- Another one that's not fair to rate because 1) it's a staged reading, and 2) I was heavily involved with the project.
- I participated in 2 workshops that developed content for this piece, AND I contributed a 19 minute video submission.
- I also attended a pre-reading reading and stayed after to give feedback, and I also continued to tweak dialogue up until the night before the script was printed.
- I cast 2 of the actors, involved another workshop participant, and roped in an extra dramaturg.
- So, yes, I had a hand in this.
- The reading went well, but it is clear that there are chunky patches in the emotional flow of the beats connecting the piece together.
- It was pretty neat to see some famous Broadway stars up there, mixed with the queer performers I know, as well as Green Chimneys youth. Very nice to see a theatre space get all mushed like that. You might say, in that respect, the space was queered. In fact, I do say that. The space was queered.
- Even though my hands were in the bowl mixing up the trans monologue, my hands still feel sticky because everyone knows how I feel about trans monologues. The audience ate it up, and it was well performed by the actor I brought in, Jax Jackson, but it was still.... a transguy talking about himself. Can that just please PLEASE stop??!?! Stop.
- The monologue suits the piece, however, and it's balanced equally with another monologue that I found beautiful: Brandon's monologue, performed by deaf actor, Garrett Zuercher, and voiced by Stephen A. Lance.
- I wonder if both the transness and the deafness still held onto elements of freak show... I think that's what I dislike so much about these types of theatrical moments... they're meant to empower, but it ends up with a bunch of cisgender or non-disabled or whatever it is people who are just staring... and they may be too busy staring to be listening. They may not even notice there are people in the audience, right next to them, who identify as the character does. I don't know, I'm still trying to find the balance with this in my own writing because how do you have a larger audience for a minority character without a teeny bit of fetish or confusion or enamorment or curiosity from the audience attached when the actor is also that identity?
- Complicated, but beyond that stuff which is stuff I take so personally, the whole piece at large is fun and valuable, and it's nice to make Broadway people read stuff that's not just complete candy.
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Cole
Trans man, Playwright, Dramaturg, and Theatre & Dance Historian Archives
August 2014
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