Tag: sj

When Will Theatre Awards Catch Up With Nonbinary Actors?

Howard Sherman says the time has come to figure this out: “So long as there are categories for best actor and actress (or best male and female actor), those who identify outside of the binary will be left out, misidentified and othered. This will come home to roost the first time someone with non-binary identity is nominated for an award, and then we will see awards-giving organisations doing hurried acrobatics to come up with a solution. The better option is to understand where the thinking is heading, and thoughtfully make the appropriate changes now.” – The Stage (UK)

Same-Gender Couples Come To The Once-Rigidly Male-Female World Of Competitive Ballroom Dance

“Traditional ballroom dancing enacts a caricature of socially prescribed gender roles. The male partner is the leader; the female partner, the follower. The male partner’s movements are meant to be sharp and decisive, while the female dancer is meant to be flowy and expressive. … Same-gender ballroom dancing challenges these norms while also challenging the dancers themselves, who often learn to both lead and follow.” – The Washington Post

Museums In Britain Are Taking Out And Showing The LGBTQ-Themed Artworks And Objects They Used To Keep Hidden Away

“The [Victoria and Albert Museum LGBTQ] tour’s burgeoning popularity is part of a more general ‘queering’ of British museums that is gathering pace. Institutions across the UK are teasing out stories of same-sex desire and gender nonconformity in artefacts that have, until now, been left untold, or actively suppressed.” – The Guardian

Why Do We See So Many Gay Male Characters On Broadway But So Few Lesbians?

Sure, there’s The Prom, and before that Fun Home, Indecent, and, going back, Rent and perhaps The Color Purple, but that’s been about it, writes Elisabeth Vincentelli. “Obviously, Broadway is not the be-all and end-all of American theater. But it does represent validation and awareness, the ability to put on big spectacles, and the opportunity to land regional productions … It feels as if lesbians are still trying to build a theatrical house while gay men — having had a house, a two-car garage and a gazebo for years now — have moved on to deconstructing and repurposing the real estate they can afford to be tired of.” – The New York Times

Festival Tells Theatre Company To Recast Role With Disabled Actor, And Company Writes Out Character’s Disability Instead

When the Belgian company Studio Orka brought its devised-theatre piece Tuesday to the Manchester International Festival, MIF officials said that their policy is that disabled characters must be played by disabled actors and that performances of the work would not proceed with a non-disabled actor in one of the roles. Studio Orka argued that Tuesday could only be performed by the actors who collaboratively developed it and changed the character to a person injured in an accident who recovers. – The Stage

Street Theatre Takes Off In The Slums Of São Paulo

“In Heliópolis, one of São Paulo’s largest favelas, the trial of a black youth agitates the community, which argues for his innocence. In a train heading to Jardim Romano, an audio brings the history of the region to the passengers’ ears, and culminates with a final point: the rains and flooding. In the very south of the city, the body of a dead person is reanimated with Brazilian funk music. These three stories, told in three stage plays, are representative of the theatre scene that has exploded in São Paulo in recent years.” – Global Voices