MOTEL MONTANA
2021
After a long break from live performance, Gunnar Montana Productions returned for the 2021 Philadelphia Fringe Festival with MOTEL MONTANA. The historic Latvian Society was transformed into a retro motel filled with neon, saturated color, and rooms waiting to be explored.
Motel Montan Trailer
Behind the motel was a deeply personal story. The production was inspired by Montana’s grandfather, Richard, a closeted gay man who managed motels during the 1950s. Montana imagined the motel as a place where the life his grandfather was forced to conceal could finally exist openly through his grandson.
Inside MOTEL MONTANA, each room offered the possibility of becoming someone else. Desire did not require permission, and the expectations of the outside world were left at the door.
A group of gay men paraded through the motel in thigh high stilettos to “It’s Raining Men.” Elsewhere, a hyper feminine bimbo shed her glamour to become a tomboy, while a rigid military man transformed in the opposite direction. The characters were given permission to step outside the roles they had been assigned and discover what felt right for themselves.
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At the motel’s truck stop, a group of sweaty, nearly naked men met among the urinals for an erotic dance. The production concluded with water raining from an onstage shower as two men embraced inside Montana’s iconic bathtub. One of those men represented Montana’s grandfather. In the final moments of the show, Richard was finally given the chance to find himself and experience the love and acceptance he had been denied in his own life.
After years of work that often explored darker subjects, MOTEL MONTANA was rooted in joy. Montana created a world where queer identity was not something that needed to be defended or explained. It could simply be celebrated.
The response was enormous. All 30 performances of the original run sold out, leading MOTEL MONTANA to extend through November 2021. Broad Street Review called the production “technically polished and masterful from start to finish.”
At its heart, MOTEL MONTANA connected two generations of queer men who were given very different opportunities to live openly. What Montana’s grandfather had been forced to hide, his grandson could finally put onstage.
FUN FACT
With audience capacity limited in the year following the start of COVID, Montana found another way to help fund the production. He handcrafted hundreds of resin coaster sets using the actual glitter that rained from the ceiling during MOTEL MONTANA. The sets were sent to fans of the show and to people who had not been able to see it in person. Years later, pieces of MOTEL MONTANA still live on coffee tables across the country.
