Gender Euphoria

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Hosted by Nicolas Savard, the Gender Euphoria podcast aims to amplify the voices of trans and gender nonconforming theater artists in the United States and creates an opportunity for trans artists to be in conversation with one another about their experiences working in a field that has a tendency to tokenize them. Each of these conversations will offer a space to share and explore the kinds of cultural work that trans/queer art is doing in the world from an intersectional perspective.

Nicolas Savard, HowlRound Theatre Commons


    • Sep 13, 2023 LATEST EPISODE
    • infrequent NEW EPISODES
    • 43m AVG DURATION
    • 21 EPISODES


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    Latest episodes from Gender Euphoria

    The Queer-Trans Performance Family Tree is more of a Galaxy

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 13, 2023 49:15


    Dr. H. May joins host Nicolas Shannon Savard, who introduces the Queer-Trans Performance Family Tree Project, an interactive, open-access digital exhibit visually connecting trans artists across the United States to the collectives and communities who have sustained our work. This episode explores the role of mentorship in both the research for the project and in their own work as gender nonconforming theatremakers.

    Queer Archival Praxis Roundtable With Guests David Silvernail, Janet Werther, Victoria Lafave, Jordan Ealey, and Kelli Crump

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 6, 2023 47:39


    What role does white supremacy play in the creation of the queer theatre canon? What power and what responsibility do we—as queer theatremakers, historians, and educators—have to challenge canons and archives that define “queer” almost exclusively as white and cisgender? Artist-scholars Janet Werther, Victoria LaFave, Jordan Ealey, David Silvernail, and Kelli Crump join host Nicolas Shannon Savard to tackle these questions and to queer the archive.

    Making Space for Queer Futurity in Texas

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 16, 2023 36:02


    Austin's pop princess, p1nkstar, shares the story of her evolution from performance artist creating a pop star persona for Instagram to real life pop star to community leader creating spaces for fellow trans artists to showcase their work in Texas. This episode also features guest co-host Melissa Lin Sturges, coordinator of the annual Doric Wilson Panel for the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) LGBTQ+ Focus Group.

    Making Space for Self-Authorship through Audio Description

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 31, 2023 50:36


    Making Space: Consent, Collaboration, and Queer Access Intimacy

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 12, 2023 59:18


    J.C. Pankratz returns to the podcast to reflect on the first full production of their play Seahorse, directed by Nicolas Shannon Savard, starring Emmett Podgorski. Nicolas, J.C., and Emmett discuss how the collaborative process, from auditions through closing night, was informed by queer community building, access intimacy, and consent-based practice. They offer behind-the-scenes perspectives and concrete examples of how tools and ideas discussed in previous episodes played out in practice.

    Queer-Trans Intimacy: One Foot in the Academy and the Other in the Nightclub

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 5, 2023 46:48


    Nicolas Shannon asks Joy Brooke Fairfield and Raja Benz how their intimacy work is informed by queer theory and critical theory. Their conversation bounces between queer of color theory, decolonial theory, disability theory, and the dim glow of the night club; between past, present, and future; between the ideas they're sure of and the ones they're working out in real time. Bonus! It comes with dozens of recommended readings.

    Queer Intimacies in Too-Near Dystopian Futures

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 28, 2023 48:09


    Host Nicolas Shannon Savard and playwright Leanna Keyes discuss her play "Doctor Voynich and Her Children". What does it mean to stage trans stories about queer motherhood, abortion, intimacy, choice, and power in the wake of the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade and the ongoing legislative attacks on reproductive rights and the trans community?

    Queer-Trans Intimacy Work: Cracking Gender Open

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 21, 2023 47:18


    In the first part of a two-part conversation on queer-trans intimacy direction and choreography, Nicolas talks with Theatrical Intimacy Education faculty members Dr. Joy Brooke Fairfield and Raja Benz about their courses Working with Trans & Non-Binary Artists and Staging Intimacy Beyond the Binary. They discuss crafting courses that are less Trans-101 and more cracking gender open, resisting patriarchal and colonialist scripts, and bringing queer culture into the rehearsal room.

    Queer Intimacies, Trans Futures, Grief, and Radical Hope in "Seahorse" With Guest J.C. Pankratz

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 14, 2023 41:49


    Host, Nicolas Shannon Savard interviews playwright J.C. Pankratz about their play, "Seahorse", a poetic, stream-of-consciousness one-person show about a trans man's attempts at artificial insemination following his husband's unexpected death. The conversation will dive into the play's approach to the “messiness” of imagining futures you can't yet see and its use of magical realism to invite audiences to sit inside that mess as witnesses and confidants.

    Making Space for Thriving Queer Communities Through Applied Theatre: With Guest Dr. Jesse O'Rear

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 7, 2023 45:08


    Host Nicolas Shannon Savard talks with Dr. Jesse O'Rear about applied theatre with LGBTQ students on college campuses. Jesse describes some alternatives to traditional models of bystander intervention and diversity trainings to create embodied learning opportunities for LGBTQ students to step into positions of leadership and for audience-participants to practice “kinesthetic allyship.”

