#director thoughts

Something I do for the teen performers is I find YouTube clips of characters that are similar to who they are playing, so I have this in the back of my mind as I am reading.

Shrek is Elliot Spencer from Leverage, especially the first couple seasons, and Donkey is so Hardison coded. Just the friendship building from an irritation to dependence is so THEM. Then you factor in “layers” and the fact that Hardison not only cannot stop talking, but goes out of his way to “teach” Elliot things, and I wonder why this isn’t already a fanfic somewhere.

With this in mind… is Fiona just Parker if she’d been raised with Royal etiquette? I don’t think it’s as close a comparison as the other two, but I’m not gonna lie… I would pay to see a Fiona with Parker vibes.

🤔 😂

Nine months ago, I read Kimberly Belflower’s Lost Girl for a set of audition sides, getting ready for my college’s spring 2023 productions. It was 2 AM, my wheelchair was parked in the bathroom, I was changing clothes, about to go to bed.

Until I started to femslash, gender-bend crack-ship two of the show’s main characters.

I didn’t go to bed until 5 AM.

Our rehearsals went from Jan-Mar. 2023. Belflower herself visited us. We ran from Mar. 1-4. I got COVID, changed my pronouns, directed my first scenes in a real-budget theatre show, made friends, learned so much, and had the time of my life.

Then, this week, I find myself at the American Theatre in Higher Education annual conference.

Y’all.

I’m not always sure of myself, or of life. (Who is? They’re lying.)

But this week, I kid you not:

I femslash, crack-shipped all the way to a National Professional Theatre Conference.

Sometimes, it works out. Commit to the bit. (😆) And most of all—a message for y’all and for Fiona as a 10-year-old:

You will not always be punished for being passionate. You will see your way of being have a positive impact.

You will learn that you are more than enough, that you don’t have to stop being that person—who crack-ships for joy at 2 AM—to be vibrant, full and beautiful.

In fact, that capacity for joy is infectious, and it makes you the artist you are. You will find others who care, and together, you will give back the way stories gave to you.

So hang in there.

Read AO3. Write metas and fan-fiction, draw fan art, trust your gut and be passionate. Claim queer stories. Take up space. Love what you love and do it loudly. No matter what you do career-wise, that is the why we exist on this Earth.