Erasure is Not an Option: Intimacy Advocacy Through a Transgender Lens

HowlRound Theatre Commons: I became aware of the intimacy field in about 2017 while I was living in Chicago and working in the DIY, devised storefront theatre scene. I recall hearing little rumbles about the idea of something called an “intimacy director,” and I got really curious. At the time, I was writing for this DIY arts magazine, and I had approached my editor and I got approved to write an article on this new role and how it might find its way into the DIY arts community.

‘I forgot I was blaspheming a saint!’ – Charlie Josephine on writing a non-binary Joan of Arc

Theatre | The Guardian: ‘I’m always hungry for historical queer representation,” says Charlie Josephine, the non-binary playwright of I, Joan, a sweaty, heady, joyously queer new drama about the patron saint of France. “Because our history has been erased – particularly transgender people’s – there is very limited documentation of us throughout history, even though we have existed since the beginning of time.”

Temidayo Amay: Being, among other things, a nonbinary actor

DC Theatre Scene: Hi, my name is Temidayo Amay. I am an actor, writer, director, producer, and artist all day, every day. I like to cook, and bake. My favorite television shows include Grace and Frankie, Sex Education, and Grey’s Anatomy. I am a Libra sun, Leo moon, and Scorpio rising. I have deeply melanated skin and the most delicious, kinky-coily hair. I also happen to be a queer individual on the nonbinary spectrum.

Meet the new wave of female builders

The Washington Post: Angela Cacace’s career began with a magazine contest. The D.C. barber had moved to North Carolina for her husband’s job and so successfully remodeled their kitchen that she won a contest in This Old House. Encouraged by the story’s editor to pursue her contracting dreams, she enrolled in a local building program. “I was so nervous on the first day of class,” she recalls, “but six of the 12 students were women — I was blown away. I remember an instant feeling of confidence that we had a place here.”

Towards a Framework for Responsible Trans Casting, Part 1: Words, Words, Words

NewMusicBox: Nothing tests my conviction that cis people can write good trans characters like seeing the trans characters cis people actually write. In all the stories I’ve experienced across all forms of media featuring trans characters written by cis creators, only a handful haven’t been deeply misguided at best, and that number keeps shrinking because the creators who get it right keep coming out as trans.

Why So Few Female Designers? A New Study May Have the Answers

AMERICAN THEATRE: It is common knowledge that of all the theatrical disciplines, the field of design, production, and technical theatre are the most male-dominated (with costuming being the exception). The question worth asking is why, and a new survey by Millikin University in Decatur, Ill., may provide the answer.

The Gender Equality Pledge Signed by Five Nordic Festivals

Variety: Following the footsteps of major festivals including Cannes and Venice, five Nordic festivals have joined forces to sign the 50/50 by 2020 gender equality pledge.

Initiated by WIFT Nordic (Women in Film and Television), the pledge for gender parity and inclusion was signed Monday by officials from Sweden’s Carl, Denmark’s CPH:DOX, Oslo Pix in Norway, Tampere from Finland and Northern Wave in Iceland.

A Manifesto for Staging Gendered Violence

HowlRound Theatre Commons: The performance and staging of gendered violence is a political issue, and not a recent one. Gendered violence can be understood as a spectrum of acts, ranging from physical, sexual, and emotional abuses against marginalized women, to acts that nullify and demean women’s resistance to patriarchy. Women’s resistance takes on a variety of forms, such as anger, joy, care, self-preservation, and protest.

Music festivals: how to get more women on stage (and it's not just 50/50 quotas)

theconversation.com: By all accounts, Kylie Minogue was fabulous at Glastonbury this year. What she wasn’t though – contrary to promotional material – was a headline act. Unlike Stormzy, The Killers and The Cure, who all topped the bill on successive nights on the main Pyramid Stage, Kylie appeared in much less prominent spots on the festival line-up – similar to Janet Jackson, who had also been promoted as a headliner.

Meet the Big Apple Circus' New Female Ringmaster

Theatre Development Fund – TDF: This may be the first year that Stephanie Monseu is standing in the spotlight at the Big Apple Circus at Lincoln Center, but she's been training for the job for more than two decades. A veteran variety and neo-vaudeville performer, she cofounded the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus in 1995 and has traveled the country charming crowds with her fire-eating, whip-cracking, stilt-walking and fast-talking. But for her latest gig, the statuesque star serves as the poised presence at the center of the swirl, a warm and stylish host welcoming audiences of all ages to the big top.