    On Being a 'Trans Trailblazer' With Scott Turner Schofield

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 30, 2022 48:08


    Gender Euphoria, the podcast, host Nicolas Shannon Savard sits down with actor, writer, consultant, educator Scott Turner Schofield. They trouble the TV/film industry's framing of Schofield as a singular "trans trailblazer," since as he notes, trans actors were, indeed, carving out spaces to make and support one another's art long before we were invited into Hollywood or mainstream theatre spaces. The conversation dives into the shifts that Scott has noticed in audience response to his work over the course of the last twenty years and how those are in direct conversation with national politics.

    QTPOC Comedy: Connecting, Communing, Creating Compassion With D'Lo

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 28, 2022 44:58


    Gender Euphoria, the Podcast host Nicolas Shannon Savard sits down with actor, writer, and comedian D'Lo to talk about his career and how he uses comedy and storytelling as tools for connection, education, and compassion.

    Trans Theatre and the Autobiographical Assumption With Dr. Jesse D. O'Rear

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 23, 2022 41:21


    Gender Euphoria, the podcast, host Nicolas Shannon Savard sits down with artist-scholar, Dr. Jesse O'Rear. This episode features a conversation with Dr. O'Rear about his research on and experience working with autobiographical trans narratives in performance and a phenomenon he calls the “autobiographical assumption” which audiences often read onto trans artists.

    Putting on the Trans Educator Top Hat With Rebecca Kling

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 21, 2022 50:12


    Gender Euphoria, the Podcast, host Nicolas Shannon Savard sits down with storyteller, educator, and advocate for transgender rights, Rebecca Kling. Their conversation addresses Rebecca's work as a solo performer-turned-activist, the importance of consent in deciding to take on the trans educator role, and her radical and hilarious approach to the post-show talkback: the Strip Q and A.

    Queer of Color Devised Performance, Disidentification, and Spirituality With siri gurudev

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 9, 2022 36:27


    Gender Euphoria, the podcast, host Nicolas Shannon Savard sits down with siri gurudev to talk about their devising practice which blends queer of color theory and performance techniques, popular music, and spirituality and to chat about their dissertation research on ritual, trauma, and healing in QTPOC performance.

    Training Cisgender Producers and Directors: It's More than Remembering Pronouns With Maybe Burke

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 3, 2022 46:41


    Gender Euphoria, the podcast, host Nicolas Shannon Savard sits down with actor, writer, and human rights advocate Maybe Burke to talk about her role at the Transgender Training Institute and their signature course, “Supporting Transgender Actors & Creatives.”

    Building Black Queer Worlds Onstage and Behind the Scenes With Azure D. Osborne-Lee

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 28, 2022 44:34


    Gender Euphoria, the Podcast, host Nicolas Shannon Savard sits down with playwright Azure D. Osborne-Lee to talk about their play, Crooked Parts; building Black queer worlds onstage; and the mentorship, community-building, and production practices that go into bringing those worlds to life.

    The Case for QTPOC Slice-of-Life Drama With Dillon Yruegas

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 23, 2022 36:14


    Gender Euphoria, the podcast, host Nicolas Shannon Savard sits down with playwright and performer, Dillon Yruegas to talk about two productions of his play The Brunch Crowd. They talk about what a slice-of-life, kitchen sink play full of trans of color characters looks like and what kind of intervention that makes in the theatrical landscape. They dive into the importance of trans joy and queer friendship and its absence on stage. Finally, Dillon reflects on how expansive approaches to casting trans and non-binary characters and how identity-based casting might open up dialogue and create space for a much wider range of faces and experiences to be seen on stage.

    Part 2: Transgender Legibility: Have We Really Reached the Transgender Tipping Point? With Joshua Bastian Cole

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 16, 2022 43:29


    Nicolas Shannon Savard and Joshua Bastian Cole continue their conversation about transgender representation. They critique Time magazine's 2014 declaration of the “transgender tipping point” of cultural visibility and explore the ways in which Hollywood's handling of trans narratives bleeds over into the theatre, politics, and daily life for trans and gender nonconforming people.

    Part 1: Transgender Legibility beyond the Tropes With Joshua Bastian Cole

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 9, 2022 46:23


    In episode 1 (part 1) of Gender Euphoria, the podcast, host Nicolas Shannon Savard sits down with Joshua Bastian Cole to talk about popular tropes in transgender representation, gender legibility on stage, and the implications of each for trans and nonbinary theatremakers.

    Introduction to Gender Euphoria

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 2, 2022 12:39


    Welcome to Gender Euphoria, the podcast! In this episode, host and producer Nicolas Savard explains the origin story of this new podcast and what (and who) we should expect to hear from this season.

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