LITTLE MIS(S)GENDER

ABOUT

LITTLE MIS(S)GENDER is about the journey of an AFAB trans non-binary operatic singer understanding their place within a fictional land that is built on gender binaries, rules and punishments. Inspired by Roger Hargreaves Little Miss and Mr. Men children’s books, the singer travels to “Fachland” (aka Genderland) to have their Fach determined by the great all-knowing “Mutterfächer” (Mother of all Fachs), but first must embrace their expanding gender and voice, while finding their place in a world that still seeks to limit and define them.

FIRST DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP, JUNE 2022

From June 6-18, 2022 the Little Mis(s)gender team is undergoing a first-phase development workshop on the script, music and design elements. We will present a portion of the script with design prototpying from all departments. I’d like to thank the Bonham Centre’s Queer Trans Research Lab, the Ontario Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council for their support in making this workshop possible.

I’m joined by a wonderful team of artists:

• Director — Sadie Epstein-Fine (they/them)

• Performer — Lee Stone (they/them)

• Stage Manager — Rafael Lim Daunt (he/they)

• Pianist — Trevor Chartrand (he/him)

• Sound Designer — Steph Raposo (they/them)

• Lighting Designer — Emerson Kafarowski (she/they)

• Animation & Illustration — Maddie Garces (she/they)

INSPIRATION

Little Mis(s)gender (or LMG) was born out of my exploration and understanding of gender and sexuality, in relation to being “assigned female at birth”, alongside my vocation as a professional opera singer. Since being labelled a lyric coloratura soprano at 16 years of age, my prescribed Fach — or voice type, as defined by the German Fach System — has dictated not only the repertoire that I’ve been permitted to sing, but also the heterosexual, feminine whiteness I’ve been limited to inhabit and perform both on and off the stage. Yet, as I grew-up and embraced my diasporic Japanese (Nikkei), queer, trans and gender non-binary identity, I found myself lost in an opera industry that is comfortable rigidly defining “male” and “female” (and the presumptions around voice type and body associated), but is baffled by (and subsequently ignores) otherness. 

Currently I’m in the process of writing an interdisciplinary staged  work that draws inspiration from the famous children’s book series, Mr. Men and Little Miss by Roger Hargreaves, picture books infamous for instilling particular binary gender roles on children since the 1970s. Initially created during the 2021-2022 Artist in Residence position at the Queer Trans Research Lab as a part of The Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual and Diversity Studies at the University of Toronto, Little Mis(s)gender  is a fantasy piece set in the main character’s mind, who is also a trans non-binary opera singer. Their inner child, Little, is on a journey to find their Fach, and in doing so, must navigate their way through Genderland (or “Fachland” in German): a loveless, laughless place where music has become binary and rigid. To their shame and dismay, however, once in Genderland they are labeled “Fach-less” and discarded because neither their gender nor their voice complies within the Fach system. Throughout this journey, Little realizes that they possess a special voice that holds the colours and secrets of the origin of song and where voices were once celebrated for being fluid and transitional. 

To capture the fantastical journey into the protagonist’s inner world I am interweaving narrative driven text, a sung re-exploration of existing operatic works, newly composed music, utilizing voice manipulation equipment and software, within a visual landscape created with projected video animation. 

What is unique about this work is that it is living and evolving. It is built upon my ongoing experience as an opera-singing body in transition, a changing body (voice included) that confounds and disrupts gender stereotypes through opera. To share something personal, I had gender affirming top surgery in September 2021. Similar to the ways in which a young person’s physical and mental development into adulthood is influenced by society’s expectations of heteronormative, white, and astringent gender and sex categories, LMG serves as a reclamation of growing up. 

Currently, there is also no substantial body of work or research that celebrates or even makes room for an operatic voice in flux, which can leave cis-gendered singers, and even moreso trans and gender non-binary singers working within an opera industry that does not recognize them. In this sense, the opera industry is not growing. It’s choosing instead to remain in a fixed, immobile stasis. My hope is that this work will challenge the opera industry’s rigidity (and hopefully others’ too) by suggesting, through example, that a voice type is only limited by the regulations imposed upon it, and make room for, and value, Fach transitionality, creating new works and roles where gender and voice versatility is celebrated and constant growth is encouraged.

DEVELOPMENT HISTORY

Summer 2021

• Initial research and exploration phase (TO Live Explorations)

Season 2021-2022

• Artist-in-residence at the Queer Trans Research Lab of the Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies, University of Toronto

Summer 2022

• First development workshop (Queer AF Collective, Queer Trans Research Lab Artist Residency, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The intitial phase of research and exploration for LITTLE MIS(S)GENDER was funded by TO Live Explorations and is now being supported through the Queer Trans Research Lab at the University of Toronto’s Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies Artist Residency. The first development workshop and subsequent development (Summer 2020) has been made possible by the Ontario Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council, and is being produced by Queer AF Collective. Thank you for your generous support in this project.