On September 6, actress and advocate Sis led a crowd of over 200 protesters from Central Park to Shubert Alley, the world-famous heart of New York City’s’s Broadway District. The demonstrators, many of them performers, costume designers, and makeup artists, had no plans of seeing a show. They had gathered to make a point: Trans people, particularly Black and brown trans folks, exist within theater’s most vaunted spaces, and it’s time the industry respects them.
“Being a trans woman in this industry, I know firsthand that people don’t value the existence of trans people,” Sis told them. before the event, which she dubbed the Trans March on Broadway. “To erase trans people from the narrative of storytelling makes no sense, because any human being can tell a story.”
The action took broad aim at the theater industry’s long history of trans erasure, but it was sparked by a more acute manifestation of its cruelty toward the trans community. In August, British producer Cameron Mackintosh argued that trans actors shouldn’t play cis characters, saying that “you can’t implant something that is not inherently there in the story.” Speaking with The Telegraph, the megaproducer behind such shows as Cats and Phantom of the Opera called the prospect of a trans woman playing Mary Poppins “gimmick casting.”
“It’s trying to force something that isn’t natural,” he elaborated, later apologizing on Twitter in a statement that nevertheless clung to the idea that trans people need to be able to play the role “as written.”
As soon as Mackintosh’s transphobic sentiment reached Sis’ ears, the organizer sprung into action, assembling a coalition of some of the city’s foremost trans organizers and theater-makers, including drag artist Peppermint, activist and costume designer Qween Jean, and Okra Project founder Ianne Fields Stewart.
“It was very important to me that the majority of speakers be Black trans people, because the existence that we have is varied from any other trans experience,” Sis later said by phone. “When I looked out at the crowd, I saw so many people I looked up to in the community and in the industry — that they showed up to hear what we had to say was beautiful.”
A few weeks after the historic march, on the eve of the Tony awards, them. caught up with Sis to discuss the impact of the action and the importance of telling more inclusive stories.
Sis! It’s so good to hear your voice. Let’s talk about the March you organized. You’ve said the goal was to “showcase trans existence” in the theater world. Can you tell me a little about the reception to this message?
So there’s a TikTok trend going around where people make videos of themselves to this song that goes like, “Mama said that it was okay / Mama said that it was quite alright.” And somebody made a version of it that starts with this quote, “I just don’t think that you could ever succeed in the theater industry and also be openly trans.” Then it’s a video of me speaking, with the words, “Sis said that it was okay / Sis said that it was quite alright.” For me to see people showing up not only for themselves, but also the next generation of trans people in this industry, that’s the gem. Sometimes all you need to do is see something exists to know it’s possible.
Totally. And of course this is bigger even than a push to do right by trans folks in theater; it’s about enriching the art of storytelling itself.
Yes, child. When people act like we’re not in their faces every day, trans people get excluded from the narrative. But there’s an existence of all types of people, and sometimes many of these identities are walking around in one body. Our storytelling should reflect that. We need to be better about giving folks a chance to tell their stories, not just because it’s right, but because it’s the truth. And because people are tired of watching the same old narrative. It’s played out.
