Gender performance

[kitchen_kink]

I'm facing an interesting dilemma right now in the world of theatre, and I'm very interested in getting folks' feedback on it, both from an artistic perspective and from a gender perspective.

I'm currently rehearsing with Theatre @ First for a production of Much Ado About Nothing. I've been cast as Conrade - a small part, but an intriguing one. He is one of Don John (the villain)'s henchmen, but he doesn't actively get involved in the intrigue around which a major part of the plot centers.

From the beginning, the director said that the character is male. Not gender-neutral, not "it doesn't matter," not female. He's a male. A guy. So I took this seriously.

At this point, I like to think I've developed this character. I've had different ideas about who he is, what motivates him, what his emotional life is like, how he carries himself, what's important to him, etc., and they've evolved over time. One challenge has been the fact that I am, in fact, playing a man, and I am working hard both to emulate an appropriate physicality and to not fall into a general stereotype about what it means to "be a man." It happens that this particular man is a bit cocky, rather handsome, a bit of a brawler, generally street smart and knows how to ingratiate himself to get ahead. He can be scary if he needs to be, but prefers to make nice with people. He tries to smooth things over for his boss, who is peevish and seems to be in love with his own misery. He finds the company of Borachio, the fellow who hatches the plot and is a bit lower class, to be somewhat amusing but mostly simply tolerable. In short, he has depth, and personality. He's also a man, and I'm choosing to let that matter: I walk differently, move my hands differently, gesture differently, smile differently. I have my voice pitched relatively low, and move with a certain angularity and purposefulness. I take up more space, which for me is saying a lot.

The result is that there is a certain "male stereotype" about this character: I'm not playing a man who is geeky, or shy, or weak. I'm falling back on certain "easy" male characteristics that fall into the "macho" category. This is fine with me, and it's a hell of a lot of fun.

What I'm wrestling with right now, though, is how far to go with emulating the physical appearance of a man.

I'm taking into consideration the fact that I will never truly pass as a man. Nobody is going to look at me and really think I'm male; my hips are nigh un-hideable, my shoulders are slender, my forearms, wrists and hands, which are showing with a T-shirt, speak volumes. So the question is: how far should I go with the drag? The director early on shot down the idea of my having facial hair; she doesn't want any of us to rely too much on makeup, costumes, or props to create our characters. But as an actor, I've always found physicality, props, and costumes to be key to my development of characters. For the costume, we're all going simple: I'll be wearing black men's tactical pants, a red t-shirt, and boots. I've already decided to go so far as to bind my breasts; I'm hoping to squish them in such a way that the emulate pecs, and anyway, I like having them out of my way for the overall feeling of how it makes me move.

But the other night I went to rehearsal in male makeup. I shadowed my chin and jawline, enhanced my cleft chin, darkened my eyebrows, broadened my nose, and highlighted the angles of my face. One woman, out of the corner of her eye, thought I was her brother. One person thought for a moment, "Who's the new dude?" A gay member of the cast suddenly found me hot. Let's just say it worked.

For some people though, it didn't. One fellow cast member said I should drop the makeup. Another speculated that my going full drag with the makeup was like asking a black actor to go in whiteface to play a "white" role, and that I should just let my acting and my character speak for itself.

I'm conflicted. roy_batty made the excellent point that doing male makeup at least makes it absolutely clear to the audience that this character is intended to be male, even if they have to potentially work a little harder suspending their disbelief. Without the makeup, there's some ambiguity left as to intent: is the audience meant to think that the gender of the character doesn't matter? Perhaps some will think Conrade's a butch lesbian in this performance; perhaps that he's a man, perhaps something else. This brings up the question as to how much it matters that the audience "get" Conrade is supposed to be a man.

My larger fear is that the makeup will throw some people off, distract them from the rest of my work. Indicating the character's gender is fine, but making the audience constantly think about the fact that there's a woman in drag on the stage, not so much. It would be different if I were playing one of those women in Shakespeare who poses as a man for whatever reason; this is something quite different, and nobody else in the show is really wrestling with it to this degree. There are other cross-cast actors, but some of them - like Dogberry - are actually allowing themselves to be a female version of the character, and others - like the Watch - are being somewhat male-performative, but letting themselves be kind of shapeless idiots rather than tough guys.

