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Taylor Williams<\/p>\n
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Over the last several years, various initiatives have called for increased BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Colour) representation in theatre, film, television, and other disciplines of the fine arts. Although representation is on the rise, BIPOC artists \u2013 especially those who identify as female or non-binary \u2013 continue to face an uphill battle for accurate representation in the arts. There are many diverse voices in the Department of Theatre, including BIPOC women and non-binary folks. As the department\u2019s final mainstage of the semester wrapped up last week, we met with two of the female BIPOC students involved in <\/span>Shakespeare\u2019s Women <\/span><\/i>to hear about their experiences working on the show.<\/span><\/p>\n We spoke with Tabatha Hamilton (she\/her), a fourth-year performance student who is M\u00e9tis. In <\/span>Shakespeare\u2019s Women<\/span><\/i>, Tabatha took on the roles of Lady Macbeth, Gertrude, and Aemelia. She spoke about her experience of working with director Dean Gabourie, who is also M\u00e9tis. \u201cSo working with Dean has been just a real treat,\u201d she offered. \u201cIt\u2019s been nice to kind of have a similar shared language and experience with someone, which has been really great for creating art.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n For Tabatha, one of the reasons working on <\/span>Shakespeare\u2019s Women <\/span><\/i>was particularly meaningful was because of the minimal Indigenous representation she saw in theatre growing up. \u201cI didn\u2019t see any Indigenous theatre when I was young, especially not in my area,\u201d Tabatha explained. \u201cThere wasn\u2019t really room for my story, or even people like me on stage. \u2026 People of colour weren\u2019t even doing theatre in my town because it wasn\u2019t really a space for them. In <\/span>Shakespeare\u2019s Women,<\/span><\/i> it\u2019s just been great to see everyone in that space be able to tell their stories through these classic characters \u2026 who maybe have never had that lens on them before.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n This sentiment was shared by cast member Ximena Gardu\u00f1o Rodriguez (she\/her), a second-year performance student who played Cleopatra in the production. Several of Cleopatra\u2019s lines were translated into Spanish, on which Rodriguez commented, \u201cIt was nice to be able to incorporate Spanish into Shakespeare and make this an opportunity to bring the play to different cultures.\u201d Rodriguez recently moved to Canada from M\u00e9xico, and explained that although her experience has been overwhelmingly positive, it has not been without its challenges.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt took me a while to adapt to this new culture and meet new people different from me,\u201d she elaborated. \u201cEven though I have been living here for around seven months, there are still some moments when I feel like an outsider, and I miss home. My main challenge and insecurity is connected to my pronunciation and accent. I find that sometimes it can become hard to say certain words in English, and I also feel worried that people might not be able to understand me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n As Rodriguez spent more time in Canada, she became more comfortable with her accent, and now has no preference between speaking English and Spanish onstage. \u201cI realized that my accent is not an impediment for doing a good job,\u201d she said, \u201cand I feel more confident every day.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Both Hamilton and Rodriguez spoke to the level of camaraderie within the cast of <\/span>Shakespeare\u2019s Women<\/span><\/i>, and how the support they received from others working on the show elevated their confidence. \u201cI feel so grateful that I had the opportunity to work with an amazing group of powerful and talented women,\u201d Rodriguez enthused.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhat I\u2019m going to remember the most is how supported I was throughout this whole process, and not only by Dean but by the stage management team \u2026 and also by my cast,\u201d Hamilton added. \u201cLike, I haven\u2019t felt supported like this on any show that I\u2019ve ever worked on.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n On a final note, Hamilton called for greater BIPOC representation in theatre, and more opportunities like <\/span>Shakespeare\u2019s Women<\/span><\/i> that allow BIPOC performers to take on roles that have been historically performed by white actors. \u201cI just think there should be less of a stigma around sharing people of colour\u2019s stories, because I think there\u2019s always a worry that it\u2019s not gonna make money, or that there isn\u2019t gonna be the people who can be cast as that kind of thing, or there\u2019s not gonna be the writers who wanna do the work and I think what needs to be done is realizing that there are many people who will do the work and who want to do the work,\u201d she advocated. \u201cBecause there can be, and there should be, a radical change in what\u2019s going on in theatre \u2026 The drastic change for this theatre should be that everyone gets to tell their stories \u2026 onstage.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_5″ _builder_version=”4.14.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.14.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.14.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.14.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Two cast members of Shakespeare’s Women discuss their experiences as BIPOC women in theatre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16866,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"2880","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-theatre"],"yoast_head":"\n