In This Issue:
Featured Feminist: Erica Batres
The Privilege of Productivity in a Pandemic
Avada Kedavra, TERFs! (Rory's Corner)
Halloween Movie Recommendations
Featured Feminist:
Erica Batres
Interview by Mattie Limas and Rory Smith
Article by Mattie Limas
Erica Batres is an actor, activist, arts educator, and more. Follow her on her Instagram: @turnxover and Twitter: @joycexmnr
This week we met with Erica Batres, actress and student at UCI who recently made waves after a Twitter thread back in June garnered a lot of attention.
With the theatre industry being a very small world, the tweet eventually got around to Gabriella Green, programming liaison for The Fund For College Auditions (TFCA), “a New York City-based 501(c)(3) non-profit that offers financial support and college guidance to acting and musical theatre students with limited resources who want to audition for post-high school training programs.” Inspired by the efforts of this organization, Batres consulted with founder Ellen Lettrich to write the article, “Why Your Dream Theater School Is Systemically Racist” for the blog The Ensemblist, which attracted our attention here at FTM.
Rory Smith and Mattie Limas sat down with Batres this past Wednesday evening on a Zoom call in order to discuss the contents of the article Batres wrote for The Ensemblist and her relationship to TFCA.
Rory: How did you find that resource [TCFA] and what is some information about that organization that you wish you would have known as a high school student auditioning for a theatre arts program?
Erica: So I work for City of Irvine, I’m like an art teacher for youth. I teach like painting lessons and sculptures, but because of COVID, all of that got cancelled. So then I had to do these shifts where I was standing at these hiking trails at parks and I would just have to greet people and let them know that they have to social distance among other things. Some of these shifts I was so bored and I would sit there for four hours just doing nothing. And I was just so mad about everything going on with theatre - I transferred from a community college to a UC and I was mad about my experience with my musical theatre program. I would just be there dwelling and I just thought “I need to tweet something!”
The tweet, mentioned earlier, is what got her connected to The Fund For College Auditions.
They [TCFA] fundraise thousands of dollars! Any kid who is interested in majoring in theatre performance could upload a video of their work and the schools they want to go to, and the organization will literally fund that kid. They track the entire process from applying in senior year all the way to college acceptance. Not only do they pay for their audition attire, vocal lessons, and dance lessons, but they’ll also sit down with the parents and have a conversation saying, “Here is what your child wants to do, it is very possible that they can do it, and here is what we can do to get them there.” They have six students they’re funding right now, and they pay for everything: from application fees to airfare, really whatever necessities they need. They are amazing!
Mattie: Wow. I didn't even realize how much that last step is important. It tends to be very taboo to be a theatre major but even more so in communities of color, where you’re pressured to be in STEM, and if you don’t go down that path then you really have to become your own advocate. It’s totally unfair. I’m glad they become a form of support at such an intimate level.
Rory: Going into that point, Erica, You talked a lot about the disparity of theatre training in low income areas with lots of POC students. The devaluing of the arts affects low income schools the most because those are the first programs to have funding cut. What are some ways in which you’ve seen the arts be a positive force in young people’s life?
Erica: So I went to high school in Fontana, California, and then I went to Fullerton Community College, which has a pretty big theatre program. The difference between what I did in high school versus what other kids did in high school was like night and day. They all knew each other. “I dance with this studio” or “We have the same vocal coach!” I knew theatre was big in Orange County, but I didn’t know it was such a big culture; it’s because not only does the school district fund the high school art programs, but so do the parents. In comparison to Fontana, which has one local theatre that is so expensive that I couldn’t afford to go, we have art festivals but nothing theatre-centric. We have so many high schools without theatre programs.
I started out in band in high school. Band taught me how to show up, but theatre taught me how to be human, how to empathize, how to control what I was going through. I was on a path towards destruction and I had never felt proud of myself for doing something until I joined theatre.... I get so emotional thinking about it because there are so many young people in the Inland Empire that don't have resources, can’t talk to their parents, can't seek help, and theatre offers that community.
Mattie: How do you think that we can change the current stigma around the arts sector in education?
Erica: I feel like it is really important for students who have graduated to come back to their community and speak to city councils, saying: “Here is what this has meant to me, here is what I have done in my professional career because of theatre programs in high school, and funding the arts is a necessity! What is the number one thing we have done during quarantine? Watch Netflix, watching Disney+, and consume media."
"Without people like us in the entertainment industry, you would have none of this.”
Rory Smith: What was your experience getting into theatre in high school? You touched on having a teacher who multitasked as a tech teacher, director, acting teacher, fundraiser, event organizer, and more. What was that like? Has that influenced or affected you in any way?