Jason Blum Is Wrong About Female Directors in Horror

The Atlantic: The biggest name in horror filmmaking is indisputably the producer Jason Blum. That’s a fact only reinforced by the staggering opening weekend of his newest movie, Halloween, which made $77.5 million in its first three days—a record for the 40-year-old franchise. Blum’s company, Blumhouse Productions, finances small-budget genre films and gives directors full creative control; it has been behind Oscar winners like Get Out and Whiplash, as well as extremely profitable franchises like The Conjuring, Insidious, and Paranormal Activity. Working with Blum can provide a solid path to mainstream success, which makes it particularly dispiriting that a female director has never made a theatrical horror film for Blumhouse.

MTC Will Hold 'Trans Visibility In The Theatre' Panel, Following Performance of THE NAP

www.broadwayworld.com: Manhattan Theatre Club will "Trans Visibility in the Theatre," a panel directly following the Sunday, November 4th matinee of The Nap. Come to an open discussion about increasing trans presence in the theatre, with panelists including Alexandra Billings (The Nap, "Transparent"), Kate Bornstein (Straight White Men, "I Am Cait"), Will Davis (India Pale Ale, Men On Boats), Alexa Fogel ("Pose" Casting Director), Bianca Leigh (The Nap, Transamerica), and Marquise Vilson (Charm). They will discuss how the arts industry can sustain and further the current push for greater trans presence and representation.

LGBTQ Characters Reach Record-High TV Representation

Variety: LGBTQ characters have hit record-high representation numbers for the 2018-19 television season, GLAAD’s annual “Where We are on TV” report for 2018 finds.

LGBTQ series regulars on broadcast have hit 8.8% (75 characters), with 50% of those characters being LGBTQ people of color.

Student at Catholic college called into Title IX meeting after he criticized drag show

The College Fix: A student at a Catholic university was called into a meeting with the school’s Title IX coordinator this week after speaking out against the university’s cross-dressing drag shows, claiming that they represent “an assault on the dignity of the human person and the divine gift of ordered sexuality.”

Cate Blanchett Defends Straight Actors Playing Gay Characters

The Mary Sue: Listen, Cate Blanchett is a bit of an LGBTQ+ icon thanks to her roles in films like Carol and Ocean’s 8. Unfortunately, she keeps digging herself into a deeper hole by doing things like defending Woody Allen, and now insisting that straight actors should have the right to play LGBTQ+ characters—the exact wording was that she would “fight to the death” for these actors to play queer characters.

Teen Representation Onstage, or Why The Secret Garden is Perfect for Educational Theatre

Breaking Character: The Secret Garden is the perfect musical to direct at a middle school level, and I was fortunate enough to produce this show with 7th and 8th graders at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in 2012. Based on the timeless classic novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, this is a musical show with a strong female lead, who we discover through music and text is a force of nature.

Gender Parity in Hollywood: Women, Minorities Tell Their Stories

Variety: At the heart of one of the entertainment industry’s most tumultuous years on record lies an urgent question: Is Hollywood serious about achieving gender parity beyond optics?

Review: Genderqueer 'R + J'

The BroadwayBlog: Is this Shakespeare, or Switchblade Sisters? One would be excused for the confusion in the opening scenes of Hypokrit Theatre Company and Access Theater’s staging of a female, genderqueer rendition of R + J. Brandishing a knife nearly as sharp as her cheekbones, Tsebiyah Mishael as Tybalt opens the action on the Bard’s most famous tragedy by facing off with a soldier from the Montague clan after hurling a foul gesture her way, saying, “I serve as good a woman as you.” A thrilling fight scene ensues.

CBS’ failings show how deep misogynist rot runs in entertainment

ThinkProgress: To hear certain quarters tell it, the Me Too movement is a dangerous, rapid-fire vengeance gun which, left unchecked, will swiftly ruin the lives of all men. Even men who have daughters!

From this perspective, Me Too is taking out men left and right, destroying their lives (by briefly suspending them from their dream jobs), toppling the patriarchy like a stack of Jenga blocks, and it’s moving too fast and it’s going too far and it’s all so out of control.

Men and Women and Non-Binary People On Boats: Exploring New Styles of Gender Diversity

HowlRound Theatre Commons: Transgender people are sort of having a moment right now. Many of us are finally feeling confident enough to assert ourselves in public spaces. Our representation has never been better in TV and film. (I’m not saying it’s good, but it’s never been better.) And I’ve noticed a small but mighty community of transgender and non-binary theatremakers grow over the past year, both online and especially in my home community of Boston, Massachusetts.