Summoners Ensemble Theatre

09/03/2026

We're back! Check out the all three shows of our 2026-2027 Season and get up to 20% off! We'd love to see you there!

The season will feature A Christmas Carol, Killing an Evening With Edgar Allan Poe, and Whitman in Love.

06/27/2026

Whitman in Love must close tomorrow, Sunday June 28, 2026. Tickets are still available at the link in our bio. Come see us at , rain or shine! www.summonersensemble.org

06/19/2026

Thank you, Theatre Beyond Broadway, for highlighting the enduring relevance of this remarkable American voice.

As I prepared for my interview with John Kevin Jones, writer and performer of Whitman in Love, I found myself drawing on memories of my days as a young English literature major, reading Walt Whitman and dissecting his beautiful, often dense words. My favorite poem was always Crossing Brooklyn Ferry

06/08/2026

Thanks for the shout out, New York Trend NYC!
https://newyorktrendnyc.com/2026/06/walt-whitmans-love-poems-take-center-stage-in-intimate-pride-month-production-at-merchants-house-museum/

🎟️ Get tickets now to see Whitman in Love in the Merchant's House Museum garden, June 24-28, 2026: https://qrco.de/bgpyMK

06/08/2026

🙏 We thank Bibliothéque, Left Bank Books, NYU Bookstores, Codex, Book Club Bar, Strand Book Store, & Westsider Books, for participating in our free bookmark campaign. Support those who support the arts!

🎟️ And get tickets to see Whitman in Love, June 24-28 in the garden at the link in our bio.

06/07/2026

🙏 We thank Drama Book Shop, Fountain Book Shop, McNally Jackson Books, Hive Mind Books Bureau of General Services-Q***r Division, Mercer Street Books, and Three Lives & Company for participating in our free bookmark campaign. Support those who support the arts!

🎟️ And get tickets to see Whitman in Love, June 24-28 in the Merchant's House Museum garden at the link in our bio.

06/03/2026

Come to the garden at the Merchant's House Museum and feel the love between these men - June 24-28 at 6pm.

Walt Whitman met the love of his life on a Washington streetcar on a stormy night in 1865. Peter Doyle was 21, Irish-born, an ex-Confederate soldier turned horse-car conductor. Whitman was 45 and had spent the last three years of the Civil War visiting wounded soldiers in DC hospitals.

They rode the line together that first night, and started riding it together every night after. Doyle later told a biographer, 'We were familiar at once. I put my hand on his knee. We understood.'

They stayed close for the rest of Whitman's life. The surviving letters Whitman wrote to him open with 'Dear Pete, dear son, my darling boy.' After a stroke forced Whitman to Camden in 1873, Doyle visited him on day trips from Philadelphia for years.

When the British critic John Addington Symonds wrote in 1890 asking what the ho******ic 'Calamus' poems really meant, Whitman wrote back insisting he had fathered six illegitimate children. Nobody, not even his biographers, has ever found one of them.

05/31/2026

Born on May 31, 1819, Walt Whitman revolutionized American literature by breaking traditional poetic forms to celebrate democracy, the human body, and the interconnectedness of all life. Often called the ‘Good Gray Poet,’ his masterpiece, “Leaves of Grass,” was a lifelong project that boldly captured the diverse, bustling spirit of a rapidly changing nation.

Whitman’s work remains profoundly relevant today because of its radical inclusivity and timeless celebration of q***r identity. In private sequences like Live Oak, with Moss, he channeled raw, intimate desire and “manly attachment” long before modern LGBTQ+ vocabulary existed.

Today, as we continue to navigate questions of identity, personal liberty, and democratic unity, Whitman’s verse serves as a guiding light. He reminds us to love unapologetically, embrace our contradictions, and look for his enduring spirit “under your boot-soles.”

Get tickets now for the evocative solo play “Whitman in Love” June 24-28, 2026 performed in the Merchant's House Museum garden. https://qrco.de/bgpyMK

05/28/2026

Actor John Kevin Jones uncovers the intimate and dangerous secrets of a q***r icon in this evocative 70-minute solo show, “Whitman in Love." Set in the Merchant's House Museum garden, this performance celebrates Walt Whitman’s place in history by unearthing the raw, private letters and poems he once hid from the world.

Only 5 performances: June 24-28, 2026. 🎟Get tickets now 👉 https://qrco.de/bgpyMK (📸 Joey Stocks)

05/27/2026

🏳️‍🌈This remarkable 1865 photograph by Moses P. Rice captures the profound, lifelong bond between Walt Whitman and Peter Doyle, a young Irish veteran and Washington D.C. streetcar conductor. Peter Doyle later recounted their first meeting on a Washington streetcar in the winter of 1865:

“He was the only passenger, it was a lonely night... We were familiar at once—I put my hand on his knee—we understood.”

For years in D.C., the pair were inseparable. They took long walks, shared meals, and established a routine where Doyle would look out for Whitman at the end of his conductor shifts. To Whitman, Doyle was the living embodiment of his “Calamus” poems—the ideal of “manly attachment” and adhesive love.

When separated, their correspondence was fiercely affectionate. Whitman wrote to Doyle in 1869, “Dear Pete, dear son, my darling boy... my love for you is unalterable.” Doyle, in turn, wrote of his aching desire to be reunited, preserving Whitman’s old clothing just to feel his presence.

Reflecting on their bond after the poet’s death, Doyle beautifully remarked: “I do not ever for a minute lose the old man. He’s always near by.” In a world that lacked the modern vocabulary to define them, their locked gazes and resting hands spoke entirely for themselves.