Erica: I remember always being a theatre kid, and memorizing the choreo[graphy] to Hairspray once the movie came out. But I guess no one told me that I could actually do that, which is indicative of another problem. But Wendi Johnson (theatre educator at Henry J. Kaiser Highschool in Fontana, CA), she is amaz- first of all she is INSANE! But insane in the best ways possible. She has taught me to love this art because it sucks! It’s long hours, it’s no pay, it’s bottom of the barrel. It sucks, so you have to love it, or else you’re going to be miserable. And I think hearing that and remembering her saying that when I was going to school and doing a show and pushing on 16+ hour-days, I feel like I have never been happier in my life.
I also feel like Wendi’s motto of making a lot out of a little has helped me so much. I remember thinking in high school that all these Orange County kids are used to thousand-dollar sets and microphones and only having musical theatre under their belts, and me being into devised theatre and Shakespeare and making a lot out of a little in a black box theatre is all in credit to her. It helps me! It helps me think outside the box, and I think that money, for me, will never be an issue when it comes to a show because it is about the actors and script and community first. Everything I have done that has scared me has only made me a stronger person, and I learned that from her.
Mattie: What was your experience at Fullerton College and being part of a musical theatre program at a Community College?
Erica: Well in high school I wasn't sure if I wanted to commit to a CSU or a UC, so I decided to go to a CC and try out musical theatre there. If I still like theatre by the end of it, then I was meant to be a theatre major. Fullerton has a great program for theatre for a CC, so I thought it was perfect. The acting program is amazing- Michael Mueller, who was a faculty member, helped me out with the Ensemblist article and was a huge help. My musical theatre program however… I wish I could say it was amazing.
From the first day, the professor walks in and says, “There are twenty-five of you in this class, by next year there will only be fifteen” which just was insane to me because it was a CC. I don’t think those cuts were based on talent, more-so just what he thinks about you.
My skinny white classmates would be told “You’re the ingénue, you’re the leading lady” but I would be told “you’re so funny” and “you’d be a great side character.” And even more, I was only considered for an ensemble, and even then I was never cast. Once I was cast outside of the department, however, I was suddenly met with praise even though I was like,
“I have been in your class for two years and you haven’t noticed me until now.”
I was young and thought that this was just the business. There are kids all over the country going through this in musical theatre programs. I think that musical theatre programs, as they are now, need to be reformed; because for some reason they are always racist or fatphobic or typecasting. And the odd thing is the moment you walk into an acting class you don’t experience that at all, only with musical theatre.
So I ended up finishing my time there and transferred to UCI.
Mattie: What was that experience like?
Erica: I am grateful to Fullerton for all the technical training I received, but I love UCI because they tell the students “We have the space, we have the funds, and we want you, the students, to create whatever you want. We have these mainstages but we can also set you up to do your student-led projects.” And in class we have these healthy discussions with our peers about the future of theatre.
I’m not [exceedingly] anti-Broadway but I’m pretty anti-Broadway. There are things happening in theatre all across the world and not just in America. I feel like UCI is for the theatre people who want to expand their knowledge of all types of theatre, so I’m really happy here!
Mattie: That is so interesting! I’ve been doing a lot of research on how this pandemic has affected the theatre industry. There are worries that with the restricted audiences and higher ticket prices that we are losing out on a small generation of artists and theatre-goers, and that theatre may become even more white, rich, and cautious. So, it’s awesome that you are looking at other countries because America is not the blueprint at all.
Erica: Yes, and theatres in other countries are government funded, which needs to be pushed over here as well! If I’m going to pay thousands of dollars in training, I need to be paid!
Mattie: Circling back to your experiences with being typecast and pigeonholed while in musical theatre and the disparities in theatre training in low income communities: we hear a lot now about how casting agents want people who are "diverse," but if there is no diversity in the training and opportunities, we’re making art unequal. What is your say on that juxtaposed experience? Have you heard that same thing from your professors or people you have worked with?
Erica: I remember taking a masterclass with a Broadway performer. We had all done our pieces and he was giving us notes, and then at the end he gave a whole spiel - I will never forget this - and he said “Ethnically diverse casting? It’s in right now. I don’t know if I’ll have a job soon.” And I just - I was like OKAY, calm down. They’re not gonna fish me off the street and ask me to be on Broadway anytime soon.
It’s such a backhanded thing to say…
Rory Smith: It’s tokenizing!
Erica: Yes. It’s so much more than saying “look we have POC people on stage.” Until we have POC in positions of power, doing the casting, and on the creative teams, diversified casting will be nothing more than using POC as a prop. It’s why I have an issue with white directors for shows like In the Heights. There’s something about knowing an experience, living that experience, and having that be visible in the product that is missing. White directors don’t know what it is like to live our lives as POC, so they shouldn’t be telling stories about us. It’s not just pretty songs and amazing choreo. These are real people. These are people that I know. These are people that I grew up with.
