Hello!

Ok, so, I am currently blessed with opportunities to make “queer work” in “straight venues”. It’s very exciting. The response is often beautiful, and the work is joyfully and hungrily received. However the process is often not without its challenges.  

I cannot be solely responsible for the many blind spots that venues and organisations bump up against when putting on my work, but I also can’t ignore them.  I feel a deep duty of care for the queer/trans actors playing the queer/trans characters I’ve written. But I’m obviously not an expert on all things queer (lol) and the unpaid emotional labour is heavy. 

So I’ve written this page to share some of my learnings, in the attempt to find a balance between being useful and letting go. I hope it inspires you to make some brilliant cultural changes within your organisation. Because the political activism of our art extends to backstage, offstage and beyond. Culture changes culture.

I want everyone to feel safe enough to be brave with their work, to be excellent at our jobs and really enjoy the experience. I want us all to make educated and empowered creative choices, so we can all be kind and have a laugh.

Company Welcome Pack -

I ask for links to Stonewall, from GLADD, and from Mermaids to be included in the pack that’s sent to creatives, cast and crew before day one of rehearsals. 

Identify the themes of the project and send links to relevant resources. For the members of the company who are less educated on queer/trans experience they can do some reading before rehearsals start. It’s also a confidence boost for the trans/queer company members who’ll feel more supported.

My experience of making work around queerness is someone always makes "personal discoveries" during the process. Basically everyone's queer by the end of the project! Supporting people by sign posting them to organisations like ELOP and SPECTRA is helpful. WellBeingInTheArts hire a wonderfully diverse bunch of humans who could support your creative team.

Building -

Gendered Intelligence can be useful to discuss how gender is operating in your venue/organisation and any practical changes that could be made.

Words matter. Take care around language. All those "ladies and gentlemen" announcements and "sirs and madams" are unnecessary and very easy fixes. Toilets obviously should be inclusive. Dressing Rooms can be easily adapted - offer fluid spaces with a curtained off area for privacy, so the actors can choose which room they want to be in, and feel comfortable getting changed, regardless of gender. Or perhaps ask the actors to email you confidentially with their preferences on which actors they feel comfortable sharing a dressing room with.

How are costume/hair/makeup/wigs collaborating with the actors? Are they empowered in their language and creative practise? Ready to work with different skin tones, hair types, body shapes and sizes?

Pronouns -

Build a culture of repeatedly and confidently introducing yourself with your names and pronouns. Repeat this, perhaps every Monday morning, when there’s a full company call, to allow space for people to grow and change. Mistakes will happen - just simply correcting someone and moving on is the most chill response. Put pronouns on the website page, programs, emails, call sheets, name badges, makeup and wardrobe company info, dressing room doors, cast sheets around the building, wherever is helpful. This website is a great resource.

Rehearsals -

I’d strongly suggest that everyone does training with the brilliant Gendered Intelligence . Everyone - staff, cast, crew, FOH staff, everyone. Organise a workshop with GI in during week one of rehearsals for everyone to do together. Book the zoom sessions that GI also offer for the wider organisation. They’ll provide you with helpful information sheets that can be emailed round to everyone. This works really effectively with FOH staff, who are often volunteers. Give everyone the same information so they can make educated and empowered choices.

Who’s in the room? How intersectional is the diversity of the humans making this piece, both on and off stage?  Can your fight and intimacy co-ordinator be queer (Bethan), has your voice practitioner (Gary) worked with queer and trans actors, who are your stage management team (G and Roni and Cheryl), do they have lived experience of the culture you are exploring in your art?

For my play ‘One Of Them Ones’ Pentabus Theatre hired the brilliant Roni Neale as Associate Director and Queer Consultant. This appointment definitely made the work richer, creatively supported the cis and straight director, and took pressure off the nonbinary actor.

Press -

You can collaborate with All About Trans for press and social media advice. ​They're fantastic at helping you make choices with an empowered and joyful focus.

I was really grateful for the collaboration with All About Trans and with Claudia Conway whilst working on both ‘I,Joan’ and ‘Cowbois’. They helped calm the various twitter storms and online hate. I asked for only queer interviewers from press, which they were not, but they were all vetted by Claudia before I met them. I was well supported and felt safe enough to be myself whilst talking about the work. I was really happy with the press interviews for both projects, particularly this Guardian one and this one for The Stage. 

We had a big load of hate online that kicked off around ‘I,Joan’ weeks before we even opened. In response The Globe wrote an Identity Statement. This was posted on their social media, and put on the ‘I,Joan’ website page. It's the first ever loud and proud support of trans people from any theatre in the UK, so that's been fucking cool. Really hugely moving and affirming.

The UK press can be outrageously transphobic and social media is hell. So you’ll need to have a robust plan in place to protect the piece and the artists making it. Have a clear policy for online abuse and zero tolerance for hate crimes. It’s always a good idea for the cast to avoid social media whilst the piece is being made is, but that suggestion is often ignored. Some thinking around pastoral care, and who is responsible for that, would be useful - a drama therapist (Wabriya), or an outsourced organisation (WellbeingInTheArts), or a queer company manager? 

Press night -

Inviting as many queer and trans and nonbinary people to press night feels magic! The atmosphere is incredible! Be active in inviting people from the community you are representing and serving. Take care around all planning decisions to promote a safe and joyful night for everyone. Let’s party hard together and be proud of the political statement that is radical kindness between humans experiencing live storytelling.

