Growing up in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, José Alberto Uclés often went to the city’s only theater, Circulo Teatral Sampedrano, with his mother and siblings. A continent away, his future husband, Tom Noll, helped build sets for high school musicals in the small town of Somerset, Ohio, where the annual Fourth of July parade involved the entire populace of 1,400 people. Both men developed a love for the arts, and especially theater, early on, and both understood the importance of supporting them. “Our town had to beg people not to be in the parade,” Noll laughs, “because somebody had to be there to watch it!”
Noll’s humorous anecdote underscores the essential role that audiences play and hints at the decades of advocacy and support he and Uclés have given to DC-area arts. Now, the couple are being recognized with the nation’s only audience award given by a local theater community. In a special ceremony at GALA Hispanic Theatre on May 3, Uclés and Noll will receive the 2025 Gary Maker Audience Award for their outstanding support of and encouragement to DC-area theaters and audiences.
“They bring an incredible social cheerleading to the whole theater community … their energy and positivity encourage others to engage with our work,” Theater Alliance Producing Artistic Director Shanara Gabrielle said in a statement nominating Uclés and Noll for the award.
Susan Galbraith, Artistic Director of the Alliance for New Music-Theatre, which is sponsoring the award, said that “in these precarious times, when the performing arts are so much on the line … it has become an act of courage to support live local theater. We need [audience members like Uclés and Noll] now more than ever.”
The Gary Maker Audience Award was established in 2011 by DC Theatre Scene, under the leadership of then-publisher Lorraine Treanor, in honor of a passionate and dedicated local audience member. Uclés and Noll are the tenth and eleventh persons to receive the award.
“We are very honored and grateful,” Uclés says of the recognition. “We’re passionate about theater. For us, it’s a love affair.” Uclés adds that, while he and Noll have been invited to serve on a number of theater boards and as hosts on GALA committees over the years, they prefer to remain free to “help many theaters, rather than put all our energy into one basket.” One important way the couple supports DC theater is by promoting shows through their very active social media accounts, especially on Instagram at “Artsy Fashion Peacocks.”
Many local theatergoers — and many Web surfers who visit them at “Artsy Fashion Peacocks” — will recognize the pair by their colorful, inventive haberdashery. They are often seen at theaters, operas, gallery openings, and other arts events wearing coordinated jackets and trousers, often in bright floral or geometric designs, enhanced with sequins, lapel pins, and even ascots. The vibrant clothing draws attention.
“We’ve always been into fashion,” Uclés says, noting that he and Noll regularly attend the biannual Fashion Week in New York City and when visiting always catch a few fun Broadway shows. “We started collecting jackets when we first got together, and now, we’ve been together twenty years. So that’s twenty years of collecting.” Uclés says the pair have hundreds of artsy and creative jackets, vests, shoes, and accessories hanging in their popular “Peacock Walk-in Closet,” a guest bedroom that Noll purpose-designed in their Bloomingdale townhouse apartment. They sometimes help outfit other adventurous souls.
Costuming by design
Dressing for performances and exhibitions is another, highly visual and highly public, way Uclés and Noll support the arts. Years ago, Noll had the idea that it would be fun to dress in the style of whatever event he and Uclés were attending. He began researching color schemes and designs in gallery shows and costuming in theater productions. With a background in multimedia and sculpture, Noll had the skills and fashion sense to transform ordinary clothing into a kind of performance art itself, always in honor of the creative forces behind the event he and Uclés were attending. “We want to bring joy, we want to bring people together,” Uclés says of the couple’s purposes.
While Noll, the quieter of the pair, is retired, Uclés still works full-time as the Hispanic Outreach Spokesperson and Public Affairs Specialist for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). He acknowledges that the couple’s busy social calendar, dominated by attendance at arts events, can sometimes be exhausting, but he and Noll see supporting theaters and other cultural organizations as a responsibility.
“We show up where we need to show up to support everyone,” Uclés says, describing the busy routine of leaving work on time in order to come home, change clothes, and be at evening events across the city several times a week. “It’s never the same if we go to a show without making an effort, and making an effort means dressing accordingly.” A quick scroll through the duo’s Instagram account illustrates what that means, as Uclés and Noll can be seen in their signature dynamic attire (specific to different occasions) posing with a wide range of artists, musicians, civic leaders, audience members, and fellow arts advocates.
