i am the master of my fate

• Trans men/mascs who are allies to trans women/femmes by fighting transmisogyny

• Trans women/femmes who are allies to trans men/mascs by fighting transandrophobia

• Binary trans folks who are allies to nonbinary people by fighting exorsexism

• Nonbinary folks who are allies to binary trans people by fighting transmisogyny and transandrophobia

• Perisex folks who are allies to intersex people by fighting intersexism

Asexual people getting to be open and talk about not wanting sex and never having sex is important in a world that tries constantly to sell sex to us as an inevitable activity

Disabled people fighting for the right to marry is important in a world that holds life-saving benefits hostage and prevents one from marrying

Women fighting for the right to divorce or to never marry is important in a world that pushes women into a subordinate role of "wife"

Ex-Religious people fighting for the right to leave a religion or not be forced to convert to a religion is important in a world that subjects everyone to predatory missionary work

Religious people fighting for the right to practice their religion and do so openly is important in a world that prioritized religions over one another--often Christianity but not always

And you could substitute many more things into this. Young people fight to not be infantilized by authority, but they also in some areas fight to not be adultified. Some people have to fight so hard for a variety of reasons to be able to grow out their hair. Some people have to fight so hard to be able to cut it. Some fight to be allowed to wear coverings, some fight to be allowed to wear nothing. Some fight to be left alone, some fight to get the care they need. Some fight to be able to leave, some fight to be able to stay.

None of these comparable fights are opposed to one another, because the fight isn't about the specific thing, it is all about the same thing: autonomy.

Someone's fight to wear a dress is someone's fight to wear pants is someone's fight to live alone is someone's fight to live with someone is someone's fight to be left alone by medical institutions is someone's fight to be able to medically alter their body.

It is the same fight. People who want the opposite for themselves that I want for me are my siblings. We want the exact same thing: the choice to be who we want, how we want, on our terms.

Morgan’s Eurydice doesn’t like to be touched.

I’ve been trying to find clips of other casts to see if what she does is a new choice or not (let me know if anyone’s seen other Eurydices do this -- I've seen Eva and Maia's Wedding Song and they don't play it this way). Eurydice is always written as stand-off-ish at the start so there's obviously a foundation for it, but the new blocking plays it up in a way that's really interesting. (Also I've only watched the Sep 2 opening night performance so I don't know what else Morgan’s done with the role on other nights). (And to be clear, I'm comparing with other Eurydice performances as a way to explain what I think are unique choices that this production made, not saying one is better than the other).

So when Orpheus and Eurydice are first meeting, Eurydice sits up on the table and at one point Hermes tells her “Orpheus isn’t like any man you’ve met.” In most productions, Hermes places a hand on her shoulder as he says this.

Now in our current version of the show, Kurt’s Hermes reaches a hand toward Eurydice's (Morgan's) shoulder and she flinches back and glares at him. So then he backs away from her with his hands up in a placating gesture.

When Orpheus hops up on the table beside her she scoots over to the edge of it and leans away from him.

Then they sing Wedding Song. In OBC the choreo is a push and pull of Orpheus moving toward Eurydice and her playfully stepping past him to avoid him. Then maybe halfway through the song Orpheus stops moving and holds his hand out for her to come to him (truly stray cat energy). In OBC, Eva brushes her fingers against his and then steps past him again.

In Morgan's version, every time Orpheus walks toward her, Eurydice steps past him and then holds her hand up in a "stop" gesture. When he stops moving and holds his hand out for her, Morgan holds out her index finger, slowly walks toward him and makes a show of touching his palm with just the tip of her finger. Then runs past him again.

[Edit to add: Jack’s Orpheus then smiles down at his hand and rubs the spot that she touched, which was cute].

The rest of the blocking seems to play out the usual way. (Though if you haven't heard it yet, in the Sep 6 show Morgan did an impression of Jack's accent when she's teasing Orpheus about his song. I love her, your honour). Anyway, Orpheus does his first iteration of "La la la la" to conjure the flower, which impresses her, and he ends Wedding Song holding her hand and kneeling like a proposal, the usual.

When Persephone shows up for her song, there's a few lines where she puts an arm over Eurydice's shoulders, welcoming her to the place. Eva's Eurydice also puts an arm around Persephone so they're holding each other shoulder-to-shoulder. But Morgan's Eurydice doesn't touch Persephone back: she keeps her hands to herself and even stands with a bit of space between them, and they don't stay in contact for nearly as long.

Then we get to All I've Ever Known and Morgan's Eurydice is so heartbreaking y'all.

I’ve been alone so long I didn’t even know that I was lonely

Eva’s Eurydice played this song a little more playfully, more sweetly: she giggles and gestures to herself in a self-deprecating kind of way. She uses the above lines to tell Orpheus “this is who I am, this is what you’re getting,” and she’s using the song to ask Orpheus for permission to hold him.

Morgan's Eurydice feels like she is singing this song to herself. She's still fighting her feelings. She stands so far away from Orpheus on the stage and she looks closed off, refusing to move for those first few lines. When she gets to the below line she sings it forcefully, defensively, like she’s trying to explain herself:

All I’ve ever known is how to hold my own

And then the mask starts to slip and she says it more gently:

All I’ve ever known is how to hold my own

She holds her hand out towards him now, the way he did for her earlier in Wedding Song:

But now I wanna hold you too

But she also stares at her hand, not at him, looking unsure. And so Orpheus stays still and holds his hand out again, allowing her to make the decision. She, so hesitantly, closes the distance between them and, instead of using just her fingertip, this time she grabs his whole hand and practically flings herself into his arms, finally allowing him to touch her.

You take me in your arms And suddenly there's sunlight all around me

It might sound like a small detail (and tbh I could be reading into it more than was intended) but what I love about Morgan's Eurydice being more touch-avoidant is it makes it feel so powerful when she finally lets Orpheus hold her. It's such a release of tension when she throws herself into his arms the first time.

(You can see him holding her in this video clip).

I think this was the most interesting part to notice, but I’ve also written a description of the rest of the blocking for All I've Ever Known if anyone's curious. Under the cut because this post was getting way too long.

Husband doodle (ref below cut)

The Mechanisms character userboxes (Toy Soldier)

My friend (underground worker) and I had a lot of fun designing a whole backstory between our two characters. Hermes falls in love with a mortal poet, but before he can even attempt to woo her, she dies in the dead of winter. Hermes already spent a lot of time in the underworld, so the next time he guided souls down...he stayed for awhile. He found her and disguised himself as another worker and quietly used his godly powers to make her work go fast enough for her to have moments with nothing to do. In these precious moments he spoke to her, gave her name. He talked her back to life.

Theres much more, but the point is that Hermes went to Hades to beg for her soul to be returned to the living world. He was unable to meet Hades' challenge/demands and his lover remined as a worker. Hadestown banned Hermes from interacting her and she never knew who Hermes truly was. Hermes was forced to travel between worlds guiding souls and seeing the woman he loved everyday without being about to speak to her. All she knew was that the one person who seemed to care, to look into her eyes...just stopped coming.

My Hermes knows how it ends NOT just because he's seen it over and over.

He lives it over and over.

Each and every time he crosses to the underworld and returns without the woman he loves.