Coming Out Monologues Return for National Coming Out Day

The University of Houston LGBTQ Alumni Association presents the second installment of the Coming Out Monologues, a production that aims to bring LGBTQ stories to the stage to entertain, educate and empower the queer community. The production coincides with National Coming Out Day, observed annually on October 11 to support the LGBTQIA+ community and celebrate living life openly and authentically. All proceeds will benefit scholarships and emergency crisis aid for LGBTQ students at UH.

The monologues featured in the production come from submissions by members of the community. At the end of the show, audience members will have an opportunity to take the stage and share their own coming-out experiences, or even come out for the first time. Video and audio recording will be prohibited during this portion of the program to provide privacy for those who choose to participate.

This year’s production marks the first time transgender stories will be presented, with five transgender performers among the cast. Director Frank De Oro says the representation is something he is particularly proud of.

The cast includes Casey Martin, Ellen Lui, Raymond Valdez Jr., Marla Joi, Al Mahlsteat and Maximiliano “Max” Ovalles, along with returning performer Jennifer Correa, Barbie Monroe/Mariah Martinez and Brandon Duran. De Oro will also take the stage to share his own coming-out experience.

WHAT: Coming Out Monologues
WHEN: October 11, 2026
WHERE: Station Theater, 2000 Nance St.
INFO: tinyurl.com/2feexwcu

The Voices Behind the Monologues

Casey Martin

(they/them)

Casey Martin is set to make their acting debut in this year’s Coming Out Monologues. They were introduced to the production by De Oro after he attended a Trans Masculine Alliance meeting at the Montrose Center. With encouragement from friends, Martin auditioned for the transmasculine role.

The monologue centers on a transgender man whose preconceived notion of coming out falls through when he receives a negative response that forces him back into the closet. This muddled, not-so-clear-cut coming-out story appealed to Martin because it reflects their own coming-out experience with their mother.

“She wasn’t unsupportive [since] she understands binary trans [identities],” Martin says. “But she didn’t really understand me saying, ‘I don’t feel like I have a gender.’ … It wasn’t a negative experience, but it didn’t feel affirming either.”

Martin hopes to portray the “messy” parts of coming out and how someone may have to come out multiple times throughout their life before feeling fully comfortable with themselves.

Ellen Lui

(she/her)

The Coming Out Monologues marks Ellen Lui’s introduction to acting. She became aware of the production through her wife, who recently took part in The Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Houston’s The Gondoliers.

Lui was invited to make a short cameo during the show as an angry chef.

“I didn’t say anything or sing, but I did slam a tray down very dramatically,” Lui says.

Following what she calls the “slam heard around the world,” she garnered enough courage to audition for the Coming Out Monologues.

Lui will perform the demisexual/asexual-adjacent role. Though the identity does not align with her own experience as a lesbian, she relates to multiple aspects of the monologue.

“The author talks about feeling broken and not feeling crushes in the right ways, and for a long time I felt like that,” Lui explains. “It’s part of what helps me tap into the role.”

With her performance, Lui hopes to emphasize the self-care aspect of coming out and how strenuous it can be to constantly explain one’s identity. For her, coming out should be for one’s own benefit, and she encourages queer people not to feel obligated to make the experience about benefiting others.

Raymond Valdez Jr.

(he/him)

Raymond Valdez Jr.’s connection to the Coming Out Monologues comes through his and De Oro’s mutual membership in the Diana Foundation, the nation’s oldest continuously active LGBTQ+ organization.

Although this will be his first onstage performance since high school, Valdez has extensive leadership experience through his positions as a committee chair for the Diana Foundation and executive director of GiGi’s Playhouse Houston, part of a network serving people with Down syndrome and their families.

Valdez will take on the gay male role, which tells the story of Houston drag performer Hannah Santana. The monologue deals with difficult themes of child sexual abuse and grooming, and Valdez feels a great responsibility to approach the material with care.

“I’m really honored that I get to read somebody else’s story,” he says. “It’s hard to even say it, so I can’t imagine how hard it was to write it down and [have] lived it.”

Santana’s story especially resonates with Valdez because he knows others within the queer community who have shared similar experiences and because of his own work serving vulnerable populations. He appreciates stories like these receiving attention and hopes his performance reminds adults in the audience to pay closer attention to the queer youth in their lives.

Marla Joi

(she/her)

Marla Joi is set to play a television news reporter and will serve as an understudy for the demisexual role performed by Ellen Lui.

After serving as her father’s caregiver for nine years, Joi decided to pursue her passion for acting again. She currently performs sketch comedy at Station Theater and is taking improv classes. She also plans to become an understudy for the Ensemble Theatre next summer.

Her motivation for joining the cast of the Coming Out Monologues comes from a desire to become more involved in the queer community and open her mind to the range of identities within it. The demisexual monologue has also led Joi to rethink aspects of her own sexual orientation, something she hopes to explore further with her wife.

Al Mahlsteat

(they/he)

Al Mahlsteat is contributing to their first theater production since high school with this year’s Coming Out Monologues. Like Martin, he was introduced to the project after De Oro attended a Trans Masculine Alliance meeting.

Mahlsteat will play a young Connor Storrie introducing his YouTube channel to the audience. He hopes this year’s performance will encourage audiences to consider other people’s perspectives and says he relates, to some degree, to all of the monologues being presented.

Maximiliano Ovalles

(he/him)

Maximiliano “Max” Ovalles is another member of the Trans Masculine Alliance joining the cast of the Coming Out Monologues. He has previous theater experience from middle school and is excited to play a masculine role following his medical transition.

Ovalles will play an online content creator and serve as the understudy for the transmasculine role performed by Martin. He hopes the production will invite allies to consider times when they, too, have had to share something about themselves that was not easily understood by others.

The rest of the cast includes returning performer Jennifer Correa, Barbie Monroe/Mariah Martinez and Brandon Duran.