Lindsay Amer
Queer artist interested in intersections of theater, digital media, early childhood education, and queer theory
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Papers by Lindsay Amer
people.
Using Kathryn Bond Stockton’s theory of the queer child, I establish that all children are queer and that this queerness should be reflected within their cultural products. Because adults create and produce children’s culture, their projected, nostalgic idea of the child sanitizes the child’s true queerness, exemplified through ‘Disneyfication.’ I marry Stockton’s theory with those of theatre scholar Matthew Reason who claims that theatre for young audiences (by adults) is impossible. This impossibility leads me to conclude that theatre for young audiences cannot reflect the queer child without facing resistance from heteronormative thought.
I use Foucault’s relational space to define schools as heterotopic/heteronormative spaces that reject queer subject matter coming from adults who are presenting theatre to young people. I theorize that this rejection can be circumnavigated if the queer child was allowed to create their own (queer) cultural content. Three American theatre companies allow for just that; Northwestern University’s Griffin’s Tale, New York and Los Angeles’ Story Pirates, and Chicago’s Barrel of Monkeys. Through my personal interview with Barrel of Monkeys’ Artistic Director Joe Schupbach, I analyze three stories by young people, presented by the adult Barrel of Monkeys ensemble, to students in Chicago Public Schools that explicitly depict queer themes and characters without meeting any resistance or controversy. These stories are paving the way for other mediums to truly reflect the queer child, by positioning the child as both creator and spectator.
people.
Using Kathryn Bond Stockton’s theory of the queer child, I establish that all children are queer and that this queerness should be reflected within their cultural products. Because adults create and produce children’s culture, their projected, nostalgic idea of the child sanitizes the child’s true queerness, exemplified through ‘Disneyfication.’ I marry Stockton’s theory with those of theatre scholar Matthew Reason who claims that theatre for young audiences (by adults) is impossible. This impossibility leads me to conclude that theatre for young audiences cannot reflect the queer child without facing resistance from heteronormative thought.
I use Foucault’s relational space to define schools as heterotopic/heteronormative spaces that reject queer subject matter coming from adults who are presenting theatre to young people. I theorize that this rejection can be circumnavigated if the queer child was allowed to create their own (queer) cultural content. Three American theatre companies allow for just that; Northwestern University’s Griffin’s Tale, New York and Los Angeles’ Story Pirates, and Chicago’s Barrel of Monkeys. Through my personal interview with Barrel of Monkeys’ Artistic Director Joe Schupbach, I analyze three stories by young people, presented by the adult Barrel of Monkeys ensemble, to students in Chicago Public Schools that explicitly depict queer themes and characters without meeting any resistance or controversy. These stories are paving the way for other mediums to truly reflect the queer child, by positioning the child as both creator and spectator.