cross-gendering roles — Page 3

I want to play Blance in Streetcar and i am preposing it as my senior thesis.... but i think Victor/Victoria should be done cross gendered except for Victoria, King, Toddy, and Mr Bernstien


lol i would wanna play Norma in that case!

grizabella--

Thank you. You articulated your opinions very well (and you're right, too!).

I played Lady in an experimental, class production of the Scottish play during college.

As for the emcee in CABARET, having a woman play it as a woman does make "Two Ladies" a little odd.

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I agree that the only reason people are so biased against cross-gendering is the culture conditioning they've been through. I've been in all female casts multiple times...most recently we did My Fair Lady. Playing Higgins helped me grow as an actress. As a female, there are certain roles which are not so challenging emotionally, and to have the opportunity to be pushed to the other end of every emotion I have to conjure as an actress helped me understand the scenes more fully. That sort of experience has helped me in other productions, and has made my other (female) preformances more convincing and honest.

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Thank you, Sparky. Not quite the way I would have put it, but it's nice to have someone thinking rationally.

Here's something I've learned about life: being open-minded is a good quality to have--but you have to draw the line somewhere.

Again, I reiterate my point that SOME roles can and have been cross-gendered successfully. However, most of the time, this is a bad idea. And I'm sorry, a "My Fair Lady" with a female Henry Higgins? Who directed that production--Roger DeBris?

Updated On: 12/19/05 at 12:02 AM

Ray-allthatjazz i was reffering to Norma Cassidy from Victor/Victoria

fiatlux--

Not only are you twisting my ideas around and implying things about me that are untrue, but you are no longer making any sense. Having a "heated argument" is one thing, but if you're going to imply that I'm racist and sexist just because I like to stick to the script, then you are not only irrational but a real jerk. People like you are not even worth reasoning with. Bye.

thanks baritone. sorry my somewhat agressive tone. and yes there have been some successful cross gendered castings, but to do it just for the sake of doing it is ..well..i think very insulting to the works of many playwrights and the talents of many very good actors/actresses depending which direction your headed.
in this day an age, we should be teaching actors how to work and be successfull at the craft, not the game.

if the emcee in cabaret was played by a woman, perhaps the "two ladies" could be men in drag

for all of you defending cross gendering. please defend the why i do not see a purpose. in the case of hairspray you were dealing with a brilliant actor who didnt play it as a drag queen but as a woman. anyone want to give this a shot. and not with some flippant answer. "oh cause its cool" really substantiate why.

I, for one, applaud Albee for not letting the fact of his homosexuality get in the way of his story. And I'm glad he won't let others mess with it, either.

That's what it really comes down to: the story. Does this cross-gendering business HONESTLY serve the story? Or does it just hinder it?

The whole idea is, in my book, quite absurd.

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Perhaps the question really is why do we cast by gender? Because 20/21 century theatre is going through that particular fashion, probably. We're used to women playing women's parts and men playing men's parts.

Elsewhere in the world of work, however, if we tried that little scam - there are certain jobs for the boys and girls should only have certain jobs - we would quite rightly be greeted with cries of derision. It should be the same with acting.

Every day as an actor one is asked to play a role that often (if not generally) falls outside one's own personal experience be it a King, murderer, a bachelor in New York with commitment problems, a Jew in a concentration camp, a Cardinal, Medea or a Captain in the Austrian Navy with seven children and a servant problem (I'm just thinking back on mine). None of these are me - I may invest the characters with my understanding and sensibility but at the end of the day, I take my costume and slap off and go to the pub.

What then is the difference between playing these roles and a character, that happens to be female or male? The female or male bit is surely the least important facet in many ways - their motivation and their character should be paramount not their anatomical make up. It should be possible (and it is) for audiences to look beyond a literal presentation and accept actors playing a certain role and just as they "know" that they are not watching a real king or a real murderer or a nun singing on a hillside, but an actor playing the part, the same goes for an actress playing Hamlet or an actor playing Martha.

Updated On: 12/20/05 at 06:53 AM

"What then is the difference between playing these roles and a character, that happens to be female or male? The female or male bit is surely the least important facet in many ways - their motivation and their character should be paramount not their anatomical make up. It should be possible (and it is) for audiences to look beyond a literal presentation and accept actors playing a certain role and just as they "know" that they are not watching a real king or a real murderer or a nun singing on a hillside, but an actor playing the part, the same goes for an actress playing Hamlet or an actor playing Martha."

Suspension of disbelief is the problem. It is very difficult for the vast majority of people to get past the fact that "that's not a real woman up there". Maybe the the audience's fault, maybe it's not. Either way, the story suffers and, in my book, the story takes priority. I hate it when people take a show and try to mash it into their worldview instead of letting the story win out and dictate what the audience may learn.

It is, of course, a whole differnt case where the man in a woman's role is entirely convincing as woman or when the show is in a educational context and there aren't enough of one gender to fill the parts.

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