Abstract
In the introduction, Alexandrowicz lays out the origins of and justifications for the book, in both personal experience and professional observation. He argues that, despite the social and legal gains made on behalf of various sexual minorities, discrimination with reference to gender dissident student actors is alive and well and operating in the training institutions that feed professional theatre, film, and television in Canada and the US.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
On 1 January 2019, Austria became the latest country to legalise same-sex marriage : https://www.theguardian.pe.ca/news/regional/austrian-court-rules-that-same-sex-couples-can-marry-167491/ (accessed 11 March 2019).
- 2.
See https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/14/leo-varadkar-formally-elected-as-prime-minister-of-ireland (accessed 5 July 2017).
- 3.
See http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0171804/ (accessed 5 September 2016).
- 4.
Hilary Swank did a magnificent job with the role of Brandon Teena, winning an Oscar for her performance, and while the main argument of this book is that competent actors of any and all demographic features ought to be able to play the widest possible range of roles, attempts to redress discriminatory patterns must be carefully considered. There is much more to be said on this topic in subsequent chapters.
- 5.
See https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1209545/ (accessed 6 September 2016).
- 6.
See http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3502262/ (accessed 6 September 2016).
- 7.
- 8.
See http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29832690 (accessed 7 July 2017).
- 9.
See https://onlinelaw.wustl.edu/blog/legal-english-de-factode-jure/ (accessed 7 July 2017).
- 10.
Who, what, when, where, why, and how—W5 + H—have been attributed to the English rhetorician Thomas Wilson (1524–1581). See http://www.people.vcu.edu/~nsharp/wilsint1.htm (accessed 22 March 2019).
- 11.
For examples, please see https://www.google.com/search?q=effemiphobia&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=sb (accessed 15 September 2016).
- 12.
Some readers may recall that this phrase derives from a 1981 ad for Palmolive dishwashing liquid that became a favourite gay male punch line.
- 13.
See, among many others, Philip Auslander, Liveness: Performance in a Mediatized Culture, 1999; Eddie Paterson and Lara Stevens , “From Shakespeare to the Super Bowl: Theatre and Global Liveness,” Australasian Drama Studies, 62 (April 2013): 147–162; and Claudia Georgi, “Liveness on Stage: Intermedial Challenges in Contemporary British Theatre and Performance,” CDE Studies (Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 2014).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Alexandrowicz, C. (2020). Introduction: Why Write This Book Now?. In: Acting Queer. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29318-5_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29318-5_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-29317-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-29318-5
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)