Transgender roles: Who should play them?
Warner Theatre cancels ‘I Am My Own Wife’ in response to criticism
TORRINGTON — Outcry from the transgender community about the Warner Theatre’s choice for the lead role in the planned performances of the one-person play “I Am My Own Wife” has resulted in the cancellation of the show. .
The 2004 Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning drama written by Doug Wright tells the story of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, a 65-year-old German transgender woman who survived both the Nazi onslaught and the repressive East German Communist regime.
The Warner show was to feature an actor who is not transgender.
Using more than 30 characters, all played by a single person, Wright pieces together the stories of Charlotte’s captivating and controversial life, according to the Warner.
When the theater posted an announcement about the upcoming show on its Facebook page, readers expressed outrage that the role was to be played by a non-transgender actor, T. Sean Maher.
Others said it didn’t matter, and that using the right person to play the role of Charlotte was more important, no matter how they identified.
Some people scolded the theater for giving in to “cancel culture,” referring to the practice of withdrawing support for someone or something based on outside pressure.
After a barrage of comments, Warner Theatre Executive Director Rufus de Rham decided to cancel “I Am My Own Wife.”
“Sometimes it takes outside voices to make us look inward at the values we hold as an organization,” de Rham said. “We have heard and appreciate the voices calling us in and educating us on the issues of casting a cis man in ‘I Am My Own Wife’ as a trans woman, from within our own
community locally and the broader community nationally.”
“Cis” refers to “cisgender,” a term used to describe people whose gender identity matches the one they were assigned at birth.
Tickets for the production are no longer on sale.
“We’ve reached out within our community to identify consultants who can work with staff and leadership around increasing our own cultural competencies and provide training,” de Rham said.
Natalie Weiss, a transgender actor from Lincoln, Neb., who recently performed a production of “I Am My Own Wife,” heard about the reactions to the planned Warner show from friends.
“I am a trans woman who had the privilege of performing ‘I Am My Own Wife’ at the Omaha Community Playhouse at the end of last year,” she said. “A friend of mine had a post about the Warner show, and someone made a comment about the Warner making a horrible casting decision for the show, and I said, what?”
Weiss noted that transgender people have been shut out of roles for many years, “except for playing prostitutes or dead people,” she said. “I think it’s important for a production house or theater to make every effort to audition trans people, and have casting
decisions for those kinds of roles.
“People have been telling our stories for a long time,” Weiss said. “However, this particular show is unique. There’s one person and 30-plus roles, and there are cis male roles, and seven or eight accents that have to be crafted into the performance.
“When you’re talking about regional live theater, resources and casting decisions are hard to come by. So when it comes to this particular show, the concern should be making sure you find someone who can do it. It’s such a demanding role.
“Theaters should make a best effort to get a trans person in there, but if you find someone who can play all those characters, I don’t think it’s something production houses should be afraid to do,” she said.
“Trans people should have preference, but trans roles aren’t just for trans people.”
As more people focus on the LGBTQ community, Weiss said, things are changing in the acting world.
“A decade ago, you wouldn’t have had that kind of backlash,” she said. “There’s been a lot of focus on us in the last decade or so, and we’re finally becoming comfortable with standing up for ourselves. There’s a lot of legitimate concern in the trans part of a community.”
Canceling “I Am My Own
Wife” was a very difficult decision, de Rham said.
“It’s a decision that’s part of the larger conversation that’s going on the art world, theater, film ... about how casting and representation matters to communities,” de Rham said.
“We’re not being bullied, and it’s not about cancel culture. It’s a response to what we’re hearing. We heard from people in our own community in northwest Connecticut, who reached out privately.”
De Rham said he felt very badly for Maher and the show’s director, Katharine Ray. “The director and actor put months into rehearsing, with compassion for their craft,” he said. “That being said, we’re not going to shy away from telling certain stories.”
He called the whole situation an important learning experience.
“While intentions of bringing stories to our community that would foster conversation is a good one, the impact of our decisions is not assuaged by intentions. This is a learning experience and part of the process that
we take seriously as an organization, and hope that this dialogue continues,” he said.
“A few people were aggressive and overly antagonistic, but most said, Here’s why we think it’s an issue. It came from a place of bridge-building and empathy.”