I have been part of productions where it was an all white cast and then just me, and for them, I’m sure it was like “Ugh [chef’s kiss] inclusion.”
Mattie: I remember seeing you in a production of Putnam County Spelling Bee at Long Beach Landmark Theatre Company, and getting kind of emotional. We have Latinx actors on Broadway with Eva Noblezada, Mandy Gonzales, Robin De Jesus, but there was something about seeing a Latinx person on stage who wasn't white-passing; who looked like people from my family. I started tearing up because I was proud of course ‘cause you're my friend, but also kind of mourning. Mourning the fact that I had to experience that and white people don’t, because they see themselves everywhere. I just read this article from The Latin Way called "Top 5 Successful Latinos on Broadway", and I just sat there thinking how ridiculous that is.
Imagine a "Top 5 Whites on Broadway." It just wouldn’t exist.
Erica: I know exactly how you feel. I got so emotional watching Hamilton. Here are just some of the most talented people in their field and - you can’t help but think of the presence of color. I feel like white people won't ever understand the feeling of representation because it is granted.
When I see someone like me on stage it’s like “you know me, you know the struggle, you know what it is like.” You don't even have to actually know them but you have that connection.
I’m so glad you told me that. I- because sometimes you do feel that imposter syndrome. That theatre company I worked with for that show was amazing. They never once made me feel like I was filling a quota. I knew I was there because I deserved the role.
Nothing is more disappointing than seeing a production of West Side Story and seeing white-passing bodies fill the stage. Nothing is more annoying than seeing a casting director’s version of “Latinas.” That is happening so much. I only hope to have more people that look like me or you [Mattie]. Not only do I advocate to have POC people onstage, but I want to see dark-skinned people.
Mattie: We hear all the time that casting directors want POC, but they really just want a certain hue or a certain shade.
Erica: That’s especially why I loved seeing Denée Benton in Great Comet because she was a soprano and the lead when most black women are relegated to the belt-y side characters or ensemble. These are roles that have nothing to do with race, and having that representation is so important.
Erica is currently working with Broadway’s Babies, a non-profit that pays for students to have free performance classes and for Broadway actors to be paid to teach them. She also would like to credit AFECT, Artists for Effective Transparency, which does accountability work researching to see where Broadway money goes to.
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The Privilege of Productivity in a Pandemic
by FTM Leadership
“This shelter in place thing is a blessing in disguise!”
“Since we’re stuck inside all day now you have no excuse not to do all those things you couldn’t do before.”
“If you don’t come out of this pandemic having done something worthwhile, you never lacked the time you just lacked the effort”
After 7 months of varying degrees of quarantine and isolation, most of us have heard some version of toxic productivity rhetoric. Toxic productivity is defined as the attaching of one’s self-worth to how productive they are. In many ways, American culture encourages this “work hard” mentality, so that by the time we reach adulthood, it is firmly ingrained in us. When this mindset is met with a traumatic event, such as a global pandemic, it is common to feel guilty for not being “productive enough.”
The common aphorism is that with all this time freed up, we have a surplus of opportunity to hone our skills or even learn new ones. The theatre artist is told constantly that to be marketable they must have a varied set of skills (i.e. playing violin, tap dancing, singing, etc.) in addition to their acting craft. While these are all fantastic skills to have and definitely enriching to an artist, having access to training is not universal and almost exclusively costs more than most can afford. Training, time, opportunity, and price all play a role in getting this kind of education and, if we ignore the fact that POC from low-income areas oftentimes don't have access to this exposure, we may be unintentionally perpetuating systems of classism and exclusion.
This mindset is heavily encouraged in Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art (a book assigned at the start of the Advanced Acting course at CSULB) as a methodology for practicing one’s artistic craft. This book is quite dated, and is from the point of view of a novelist, so naturally not all of his points are relevant to all types of artists. His advice includes that your art form should be the most important thing to you, more so than any family commitments and personal relationships. He doesn’t believe in any excuses, or that any extenuating circumstances should prevent you from trying to get ahead in your field. While these attitudes hold potential merit for some, for others these “extenuating circumstances” are quite literally insurmountable in a society that is designed to keep them oppressed. Not to mention that this book was written in 2001, so naturally, the current context of a global public health crisis and massive social upheaval is not included as a factor. Therefore, how relevant can this text really be to us, as students, during this time?
