#don’t have the energy for complex thoughts tonight and yet ive written all this out

[aroanthy]

trying to write something about how much i hate the ‘misandry in utena/the utena fandom’ crowd but it feels kind of redundant to me. i think i just don’t consider people who use the word ‘misandry’ serious people. i do however feel an obligation to occasionally make my position clear on that front, because im aware i tougapost and some people love to bring that guy up as the misandry in the utena fandom poster boy. which is so fucking stupid because touga is not victimised by ‘misandry’, touga is victimised by homophobic violence which is wrapped up in misogynistic violence, both of which are the cogs in the machine we call patriarchy. touga is not affected by misogyny in the same way that anthy is, that’s one of the key takeaways you can get from their being foils, and i don’t really like the whole ‘oh patriarchy hurts men too’ stuff because it neglects the fact that men reap so many material benefits from what some people deem ‘harm’ to them (emotional repression being the big one. it’s not great but when you’re the privileged party and gain power from it, who cares? it’s like the inverse of kozue trying to use sexuality to gain power: she can’t do that). but touga is a shitty dysfunctional person who has been shaped by violence and in turn perpetuated violence, and his character excels, imho, at examining how patriarchy functions and attempts to homogenise life’s many complexities. same deal as nanami really. they just play different roles in this gender essentialist nightmare that crunches out any grit. and you can extend that idea to all rgu characters but i am who i am and that is a kiryuu siblings enjoyer

#i always say that tougaheads are either the stupidest or wisest utena fans #you know are you blorbo-ifiying him in a way that would stab anthy to death with a million swords imbued with human hatred #or are you considering his character in all his awfulness and complexity and attempting to internalise the things you can learn from him?? #don’t have the energy for complex thoughts tonight and yet ive written all this out #sorry for the brain fart #one day ill write this shit out properly with all my transfeminist theory properly cited #but for now i will half remember passages from whipping girl and gesture hysterically at himemiya anthy my best friend himemiya anthy #and also occasionally try to convince people that touga’s perspective is interesting to consider #i mean it’s horrific and maddening and frequently deeply uncomfortable and to be clear as a person?? hate that guy #but. oh i don’t know. oh i don’t know. extending compassion towards him helped me a lot personally #he anthy and nanami all mean more to me than i can really express #and i think none of them should ever speak to each other ever again #maybe anthy is allowed one run in with both of them separately. and she gets to dunk on them. but maybe not #ANYWAY! #dais.txt

[goodticklebrain]

Q&A August: Kate Powers of the Redeeming Time Project

Q&A August continues! I first met Kate Powers at the opening reception of the 2016 Shakespeare Theatre Association conference.  It was my very first STA conference and I was, needless to say, SUPER NERVOUS about suddenly being in a huge room with hundreds of top-notch Shakespeare experts, artists, administrators, and educators. I felt very much like an impostor and interloper: after all, I was just drawing these stupid little comics, while these people were making Shakespeare come to life, and were changing lives in the process.

I had heard of Kate’s phenomenal work with Rehabilitation Through the Arts at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, so I was already suitably intimidated when I was first introduced to her. However, she took one look at my name tag, said “Oh my god, you’re HER”, and then seized me by the arm and proceeded to lead me around the reception, introducing me to all manner of Shakespearean theatre luminaries and instantly incorporating me into the STA community. And that’s pretty much Kate in a nutshell for you: welcoming and supportive, absurdly generous with her time and energy, and never hesitating to help lift people up in any way she can. Over the past several years she has become a wonderful resource, correspondent, and friend, and I’m so excited to share her with you now.

Take it away, Kate!

1.  Who are you? Why Shakespeare?

I am a director, a text nerd, a prison theatre maker. I saw my first production of Shakespeare before anyone had a chance to tell me that this was going to be good for me, or that these people talk funny.  I was eight.  The play was in a park downtown; we had a picnic and a can of mosquito spray standing by as we watched Petruchio arrive (on a motorcycle, wearing leopard-print hot pants, as it happened) to wed Katharine.  I am sure that I missed a lot, but I had a great time.

After a student matinee of my production of Measure for Measure at the Kansas City Rep in 2005, a girl asked at the post-show discussion, with great urgency, if Isabel was going to marry the Duke.  When I directed The Winter’s Tale at American Shakespeare Center, I spoke to a lady in the audience who was seeing her first-ever Shakespeare play.  She asked me if I had updated the language or if someone else had done it for me.  She was stunned when I told her that we had not changed a word.  “It’s crystal clear,” she exclaimed.  I am all about smashing up the cultural church of Shakespeare and starting the Shakespeare block party.

