Alt. Theatre
Alt. Theatre
Franks, Aaron, edited. "Travesty, Treachery, and Bree(a)ching." Alt Theatre. 16 April 2019. Teesri Duniya Theatre.
I come from a white, conservative background, I am straight, the most persecution I have experienced is being called a “dumb blonde” and the tendency for people to overlook me because I look young and I’m short. Even these minor assumptions made by the culture at large have had a massive impact on me as a person and on how I carry myself, so when I pick up a publication such as Alt Theatre it is with some fear and trepidation for what I might find there. I have a healthy concern that holding up this magazine might be holding a mirror up to my own presuppositions and stereotypes, a mirror that shows my ugly. This fear was the reason I knew I needed to give this publication a look through. In order to move forward as people we need to be willing to be uncomfortable, to see what the world looks like from some else’s point of view, and to see the value of that lens.
This magazine contained many things I had never considered and a few things I really do not agree with. The beginning of the magazine offered a new way of considering decolonization and conciliation with Canadian Indigenous people. The article talked about a person's responsibility to learn about the original stewards of the land in their area and seek to learn their ceremonies of entrance - waiting for permission to be accepted by the people. This article flowed neatly into a second article dealing with similar issues, this one talked about the importance of immigrant people to have a sense of where they come from and had the supposition that all immigrant people are essentially displaced and lack a sense of the land they inhabit. An intriguing idea, if not one I can agree with completely.
The next few articles offered insights that were more difficult for me. One was the writings of a Drag King about their performance at an LGBTQ2+ cabaret, which reenacted the autobiography of a woman from 1700’s England who was a famous crossdresser on stage and a notorious crossdresser in real life. Though I do not agree that the LGBTQ2+ lifestyle should be celebrated, I found this article humorous and entertaining. I could easily see how this historic woman has become a champion for Lesbians and female crossdressers.
The last article in the magazine was an interview with a woman who recently won a Shakespearean short-film competition and cited her Indian heritage - specifically the Indian polytheistic belief system - as a major reason for her success and ability to see the world differently. This article again challenged me with a worldview that I don’t agree with, but that is why I picked up this magazine. I wanted to encounter different points of view, I wanted to look at marginalized people groups with a compassionate eye, and not try to immediately place my own suppositions upon them. While the articles in this magazine did not convince me to change my mindset entirely, they offered me entrance into the minds of other people, which I hope will increase my ability to empathize, love, and champion these voices in my work and in the future.