The Importance of Understanding Transgender Individuals, No Matter Who You Are: 'The Nance' and Gend
The 1930’s were a thought-provoking period in history worth revisiting in this Broadway play about the Burlesque times of theatre, The Nance.
My good friend texts me and says, “We’re going to see Nathan Lane in that play you want to see.”
I knew immediately that my friend must have been referring to The Nance, as I had made it a point on my Facebook page to acknowledge my admiration for an actor whose performances never let me down.
“But we live in south Florida,” was my response. Which is upsetting, to say the least, because I feel we Northerners could have, at a minimum, found a way to bring some of that great theatre down here with us.
Sure, attempts have been made, although feeble at best – which certainly solidifies the need to literally be at Broadway and 7th in Manhattan to experience theatre productions in all of their glory. My opinion, granted, but for anyone who has witnessed the difference between a show playing in its native theatre compared to its repatriated road-show version, well, there’s usually no comparison. For one, the stars are just not there.
Thankfully, technology steps in to save the day. I was pretty skeptical at first, thinking to myself that only people who couldn’t afford the theatre admission would opt to see a live, taped version of a Broadway play, in a movie theatre nonetheless. Then I realized something. I’m an artist. I can’t afford to miss this play, nor this performance.
The Coral Gables Art Cinema is a well-kept venue nestled amongst a bevy of high-end enterprise reminiscent of those days I used to window-shop on 5th Avenue in NYC. Surprisingly, the show was introduced with a live person, reminding us not to use any mobile devices, prompting my friend to say aloud, “You’d think this was an actual performance,” causing my body to sink slightly lower into the seat.
The show was a delight, and once the lights went down, there was an inkling that perhaps my mind could become transported into this story, forgetting the harsh reality that it was recorded, and that I wasn’t physically there. Or was I?
It helped that the picture quality and sound was professionally prepared, including the requisite sounds of audience laughter and applause, which was intermittently mirrored in our theatre surroundings. Although this sometimes became a reminder as to the distance in venues, it also reminded me of the beauty that comes when human beings create a shared experience.
The Nance takes place during the tumultuous times of the 1930’s, when investments were bad and being gay was even worse. Nathan Lane embodies the character of Chauncey Miles, a burlesque performer who wears a figurative mask on and off stage. In the theatre, Chauncey is a stereotypical, effeminate gay male, or a “nance.” At home, Chauncey is the personification of an unrelenting and unchanging mind-set bent on guarding his heart while trying to prove that persuasive efforts to change others just don't work. Or do they?
Nathan Lane’s performance reminds us of several important points regarding the plight of humanity and our belief systems. First is our proclivity for wanting to maintain a gender binary system where men don’t act like “sissies” and woman refrain from being “manly.”
Second is the understanding that there is always a need for change and growth, but we as humans will resist that change, tooth and nail (sometimes vehemently), when it goes against our convictions and way of life. Change is hard, and change hurts – but sometimes it’s the best kind of hurt there is.
Chauncey Miles also represents something more serious that can be argued as a byproduct of the 1930’s and gay life. Although it cannot describe the psychological reactance exhibited by all sexually repressed individuals, the protagonist becomes his own worst enemy, choosing the deleterious path of embracing the life of a transgressor who feels he will never be seen as “normal” or “righteous,” and therefore never really “loved.”
Finally, there’s the call for a look inside ourselves, and the traditional values that we espouse, especially with regard to social expectations that affect everyone, regardless of our self-identification with being straight, gay, lesbian, or bisexual: the admonishment to act in a way that is congruent with one’s assigned gender.
Think about it. Most of us spend our lives reinforcing the same gender ideals handed down for centuries. Boys play with Transformers and girls with Barbies (and so on). What a transgender individual does and believes completely throws most people for a loop, because it goes against all "conventional wisdom" and dares to challenge our binary gender system for good.
Imagine, if you will, gender as a fluid continuum instead. While this may be tough to understand at first, think to yourself of the benefit it can give you to understand, and perhaps even become an ally, of those who think and live this way.
When the feminist movement began, it challenged the old-school way of thought that a man does domination, and a woman does deferrence. It was, and still is, a belief-system so intertwined in our culture that decades have, perhaps, only made a dent in women's equality. Although a different sort of social justice movement, the transgender individual's plight shares the same basic underlying themes that tend to become the barriers to their success in life: the persistant thought that our gender is biological and cannot be changed, as opposed to being socially constructed, and very much a malleable way of life.
The theatre, arguably, has been the ideal place where men have gotten away with wearing makeup and cross-dressing for entertainment purposes. What we, as a society, accept in a darkened theatre, might be an altogether different thing in face-to-face interactions, but the fact remains that the mere exposure to people who think and act differently than us has the power to transform our thinking, and perhaps even change us – a byproduct of the theatre experience that can negate negative belief systems that still linger from the 1930’s.
While it doesn’t always take a trip to the theatre to explore these social issues, it certainly helps, and might even facilitate some added diversity and universality to our individual belt of life.
“Well, that wasn’t so bad,” my friend said when the lights had come back up. “Not bad at all,” I replied, still wondering how it was that I had been affected so deeply without traveling to New York City.
The trip to the restroom was typical; a long line that seemed like an eternity to get through, and the unfortunate mental accounting I must take with noticing how many men don’t stop to wash their hands, no matter how nice the establishment.
Coming out, I locked eyes with another man. It was that atypical moment when you want to look away, but just can't bring yourself to. He was handsome, for sure, and the type of person you think would have a flair for good food, exotic travel, dapper clothing, and great conversation. Then he smiled at me, and I was relieved to remember that I do not live in the 1930’s, and have the ability to smile back.
That’s it. Just a smile. Two adults who can openly smile at one another and not have to worry about the implications or repercussions of our act. Which leads me to my point…
As cliché as it is, a smile can go a long way, and it doesn’t necessarily have to come from a place of flirtation, as I suppose my story lends itself to. It’s just that sometimes we become so caught up in the intricacies of life that we forget how beautiful a simple smile can be.
Of course, I would smile a whole lot more if I found myself with a plane ticket to NYC to see a Broadway show live, and in person. And what’s to stop us from doing that? Perhaps the folks at the Coral Gables Art Cinema would like you to think they could stop us. And perhaps they can, as this experience was, for me, the next best thing to actually being there.
Speaking of smiles, our newest project entails the use of motion picture interventions that assist in lessening negative attitudes, stigma, and prejudice against transgender workers. It's called The Gender Experience, and we hope you'll take a gander at it: http://bit.ly/1qPXJI0
Help us create a shared experience through science and technology that has the potential to change the way people think and the way they treat those who transgress gender norms, because by understanding how we are all affected (and connected), we begin to understand how we can assist others, which is worth a million smiles.
Stay tuned for our next blog where we will explain the theory of entertainment-education (EE) and how it will be used to create our short film, Being Transgressive.
Thanks for being here!
All the Best,
Joshua
Founder/Minerva Films, LLC
