Adolescence is a challenging time for most of us. It’s the hormone-raging period of our life when we are forced to face the fundamental questions about who we are and what we believe in.

For people in the minority, there is a further reckoning to be had in the way the world perceives us, and in what the world asks of us that may not align with who we are.

But what about faith? What happens when the community in which we feel safest is also the one dismissing our true self?

Darron Hayes in the National Theatre of Parramatta’s Choir Boy. Photo © Phil Erbacher.

A success on Broadway in 2007, boasting five Tony nominations and two wins, Choir Boy starts at the intersection of race, gender and sexuality.

“Try to blend,” says Pharus (Darron Hayes), a senior and head choir boy at Charles R. Drew Preparatory School for Boys, a private school for African American adolescents, “For the Lord, at least.”

It’s Pharus’ dream to lead the choir at the school’s commencement day, but during his solo singing of the school’s anthem, Trust and Obey, he chokes at whispered slurs, “sissy” and...