CABRA | Akateeminen Kirjakauppa

Queering the Stage: Inclusive Approaches to Performing

Gender and Sexuality addresses a history of stereotyping

and provides inclusive approaches to navigating gender and

sexuality in a way that does not reduce the broad spectrum of

LGBTQ+ communities into a single monolith.

Butch it up! Be more manly! Add a little swish! Queen out!

These instructions make performers feel minimized, erased,

and forced to fit in a binary that encourages underdeveloped

portrayals of queer identities. This book will guide the reader in

performance techniques for confidently embodying the masculine/

feminine, gay/ straight binaries – as concepts of chosen

choreography rather than reductive prescriptions – while also

providing non- binary exercises to explore and expand the use

of the body, voice, heart, and mind to bring life to characters

of sexual orientations and gender identities that do and do

not align with the actors’ lived experiences. The reader will be

presented with multiple tools for analyzing, developing, and

embodying a diverse array of characters, empowering them

to make their own choices when it comes to performance.

While there is no “right” way to teach performance, this book

will present tools rooted in trauma- informed practices that

aim to prevent and undo harm in a group setting with a facilitator,

or individually.

This book is written for instructors of theatre performance and

acting wishing to expand their curriculum to include queer

concepts in their classroom, and actors working in the industry

who want to improve their ability performing characters of

diverse genders and sexualities.

A companion website, available at www.adicabral.com/

queer ing- the- stage, provides additional materials to support

exercises given throughout the book.