Disqus - Latest Comments for ChasSF

Re: Pronouncing Things with Amazon’s Polly

ChasSF — Sat, 27 Feb 2021 12:56:36 -0000

Great service, thank you. Please set the animation to respect prefers-reduced-motion, so as not to animate if I've set Reduce Motion (Mac) or turn off Show animation in Windows.

Re: Writing Towards the Specific

ChasSF — Tue, 04 Feb 2014 02:13:59 -0000

Thank you, Jacqueline, for starting from the idea that we can all write about different races. To argue otherwise is to say that white folks can only write about white folks, which many white folks are all too happy to do.

That said, yes, as a white playwright I have to be willing to do my homework and willing to hear that I made a mistake, or mistakes. I've had to change my plays Rice Kugel (Asian American/white interracial relationships) and My Visit to America (indigenous American/European relationships) because I got big chunks of them wrong the first time. My Visit to America is still under revision, and I'm still not sure I have it right. I expect to have many more changes to work out.

And I go to see plays that are written by playwrights of color, not to appropriate their work or ideas, but to hear other expressions so that I'm not just hearing a white view of such relationships. (Oh, and I happen to like them as theatrical works about as often as I like the work of white playwrights, which is to say usually.)

I still can't honestly say that I do as much homework as it sounds like you do.

Matthew Lopez's The Whipping Man is one of the finest examples I've seen of writing outside of one's own ethnicity or of interracial relationships. This is someone who obviously did his homework.

I don't know where you land on Clybourne Park. My take on it - whether this was the playwright's intent or not - was that we white folks are off in our own world and don't listen. I fear that reality creeping into my writing and can only hope that I really do listen.

Re: Don’t Call me Ma’am: On the Politics of Trans Casting

ChasSF — Sun, 06 Oct 2013 02:45:39 -0000

As a cis-sort-of-butch-GWM I'm concerned about inadvertently hijacking this thread by bringing this up, so please bring it back if I'm leading it astray. This is about how one identifies a transgender actor.

I just noticed that Theatre Bay Area's (SF) options for gender are Male, Female and Other - see resume. It is possible to check more than one of the three. So TBA's site has the ability to register transgender actors.

Of the three actors choosing Other - see resume, two have nothing on their resume reflecting this information. The other has played Frank 'n' Furter and his website refers to his drag abilities, drag not being the same as transgender although certainly genderqueer.

Oh, yeah, and I'm not sure why my name is showing up as ChasSF here and Chas Belov below.

As of this moment, I can't find a self-identified FTM or MTF actor from the TBA database. Putting oneself on the TBA database does require paid TBA membership, which could be a barrier for some.

The next question is: Does the actor have to be visibly transgender? While I'd guess this depends on the script, this is not an academic question. The one FTM actor I mentioned in my previous comment, I've known him for years and he's a guy as far as I'm concerned. I've only known he's transgender for the last few years because I Googled him, not because he told me. He reads as a guy, not as FTM. Would that disqualify him for an explicitly FTM role?

Perhaps 2/3 the FTM and half the MTF's I've known as transgendered read as transgendered. There is the point that such actors, as MJ Kaufman points out, don't need to be trained as they've already been through it. Genderqueers (which I don't identify as) have been through much of it, so I wonder if they could qualify as well.

The upside of a genderqueer/trans actor database is the ability to cast. The downside is the risk of discrimination - which may have led to my FTM actor friend to choose not to out himself to me. So where do we begin making this information available to be put to good use?

One thing I did since reading this article is go back and edit the casting requirements for my second play Hemlock to make it clear which roles could be cast visibly transgender or genderqueer.

But if someone, like my actor friend, is not visibly transgender, I don't think whether or not someone is actually transgender enters into it for a non-transgender role, so in my book he'd be castable for any male role.

For someone who is visibly transgender or genderqueer, whether they might be castable for a specifically male or female role would seem to depend on either their ability to act over it or the willingness of the director and playwright to explore what it does to the character's subtext to have the transgender-ness or genderqueer-ness be visible. It might work in some plays better than others, e.g., where the male character doesn't need to be butch/the female character doesn't have to be femme. I don't think there's a hard and fast answer; it's complicated.

Re: SEX ON STAGE

ChasSF — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 20:21:06 -0000

Rob, as promised, I've made a blog post responding to your post, concerning sex I've seen on stage as well as talking about the role sex plays in my own work. http://thelarksnest.wordpre...

Re: Five Uneasy Pieces

ChasSF — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 01:02:54 -0000

Thanks for writing this. Some of my work is kind of "ugly duckling" and its important to me to stick up for that if that's what the play calls for.

Re: The Path

ChasSF — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 02:28:33 -0000

Inspiring, and something to be proud of. Thanks.

Re: Ten Minute Plays: A Breath of Fresh Air or. . . .?

ChasSF — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 04:05:24 -0000

One argument I often hear is that if you don't like a play, it'll be over in 10 minutes. But my response is that if you *do* like a play, it will also be over in 10 minutes. But from the playwriting end, I've had one 10-minute play produced and two full-lengths get staged readings. I got more out of the full-length staged readings than I did out of the 10-minute play production.

I did take part in 31 Plays 31 Days and had fun. But I don't think it taught me anything about how to write a full-length play. Writing full-length plays taught me that. (Well, it did give me practice in being okay with crappy first drafts, which does come in handy when writing full-lengths.)

My three-year-old blog post/rant on 10-minute plays may be found at https://chasbelov.wordpress... should anyone care to read it.

Re: Playing Politics

ChasSF — Sun, 15 Jul 2012 14:38:05 -0000

For me, the idea is that good politics does not excuse bad art. If a play is well-crafted and avoids overt didacticism, it can be as political as it likes and I will have the opportunity to enjoy it and maybe even get its message. But, even if I agree with a play's politics, hitting me over the head with the message or forgetting to entertain me will make the experience annoying or even excruciating.

Chas Belov
http://chasbelov.com/

Re: Gay Interracial Relationships: On Being “Sticky Rice” and Loving Other Asian Men

ChasSF — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 03:34:15 -0000

Not sure why my comments aren't threading, but that's Web 2.0. Let's see...

- I've known at least 3 AM/BM long-term couples
- I've known at least 2 dozen AM/AM couples
- While I do find that photo attractive for eye candy, I prefer to find my playmates among the somewhat more padded crowd. Much more cuddable!
- And yes, while I self-ID as a rice queen, I do find there are attractive men of all races.
- If I'm going to go with another white guy, I prefer another Jewish guy like myself, but that's a totally different blog post lol.

Re: Gay Interracial Relationships: On Being “Sticky Rice” and Loving Other Asian Men

ChasSF — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 03:28:55 -0000

Nice. I never discover those Easter egg thingies.