Joan of Arc gets cancelled in Virginia

[lionheart]

www.broadwayworld.com/norfolk/article/Richmond-Triangle-Players-Cancels-SECOND-COMING-OF-JOAN-OF-ARC-20201002

'Richmond Triangle Players has released the following statement announcing the cancellation of its production of "The Second Coming of Joan of Arc", original scheduled to run in-person and streaming through October 10, 2020.

"After weeks of rehearsals and steady preparation to open our production of The Second Coming of Joan of Arc, we discovered a great number of views and opinions expressed by and endorsed on the playwright's personal Facebook page that, after intense investigation and research, we believe to be transphobic.

This production had been planned to re-open Richmond Triangle Players after many months of Covid-caused dormancy. We took our responsibility to process this information we found seriously, and to proceed with care to support our artists, our patrons, and the LGBTQ+ community at large.

We have therefore made the decision to cancel our production of this play in its entirety.

This decision was not made frivolously or lightly, and comes after days of serious and thorny discussions. Our actor and creative team had put together a beautiful production that was ready to open. But now more than ever before, Richmond Triangle Players must use its leadership voice to stand in solidarity with our trans siblings, especially at a time when marginalized voices must be heard louder than before.'

[Kit19]

The author of the play is a lesbian feminist. I presume she believes in biological sex and has therefore been denounced to the inquisition

[BitterAndOnlySlightlyTwisted]

Which is interesting because upon doing the tiniest bit of research I have discovered that the playwright, Carolyn Gage, received the Lambda Literary Award for LGBT Drama in 2008, so whatever transgression/s she may have committed must be truly serious indeed

[BitterAndOnlySlightlyTwisted]

Ah, lesbian feminist. That will have done it

[ThinEndOfTheWedge]

They think a 15th century women being burnt at the stake wasn’t sufficiently marginalised???

[SophocIestheFox]

They can’t even bring themselves to name the playwright!

It is Carolyn Gage, and you will be dumbfounded to learn that she is a lesbian feminist.

The cancellation meant that the actor playing the role (its a one woman play) has now had all her hard work chucked in the bin, which doesn’t seem super progressive to me as she’s described as a being a woman of colour...so the lesbian and the woman of colour are the ones losing out here. Much progressive!

Search for Carolyn Gage playwright on Facebook- it’s actually quite heartening as no one is having it. There’s at least one trans person on there saying they’ve worked with her and she’s absolutely not transphobic. Plus a lot of outrage that a much lauded lesbian playwright is being raked over the coals like this.

[Cocothefirst]

McCarthyism.

[SirSamuelVimes]

@Cocothefirst

McCarthyism.

Absolutely.

[ParrotheadRedux]

Does anyone know what she actually said? All I see on this thread is a lot of “I presume...” type statements. That’s not good enough for me. It may very well be accurate that she was canceled for speaking the truth about gender and in that case I would support her completely. But as much as I wouldn’t denounce someone without knowing the facts I equally can’t blindly put my support and integrity behind someone if I don’t know what happened. I’m sure the theatre was well aware that Ms Gage is a lesbian feminist before booking the production. This appears to have been based on very specific statements made on Ms Gage’s social media, and unless I know what those were I can’t say for sure they weren’t transphobic. We need to be careful about making assumptions about these things.

[BraveBananaBadge]

And they’re an LGBT+ theatre company?! On their Facebook page they only seem to be bothering to interact with the few people who are unquestioningly backing them rather than anybody asking what she is supposed to have done.

[Kit19]

It seems to be this

www.triviavoices.com/the-inconvenient-truth-about-teena-brandon.html

[Abhannmor]

Jesus wept. Cancelled for telling the truth. I despair.

[wellbehavedwomen]

Just reading the opening words of that article - eating disorder, seven showers a day - I knew s/he would be a victim of CSA. Those are classic signs.

You're not allowed to point out that trauma, eating disorders and CSA are correlated with gender dysphoria, as is autism, even though that's been made extremely clear by the GIDS whistleblowers.

This playwright is being cancelled for daring to tell the truth, and bring up complex and difficult matters of fact, instead of going along with a sanitised series of lies, providing a nicely digestible, paint-by-numbers narrative. Figures. Par for the course, in fact.

We live in a post-truth and post-nuance world. It's very, very frightening when people are punished and demonised just for trying to push back to the facts. How can we improve things - for anyone - when simply speaking to the realities is seen as morally repugnant?

[Ereshkigalangcleg]

That's an incredibly powerful article. I can see why the TRAs didn't like it.

[OhHolyJesus]

That was a very interesting article, so much back story and sensitively written. Very depressing to hear she has been cancelled over this.

[SirSamuelVimes]

Very interesting, and very sad, article.

[TweeBree]

The FB commentors aren't having it.

[lionheart]

Good on 'em for standing up.

[DisappearingGirl]

Is there any kind of collated list anywhere of females who have been sacked from jobs or roles due to perceived transphobia, and what they actually said?

[CousinKrispy]

The full story of Teena Brandon is desperately sad. What on earth is wrong with people who think that childhood sex abuse should be covered up? That discussing it, and its effect on the victim's behaviour and gender identity, is somehow transphobic?

If you can't have compassion for victims of CSA, I can't have much respect for your so-called kindness and compassion for trans people.

[lakesidewinter]

If it isn't glitter and unicorns it isn't allowed.
The movement is as shallow as a puddle.

[StillWeRise]

that is an excellent article, I particularly like the notion of sex-caste resistance

[Abhannmor]

I sent her a message of support. Now I am going to give the Triangle Theatre a piece of my mind. Hope it doesn't turn into a disjointed , unhinged rant.

[Abhannmor]

@OhHolyJesus

That was a very interesting article, so much back story and sensitively written. Very depressing to hear she has been cancelled over this.

It was very compassionate and beautifully written. The TRAs seem to hate reality whatever form it takes though.

[TheChampagneGalop]

They're not keen on compassion and reality. JK Rowling also wrote a very compassionate post where she described her thoughts on women's rights and trans issues. We all know the reaction to that.

[DoublePatRelease]

Will women like Carolyn Gage have to adopt pseudonyms like The Brontës if they want to continue to write?

Hardly progress.

Carolyn writes beautifully.