The Gay Stage: The Great LGBT Lingo Limbo

This is my most recent article on The Gay Stage's website. It's about how our choice of vocabulary can have both creative and destructive effects on LGBT identity and its ability to create a dialogue or relationship with mainstream society. I hope you find it an interesting read.

http://www.thegaystage.co.uk/politics/saying-the-right-thing-is-hard-can-censorship-really-reduce-transphobia

When Graham became Rachael - Learning the fine art of crossdressing for the stage

Rachael's Cafe is a play that follows the story of a muscular, motorbike riding, family man named Eric living on the Bible Belt in Indiana, USA who is convinced he should have been born a woman and eventually makes the transition to living socially as a female. Seemingly not the most mainstream of topics and, frankly, not one I was entirely sure I had the knowledge or sensitivity to handle.

Once I decided to put the play on at the Edinburgh Festival 2011 I went actor scouting hoping, somewhat naively, that I I would find someone who had dealt with such subject matter before. Although I saw plenty of actors who were capable of portraying camp men or drag queens, this is the exact antithesis of what Rachael is. Rather than being a man who combines parodied aspects of femininity with the unique qualities of being a man, Rachael is someone who tries to embody what it is to be a woman. Her desire is to be mistaken for a female and not a man in drag. It took Rachael years of trial and error to perfect her ladylike gait and gestures and the thought of doing that from scratch with someone who didn't have the same desire for femininity as Rachael naturally was daunting. However, since I couldn't find a transexual actor (and since Rachael is entirely untouched in terms of cosmetic and surgical procedures or hormone tablets it would be very difficult to find someone at her exact point of gender transition) I had no choice but to start from the very beginning. 

I cast Graham Elwell, a wonderful actor, who had never worn heels, tights, or dresses in his life. As he walked out of his splendid audition we said, "Just to check? You'll be fine about waxing your legs and all that right?" The look of surprise and horror on his face made us realise our work was certainly going to be cut out. Look to the left. You might agree.

A few rehearsals in we started in off in heels to help him adapt to their restrictions and to give him guidelines around which to develop the natural sway of a woman's walk. To be honest we spent an awful lot of time telling him to stop moaning about the pain in his feet because now at least he 'knew how us women felt'. Feel sorry for him? Nah! 

A lovely lady named Caroline Tyler (herself transgender) kindly responded to our request for someone who knew what they were doing to help us do Graham's make up. Once again we needed to make sure we stayed well away from Drag Queen make-up and went for a more natural look. This had to be combined with an appropriate amount and style of base to ensure we covered stubble and created a smooth skin surface. This was kindly provided free of charge by the wonderful people at Extreme Make-Up. 

There was some tension regarding make-up application initially. 

And some outright fighting when the wig went on,

But eventually he sat still. 

I can't say he was thrilled with his first attempt at a dress and stockings.

I would include a picture of when Graham managed to burn himself with Nair but frankly it's too painful a memory to revisit. Suffice to say this time we dealt with a combination of electrical shaving, gentle use of Nair and eyebrow tweezing. 

So, without further ado allow me introduce Rachael Jones (as played by Graham Elwell). I'm pretty happy with our results:

Transland

This year, as some of you will know, I wrote, directed and produced a play called Rachael's Cafe. It was, in short, a one hour one-man play created through interviews with its real life protagonist. This protagonist happened to be a pre-op transgender living on the Bible Belt in Indiana, USA where she runs an 'inclusive' cafe. I wanted to write a play, but I didn't set out to write a 'transgender' play.

Admittedly, though not involved in it myself, I have always been drawn to exploring, through theatre, the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) scene. My previous directorial role was for Torchsong Trilogy, and I'm an avid fan of other similarly focused productions, but this is entirely subconscious and I certainly wasn't looking to get further involved when I stumbled across the raw material for Rachael's Cafe.

Transgender is, anyway, quite a step away from the LGB bit of LGBT. While the first three deal with sexual orientation, the latter deals solely with gender rather than with any sort of sexual preference. For this reason it is a little uncomfortably lumped in with the rest causing great disparity in peoples' general understanding of what exactly it means to be transgender.

Having spent hours interviewing the real Rachael Jones, meeting and talking with a variety of transgender people around the UK, shopping for the necessary underwear and make-up, teaching a man to walk in shoes and dealing with a very straight actor's issues regarding getting to grips with his feminine side to such a degree, I have to admit the entire concept still perplexes me a great deal. I completely comprehend that this is not a choice for the individuals involved. Having witnessed the damage it can potentially wreak on an individual, a family, on a life, I know that wanting to change your gender is not a whim, a rebellion or a selfish act, it is for most an entirely necessary act and, for some, a matter of life and death.

I'd only met one transgender person before Rachael. I was 16 at the time and I remember that the main reason this person had been pointed out to me was because she was not passable, she was not the norm and I, in no way, truly got to know her as a human being. Looking back I now wonder how many people really did take the time to get to know her.

As I was working on the play two things struck me:

1. There are a lot of transgender people! Almost everyone I stopped to talk about the play with (whether in London whilst fundraising or in Edinburgh while flyering) knew a transgender person. Last week I took my car into the garage and my mechanic told me his best friend was transitioning, I went to my local pub in Canterbury and one of the regulars confided she used to be a man. Rachael was an anomaly, unique, to me but now I was learning that there were hundreds, if not thousands, of people in the exact same scenario as her.

2. Transgender people were not enjoying the same amount of support or understanding as the Gay community. I think this partly comes back to the fact that transgender sits a little uncomfortably in the LGBT acronym, but it means that people truly do not understand it. From the LadyBoys of Bangkok to the fetishisation of the transitioning body, there is a very small box into which we try to squeeze the entire trans issue and it simply doesn't reflect the majority of these people who are trying to live as an average person whether that be male or female. I found that contacting gay magazines, communities and fundraising centres was easy to do and all above board. I found that there were a lot less of these outlets for the trans community and I found contacting dressing services for transgender people was incredibly difficult. Firstly there are not a huge amount of these services, secondly they seem to be scattered in basements and attics across London, thirdly they seem to open and close at the rate of knots and lastly there is a veil of privacy surrounding everything since so many trans people are 'in the closet'. We went to a wig company calling themselves the best in 'Gender Transformations' and yet the stylist spent the entire time commenting on the size of my actor's head, his large features and the fact he wasn't 'passable' as a woman. He was mortified, imagine if someone desperate to transition was in that chair? In the end, almost everything I managed to organise was done through word-of-mouth. I posted on forums, asked for introductions and people sent me their own clothes, wigs and shoes.

Once back from Edinburgh this year a television programme on Channel 4 suddenly appeared that seemed to change everything. My Transsexual Summer, featuring a host of pre-op, post-op and transitioning individuals, instantly brought transgenders to the fore. Issues such as visiting the local pub, looking passable and applying for jobs were tackled head on and the public started to be gently, and honestly, educated. This was followed up with the BBC's Coming Out Diaries and a flurry of articles in women's magazines as people suddenly rushed to tell their stories of transitioning and get it all out in the open.

I can only imagine the collective sigh of relief that transgender people all over the UK breathed as this series aired. And people being relieved, relaxed, feeling 'right' can only be a good thing.

Twitter: @rachaelscafe1
Facebook: rachaelscafetheplay
www.littleflytheatre.com