like to see some of my work?’ and he said, ‘No, no, I don’t need to — you’re doing theater for the right reasons. Lanford Wilson had Marshall Mason. I want you to be my Marshall Mason.’” The offer was “A little intimidating, but that’s our Doric,” laughed Mark. “A little while later, he and Barry Childs and I decided to reboot the original TOSOS company, and here we are — 22 years later!”

TOSOS Board President Chris Andersson and TOSOS Artistic Director Mark Finley stand across the street from the late TOSOS Founder Doric Wilson’s apartment building in Hell’s Kitchen, NYC (December 2024)

Marching in the 2024 NYC Pride Parade with NYS Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli

St. Pat’s for All Parade in Queens on March 2, 2025

WE MARCH FOR OUR RIGHTS
AND SUPPORT OUR LOCAL POLITICIANS!

Article for Gay City News by our very own Kathleen Warnock!

For 26 years, the St. Pat’s for All (SPFA) Parade in Sunnyside and Woodside has led off St. Patrick’s season in NYC as the first inclusive parade. As the years went by, SPFA led the way for other parades across the city and around the country to open their ranks to include groups from the LGBTQIA+ community.

“Peace and blessings, love and light. Let’s breathe,” Public Advocate Jumaane Williams began. “We are in this together. It’s all connected. They are trying to erase us, but we will have no one left behind. Let’s celebrate love, with all the colors.”