Site Specific, One Hour, 8 Actors

Photography by Cristian Robert Cortez

Director's Note

In Shakespeare’s 12th Night, when Viola finds herself alone in an unknown world, she chooses to present herself as a man rather than a woman to society. As a woman who grew up in rural East Texas, I can understand this choice. Where I come from, society puts many expectations and limitations on both men and women based on our gender. Girls are supposed to be soft, gentle, and weak, while boys are expected to be hard, rough, and strong. Boys should have opinions and speak their minds, while girls should be agreeable and hold their tongues. My whole life, I have not fit into the gender role that society wanted me to play based on the fact that my sex is female. As a child, I wanted to climb trees and play in the dirt more than I wanted to wear dresses and have tea parties. I played sports and have always been more comfortable in jeans and a t-shirt than I ever could be in a dress. When I was 10, I cut my hair short and one night after a baseball game a group of kids from school walked up to me and asked, “Are you a boy or a girl?” When I said I was a girl, they responded, “Then why don’t you act and dress like one?” and they all walked away laughing. I went home in tears. I sometimes found myself thinking that life would be so much easier if I were a boy. So, I understand why Viola would look at an unknown world and think she would have an easier go of it as a man. But then there is the reality. Sometimes I can be very girlie. I love sappy romantic comedies, getting mani/pedis, long bubble baths and as a child I loved my Barbie dolls. If I was a boy, I would have to hide these parts of me or be ridiculed for the feminine traits I display. What I have come to accept is that I have many traits that are very “masculine” and others that are super “feminine”.  And like Viola, if I present myself as just one or the other, I would be denying life to half of my soul. As a woman, Viola fears she will not be safe and will have no voice or personal power, but as a man, she must deny her heart it’s desires. She is stuck in society’s expectations and limitations of what men and women “should” be. Why do we set up these expectations in our society? I don’t believe I have ever met anyone who is 100% “feminine” or “masculine”. Aren’t we all just people looking to be loved and accepted for the whole of who we are?