CMU School of Drama


Tuesday, September 30, 2025

Role Models: Breaking Theatre’s Gender Binary, an Intergenerational Story

AMERICAN THEATRE: “You’re right. Everyone else is wrong.” A few hours after writer and performer Cole Escola offered this advice to LGBTQ+ viewers in a Logo TV interview, they made history as the first openly nonbinary actor to win a Tony Award for performance in a play (Oh, Mary!, which they also wrote).

1 comment:

Eliana Stevens said...

I am very excited that a non-binary actor won a Tony. It is always a huge win for equality when a “first” happens for a discriminated group. Even tho these groups and people should have been recognized and awarded for their works, arts, and crafts, it is still always a win and cause for celebration when someone is rightfully recognized for their works without their identity being a reason for being looked over for being recognized for their work. I really enjoyed reading about how, with the collaboration through like-minded people and artists, they started to release the mindset of having to fit in a gender box or normative representation of themselves. I loved how this article was split up, and each part of the article was labeled as encouraging mantras and advice, and types of affirmations, such as “find yourself”, “find your people”, “find your voice”, and “Look to what is next”.