Marketing -

My experience with marketing and press teams is that whilst mostly very well intentioned they often unfortunatly miss the mark. Most theatre companies hire a white, cis, straight, middle class team. That particular viewpoint often means many blind spots and mistakes. This runs the risk of the artist having to do urgent unpaid rewrites on copy, that interrupts the actual making of the play. Everything can feel very urgent and stressful. My suggestion is that everything is done as early as possible, so it can calmly be approved by the whole team, and sent out with lovely joyful vibes. 

Can you hire queer/trans photographers (Henri T)? Or designers (Izzy Kroese. Rye Frankie Larson)? Social media/marketing managers? Can you collaborate?

Put LGBTQ+ charities and organisations on the ticket page of your website. Put a note about what you mean by using the word ‘queer’ or ‘trans’. For example this RSC page for Cowbois. This helps the audience do some reading ahead of seeing the show, or after if they want guidance on where to go for education/support. 

In the spirit of queer community it’s always great to celebrate the companies that are doing the real activism. Mermaids, Stonewall and Gendered Intelligence for example are doing incredible work. Linking to these companies on the show website page also helps to give our audience some resources. 

I asked for the ‘I,Joan’ program to be redesigned to look more like a queer-zine. I asked that we commission artists to contribute a poem or drawing or creative response to the provocation "who is Joan to you?". I wanted to use the platform I had to introduce the audience to other artists/organisations/theatre groups who have been doing this work longer that I have, and who are fucking cool and should be celebrated.

For ‘Cowbois’ we commissioned the brilliant Izzy Kroese from Trans Masc Studies to design the program. We asked some beautiful LGBTQ+ artists and academics to respond in words or images to the provocation ‘Gender Outlaws’. Some of the creative team wrote passages about their practice.

For ‘I,Joan’ we also commissioned artists to contribute to writing blogs about the piece, like this one, which were released online in the build up to the opening of the show. It was a really wonderful way to connect with historians and theologians. We also put a really great list of queer resources online here.

Touring -

Obviously taking a trans actor on tour requires more thought than general. Some risk assessments and procedures will need to be in place for when they are misgendered or experience harassment or abuse. Travel routes and accommodation will need to be safe for them.  Also hiring a queer stage/company manager will be really useful.

The brilliant company Milk Presents do a fantastic welcome pack for their venues when they tour.

Pentabus Theatre learnt a lot whilst touring our show ‘One Of Them Ones’, and Theatre Centre developed a LGBTQ+ touring pack for our show ‘Birds And Bees’, that I’m sure they’d be happy to share with you.

Safety -

It’s been helpful to share with the full cast, creative team and crew what the procedure is for any disturbances during the show. Most actors want to know the bare minimum so they can focus on their jobs. But a group discussion is helpful.

A confident walk-off stage policy for actors should be in place, if they ever feel unsafe. Stage management should monitor any rowdy audience members. Extra security staff hired for the opening week of ‘I,Joan’, when it all looked very dark for a moment and we had a legitimate fear of protesters interrupting the show. Thankfully, with all those precautions in place we didn't have any trouble during the shows.

Please have a robust plan in place that keeps the artists on stage safe, particularly whose who are young and queer.

Do you need to consider your teams safety getting to and from the venue? How can you best support them with travel and accommodation?

Conversation And Community -

The LGBTQ+ community is unfortunately as divided as ever.  So people will be really hungry for the work, and the chance to be in community watching it. I'd love for our work to feel like a kind space for our audience. I'd love for everyone to dance together at the end of the play, and leave the venue smiling and feeling inspired to be a little kinder.

Connecting with as many LGBTQ+ community groups as possible is vital and glorious. Offer free/discounted tickets. Organise post-show discussions in person or on zoom with them. They are often run by volunteers and the young people are often vulnerable - so organise this as far in advance as possible.

Being brave and having an open conversation with our audience is scary but so necessary. How can we grab this opportunity to connect with them? How can we keep finding cool ways to offer space for exciting conversations? Some Q&As or online events? There's loads of brilliant queer-theologians and trans artists and theatre makers and historians who could unpick some of the themes of the play. Collaborate. Plan early. Advertise early.

Intersectionality

Our identities are nuanced and should be celebrated with care. Please consider how you’re acknowledging race, class, disability and neurodiversity within your practice. Headlong Theatre have done some great justice plans. Here is the latest anti-racism rider from the National Touring Network. Hire Professor Farah to speak about decolonising Shakespeare. This Brene Brown & Aiko Bethea episode on diversity, equity and inclusion is brilliant!

Celebration/After Care -

All of the above looks like extra work, and it is. And I can sometimes forget to celebrate the wins. I’m currently working out, for my own personal practise, but also more generally a way of celebrating the work. It’s really radical what we’re doing! We’re making entertaining storytelling that’s full of heart, and gives voice to those not often heard, and opens up new moments of empathy. It’s fucking cool! I love my job! And I want to be better at pausing and saying wow, well done and thank you! Perhaps there’s a way the artists and organisations can do this together?

Also I want to find ways to share the learnings, to build on what we’ve made and be of service to the wider theatre community. Taking accountability for our mistakes and finding ways to share the wins.

Is there a way of re-connecting with the community you’ve built during this show? Following up with the young people you’ve met? Inviting them to the next piece? Building and moving forwards, genuinely changing the culture one little notch at a time.