“Alberto and Tom bring joy into every room and every venue they walk into,” says Amy Austin, president and CEO of Theatre Washington, noting that the “artsy peacocks’” love for group photos is a form of community building in itself.
“They’re always involved, no matter what’s on stage,” GALA Hispanic Theatre Co-founder and Executive Director Rebecca Medrano, a longtime friend, says of Uclés and Noll. “They mingle and liven things up. They engage the actors and theater staff and make people feel like the theater is their home. I wish we had more audience members like them. Theater would be a lot healthier if we did.”
Uclés and Noll can offer an exhaustive list of the theater, music, and arts events they have attended over the years. Musical theater is a particular favorite, especially for Noll. He recounts the time when Uclés was a Helen Hayes Award judge from 2009 to 2011, and the couple were seeing upward of 80 shows a year, many of them dramas.
“In the third year, I finally said, ‘Honey, if I want drama, I can go home to my family in Ohio,’ ” Noll laughingly recalls of his penchant for lighter musical fare.
The couple have attended shows at all kinds of theaters across the DC region, including dinner theaters such as Toby’s Dinner Theatre in Columbia and children’s theaters like Imagination Stage in Bethesda and Adventure Theatre MTC in Glen Echo. The latter are of special interest to Noll, who, in addition to being a sculptor and multimedia artist, is also an award-winning children’s book author and puppeteer. He and Uclés often invite friends or members of their chosen family to these performances. On many occasions, they have introduced the children or grandchildren of friends to live theater, sparking interests that carry beyond the individual productions themselves.
“We’re not snobs,” Uclés says of the range of their interests. “If there’s something we want to see and somebody is producing it, we’ll go.” While the couple enjoy larger Broadway-style theater productions, they have a special love for the “vast variety and creativity of our local theaters with their diverse and inclusive productions,” Uclés says.
Passion and approachability are key to the pair’s star power. People want to be with them, and they want to bring people together. What better place to do that than at the theater?
“Alberto and Tom are true advocates,” says Theater Alliance’s Shanara Gabrielle. “Not just showing up in our audiences, but always singing the praises of our great theater city.”
Uclés’ and Noll’s enthusiasm is contagious. When they talk about the richness and vibrancy of DC theater, they don’t just talk about the acting or the directing or the main star, although they talk about those things, too. But the pair are just as likely to call to mind a particular set designer, costumer, choreographer, composer, or local playwright. It’s the whole package that excites them. “We have some 90 theaters here,” Uclés says, “big ones and small ones, and we’re always in awe of the quality of what they present.”
It was an experience in the theater — the same theater — that got each man started on the arts journey that led to the Gary Maker Award and that helped solidify their love for their “forever home” of Washington, DC. Uclés first saw the city during the National Cherry Blossom Festival while on a spring break trip from college in Indiana. He remembers going to the National Theatre downtown and seeing a big production there. “That just sealed it for me,” Uclés recalls. “I said, ‘When I finish college, I’m coming to Washington … ‘ I don’t even remember what I saw, but I was impressed with it.”
Noll’s experience may have been less dramatic, coming from Ohio to help a friend, and the two of them going to the National together. Nevertheless, Uclés and Noll have become big advocates of the capital’s oldest continuously operating theater (1835) and its touring Broadway shows. Uclés is particularly struck by the beauty of the historic facility. “It’s a wonderful place to see a show,” he says.
After his stint as a Helen Hayes Award judge, in which Noll traveled at his side, Uclés served for ten years as a commissioner on the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, promoting arts in the nation’s capital and helping administer grants to arts organizations. He stepped down from that role last year and now serves on the World Pride DC 2025 Arts, Culture, and Theatre Committee. World Pride 2025 is an international LGBTQ+ pride event that will take place in
Washington from May 23 to June 8 in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of Pride celebrations in the city. Its aim is to promote awareness of and support for the global LGBTQ+ community.
“The show must go on”
Uclés acknowledges that it is a challenging time for both arts organizations and LGBTQ+ community members like Noll and himself. Some World Pride–related events originally scheduled for the Kennedy Center have scrambled to find new venues, and there are concerns that some members of the international LGBTQ+ community who had originally planned to attend World Pride DC will no longer feel it is safe to come here.