My thought at the moment is to downplay the makeup, but still make an attempt to masculinize my face a little bit. Thoughts from the peanut gallery?

Comments

[poly-fi.livejournal.com]

I haven't been 'round these parts for a while (work), and what an interesting post to see upon my return!

I'm inclined to believe that subtle make-up would ultimately help in clearing up any potential confusion. (And thus being less distracting than the hot dyke on stage.) But, the last time I 'did' theatre was H.S. Keep us posted.

[redheadedmuse.livejournal.com]

Have you thought about packing your panties instead of making up your face?

[per-simmon.livejournal.com]

How intimate is the audience going to be? How close will they be to you? Because if you can do really subtle makeup, that might be best. Have you considered using spirit gum and real hair? That can be a lot less obvious than dark shading, and you can play around with beard sapes a lot easier. Sometimes it's enough to just make sideburns and thicken eyebrows to give off a 'male vibe'. Sometimes getting that vibe (even if the makeup is too subtle to see from the audience) is important to building the character.

I would consider playing with body shape a bit more as well. Have you tried passing on the street?

[gilana]

It is tricky, especially given how close the audience will be, and that we won't have real stage lights. I liked some of what the shading was doing, but I think it was a little too obvious as makeup for that space. Is it possible to tone it down a little and still make it work?

[ladrescher.livejournal.com]

I like the idea of doing more with make-up, but indeed, the space is tight. You've still got some time to experiment with subtler shading. Maybe play with it until you get a good balance?
You are obviously a womany-woman, but now I can't wait to see how manly you look when I come to see the show.

[lifecollage.livejournal.com]

As someone who *was* the audience that night, let me offer my voice:

1) As I told you, I didn't recognize you when I first saw you, particularly with your hair back in that ponytail. It's only once you spoke that I thought, "Duh, K's in this play!"

2) Even under the full fluorescents, the makeup wasn't that obvious. I was in the third row, I knew you were wearing makeup, and it just disappeared. If you do tone it down, wait until the lights are up and you try the same makeup under them. Then decide how far to tone it up/down.

3) I concur with the packing comment. Anytime I've gone that far with drag, it's changed my gait significantly and helped me feel the role (quite literally). You don't have to pack large enough to be noticeable, just enough for you to feel it.

4) While I think I prefer Conrade as a bit of a beardless dandy (it suits the role as you describe it above), some slight shading might work. I'd recommend experimenting with a slight mustache and Van Dyke or something like that, using the spirit gum and hair trimmings, and see what you and the director think.

When you describe your view of Conrade, I can't help but think of a former lover of mine who was *exactly* that kind of guy. He was also a diver and bodybuilder, and though he was only about my height, carried himself much taller. It's a lark, but if you'd like ten minutes of "how to carry yourself like Jim," I'd be happy to chat! ;^)

All in all, I parsed you as "male" during the rehearsal. Anything you do to bring yourself further into line with that will just help more.

[amadea.livejournal.com]

What does the director think? This sounds like a director-question.

[cutieperson]

i'm having trouble thinking of this without bias, as the director for our upcoming production is hugely into body language as a way to shift gender. considering i've seen her switch roles in a snap, and direct others into same, i really, really like the idea of seeing how others do that with body language alone.

[clara-girl.livejournal.com]

and becasue of that, i've been HUGELY noticing the ways in which people stand, move, use their hands, arms, eye contact...

i stood back to back with arms linked with a tall guy the other day. i became incredibly aware of how differently we stood, and how much more often i moved and shifted my weight from one foot to another than he did (every few moments i'd shift, and i don't think he did at all). (j. says that women stand assymmetrically, with more weight on one foot or a shoulder dipping on one side; men stand solidly on both feet, centered and straight.) next time you're hanging around a bunch of people, check out how many people stand solidly on both feet and how many stand a bit assymmetrically, maybe with one foot out or one hand on a hip. see if gender matches the stance.

funny, but it's SO much easier to stand assymmetrically; i have to consciously think to stand squarely.

anyway. this isn't terribly on-topic, but i agree w/B that body stance and language make such a HUGE difference such that makeup should be secondary.

