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Thursday, October 14, 2021
Former ‘Hamilton’ actor files complaint
Chicago Tribune: A former “Hamilton” cast member filed a federal workplace complaint against the show Wednesday, alleging that the show had retaliated and refused to renew a contract after the actor had requested a gender-neutral dressing room.
My high school had gender-neutral changing areas. Not only did we have gender-neutral changing areas but that is the only thing we had. My high school was relatively small so pretty much all of backstage was utilized as a changing area, if you wanted more privacy you could change in one of the two bathrooms backstage. I’ll say that again, my high school had gender-neutral changing areas and those were the only changing areas we had. If my high school can figure it out living in rural Oregon, I think Broadway can. We never had a problem with this until a guest school came to our space. This is just something that was established as the “norm” in our theatre and so it is what we did. The idea that someone would be let go because they wanted a changing area that didn’t force them into a binary is absurd. Regardless of what Hamilton’s team had to say about what they did or did not do for Reid if there were no gender-neutral changing areas they have failed Reid. With that said, this is a systematic issue so the system has also failed Reid. I hope that with time the taboo nature of gender identity will dissapate. It is not that hard to establish areas without binary.
Representation for nonbinary people in theatre is an issue I often think about. It is also often an issue that is overlooked or left out in most conversations about inclusivity in theatre. I will admit that even I, myself, someone who tries to actively examine and participate in dialogue on this topic is very uneducated. This article pointed out dressing rooms for Nonbinary performers, something I hadn't considered. I was mainly looking at casting calls for Nonbinary performers, along with costuming. What I find most interesting about this article is how Reid calls out the performative diversity and inclusion that Hamilton apparently puts on. They discuss how onstage Hamilton presents itself as groundbreaking, inclusive, and equitable, but behind the scenes was an incredibly transphobic experience for them. This is a trend I notice with Theatre in general. On stage, actors and shows are diverse and promote equality, but offstage, production teams are predominately if not entirely white, and are usually discriminatory in some way. This story is gaining a lot of attention, and I hope it will make artists rethink how the Theatre Industry functions differently on and offstage.
2 comments:
My high school had gender-neutral changing areas. Not only did we have gender-neutral changing areas but that is the only thing we had. My high school was relatively small so pretty much all of backstage was utilized as a changing area, if you wanted more privacy you could change in one of the two bathrooms backstage. I’ll say that again, my high school had gender-neutral changing areas and those were the only changing areas we had. If my high school can figure it out living in rural Oregon, I think Broadway can. We never had a problem with this until a guest school came to our space. This is just something that was established as the “norm” in our theatre and so it is what we did. The idea that someone would be let go because they wanted a changing area that didn’t force them into a binary is absurd. Regardless of what Hamilton’s team had to say about what they did or did not do for Reid if there were no gender-neutral changing areas they have failed Reid. With that said, this is a systematic issue so the system has also failed Reid. I hope that with time the taboo nature of gender identity will dissapate. It is not that hard to establish areas without binary.
Representation for nonbinary people in theatre is an issue I often think about. It is also often an issue that is overlooked or left out in most conversations about inclusivity in theatre. I will admit that even I, myself, someone who tries to actively examine and participate in dialogue on this topic is very uneducated. This article pointed out dressing rooms for Nonbinary performers, something I hadn't considered. I was mainly looking at casting calls for Nonbinary performers, along with costuming. What I find most interesting about this article is how Reid calls out the performative diversity and inclusion that Hamilton apparently puts on. They discuss how onstage Hamilton presents itself as groundbreaking, inclusive, and equitable, but behind the scenes was an incredibly transphobic experience for them. This is a trend I notice with Theatre in general. On stage, actors and shows are diverse and promote equality, but offstage, production teams are predominately if not entirely white, and are usually discriminatory in some way. This story is gaining a lot of attention, and I hope it will make artists rethink how the Theatre Industry functions differently on and offstage.
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