As an artist, I concentrate my practice towards post queer performance. Queer performance is an interesting subject for me to explore because of its rich history, and as a young gay man, I feel like it is an important for future generations to learn about. I follow the ethos of what Karen McCrocklin speaks “for me being lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, LGBT, is a gift, and I think that’s an idea worth spreading”(YouTube,2017). My theatre is my way of celebrating and challenging my sexuality and the knowledge of the culture that comes with it. It is also a way of expressing my views as a queer activist.
This is an important subject to me because when I first realized I was homosexual, I knew nothing about gay culture and what being gay meant. I had grown up in an environment where I had not learned much knowledge about other sexualities than the heteronormative ideals that were in front of me, so I had a much-closed mind about my sexuality and I knew nothing of the history. What being a member of the LGBTQ community truly meant the pride I should feel the strength of the people, whom fought for my right to fall in love, get married, adopt, and be happy with who I am. This is what I feel needs to be made more easily accessible, so that the future generations don’t have to learn about it on the internet, with stories that aren’t always true, because this warps the young minds. It’s an important subject to talk about so that he helps social change. Karen McCorcklin puts it best when she says “so if you were to look back across the continuum of time, through time in memorial, and pick any point in that timeline you will find a group, you’ll find a race, you’ll find an ethnicity, you’ll find a religion, you’ll find some group that has come to the forefront for the catalyst for change, in my life time that has been us.”(YouTube,2017) So talking about being gay is I supporting social change for my community.
Art form is an important part of the way in which I work, I would say that my art form consists of mainly Cabaret and character based performance, but within that, I try to explore other forms, such as; spoken word and dance performance. I play mainly with the character of Ken from the Barbie franchise, the Ken doll previously has been accused of being a queer toy sins the late 19th century. I use Ken to explore queer history and all it has to offer, I use Ken because he can be an innocent side to all parties and all he wants is knowledge. Another reason for using Ken is he is an aesthetically pleasing male and within the Gay community he would be seen as a twink, this is something I relate with, having been called a twink since the day I came out. Twink is a term used to categories Gay the community into stereotypes, a twink is “An attractive, boyish-looking, young gay man. The stereotypical twink is 18-22, slender with little or no body hair, dresses in club wear even at 10:00 AM, and is not particularly intelligent. A twink is the gay answer to the blonde bimbo cheerleader”(Urban Dictionary, 2017), this stereotype is something that I am trying to relinquish within my work, because I am not stupid, I’m not a blond bimbo, and this is what people see, when they look at me because of the stereotype of which has been thrusted upon me.
Through my work, I hope to inspire. I am one of those people that feverishly think that I am going to stop homophobia because that is not realistic but to inspire is. To inspire someone that might or might not be struggling to come to terms with who they are. Just too, inspire someone because like Karen McCorcklin states “No matter what happens with parental support, legal advances, societal acceptance. The thing that is never going to change is that moment, and it is a lonely moment, when you look in that mirror and you say there is something about me that is different and nobody else knows it, and now I have to summon the courage to go and tell them. And that’s not a gay thing, that’s not a straight thing, that’s a human thing.” (YouTube, 2017). Inspiring that one person is what drives to make performance. Even to inspire an understanding to a person of whom tends to be a little bit homophobic, and help them to understand what the LGBTQ community is and what they stand for, of which I hope to do within my work, and eventually ‘Public disapproval, however meant that many people couldn’t claim the freedom to announce their sexuality openly’ (Dolan, 2010:7).