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We begin in an empty room. It’s a bright Monday morning, and the building is mostly empty. We’re rehearsing at a school, which is out for the summer. Some of us have met and some haven’t. We begin with our names, our pronouns. We begin with some blank pieces of paper and we begin with some questions, some potential answers. We write them all down and they tussle on the page in twenty colours; a jumble of joys and fears and excitement and contradiction. In four weeks, we’re going to have a show.
I’m an actor and theatre artist. (In this room, I’m the assistant director/dramaturg.) Often I work with a pre-written script, but sometimes I work collaboratively. We start with some prompts and we all contribute to create the show. It’s a little overwhelming, looking at the cacophony of ideas and the infinite paths we could follow. But much more so, it’s invigorating and exciting. Over the next four weeks, I’ll get to know all of these people better. I’ll hear their stories, listen to their frustrations and triumphs, and watch them create not just a show together, but a new community.
We are playing with gender. The company is a mix of seven brilliant individuals, across a broad spectrum of gender experiences and sexualities. Often, shows or books or news features tell one transgender story. That might be one symbolic story about trans experience, or just one character in a play. And those stories can be very powerful and important.
But this room is something different. It’s special. The various experiences, all the different stories jostle and clash and come together in a joyous noise. Just like the huge mix of words on the walls, there are so many different testimonies of fighting, of living, of growing up, of sexuality, of singing karaoke in your bedroom, of survival. And being in this room, it’s not overwhelming anymore. It’s just exciting and a very rare privilege. Everyone is opening up, being honest, being funny, sharing talents we never guessed they had. They are singing and dancing and training. We go from an hour of cardio to learning harmonies to swapping clothes to playing with one sheet of plastic for hours, all in one day.
Now, we are here. We are doing one show, with seven real people and real lives, about something we all live with everyday. It’s funny, it’s uplifting, it’s angry, it’s sexy, it’s so much more. And it’s for you. And it’s for them. And it’s for everyone behind the scenes or standing against the wall at a school dance. And if you want, you can come along.
Outbox Theatre present And The Rest Of Me Floats a new show all about the messy business of gender at The Rose Lipman Building this September. Working with performers from across the trans, non-binary, lesbian and gay communities, Outbox Theatre examine the ways in which gender is questioned, categorised, and policed (often violently so).
Follow Outbox Theatre on Twitter and Instagram
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