Pride Month is here once again, and Colorado State University’s very own KCSU has kicked off celebrations with a brand-new podcast, “Patria Del Cuore,” written and directed by Alana Corrigan. But the podcast, which breaks new ground as a play produced as audio drama, has had a long life journey, one that echoes its core themes of community and overcoming adversity. 

The play follows a gay 16-year-old in Italy, played by CSU theater student Ryan Leibold, and his relationships to his family after his father disowns him and he is raised instead by his uncle Sergio, played by Ryan Wilke-Braun, another CSU student.

Corrigan, a spring 2020 graduate from CSU’s theater department, started the process of producing “Patria Del Cuore” in early 2020 as a farewell to some of her friends in the theater department as well as a graduate school submission. Initially, Corrigan said the play was to be performed in a “reader’s theater” type setting, where the actors read the lines straight from the script without any set in front of a small audience, but the pandemic derailed those plans. 

When that fell through, Corrigan said she felt bummed out because it seemed the play would never get produced and everyone’s hard work would go unrewarded. But after scrambling to make new arrangements, Corrigan approached KCSU and got support from General Manager Hannah Copeland to help record the actors and produce the podcast.

Sophia Gentle, a journalism and media communication graduate, joined the project in January after the lines were recorded and, along with Cam Warren from KCSU, edited the audio and added sound effects to get a story with good quality and timing. 

“It was definitely interesting because I love theater already, so I actually didn’t read the script beforehand,” Gentle said. “It actually ended up being really fun for me because as I would go on through each scene and each act, I would get to experience it as if I was listening, … and I got really into it and got very excited to edit the next scene.”

Corrigan similarly said her inspiration for creating such a piece came from other stories in the theater community, where LGBTQ+ characters face traumatic experiences like harassment, being outed by peers or worse. 

Gentle said that working on “Patria Del Cuore” was one of her first experiences with podcasting, and learning how to edit the dialogue together to make it feel like a play became an interesting challenge.

“I was very proud of how it came out, and I really hope that it captures … what people feel when they go to a play and that they can imagine what’s happening,” Gentle said.

Taylor Baptiste, assistant director and stage manager for “Patria Del Cuore” and a fifth-year theater performance student, said the podcast was her first try at directing a back-of-house theater production but that Corrigan made the shift from acting much smoother.

“It was definitely a transition that shouldn’t have been easy, but it was because Alana (Corrigan) was so helpful,” Baptiste said. “I knew the cast too, which was really nice. Like, if I made a mistake, we could just laugh it off.” 

Baptiste said she really liked how organic the relationships are in “Patria Del Cuore” and that she wishes more LGBTQ+ representations in media were depicted that way. Corrigan similarly said her inspiration for creating such a piece came from other stories in the theater community, where LGBTQ+ characters face traumatic experiences like harassment, being outed by peers or worse. 

“What does this say to young community members, that you’re destined for tragedy?” Corrigan said. “That’s not a good message. What if I told a story where things might suck at the beginning, but if you find your people … and listen to the people who genuinely want to help you, things will get better and you will lead a happy and normal life?” 

Noah Pasley can be reached at entertainment@collegian.com or on Twitter @PasleyNoah.