When Jasmine Whenham took on the precarious role of playing a woman living as a man, she knew it would be challenging and eye-opening but she didn’t realize how life changing it would become.
Even as a lesbian woman, Whenham always found the topic of transgender uncomfortable and confusing. So when Be a Man writer and producer Rita Bozi asked her to play the role of Tommy, a woman living as a man, Whenham was hesitant, but decided to challenge her views and dive head-first into the role - something she now credits with changing her life.
"When Rita first contacted me, my first emotion that I felt was extreme discomfort," she explains. "I’ve always felt uncomfortable about transgendered individuals and issues. I’ve also always felt uncomfortable about being uncomfortable about it because I’m a gay woman and I shouldn’t be judging anyone else."
She completely realizes the irony of the situation now.
"It’s funny you know, when you are gay everyone says why are you making that choice and you explain it’s not a choice but as a gay person, I was looking at transgendered people and asking the same thing."
But the role has changed her life.
"Now I realize it’s not a choice at all," she explains. "The compassion I now feel for anyone in that situation is immense. There are no questions about it; it’s not a choice, end of story. I feel bad for anyone trapped in the wrong body or forced to have to use the wrong restroom."
But it wasn’t without its fears and scars. Whenham already had short hair but cut her hair even shorter for the performance, ditched her earrings and let her eyebrows grow. In the past month alone she’s been mistaken for a man several times and even forcibly removed from the woman’s washroom at a movie theatre.
"I was surprised because I didn’t change that much," she explains. "But it was humiliating. I was devastated. It certainly did a lot for my sense of compassion, especially having to prove my gender, but that was my goal coming into the project. I will be a huge advocate from now on. "
And that’s exactly what Rita Bozi wanted for the people involved in her performance adventure as it’s called.
"I wanted someone who would be brave and willing to expose themselves to uncomfortable situations," Bozi says of Whenham, who she says did an amazing job as Tommy.
Bozi wrote her short fiction piece titled Be a Man for a Stampede noire anthology and felt it was the perfect piece to fuse a story with film and live music.
"I wanted to bring people into the world of fiction as not just something we read in bed or have someone read to us," Bozi says of her work. "Tommy is an eccentric, Blue Grass musician who lands at the height of the Calgary Stampede trying to live as a man. The story lent itself to fusing music, choreography and stage."
But telling the story with compassion was important for Bozi, who has always felt drawn to gender-bending and androgyny; as a dancer, she has spent most of her life feeling discomfort in her own body.
"I’ve always been a dancer but I’d look at my brother and I had his legs. As a dancer I was not the perfect woman and always battled within myself. The only way I could resolve it was [by] accepting both halves, the masculine and feminine energies within myself."
In a way, her short fiction is parallel to her life and the masculine-feminine struggle can be seen artistically through her piece, with a twist.
She has always been intrigued by two-spiritualism, and that realization led to research and eventual play an acting role as Brandon Teena, the 21-year-old Nebraska woman living as a man who was raped and murdered in 1993; also the subject of the award-winning film Boys Don’t Cry.
"I was fascinated by Brandon Teena. And I think having a lot of fascination and compassion is the first place to write a character from," she adds.
In Be a Man, Tommy’s desire leads him into dangerous circumstances such as meeting a drug dealer and being romantically interested in a woman.
"And Tommy does get beat up, but I want to emphasize that Tommy doesn’t get beat up because he is a female to male transgendered person, but because Rich (the drug dealer) accepts Tommy as a man and beats him up for being a male," Bozi explains. "And that’s the twist I wanted to create. It’s not because of gender politics."
Not to be lost in the mix of the storyline and music, is the technical aspect of the performance adventure. Film and projection coordinator Sandi Somers is the cohesive glue that ensure the piece runs smoothly.
"I get to add to the performances in a way that integrates the film so it’s a cohesive and seamless aspect of everything else going on," Somers explains. "I was trying to find the right pace, the right images and the right themes. And they become a character, a part of the piece, much like the music and performers are."
Be a Man, made possible by a 2012 project grant and Banff residency, will be performed at the Green Fools Studio on Friday November 16 and Saturday November 17 at 9 PM for what you can pay at the door.