Until attitudes within British theatre shift
Kim Tatum dreams of playing Norma Desmond, Sunset Boulevard’s exquisite former star of silent films. Mariah Louca longs to perform as Dangerous Liaisons’ evil schemer Marquise de Merteuil. And for Reece Lyons, it’s the monstrous ambition of Lady Macbeth that makes her the ideal role. But, until attitudes within British theatre shift, it’s unlikely these talented performers will get to play their dream characters. Despite their skill, training and accolades, trans women just don’t seem to get cast in cisgender roles.
Yeah what’s up with that? Why do people who put on plays want women for women’s parts when they could have men instead? What are they thinking??
“I have never seen a trans woman on stage play a mother or a love interest,” Offie-award-winning Lyons says. “Why don’t we come to mind for that?”
I have a guess. It may sound crazy but I think it could be because they’re men.
Frustrated with the constant obstacles they face in the industry, the three actors are calling for trans women to be put on an equal footing for cis roles.
That is, the three male actors are calling for male actors to be “put on an equal footing” with women for women’s roles.
Most acting jobs already go to men, of course, because most plays are mostly about men just as most movies are mostly about men. Now men want to take the few women’s parts there are, thus confirming how manly they are, lipstick or no lipstick.
Consequently, trans performers struggle to find consistent work. “You can’t have a sustainable career within theatre if you’re only going to play trans roles,” Lyons says. There just aren’t enough parts. The failure to audition trans women for cis roles is a refusal to truly see them as women.
Because they aren’t women. Also, the fact that a guy can’t have a sustainable career within theatre is not a reason to hire him to play a woman. Most people can’t have a sustainable career within theatre. Vanishingly few women can have a sustainable career within theatre. Acting is a notoriously precarious profession, and most people can’t make a living doing it.
Auditions for cis parts are far more rare, Louca finds, and the majority of trans roles she’s been seen for have put trans agony at the forefront. None of the three are against playing trans roles, so long as that’s not all they’re considered for. Lyons talks with pride about performing in Travis Alabanza’s one-woman show, Overflow, in 2020 as Rosie, a trans woman who talks to the audience from a club bathroom. But being seen almost exclusively for trans roles reduces them. “Trauma is often all we’re given to perform,” Louca says. “Why would I want to relive that?”
For people who work in theater, or claim to, they seem remarkably obtuse about how things work. Casting isn’t done on the basis of who needs the job the most. It’s not done on the basis of who wants the job the most.
To help bring about more opportunities and greater equality for trans women, Louca believes there should be quotas in place. “If there’s 20 people auditioning, audition two or three trans people,” she suggests. Demonstrably increasing the numbers of trans performers considered for non-trans roles would enable more performers to build sustainable careers, develop more talent for our stages, and help influence attitudes among audiences. “Casting directors, producers and directors are deciding our narrative,” says Tatum. “But when you give trans women more visibility on stage and screen, it helps society understand us more.”
Again. That’s not how it works. The goal of theater is not to help society understand narcissists better.
I can’t get no, no no no. Living in a role playing fantasy isn’t enough. Poor things.
Are they SURE that visibility and understanding is what they want? Because when people see and understand you, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll like it.
Or written with a touch more honesty:
But this would make the absurdity of the demand too obvious for their liking. This demand is about as sensible as short actors demanding equality with tall when casting tall characters. Worse, we know they permit no reciprocity. Males have right of way, dammit.
I want to play Lady Macbeth; I’ve wanted it ever since I read the play. Unfortunately, I have no acting talent. Casting directors, producers and directors are deciding my narrative by insisting that the actors they hire can do more than memorize the lines and deliver them. (They make casting mistakes, obviously, but that isn’t the point.)
On a related note, I wanted a different job than the one I eventually got. The search committee hired someone else, thereby deciding my narrative. If they would only have hired me, I could have gone to Wisconsin instead of Nebraska, but that’s how the world is. One person gets the job; everyone else is left out, some of them at least as qualified as the one who gets the job. Decisions must be made, and most of those who apply (or audition) will have the same outcome – not getting their dream role in life.
Also, from what I’ve seen, trans are not having a lot of problem getting opposite sex roles. I’ve seen quite a few trans actors in roles written for the opposite sex, more trans actors by percentage than is representative of their percentage of the population (at the highest estimate). So the whining these “women” are indulging in is the whining of people who believe they are entitled to something they didn’t get.
Frank N. Furter deserves all the roles.
“We’re traumatized by having our trauma put front and center” explained people who are more than comfortable with making demands based on their vulnerable and marginalized identity.
When men play roles meant for women, I either expect this to become a plot point (“No, I did not give birth to my sister’s baby — because I’m really … her brother!”) or a tedious and ham-handed exercise designed to improve me (“I must see a woman I must see a woman I must see a woman.”)
Here’s a thought. Perhaps they could be truly transgressive and try out for male roles. I bet Reece Lyons would make a fantastic Iago.
This from the ‘community’ that not too long ago was railing against the injustice of ‘cis’ actors playing trans characters, throwing in gay actors for gay characters just to make it appear to be not all about them. And now they’ve updated that to ‘trans actors for trans roles: trans actors for ‘cis’ roles’. I suppose the ‘cis’ actors will just have to find proper jobs.
Maybe form your own theatre company. That way, you can be cast in all the roles.
Just as with sports and restrooms, the choices you make about your body have consequences for what you’re permitted to do and where you’re allowed to go. It’s a very childish mentality to demand that you not have to deal with the consequences of your actions. Childish and selfish and entitled. But what can you expect from a movement that holds it to be “just common decency” to give the special people exactly what they want whenever they want it?
I see no reason why some trans actors couldn’t play some roles of the gender they identify as. But that would depend very much on how well the actor can “pass,” and the aesthetic aspects of the character.
Playing a matronly comic relief character? Sure, I suppose. Could Buck Angel play a male character? I don’t see why not. But, to put it bluntly, if the lead female role is “gorgeous young woman who all the male characters are lusting after,” then yeah.. .that’s going to be a problem. Cis actresses already get picked apart for every minor supposed defect in their looks, and told they can’t play such and such a role because they’re not hot enough.
People on social media may be willing to tell you that you’re gorgeous and stunning, but casting directors and producers feel no such obligation.
Well, trans activism is trying to hijack women’s narratives.
It’s not a lack of “understanding” that’s the problem. Many people understand you just fine. Nobody owes you anything for the choices you have made. It is not bigoted, hateful, or even just plain incorrect to see you as male, because that’s what you are and always will be. Nobody can change that, and it’s not a crime to recognize the impossibility of your desires.
These demands are always a one way street. Just like “Be Kind!”
Identifying as female is one thing, identifying as an ingenue is completely different.
“I’m a straight lady, the best in Hollywood. There is an art to playing the straight role. You must build up your man, but never top him, never steal the laughs.”
— Margaret Dumont
If they don’t want to play ‘trans’ roles, they can always play ‘cis-male’ roles I’m sure. I suspect what they really want though is validation. It’s always about validation.
For the vast majority of actors, there is no sustainable career in theatre. I found that out as an aspiring actor, training with what was at the time Australia’s leading repertory theatre company and gaining a few minor roles in TV. I saw actors come and actors go, I saw the other jobs they took to put food on the table and weed in the joint.
And I saw how I could maintain my love of theatre with a steady income by forsaking acting and joining the dark side – stage management. Actors would work for 4 weeks of rehearsal and 4 weeks of performance and then depart. I worked around the year, with rehearsals from 10 – to 4 and shows from 630 to 11.
Although I did not know it was an option, transitioning would not have been anywhere near as good for job stability as sitting in prompt corner.