AN OPEN LETTER: ONE YEAR LATER
April 22nd 2021
An Open Letter to the Musical Theatre Industry, responding to the casting of yet another cisgender actor in a trans role in Musical Theatre. This particular letter was sparked by the recent casting of a cisgender man in the role of Bernadette, a trans woman, in the UK tour of ‘Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.’
One year on from our last open letter asking for better from the Musical Theatre Industry, it is sad to see that very little has changed when it comes to casting trans actors in trans roles. After so much hopeful talk in the last year of creating a better and more welcoming industry upon its return, it’s frustrating that for the trans community this simply isn’t true. Whether it be Off-West End, Tours or Broadway, we are tired of the promises to learn and change when that clearly isn’t the intention of some producers and creative teams. This letter should not need a yearly review but here we are, demanding once again that trans people should be listened to when it comes to profiting off of our community.
It is often said that change takes time, and that if we, the minority, wish to see change, we must simply educate the majority. We must invest our time in doing research, providing helpful workshops, lead consultancy and sit in rooms to spew our trauma, all for the greater good of the industry. Sometimes this is paid work, often it isn’t. We must do this work while hand-holding, with our kiddie gloves on, while smiling our polite little smiles, making sure to hurt no cis-feelings.
If you’d like to read a letter that panders to cisgender guilt and patiently hand-holds you through un-learning your transphobia, then feel free to read a copy of our very thoughtful, very helpful letter from last year, attached at the bottom of this one. Because that is not what this letter is. This letter is anger. This letter does not hide our feelings, push our hurt to the borders, does not pretend that we cannot see what you are doing. We are not obtuse. We are part of an industry that pretends to be liberal, and to be queer, and to be vibrant, but it is not. We know this. We work in this industry, the same as you.
We know that putting out a casting call that is trans-inclusive only once you’ve been called out for transphobia is optics. We know that casting a sprinkling of trans people in ensemble and non-gender-specific roles is harm-reduction. It is holding hostages. It is minimal work for maximum pay-off.
We know that ‘transgender’ is zeitgeist. We know that to put a trans actor in your play makes you look like a liberal arts organisation, and we know that it is part of business. You have done the cost/benefit calculations, and you know that it looks bad if we’re not included, not after we’ve been oh-so-vocal on social media, but you also know that, at the end of the day, we’re just an estimated one percent of the population (Stonewall, 2021), so what you can do is you can make the casting call, have a workshop, shed a tear, and then you can ignore it all and still cast cisgender actors in transgender roles.
Last year, we said that the letter was ‘not an attempt to single out individual actors or casting directors, rather a chance for people to listen to the voices of trans and gender nonconforming (GNC) individuals’, and so this is not that letter.
What you have done this year is violence. Two out of five transgender people, that’s 41% of us, have experienced (or, rather, reported) a hate crime in the last 12 months. We must assume the number increases when thinking about hate crimes that go unreported. We reminded you of this last year.
What you do when you cast a cis man, put him in a dress, and label him as trans, is you let violence happen to a transgender woman in the future. A member of your audience will see a man in a dress, read your programme, and will think, “haha, that’s a man in a dress”, and you are allowing that violence. A particular audience member will see your casting of a cis man and will think “hell yeah, the trans people are going to be so mad”. You use Twitter, you are aware these people exist.
To be clear, you have not just made a casting announcement, you have announced that you prioritise money over the lives of transgender people. This is not an exaggeration. You have chosen that. You have decided that trans people: creatives, actors, audience members, producers, kids, friends, family, are not safe near you.
And we know it is optics because we know what you will say. You will release a statement that reads: “we’re truly sorry that you feel hurt. We just did not find an actor who could play the role like this cisgender man could.” Even after our workshop, and our hand-holding, and our intervention. That is another violence.
You have had a year of nothing, of sitting and listening and promising to do better, and still, you decide, you’d rather not spend some money helping a transgender actor prepare for a role that we are, apparently, not good enough for, and never will be.
You cast cisgender women to play non-binary people because you believe that we are women-lite, tomboys not man enough to be transgender men, but not-quite men-in-dresses, instead of the historical and well-documented gender identities that pre-date notions of binary gender invented in the nineteenth century by white eugenicists. We say this not to appropriate the terminology of abolition but to pre-empt your cries that your ‘hands are tied’. If they are so tied, then don’t mount the musical, and commission some of us to write you a musical that floats your company smoothly across zeitgeist into ‘liberal arts optics’.
Or, put money into training multiple transgender actors so they are to your ‘standards’, and then pay them to consult on your show, so you can actually be the liberal arts organisation you so desperately crave looking like. 25% of Trans people have faced homelessness (Stonewall, 2017) and are more likely to be unemployed and receiving lower wages (Faragher, 2020) so the expectation for trans people to just appear, magically, in an industry where you are expected to work for free even after years of expensive training, is ridiculous.
To change this Industry for the better we need to work together, because the producers and creative teams aren’t listening to the trans creators. We cannot fight this alone because we are spent and exhausted. Many cis people have the power to make demands we cannot.
So, if you are a venue supporting these shows, turn them away. If you are a member of the company of one of these shows, demand change from the producers and creative teams. And, if you are a cisgender actor who is playing trans, ask yourself why you’re okay with taking a role that a transgender actor will never be offered. We are apparently not talented or skilled enough to play ourselves, so what makes you good enough to play us?
Last year, we did talking and listening and helping and smiling and politeness and taking the fucking punch, because we know that to speak out is to be accused of over-reacting. This year, we will overreact, and that is a goddamn threat.