2.  What moment(s) in Shakespeare always make you laugh?

It’s cheap, but it is textually supported cheap. I laugh every time an actor playing Malvolio reads the letter, “If this fall into thy hand, revolve,” takes a beat, contemplates, and then turns in a circle. It’s not actually what the letter writer means (it means “consider,” essentially), but it doesn’t matter. I think you have written a strip about revolving Malvolios, (Mya interjects: I have!)  and I would like someone to start a band called the Revolving Malvolios.

3.  What's a favorite Shakespearean performance anecdote?

I would probably have to go with Squirrel Butt Romeo.

Mya interjects: Kate is, of course, referring to the immortal anecdote that led to the creation of this comic:

4.  What's one of the more unusual Shakespearean interpretations you've either seen or would like to see?

I saw a Czech language production of Hamlet while I was in grad. school. The host at my B&B in Prague strongly discouraged me from going. I think he thought I would be upset when it wasn’t in English. I told him it was okay, that I was fairly familiar with the story. They cast Claudio much younger than I had previously seen. The late king’s much younger brother. He read like an older brother to Hamlet in some ways, and also, he was HOT. I suddenly understood “The king doth wake tonight and takes his rouse, / Keeps wassail and the swaggering upspring reels,” much more clearly, and I also could see the appeal, the sexy appeal, the temptation, the need to believe, for Gertrude.

The interpretation that I have seen far too often is the leather-clad Hamlet wielding an AK-47. Just. Don’t.

Mya interjects: OK, I have definitely seen leather-clad Hamlets, but Hamlet wielding an AK-47? What is that??

5. What passages from Shakespeare have stayed with you?

“It is required you do awake your faith” and “Let be” are perpetually in the front of my consciousness.

Mya interjects: I totally forgot about “Let be”. Is there a more powerful two-word quote in all of Shakespeare?

Right now I hear Sir Thomas More’s “mountainish inhumanity” speech to the rioting mob loudly and insistently:

“Grant them removed, and grant that this your noise Hath chid down all the majesty of England; Imagine that you see the wretched strangers, Their babies at their backs and their poor luggage, Plodding to th’ports and coasts for transportation, And that you sit as kings in your desires, Authority quite silent by your brawl, And you in ruff of your opinions clothed; What had you got? I’ll tell you. You had taught How insolence and strong hand should prevail, How order should be quelled; and by this pattern Not one of you should live an aged man, For other ruffians, as their fancies wrought, With self same hand, self reasons, and self right, Would shark on you, and men like ravenous fishes Would feed on one another.”

6. What Shakespeare plays have changed for you?

Which ones haven’t?

7. What Shakespearean character or characters do you identify the most with?

I pretty much am Beatrice, with a dash of Paulina. Very smart, very punny, often wielding my words as a weapon, tenacious, determined, protective of those around me, and also afraid of getting hurt, yet determined to speak, to name injustice when I see it. “I care not. It is an heretic that makes the fire.”

8. Where can we find out more about you? Are there any projects/events you would like us to check out?

I am the founder of the Redeeming Time Project. Our name comes from Hal’s speech in I Henry IV, “I’ll so offend to make offense a skill / Redeeming time when men think least I will.” We make theatre with men incarcerated in two Minnesota state prisons. I started doing this work over a decade ago with Rehabilitation Through the Arts in New York state.  We believe human beings are born inherently good, and we teach critical life skills (such as empathy, critical thinking, communication skills, teamwork, conflict resolution, goal setting, delayed gratification) through making theatre together. At Sing Sing Correctional Facility in 2016, while we were rehearsing Twelfth Night, one of the men said, “Shakespeare gave me words for emotions I didn’t know I had.”

The act of imagination required to play a character can become the spark of compassion that leads to empathy. One can learn empathy through the effort of performing a play, because one must ask, “What is it like to be this character? What is it like to walk in his shoes?” Through rehearsal room disagreements about the interpretation of a scene, or a line, one can learn to tolerate not just different points of view but also ambiguity itself. This newly acquired tolerance and wider understanding of human behavior helps cultivate patience and perspective.

Shakespeare teaches us what it means to be human, in all the nobility as well as all the depravity that it can entail. Again and again, he asks us, “What does it mean to be alive? How should we act? Who am I? What do I love?” Redeeming Time makes Shakespeare accessible to all, restores a voice to the silenced and voiceless, and explores the full complexity of the human condition.

Incarcerated individuals who study and perform Shakespeare challenge. They develop a passion for learning. They explore the full complexity of humanity through Shakespeare, reassessing their past and current choices, as well as their future options, as they do so. Although RTP will work with material written by other playwrights and authors, Shakespeare will always be the firm ground on which we stand.

