Just out., January 23, 2009, Page 30, Image 30

3Q.JUStlQUt
JANUARY 23, 2009
culture
Girl Meets Boy
Playwright feels boxed in by womanhood
by Jacob Anderson-Minshall
Portland's Oldest
Professional
Tax Service
• No Appointment Necessary
• Free Quotes
5816 N. Greeley
Portland, OR 97217
503-289-4500
reliabletax.com •
u i]___ UULJ
———I ■
■
■
...............
■■■
I
I
!
A rmoires S tarting
from *295!
4 All French Armoires ire now Wo oft our
regularly low prices for a limited tune onljl
'With more than SO from which to choose, vou'Q 1
Mmd yours here & we’ll store it until New Year’«! ,
Corner of SI' Grand (P Main
Rl(l block north of I I,iwthorne Bridge) ,
M-Sat 11-6 • Sun 12-5
Mk\
503-234-0003
t^Mmplygrandantiques.com •;
ike Alex, the main character in her new
play, Boxes, Jessamyn Rae feels like “the
world around me is saying: ‘Pick one
[sex]. Pick one or the other.’ And it takes
a lot of energy to explain anything other
than identifying as female.”
In Boxes, Alex is home for the holidays and
attempts to show her family rhe possibilities be­
yond the binary gender identities that are forced
on them by society.
“It’s the story of a genderqueer individual try­
ing to come to an understanding with their family
about what it’s like to he different,” Rae explains.
“Experiencing the world how 1 did, I wanted to
talk about what it felt like to identify as trans.”
Rae self-identities as a woman. But she
clarifies: “I was horn with such typical female
build and face structure and voice and every­
thing—it’s difficult for somebody that looks
hourglass to identify as genderqueer without
actually taking steps toward transition in the
medical way. 1 sort of feel chased back into
womanhood."
A former drag performer, Rae first tixik her
masculine personae on stage in 1999, “in the mid­
dle of Missouri [where] there was no such thing as
a drag king.” She later founded a drag troupe with
a friend in their hometown of Omaha, Neb.
“We were just so downhearted that we had
moved away from Omaha for college and gone
and experienced the drag world and we got home
from college, and there was [stilll nothing going
on,” Rae says. “We decided it would be a service
to the community to start one."
Although Rae goes by male pronouns within
the drag world and acknowledges, “Some of my
friends call me by male pronouns at times,” she
maintains, “1 don’t really insist on it. To be a mas­
culine-presenting, female-bodied person living as
a woman is activism in itself. For my part, I feel
like I’m trying to stretch the definition of what a
woman can be.”
Despite having lived in Portland for nearly
three years, Rae admits she’s only gotten involved
with the local drag scene “as an audience member.
Pretty much my entire time here has been work­
ing on my writing.”
Co-produced by Key Productions and PenPlay,
a group of Portland screenwriters and playwrights,
Boxes has an unusual structure, integrating filmed
segments with the stage action.
“1 wrote a piece that was neither meant for
screen nor stage but for both,” Rae explains, in­
tending to artistically mirror “Alex’s assertion
that ‘either/or isn’t gtxxl enough anymore.’ ”
Monologue video blogs from additional trans
characters were added, Rae says, “later on in the
writing process. I originally had two characters,
just Alex and Ben, that were two very polar ways
6f reacting to a similar situation. And I thought
that was a limiting way...to show this issue just
through these two people who were taking a very
binary approach. What [those segments] afforded
me as a playwright was to show the audience...an
entire world to contrast and compare those expe­
riences with those
of the main charac­
ter, Alex."
Addressing trans
masculine
issues
like gender dyspho­
ria, penis envy and
choosing between
losing one’s hair Boxes discusses the possibilities beyond the binary gender identities that
and going off tes­ are forced on us by society.
tosterone therapy,
who are like them. It’s easier to be like everybody
Rae admits, “1 researched my friends” and says she
else,
but I don’t think it’s always honest. ©
based some of the script on conversations with
transgender acquaintances.
However, “to keep from turning my social
Staged readings of B oxes , a part of the citywide new
world into a group of guinea pigs,” Rae insists,
works festival Fertile Ground, will be held 8 p.m.
“I’ve also done research outside: a lot of reading Jan. 23 and 30 at Q Center, 69 S.E. Taylor St.,
and...watching these video blogs that I modeled
and 7 p.m. Jan. 27 at Someday Lounge, 125 N.W.
some of the [filmed segments] after.”
Fifth Ave. Tickets are $7.
Rae declares, “1 want to change the way people
think about gender. Bur she’s realistic. “I can’t do J acob A nderson -M inshall is co-author of Blind
it single-handedly. I’m part of a movement, and
Faith, the latest Blind Eye mystery, and co-host of
it’s one that I’m happy to be in."
the monthly queer literary series Q Literati and
Rae also acknowledges what she’s up against:
KBOO-FM’s Gender Blender. For more
“Assimilation is just easier. People like people
information visit www.anderson-minshall.com .
Documentary Examines Community's Role in Gender Transitions
Tired of “watching trans movies where everybody dies," filmmaker Brooks Nelson felt com­
pelled to create Switch: A Community in Transition, a new documentary that explores the iptpact
of a gender transition on the progressive community of friends, family and co-workers that he
transitioned in and the way that community shouldered much of the “responsibility” of his gender
identity transition.
“1 didn’t change,” Nelson maintains. “I became more who 1 am—so, really, the burden falls on
everyone [else]. I peeled back stuff to reveal who I really am.”
Meanwhile, he says, friends and family members are forced to switch gender pronouns, incor­
porate new names and—sometimes—examine their
own attitudes about what it means to be male and
female.
Furthermore, Nelson suggests, each person in
the community has different responsibilities to its
transitioning member: “My boss’s responsibility is
really different than my partner’s responsibility. I’m
expecting different things from him.”
Nelson says he hopes the film builds allies by nor­
malizing gender transitions. "Everybody has change
and transition that they go through...how is this
different?”
Although Nelson identifies as masculine, he
admits he was initially “holding onto the middle,”
until he discovered how hard it is to be genderqueer,
“particularly when you have to move through a
mainstream world. People come up to me and say,
‘Dude, 1 get you’re trying to end oppression based on
gender presentation, but 1 still need to know how to
refer to you in the meeting.’ It just became too much
energy.”
A longtime activist, Nelson, who moved
to Portland from Atlanta in 1986, began filmmaking a few years ago after joining Northwest
Documentary Arts. His first movie addressed the difficulties that gender-nonconforming people
have using public restrooms.
Boxxo Productions, in association with Film Action Oregon, presents the first public screen­
ing of Switch 7 p.m. Feb. 4 at Hollywood Theatre, 4122 N.E. Sandy Blvd. Tickets are $8. For more
information visit www.boxxo.org.
—Jacob Anderson-Minshall