Below is the letter that was written last year with a few minor adjustments to better reflect our situation one year on:
In the last months we have seen a number of casting announcements or discussions around casting in which cisgender actors (cisgender, also "cis", meaning those who identify with the gender they were assigned at birth) are cast as trans (trans being an umbrella term to signify the inclusion for those who identify within the scope of being "trans", i.e. transgender, transfeminine/masculine, non-binary/enby) characters in new and pre-existing musicals. It has become apparent that this is not down to a single casting decision by one production company, but is an industry wide issue that we wish to discuss. This is not an attempt to single out individual actors or casting directors, rather a chance for people to listen to the voices of trans and gender nonconforming (GNC) individuals within the theatre industry regarding the changes we need to implement.
What we are seeing is an issue with the casting process and how we, as an industry, search for, appeal for, and audition minority groups - this is not solely a trans-focused issue, but it is important to explore through a trans-focused lens in this instance. While we understand that the pond of trans performers is, comparatively, a small one, it is clear that trans musical theatre can thrive, by evidence of new smaller scale productions successfully writing and finding parts for trans performers, as well as through trans focused events and cabarets.
We would like to address why casting cisgender performers as trans characters is a serious problem, and explain the harm it does to trans performers, and the trans community as a whole from a UK point of view. For those not aware, large swathes of the British media at present are targeting trans people as a minority group. Whether it's a broadsheet article defending the behaviour and discourse of some Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists, (or TERFs, a group of vocal individuals synonymous with opinion that modern feminism should exclude trans people), or sensationalism targeting trans children and puberty blockers, it is hard to deny that certain media outlets, and journalists, are entertaining a transphobic rhetoric. Two in five trans people (41%) have experienced a hate crime or incident because of their gender identity in the last 12 months, according to Stonewall’s Trans Report, and there has been a 37% rise in transphobic hate crime this year alone.
The casting of cisgender people, often cis men as trans women, is an insensitive choice that, even without intention to, gives further credit to harmful allegations, and reinforces the ideology that trans women are simply "men in dresses". This also applies to more recent casting decisions where we see cis women cast as nonbinary characters suggesting that nonbinary people are simply ‘women-lite’ which is simply untrue. If we cannot see this conservative reactionism challenged in theatre and dramatic art through the casting of trans performers as trans characters, then we are unlikely to see a broader change in attitudes towards trans and GNC individuals elsewhere.
The indispensability of trans actors playing trans characters is also exemplified in the severe lack of trans roles within the musical theatre canon. There are only four (widely recognised) major Broadway musicals with trans roles explicitly referenced in their libretto, and with so few trans characters available for trans and GNC performers to play, it is unjust and, frankly, ridiculous for these parts to go to cisgender performers. It is worth noting there are quite a few new emerging musicals in Britain that we know of with trans writers, cast members, trans consultancy, or with trans people working on the teams that are setting an example. Shows like The Jury, The Phase, Steep Themselves in Night, Unicorn, Closets, STAGES, Asian Pirate Musical, and Brother are examples of theatre where trans people have been accurately written as (and cast in) major roles. If ground-level new musicals can have meaningful trans representation, then there is nothing stopping larger productions from doing the same.
It is also important to explain that by casting cisgender performers as trans characters, we fail the next generation of trans performers; these choices deny trans performers the opportunity to see themselves fitting into this industry, especially when roles are specifically written in their image - if the current cohort of trans performers cannot get cast, budding aspirationals are discouraged from pursuing their ambitons. In order to inspire future generations, to tap into their potential, and widen the selection of trans performers working in the UK, we must be visible to them, and imminently so.
Additionally, cisgender members of the industry must consider why they wish to showcase trans characters in the first place. The elevation of trans stories by cis creatives is, of course, imperative, but only if cast appropriately - if a production develops a show with trans characters, yet excludes trans actors from portraying them, then the sincerity of their support for our community becomes evident in its falsehood.
Having but scratched the surface on some pressing issues, we are willing to suggest solutions in order to achieve better trans representation. Existing companies to consult or refer to include Equity LGBT+ Committee, Theatre Queers, Queerly Productions, AllAboutTrans, Outbox Theatre, Milk Presents, Trans Voices Company, or The Queer House; all of whom seek to elevate trans productions and performers.
We can also look to casting directors to change the way that they seek and audition trans performers. We would encourage transparency in the casting process, as well as more open calls and broader social media campaigns to find trans performers who might not have access to Spotlight, or be represented by an agent. Industry creatives must prioritise finding people with the right experience and identity to play a role.
In the unlikely scenario where casting trans talent is truly impossible, and one has referred to the aforementioned companies and agencies to source the full pool of trans performers, then the only option is to postpone or cancel your production. To persist with an inauthentic and politically dangerous theatrical performance is to be, at best, irresponsible.
With the community of upcoming trans writers and performers flourishing in recent years, it's certain that one's desire to tell a particular trans-focused story will be achievable in the future, only if one reaches out (in earnest) to these creatives. If people are not willing to make this effort, then it is unlikely that they are the right people to tell trans stories at any date.
Casting is always political, always partisan; no theatre exists in a cultural and social vacuum, and this is no less true of musical theatre. By casting trans actors, you normalise and humanise the trans experience and trans bodies. When you cast a trans actor, they are able to give an authentic voice to the production as it grows and develops, and, more than a writing consult, an actor can work with issues that arise from the unwritten communication that is only found later in a production's creation/outing. You can also be reactive and proactive simultaneously - we know, from experience, a trans actor can unite communities in simply doing the job they are paid to do.
No casting process is perfect and there are always various factors to consider. Perhaps in an ideal world, the gender of a character, and gender of respective actors, wouldn't matter - but until trans actors are accepted and cast in trans and cis roles, we have an inequity which positive action can help to address.