“There’s a lot of fear,” Uclés admits, acknowledging that this is “a very tough and heartbreaking time” for many people, and for him personally as a federal employee, a gay man, and an immigrant. “This new administration and its changes in philosophy have really shaken our foundations,” he says. Nonetheless, Uclés is resolute. “We refuse to let things ruin our happiness, our dreams, our goals, or to give up our positive attitude,” he declares. “We gay people have been through a lot of challenges before. We are a resilient community. We’re not going anywhere.”
While World Pride DC 2025 might be “scaled back a little,” Uclés says “the show must go on,” and there will still be “an amazing number of things happening” during the two weeks of the festival. Among them, an exciting roster of local gay/pride plays at area theaters that are part of the “Gay for DC Theatre” lineup. (Check the World Pride DC 2025 website for events and details.) And while “some mega companies” have withdrawn funding for the festival, Uclés praises city leaders and Mayor Muriel Bowser for their financial support of World Pride DC 2025, underwriting performances, readings, exhibits, and learning opportunities.
“It will make a statement … ,” Uclés says of planners’ and participants’ determination, despite obstacles, to make the festival as grand and joyful as possible. “And just as in theater or any art, it is unity, empathy, and helping each other that will get us through.”
Uclés says that he and other World Pride DC 2025 planners are encouraging companies “to come through” and support the diversity and inclusion that World Pride celebrates, and he encourages individuals to donate, volunteer, and participate because “it takes a village to do something as big as this.” Washington is only the second U.S. city to host World Pride celebrations, after New York in 2019. The global event originated in Rome, Italy, in 2000.
“We have to look out for each other”
One category of World Pride DC 2025 events that has been a particular target of President Trump’s is drag shows. He cited them in his takeover of the Kennedy Center in February, and some World Pride performances scheduled for the Kennedy Center, and which had to relocate, involve drag. Over the years, Uclés and Noll have been supporters of drag performance, hosting an annual Christmas event in their home. Among the local performers they know and/or admire is DC drag artist Tara Hoot, known for her popular drag story time readings for children and families. Uclés believes that the very drag culture President Trump wishes to cancel is an important means of teaching tolerance and inclusion at a time when both are greatly needed.
“We know so many drag queens and kings who do amazing, artsy shows, and it’s an incredible talent,” Uclés asserts. “And it’s always been part of theater. If you go back to Shakespeare’s time, it was men who played the women on stage. So, I’m happy that children can learn acceptance like this in a way that is fun and entertaining. The prejudice some people now [direct] toward drag performers — that they are influencing kids the wrong way — just isn’t right, and it’s not what’s really happening.”
The particular scrutiny that drag shows face is part of Uclés’ and Noll’s overall concern that, in a time when the arts, LGBTQ+ culture, immigrants, and federal institutions (and their career employees) can all seem under attack, “we have to look out for each other,” in Uclés’ words. “The show must go on, but it has to be even better,” he declares. “We have to be supportive and united, just like when COVID hit.” Uclés acknowledges that the circumstances today may be somewhat different. “The arts got money during the pandemic. We’re not going to get that this time.” He also expects that local audience attendance could be down, given the massive layoff of DC-based federal workers, and he commends theaters that offer discount tickets or free nights to laid-off employees. “Accessibility is going to be important,” Uclés asserts, “so that we are able to survive this period. And I think we’ll do it, because our theaters have shown that they are resilient and creative forces.”
For many in the DC theater and arts communities, “artsy fashion peacocks” José Alberto Uclés and Tom Noll are an inspiration. That’s why they are receiving the Gary Maker Audience Award. But for Uclés and Noll, it’s the art that inspires. “Art — and especially theater — is uplifting, uniting, reconciliatory,” Uclés observes. “It’s where you bring people together. It’s a joint live experience. And that’s what we love about theater: Coming in with other audience members and feeling what they are feeling and sharing that experience together. It’s really wonderful.”
And, Noll adds, who would have thought a farm boy from Ohio and a young student from Honduras would have experienced that — thousands of times over?
The 2025 Gary Maker Award Ceremony begins at 7:30 p.m., followed by Choke at 8:00 p.m., on Saturday, May 3, 2025, at GALA Hispanic Theatre, 3333 14th Street NW, Washington, DC. A reception will follow. Tickets are $50 ($35 for seniors and military). To purchase tickets, call the box office at 202-234-7174.
SEE ALSO:
José Alberto Uclés and Tom Noll to receive 2025 Gary Maker Audience Award (news story, April 26, 2025)
