“The Winter of Our Discontent”: An Interview with Playwright Terri Power

Authors

  • Alexa Alice Joubin George Washington University
  • Terri Power Stance Theatre Company

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18274/bl.v14i2.332

Abstract

This interview with Terri Power, conducted by Alexa Alice Joubin, focuses on the representations of trans masculinity in Power’s play Drag King Richard III. For nearly two decades Power has been at the forefront of trans and queer representation in performances of Shakespeare. Weaving a personal story of the 1990s with Shakespeare’s early modern disability narrative, Power’s adaptation reveals that the gender binary was enforced even in queer circles in the 1990s, coding lesbian identities as either butch or femme. The interview concludes with her suggestions for future work in transgender theatre based on her collaboration with trans actors beyond Richard III.

Author Biographies

Alexa Alice Joubin, George Washington University

Alexa Alice Joubin (https://ajoubin.org, she/her/hers) is the inaugural recipient of the bell hooks Legacy Award (Popular Culture Association / American Culture Association) and recipient of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Award. She writes about race, gender, cultural globalization, Shakespeare, and film and theatre. She is Professor of English; Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies; Theatre; International Affairs; and East Asian Languages and Literatures at George Washington University in Washington, DC, where she cofounded and codirects the Digital Humanities Institute. Her recent books include Shakespeare and East Asia (Oxford University Press, 2021), Race (with Martin Orkin, Routledge, 2018), Onscreen Allusions to Shakespeare: International Films, Television, and Theatre (coedited, 2022), Sinophone Adaptations of Shakespeare: An Anthology, 1987–2007 (edited, 2022), Local and Global Myths in Shakespearean Performance (coedited, 2018), and Shakespeare and the Ethics of Appropriation (coedited, 2014). She is editor-in-chief of The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Global Shakespeare and, starting 2023, the general editor of The Shakespearean International Yearbook.

Terri Power, Stance Theatre Company

Terri Power (https://www.drterripower.com, she/her/hers) is a professional actor, director, and playwright as well as a founding member of the Stance Theatre Company in the UK. She holds a BA in Theater from UCLA, an MFA in Staging Shakespeare, and a PhD in Drama from the University of Exeter in England. Her book, Shakespeare and Gender in Practice (Palgrave, 2016), argues that cross-gender performance was an integral part of Shakespearean theater.

Downloads

Published

2023-03-28