Abstract
In this chapter, Alexandrowicz uses the lens of Laban Movement Analysis to analyse conventionally gendered movement, applying it specifically to the work of drag king and male impersonator Diane Torr, whose workshops teach women how to perform male personae convincingly enough to be able to ‘pass’ in public. This is enlisted as support for the ways that various ‘physical’ approaches to acting may support the performance of gender via technical means. The relative efficacy and safety—in terms of the emotional well-being of actors—of such methods are supported by current research in cognitive neuroscience, as synthesized and articulated by Rhonda Blair.
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Notes
- 1.
It is a measure of how gender codes have become more relaxed that it has been acceptable for many years now for men to cross their legs as only women were permitted to do in the middle of the last century.
- 2.
See, for example, http://www.newnownext.com/oprah-rupaul-o-magazine-february-issue/01/2018/ (accessed 26 July 2019).
- 3.
I have borrowed this analogy from George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, where it is quite terrifying in context.
- 4.
This included the theatre departments of Simon Fraser University, the University of British Columbia, the University of Alberta, and York University, as well as the conservatory programme at Studio 58 , part of Langara College in Vancouver.
- 5.
A great deal has been written on this topic. See, for example, Alison Oddey, Devising Theatre: A Practical and Theoretical Handbook (London and New York: Routledge, 1994); Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett, The Frantic Assembly Book of Devising Theatre (London and New York: Routledge, 2009); and Joan Lipkin, On the Case for Devising Theatre for Social Justice on College Campuses, Theatre Topics, Volume 26, Issue 2.
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Alexandrowicz, C. (2020). Gendered Movement and ‘Physical’ Acting. In: Acting Queer. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29318-5_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29318-5_5
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