Going out of one's comfort zone is never easy. Sometimes, it can even be difficult to find a productive way of doing that in daily life, but what is true about the process, is that there's often a lesson learned at the end of the experience. Actor and comedian Becca Blackwell knows all about those limitations.
"To me, the ambiguity of my gender — that I changed my name, that I have moustache — bothers people more than me just passing as a man," Blackwell said. "That, to me, is just the essence of schmerm, or playing any kind of character."
Blackwell is transgender and prefers they/them pronouns, and "schmerm" is integral to their recurring performance "They, Themself and Schmerm." Blackwell describes "schmerm" as "basically the sound people make when they try to figure out what gender I am."
Part comedy special, part performance art, part bare-bones confessional, Blackwell's performance is meant to challenge, intrigue and most importantly, make transgender topics a bit more visible. Blackwell's content made the performance perfect for Ann Arbor's University Musical Society's upcoming No Safety Net Festival. From Jan. 17 to Feb. 3, the festival will be a "a three-week look at works of theater that embrace contemporary social issues, including slavery and race in America, terrorism, transgender identity and recovery from addiction and depression," according to a press release.
No Safety Net will include four main performances, along with a variety of workshops throughout the three week time period. Mallory Shea is the marketing and media relations coordinator at UMS. She said that this festival will be the first time that UMS has put on a group of performances that attempt to start conversations about social issues like this, on such a scale.
Safe Space
"One of the things that kind of makes this important to us, is that we have a relationship with the university here. The university leadership earlier this year has stated that universities should be dangerous places for ideas, and safe spaces for people," Shea said. "So, basically through Safety Net we're just interested in creating a safe space for people with different viewpoints to have an honest dialogue about the social issues that we're facing today. It's just meant to serve as a much larger platform for that."
And, if the topics seem like ones that might be uncomfortable to talk about, Shea said than that's perfect. The performances, above all, are meant to educate.
"It's meant to build empathy, and just put people in other people's shoes," Shea said. "And how they experience the world that we live in."
Besides Blackwell's standup routine, "Underground Railroad Game" will be put on by Arts Nova, "Us/Them" will be put on by BRONKS and Richard Jordan Productions and FK Alexander's "(I Could Go On Singing) Over the Rainbow," with accompaniment from Okishima Island Tourist Association. "Underground Railroad Game" focuses on racism.
"That particular performance is just two performers in that program. They're middle school teachers and they have a lesson plan that they do as a way of teaching their classroom about the Underground Railroad itself," Shea said. "One of the teachers is black and the other teacher is white, so it's really an exploration of race and power and sex."
Also about a school, "Us/Them" focuses on a real-life hostage situation in Beslan by Chechen rebels in 2004. During the event, more than 300 people were held hostage. According to Shea, the performance is an abstract one.
"The performance is really a beautiful piece of physical theatre that explores the way children deal with trauma, and the way that we as adults tackle that kind of stuff," she said.
Over the Rainbow
Lastly, FK Alexander's performance explores a dichotomy of musical sound and styles with "(I Could Go On Singing) Over the Rainbow."
"What FK did is take the final recording that Judy Garland did of 'Over the Rainbow" — this is the last time that Judy Garland had sung that song before she died — she combines that with music from a self-proclaimed noise band," Shea said. "She combines this beautiful recording of Judy Garland with this loud noise band experience. What it really is, is an exploration into some of the radical healing that she has been working on through her recovery from addiction and depression."
Over the course of the three weeks, more than 22 different performances will be held, giving interested parties an opportunity to see some performances more than once, or pick and choose which ones are most interesting. The festival will end with "Decompress," a party intended on encouraging self-care after introducing potentially heavy topics. Blackwell said they are looking forward to the performance, but they hope people leave "They, Themself and Schmerm" with its overarching message.
"I'm not looking for sympathy. I'm not looking for anyone to tell me it's OK. I'm not out there being all like, 'Look at all the shitty things that have happened.' I'm trying to look at the insanity and the weird ways we put limitations on ourselves, and how did I try to break out of that to come to some sort of sloppy conclusion that I'm a work in progress," They said. "Who knows what the right or wrong is as long as I'm being authentic to myself. We're all these bizarre, moving masterpieces that are constantly being worked on."
Tickets and additional information are available at ums.org/nosafetynet. Read more about University Musical Society at ums.org.