(Back to Mya) Thanks so much to Kate for taking the time to answer my questions. You can find out more about Kate and her excellent work here:

plainKate.com

The Redeeming Time Project

@_plainkate_ on Twitter

Plus, you can hear Kate on several episodes of the Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast:

Episode 346: Theatre in Prison

Episode 398: ‘Salesman’ Behind Bars

Episode 498: Year of Shakespeare

Episode 532: Shakespeare and Trump (also featuring yours truly)

Episode 580: Redeeming Time Project

COMING THURSDAY: A fellow Michigander who just happens to be one of my personal Shakespearean superheroes!

#Q&A August #shakespeare

[waitingonthetardis]

World Enough and Time + Disability Representation

Warning: Spoilers

I expected World Enough an Time to be an amazing episode because, hey, two Masters and Mondasian Cybermen.  I did not expect this episode to be amazing because of disability representation, but it was.  In fact, I might call this episode one of my favorites, not because of the story, but because it was the first time I have seen myself onscreen.

I don’t talk about my disabilities on this blog since my main blog @spoonieswimmer is my platform for that.  I am chronically ill.  I am disabled.  I have been sick for four and a half years.  My illness was actually what got me into fandom in the first place, and it effects every second of my life.  In all that time, tonight was the first time seeing someone like me on screen.  And the character is the co-star on Doctor Who, my absolute favorite show.

Now don’t get me wrong.  Disability representation has been getting better.  (Class, anyone?)  In the past two seasons of Doctor Who, we have had 2 disabled characters.  (3, counting World Enough and Time.)  That’s great, but still a little weak.  And, disability is not one size fits all.  As a person with an invisible illness, my life is very different from someone who is D/deaf.  So, tonight was not the first time I have seen disability on tv, but it was the first time I have seen someone with a disability like mine.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, I am talking about Bill Potts.  Up until this episode, Bill was not disabled.  I am not even sure she was written to be disabled in this episode, but that does not change the fact that she is disabled.  In the absolute broadest terms, a disability is a condition that causes limitations in a person’s life.  Now, it is actually much more complex than this, but Bill’s fake heart definitely posed limitations on her.

I’m going to break down aspects of the episode and how they relate to me as a disabled person.  We’ll start with some superficial comparisons between Bill and myself and get deeper as we go.

Bill has a large device (her artificial heart) sticking out of her chest.  This is what keeps her alive.

I have a device implanted under the skin of my chest called a portacath.  A thin tube connects this device to my aorta and the tube ends just above my heart.  Every week, I have a needle inserted through my skin into the port and it can be used to deliver lifesaving medication.  Although my port is much smaller than Bill’s heart, it is still noticeable and uncomfortable.

Bill spent a significant portion of the episode dragging around an IV pole.

As part of my treatment, I get IVs done twice a week, though it used to be daily.  I spend six to ten hours a week hooked up to an IV, and, let me tell you, those things are really hard to drag around.  I actually spend most of my time watching Doctor Who while the bag drips.

At one point in the episode, Bill sat down into a wheelchair.  She could still walk, but it was on hand, which means she was likely a part-time wheelchair user.

Mobility devices are part of my life.  I have used a cane for some time, and lately I have been thinking of getting a wheelchair for part-time use.  I can walk, but it is painful and takes a lot of strength and energy that I don’t often have.

Bill cannot leave the hospital or her heart stops working.

Due to my disabilities, I am effectively housebound.  I leave my house about once a week, and get extremely sick every time I do.  I have had to quit school, sports, and all social activities because of it.

Bill has one friend for her entire stay in the hospital.  

It is very alienating to have a disability.  This is not only because it takes so much energy to go out and often you aren’t able to, but it is extremely hard to make and keep friends when your lives are so different.  

Bill’s one friend betrays her.

When you get sick, you quickly learn that friends don’t stick around.  Once they realize you won’t get better, they slowly stop talking to you one by one.  Four and a half years later, I have no friends left.  I thought that they were true friends, but they betrayed me, just like Bill was betrayed.

Bill spends the entire episode waiting for the Doctor.

When you are disabled, you spend a lot of time hoping, praying, and waiting for someone to help you.

Bill gets turned into a Cyberman.

Help does not come fast enough for the disabled.

I’ve cried over this episode.  I have spent a long time writing this, and I still have not managed to convey how important it is to me.  How important it is to have representation.  I could probably spend days pointing out metaphors for disability in this episode, and I sincerely hope that this is not the only time I will ever see myself on screen.  Representation is so important for every minority, but please, please, do not leave the disabled out of your activism.

#doctor who #doctor who spoilers #dw spoilers #doctor who series 10 #world enough and time #disabled #disability #spoonie #chronically ill #representation #medical tw #bill potts