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Trans Performance Exchange
Trans Performance Exchange : From My Land to Yours is a six month long project between two trans artists, Emma Frankland (@notyetarobot) and Tamarra (@tamarra_____ ) - an exchange of information, knowledge and love between their homes in the UK and Indonesia respectively, supported by British Council Arts, Indonesia
Emma and Tamarra will each create six digital postcards which will be exchanged each month between March and July 2021. These will be released on instagram each month, along with other related content. @trans_performance_exchange
Hearty
“We Are a Hearty Sisterhood”
We must bury our knowledge until the apocalypse passes.
Bearing wings made of sharp knives and shooting fireballs into the air, Emma tackles the current media fascination with trans lives and interrogates the controversial bio-technology of HRT.
In part, a response to her experiences with trans people in Brazil, Sulawesi and Turtle Island - Hearty is about how we can be prepared for the challenges of modern trans existence, whilst listening to our ancestors and preparing the way for those who will come after us.
Hearty is the fifth and final solo show in the None of Us is Yet a Robot project - a series of performances which have been a response to her gender transition and the politics surrounding trans identity over the past seven years.
In 2021, we filmed a version of Hearty (in collaboration with Rosie Powell and Keir Cooper) which was premiered at RichMix as part of a collaboration between TGirls on Screen and Fringe! Queer Film Festival. More screenings are planned. If you are interested in screening the film, please contact Emma via the contact page.
As well as making the film, we were able to commission three conversations between the trans, travesti, Two Spirit and Bissu people who contributed to the project - these can be viewed via these links:
Cole Alvis and Lauren (War) Greene - Turtle Island - https://vimeo.com/880528338
Bissu Eka and Tamarra - Indonesia - https://vimeo.com/880535351
Pri Bertucci and Jacqueline Gomes de Jesus - Brasil - https://vimeo.com/880539215
“Emma Frankland is the punk rock angel of your dreams and nightmares”
The Stage
“Hearty is a siren call to remember the trans warriors of the past and to prepare for the future, the coming storm. This is a performance that comes doused with fire, suffused in ritual, born of pain and also a steely determination.”
Lyn Gardner, Stagedoor
“A ferocious cry for the safety of trans women, Brands don’t lead revolutions. People like Emma Frankland do”.
The Guardian ****
“There is also something hymnal about the production. A sense of ritual drives her message home. Through fire, she connects with her queer and trans ancestors, channelling their beauty, their fear and their hope for the future.”
A Younger Theatre
Hearty was originally commissioned by The Yard Theatre and supported by Arts Council England
It was made in collaboration with Myriddin Pharo, Keir Cooper, Rachael Clerke, Ivor MacAskill and Joshua Pharo
If you are interested in booking future performances of Hearty please contact us
River Adur Duet
During the Summer lockdown of 2020 - between two new moons, I explored the river that I live on as research for a performance called ‘River Adur Duet’, commissioned by Farnham Maltings to reflect this extraordinary time and connect with my local community in Shoreham-by-Sea.
I live on a boat, in an estuary, which means that twice a day the tide comes in and out. It is a neither / nor place - not land and not sea. Not fresh water and not salty.
It is brackish and wild. It is in-between.
The tide seemed a perfect metaphor for this moment; the river a perfect environment to create a live performance that could be socially distant.
A ritual dance
in, and with, the river.
River Adur Duet is a performance created by Emma Frankland, supported by Farnham Maltings. Film by Rosie Powell.
Galatea
“I like well and allow it” - Venus
Act V, Sc III
I have been working closely with this play for a while now and am excited to announce a full production coming soon in 2023!
“Galatea is the story of a town that has been cursed.
They have forgotten how to love.
And the monster is coming…”
This will be the first professional revival of the play which inspired Shakespeare to write As You Like It and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Last performed in front of Queen Elizabeth I, five hundred years ago, this tale of love, joy and the importance of welcoming outsiders is an incredibly resonant story for our modern times.
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE
John Lyly was the most famous writer of Shakespeare’s lifetime, but is now Shakespeare’s only playwriting colleague never to have been professionally revived. Galatea had a particularly powerful effect over Shakespeare: it is the first Elizabethan comedy about cross-dressing, getting lost in a wood and falling in love with someone whose identity you do not fully understand!
LOCAL ENGAGEMENT
There will be multiple ways for local people to participate in the production, including a community choir who will be embedded in the show as well as local community groups who will act as volunteer performing stewards. This will be a once in a lifetime opportunity that will not only be fun, but will introduce West Sussex and Adur residents to other performers and company members from different backgrounds. We will engage a range of local traders and food and drink suppliers in the creation of the production site, which is designed to resemble a village fayre.
