Theater, and the future of the Body by Kate Bornstein Assuming that the actor’s body is a primary tool of theater, then what does it say about the future of the theater if actors’ bodies are changing? Whether as a theater artist, you’re fond of holding Aristotle’s mirror up to the culture; or whether you want to wield Brecht’s hammer to shape society, there is a new aspect of the culture to take into account when doing theater these days: transgender. I’m transsexual; my body is transgendered. I was born male, went through surgical and hormonal body modifications, and came out the other side as female; that made me transsexual. I’ve since left off being female and decided to subscribe to neither male nor female as a gender; that makes me transgendered. I write plays and performance art pieces. I’ve acted on stage and in film for over thirty years, performing boys, men, girls, women, drag queens, drag kings, hermaphrodites, and transsexuals travelling in both directions. I’ve played a non-gendered goddess-in-training, and a fluidly-gendered wise old crow. I’ve played lesbian women, gay men, heterosexual men and women, bisexual roles, and celibate roles. I’ve played leather daddy tops, and I’ve played babydyke submissives. My body knows how to play each of these gender/sex roles, because I’ve got the advantage of having lived through each and every one of them; and I know how to use my body to get those identities across. Is my gender-flexible body a freak of Nature? Or do I have the body of the future? However I’m surfing gender, I seem to have been able to maintain my acting ability. Some tough theater critics have given me great reviews; and despite my breadth of experience