Editor’s Note: The 35th Annual Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival will be held May 13-26 at different venues in and around Loch Haven Park and downtown Orlando. Freeline Media will be previewing the shows right up to the festival date.

ORLANDO — It wouldn’t be the Orlando Fringe Festival without plenty of zany comedies, and that can be especially true for Queer-themed theater. Think of it as an educational device for anyone who doesn’t fully comprehend the term “camp.”

But it’s also been true that Fringe has been a vibrant vehicle for powerful dramas as well, including original stage shows from a gay perspective. At next month’s Orlando Fringe Festival, playwright and actor Michael Trauffer will be performing his one-man show The Pink List, about a very difficult subject: the lives of gay men in Germany following the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps that so many of them were forced into.

As Trauffer notes, his show — which drew rave reviews at previous Fringe Festivals in Edinburgh, Perth and Adelaide, was inspired by “the untold stories of gay men in postwar Germany.”

What is The Pink List?

Set in 1957 in West Germany, Trauffer notes that the play focuses on Karl, a gay man who survived being in a concentration camp. But for this man, the playwright notes, “The war never truly ended.”

He added, “While most laws have been dismantled, the Nazi￾era law persecuting homosexuals remains in force. Karl now finds himself on trial once again, branded a repeat offender instead of a recognised victim.”

The Pink List was a painful reality for gays in Germany and across Europe during the Nazi reign and Hitler’s Final Solution, taking its name “from the lists created by the Nazis to track and target gay men – records that continued to be used by the German police in post-war years,” Trauffer notes. “The show sheds light on a chapter of history too often erased, and on the fight for recognition in a society still unwilling to acknowledge its victims.”

What the story behind The Pink List?

Intrigued, Freeline Media reached out to Trauffer to learn more about his production.

Freeline Media: What’s the genesis of The Pink List and how it first got developed?

Michael Trauffer: I had just finished an Edinburgh run with my previous show Fabulett 1933, which is set on the closing night of a cabaret during the rise of the Nazis, and I was starting to think about what to do next. In that process, I came across what is still a surprisingly under-researched subject: the continued persecution of gay men in Germany after 1945. They were not formally recognised as victims until 2002, and many were prosecuted again under after the war. That gap stayed with me. It felt like a story that hadn’t been properly told, and honestly, once I’d found it, I couldn’t let it go. I began reading the very limited testimonies of gay concentration camp survivors, and at a certain point I travelled to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Being there made it tangible in a different way. On that day, I wrote the first draft of the first song for the show, “Nothing’s Ever Really Over.” From there, the piece developed quite organically, with the music and the text growing alongside each other into what eventually became The Pink List.

FM: Do you see the historic themes in this play having comparisons to the social climate in 2026?

MT: Yes, although not in a simplistic or one-to-one way. What the piece explores is how systems outlast regimes, and how prejudice can continue under the language of legality. That’s not unique to post-war Germany. While the show focuses specifically on the experience of gay men, because that specificity felt important to honour, it’s very much made in a spirit of solidarity with the whole LGBTQ+ community. The lesbian and trans people who were persecuted, erased, or overlooked deserve to be part of this conversation too, and I hope the show speaks to and for them as well. In 2026, we’re again seeing debates around whose identities are protected, whose are legislated, and how easily rights can be framed as conditional. Those conversations feel very alive right now. Beyond that, the story serves as a reminder of how fragile those hard-won achievements are, and how long the shadow of fascism can be. It doesn’t end with a regime change. It lingers in laws, institutions, and attitudes far longer than we might like to believe. Performing in Orlando this year feels particularly significant. 2026 marks the tenth anniversary of the Pulse shooting, and while The Pink List is set in a very different time and place, it is ultimately about many of the same fundamental questions: the right to exist, to be remembered, and to be mourned. I hope the show can be a small part of how this community marks that anniversary.

FM: What are some of the challenges of doing a historic piece like this as a one-man show?

MT: The obvious one is scale. You’re dealing with a large historical context, multiple characters, and shifting timelines, all through a single performer. So clarity becomes everything: vocally, physically, and structurally. And I’m not interested in lecturing or presenting a catalogue of facts. The challenge, and the thing I find most exciting about the form, is to let the story carry the history, rather than explaining it. There’s also a tonal challenge. I chose to make it a musical because I wanted the piece to be accessible, and to allow for moments of lightness and even joy. Without that, it would risk becoming overwhelming. At the same time, you’re dealing with a subject that demands care, so there’s a constant balancing act between giving the audience space to breathe and not undercutting the weight of what’s being told.

FM: What kind of reactions has the show received from audiences so far?

MT: What’s been striking is how quiet the room often is at the end. There’s a sense that people need a moment before responding. After that, the conversations tend to be very personal; people share things I wouldn’t have expected, and those exchanges mean a great deal to me. The responses have been strong across very different contexts, from Edinburgh to Australia, which suggests that the themes resonate beyond a specific place or audience. In Adelaide, the curator of the Adelaide Holocaust Museum came to see the show and spoke very highly of it. An endorsement like that carries a particular weight for me, and in many ways means more than any 5-star review.

FM: What’s next for The Pink List after Orlando Fringe?

MT: There are a few strands running in parallel. The show continues to tour internationally — after runs in the UK and Australia, and now Orlando, it’s heading to continental Europe, with Austria and Sweden as the upcoming stops. Alongside that, I’ve recently signed a licensing deal and am currently working on a German-language version, which is scheduled to premiere in 2027. That one feels particularly close to my heart. The story is set in Germany, and for the first time it will be told in the language the protagonist Karl himself would have spoken.

Where Can Audiences See The Pink List at Orlando Fringe?

The Pink List will have 7 performances at the Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival in the Brown Venue inside Orlando Shakes, 812 E. Rollins St. Tickets are $15.

To purchase tickets, visit the Orlando Fringe website.

The Pink List will be performed on the following dates:

• Friday, May 15 at 8:40 p.m.
• Saturday, May 16 at noon
• Monday, May 18 at 7:45 p.m.
• Tuesday, May 19 at 9:45 p.m.
• Wednesday, May 20 at 7:35 p.m.
• Friday, May 22 at 10:15 p.m.
• and Sunday, May 24 at 1:30 p.m.

Michael Freeman is an Orlando journalist, playwright, and author of the book “Bloody Rabbit”. Contact him at Freelineorlando@gmail.com.