As we’ve all been hearing constantly, we are living in unprecedented circumstances. A pandemic of this scale has not been seen in over a century. This pandemic has revealed to us which systems are not working and must be changed, and the culture of toxic productivity is one of them. This phenomenon was invented to sustain capitalism; to ensure that workers feel guilty if they don’t work “hard enough”. As a result, the owning class becomes richer off the backs of a working-class that grows poorer. We have seen the effects of this deepen during the pandemic, with Jeff Bezos gaining billions of dollars in net worth since the pandemic began while his employees are risking their lives, without paid sick leave, to make those profits for him.
Our worth is not attached to what we produce. We are worthy simply because we are human beings. While some people may have more time and mental capacity on their hands to devote to work, interests, or hobbies, many do not. People are dying, healthcare systems are being overwhelmed, and millions of people are out of work and struggling financially and psychologically. This is not a time conducive to being productive, whatever that means. This is a time where we must be forgiving of ourselves and our individual needs, and focusing on keeping ourselves and each other safe above all else. Each one of us is simply doing the best we can to survive, so let’s exercise our empathy and get rid of the pressure and expectations. Your level of productivity does not equal your worth.
AVADA KEDAVRA, TERFS!
By Rory Smith
Recently, Harry Potter series author J.K. Rowling came under fire for making transphobic comments, and rightfully so. Although Rowling has shown hints of this sort of bigotry in the past, the matter truly came to light when Rowling took issue with an article that referred to “people who menstruate.” She mocked the article in her tweet, implying that cisgender women are the only people who experience menstruation. When users replied and pointed out the blatant ignorance and hate in this logic, she wrote what can only be described as a manifesto of transphobia in the form of a Twitter thread. Instead of apologizing, she doubled down, advocating for “single-sex spaces” and comparing hormone therapy for trans people to gay conversion therapy. Needless to say, the online backlash was swift and justified. Many of the actors from the Harry Potter film franchise made statements signaling their disagreement with Rowling and their support for trans individuals. But Rowling is certainly not the first individual to express anti-trans sentiments in public spaces.
J.K. Rowling’s statements represent the beliefs of a TERF, which stands for Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist. This ideology is not new, nor is it exclusive to Rowling. The term was first coined in the 1970s, when certain cisgender radical feminists were trying to push out trans women, such as Sylvia Rivera and Beth Elliot, from feminist spaces. Trans-inclusive feminists created the term to distinguish themselves from their anti-trans counterparts. Their rhetoric essentially says that gender is a concept created by the patriarchy to keep “biological” women down, and that transgender women are just men who want to enter women’s spaces. There are many issues with this sophist logic, the main one being the fact that neither sex nor gender is inherently binary and, in gatekeeping and upholding that binary through the exclusion of gender-variant individuals, we contribute to the same patriarchal ideals that TERFs claim to oppose.
Not only are these beliefs erroneous, they have real-world effects; especially when purported by someone of Rowling’s stature and influence.
In the 1980s, Janice Raymond, an academic and a TERF, successfully persuaded the U.S. Congress to take away federal funds from trans healthcare. It is unclear how many trans people died or were killed as a direct result, but estimates put it at 50,000.
It is truly baffling how these people, who consider themselves “radical feminists” are willing to align themselves with conservative hate groups in order to keep trans people in a state of oppression and violence. While TERF-ism found its roots in the 1970s, the Internet has fostered new spaces for this hatred to thrive. While today’s mainstream feminism (often referred to as “third-wave feminism”) in the United States has largely embraced the concept of intersectionality and inclusion of trans and other LGBTQ+ people, TERF-ism is much more pervasive in the UK, partially thanks to far-right media mogul Rupert Murdoch. However, many TERF groups do exist in the United States. One, called Hands Across the Aisle, wrote a letter to Trump’s Department of Housing and Urban Development in favor of barring trans women from women’s homeless shelters. The cognitive dissonance is astounding: these so-called feminists will work with conservatives to oppress trans people, even though those same conservatives will also limit the reproductive rights at the center of their cause. It is a major case of cutting off the nose to spite your face.
Let’s be clear: TERFs are not feminists. Feminism is not about gatekeeping or fighting for only the rights of certain women. True feminism must include the politics of liberation for all marginalized folks. Transgender and gender-variant people are at high risk for domestic abuse and violence, especially trans women of color. They also face housing and job discrimination at disproportionate rates to their cis white counterparts. Just this year, at least 33 trans and gender-nonconforming people have been killed in the United States – and the year is not yet over. The rhetoric of Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminism needs to end because it is harming our most vulnerable communities. Anti-trans language online and in public spaces empowers and stokes transphobic actions, and leads to more discrimination and physical violence against trans folks. This is why we say, “Avada Kedavra” to TERFs!
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