[fanw.livejournal.com]

I would be careful. That is, you wan't it to be subtle, not "my, that woman seems to be wearing makeup!" I had this problem as an audience member for 12 Angry Jurors. There is one character who is supposed to be old, and of course pretty much everyone was our age. What did they do? Cake on the makeup. Now, of course, it was important to convey that this was an older character. His age played into his opinions on the jury. But the poorly done makeup just made me think about the makeup every time he spoke.

So find some medium ground please!
... and I'm looking forward to the show!

[desiringsubject.livejournal.com]

Things I can hypothesize from the times I've been taken for male:

You're more right about the shoulders than you are about the hips. (Not about *your* shoulders and hips, though...) Wait, I'm not making sense. People will look to the shoulder more than they will look to the hip. Men carry their center of gravity higher. danceboy says that's biological, about which I am less convinced, but there you are. The broadness of your shoulders is less important than how you use them and move from them. Though if there were a way to introduce slight shoulder padding into the costume that wouldn't hurt either.

Also yes on packing. Perhaps ironically, I've never been taken for a man while packing, but then again, I've never done it in the Heathrow airport either. (Where I was taken for a man in a record breaking 100% of interactions with staff). However, dangly bits do change the way you walk. Some popular options include hair gel in a condom (or 3, just in case!) in a nylon, in a jock strap. And frankly, just the jock strap gives one the sense that Hey! there's something new going on in my pants!

Of course I didn't see the shading, but I'd keep in mind that you are fair skinned and fair haired, and unless your character is going to be different, shading should be consistent with the color beard you *would* have (i.e. light). (Of course actual beards have a way of coming in in "truth stranger than fiction" colors, but we're going for "fiction more believable than truth here, I imagine").

Lastly, and I don't know what this says about *men* but I've rarely (outside of Heathrow) been taken for a man after I've smiled. Apparently, paradigmatic man scowls. Apparently, this is true even when paradigmatic man is being jovial or whatever. My best analysis of this is that women seem to smile with more of their faces, or, um, something.

Good luck!

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

I'll go ahead and weigh in--as I said at that rehearsal, I thought your makeup was very well-done, but I can't render judgment on it until we get the lights up. We will have them up on the 23rd, so there will be time well before dress rehearsals to work on this.

I think you've been doing a good job with body language and I'll focus some attention on that tonight. One of the interesting things in your team is that Iago has a very feminine default stance (that I've been working on with him) and Kan is downright cat-like, so in many ways you come off as the butch of the trio.

I hadn't thought about the shoulders thing--put this down to my own me-as-normal blindness--because I have linebacker shoulders myself. How about we try shoulder pads in your t-shirt? I think I have some extras kicking around my closet and if not, they're certainly cheap enough. If binding and/or packing help you, then I'm entirely open to them.

Given how casual the show is overall and how committed I am to giving the audience's imagination a strong role in the illusion, I haven't wanted to be too emphatic about disguising the cross-cast women, but I also very much want to support all of my actors with whatever they need to feel comfortable and confident in their performances. I'm glad you're thinking about this and exploring it so fully and we'll keep addressing it.

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

Lastly, if you do want to play with real facial hair, we have a bunch of it in the makeup kit up in the costume closet. Next time we're at First Church, we can go dig that out.

[dietrich.livejournal.com]

Yay! Thanks for responding. I would love to try some facial hair; I like the idea of going more for the "handsome dandy" look, with a little mustache or something, and not hardening my face so much. Thus the original idea of using facial hair.

I think I just want to try whatever's possible and subtle over the next few weeks and see what really helps and what's just self-indulgence on my part. A balance between what you want, what's in balance with the rest of the cast, what will help me and what will help the audience is really the ideal.

[queenofhalves]

really interesting issue. i agree with your impulse in the last paragraph.

intent

[artemisedge.livejournal.com]

well, while i understand that the question above is posed as "how far should i go too pass as a man?" I'd like to point out that in theater make-up is not merely disguise -- it is effect.

In other words, your "masculine" makeup isn't just to make you look like a man -- there are all types of men, right? It is to make you appear, or help you appear, to be more of those things you attribute to your character. They may be in line with a macho stereotype, but they are real characteristics.

SO yes, absolutely, use the makeup -- the only question is where is the line between effect and distraction? You can only make that decision when you take into account the lighting, and the extent to which your fellow performers are altering their physical appearance.

(And yes on the suggestion of an extension in your underwear. The audience need not see it -- it can't but help affect your gait)