| Queer theatre teaches respect? |
|
by Ashley Martin the Carillon UR Allies Positive Space Campaign launches with Laramie project The University of Regina theatre department's current production of Moises Znaimer's the Laramie Project is the launching pad for the new UR Allies Positive Space Campaign. The campaign is a collaborative effort between the GBLUR Centre for Sexual Diversity and the queer alumni and staff group, U of R Queer Initiative (URQI), which began last winter. Wes Pearce, the head of the theatre department and one of the main people behind the campaign, says the idea has been in the works since James McNinch and Mary Cronin's I Could Not Speak My Heart, a book about gay equality, was released in 2004. Pearce says most Canadian uni- versities already have a campaign in place, and that the initiative is not a new concept. "We're actually quite behind in terms of the positive space cam- paign," he said. The campaign allows people to identify their office or classroom as a positive space and "to acknowledge still that in this day and age universi- ty can be a difficult place for queer or queer-straight allies who are support- ive but are afraid of being labeled." Before this, the only option les- bian, gay, bisexual or transgendered (LGBT) students had on campus was the GBLUR Centre for Sexuality and Gender Diversity, which only received centre status two years ago. Caroline Sagin-Chabot, GBLUR Centre director, sees the Laramie Project and the campaign launch as a way of promoting GBLUR. "A lot of people, even the openly out faculty members, didn't know where the centre was and that there was even a centre," she said. GBLUR is a peer support centre that is "dedicated to creating a posi- tive, safe atmosphere" for LGBT stu- dents and their friends. Pearce says even today, universi- ty can be a scary place for an LGBT person. "We've heard … that there's so much homophobic activity in the res- idences that it's a really terrifying place for some students," he said. Pearce also says one faculty member he knows hasn't come out because he's afraid of how his colleagues will react if they find out he's gay. "I think we like to pretend it's a slightly different university than it is," Pearce said. "I'm not necessarily pointing fingers at the U of R. I think most campuses, once the positive space campaign was in place, they realized how important it was. "I think it's easier being gay on campus than it was when I was here as an undergrad, but there are instances obviously when it's not." The campaign is being launched in conjunction with the Laramie Project because the play is centered around a 21-year-old University of Wyoming student's brutal death due to homophobia. In 1998, two men picked up Matthew Shepard in a Laramie bar, drove him out to a field and severely beat him. They tied him to a fence, where he remained for 18 hours before someone found him. Shepard died days later. "He became a symbol for the times in terms of hate crimes against homosexuals," said Kathryn Bracht, the Laramie Project director. Bracht says "this is a play that needs to be done," because it hasn't been performed yet in Regina and it gets people thinking about "worth- while things." "Is tolerance enough? Is it enough to simply be tolerant of other peoples ideas or do we need to be accepting, and is saying live and let live enough?" Bracht says the 21 student-actors in the play "liked what the play was trying to do" in the issues and dia- logue that it raises. Talitha Cuthbert, a third year acting student playing two roles in Laramie, is happy with the play. She says initially it was dif- ficult to differentiate her two lesbian characters, but she has overcome that. "A lot of us were trying to con- centrate on ‘how do I come about this from a lesbian perspective or a gay male perspective,'" she said. "[Then] it was just kind of like, people are people, and just because these char- acters like women as opposed to me liking men, they're still just people." The Theatre Department consult- ed GBLUR on the production because, Bracht says, "not all the actors are gay or know gay people." "They didn't want to do cheap stereotypes," she said. "They wanted it to have integrity and be authentic and respectful." The students had discussions on growing up gay, coming out and "how it feels to walk down the street and not be able to show your partner affection because you're afraid of being judged or beaten up." Pearce says this possibility is very real in Regina. "We have a lot of people in Regina who say ‘I'm not racist, but ... ' and in the Laramie Project there are a lot of people who say ‘I'm not homophobic, but ... " he said. "The play explores both that ‘but' and the statement that follows and argues that you can't make that statement with the ‘but' there and exclude yourself from racist or homophobic behav- iour." Pearce has been suggesting they produce this play for more than four years; he says the fact they're pre- senting this play is not "cutting edge." "I've had a couple of conversa- tions with some high school coun- selors who have used the word ‘final- ly'; ‘I'm glad someone's finally doing this,'" he said. "In some ways I think it's later than it should have been." But Sagin-Chabot says the play is getting LGBT issues out there, and that is the only way to create toler- ance and acceptance. "The more people see what a young LGBT person has to deal with, the more they realize it is not a choice. The only choice that is being made is to be true to oneself. Once they can see that then we're hoping that compassion can grow … and the whole concept of judging and point- ing the finger and hating can just be killed." The Laramie Project runs from Nov. 1 to 4, with a matinee perform- ance on Nov. 5. |