‘Galatea’ by John Lyly, is an extraordinary 16th century play from the period before Shakespeare began writing. Over the past few years, in close collaboration with Andy Kesson and his Before Shakespeare project, I have led several periods of research & development, working with a diverse group of artists and performers to mount scenes and rehearse the text, gaining a closer understanding of a play that is not only extremely feminist and queer positive, but also contains a trans narrative
Venus: Then shall it be seen that I can turn one of them to be a man, and that I will.Diana: Is it possible?
Venus: What is, to the Goddess of Love, unpossible? (5.3)
The more time I have spent with Galatea, the more I have discovered what it contains about gender fluidity and trans identities in this period The importance of these discoveries must not be understated. As LGBTQ people our histories are often erased or confounded to fit the narrative of a cis-normative, patriarchal society. The presence of such a high profile story as Galatea, a play well known and performed in front of Elizabeth I, should radically alter our attitude towards queer identity today.
WORKSHOP
Towards a Trans Canon
When you hire people to be themselves, bring their own lived experiences, and represent their communities, additional care is required.
In summer 2019, Emma led a two week workshop lab with a group of trans and cis performers exploring the potential and presence of trans stories in the Western classical canon. The lab took place at the Stratford Festival, Ontario.
Link to Howlround Article here: https://howlround.com/toward-trans-canon
As we neared the end of our time together, the core group wanted to do something to recognize that, although these moments of “lab” and “workshop” can be helpful and exciting, we are ready and eager to now take our bodies and our stories and our practice onto mainstream stages and into rehearsal rooms. We do not need further workshops to investigate if trans lives are worthy of performing; to “explore” how to reassure cisgender audiences that our presence will not destabilize their world. Our presence should change things. It must.
We collectively wrote a guidance document (available as a downloadable PDF), which can be used when employing or working with trans people, and which also should be considered when a company is contemplating working on a story that represents trans narratives.
We wrote it specifically with theatre companies in mind, contemplating some of the specific issues that actors encounter in the mainstream theatre industry. We kept to the forefront of the document an awareness of the specific factors that impact trans people who are Indigenous, Black, or people of color and the extra steps that are required to support them.
Oftentimes the theatre industry does not work in a healthy way and actors often have the least input in a production hierarchy. We propose that a move towards a trans canon and towards decolonizing theatre must also move away from these damaging hierarchies. But we also recognize that in the shorter term, trans actors are likely to be hired under existing structures and expected to fit seamlessly into existing ways of working. This is unlikely to work.
Two-Spirit, trans, and gender variant people have been kept out of the Western performance industry and theatre culture for too many generations now and, if we are to move towards a body of work that one day could be considered a canon, it is necessary now to employ, celebrate, and center Two-Spirit and trans actors, directors, writers, and artists.
The following guidance document is a starting place for how theatres could begin to do this, now, today.
***
This document was compiled by Cole Alvis (they/them), Samson Bonkeabantu Brown (he/him), Rhiannon Collett (they/them), Emma Frankland (she/her), Cassandra James (she/her), Beric Manywounds (they/them), and Subira Wahogo (they/them) during a Lab investigation called Toward a Trans Canon, which took place at the Stratford Festival of Canada in August 2019.
Rituals For Change
“We who are changing
We who invite trouble
We who leave this place different from when we came in”
First performed in 2016 and since performed across the UK and at festivals around the world (including Mix Festival, Sao Paolo and UK:ID, Jakarta) Rituals for Change was a series of performed rituals, responding to my gender transition and to universal feelings about change - especially in relation to our bodies.
Critically acclaimed, Rituals for Change used materials with different transformative properties - such as water, clay, earth, salt and ink - to create strong visual imagery which was messy, intense and celebratory.
In 2019 it was transformed into a film, in collaboration with Rosie Powell, which can be found at the bottom of this page. The film was awarded Best Cinematography at Trans Pride Brighton Film Festival and has been screened at festivals around the world.
For enquiries regarding live performances, public screenings or talks in relation to this production, please get in touch.
“The radical act is to exist.
The radical act is to be seen,
To choose to allow others to see these radical bodies.
To allow ourselves to heal is the radical act”
Rituals for Change was created in collaboration with Myriddin Pharo, Ivor MacAskill and Keir Cooper. It is featured in “None of Us is Yet a Robot - Five Performances on Gender Identity and the Politics of Transition”.
Emma Frankland’s euphoric Rituals for Change is [a] near- perfect twinning of content and form. A hymn to mutability, an earthy, messy sacrament to constant evolution and alteration, it charts her gender transition in a series of gnomic, interlocking actions.’
* * * * * The Stage
'immensely lyrical... explicitly political’
The Scotsman ****
“Brave, tender and brilliant.”
Matt Trueman **** WOS
"This is a private, beautiful, evocative piece of theatre. It is story- telling at its simplest and bravest”
Liz Allum, British Theatre GUIDE
None Of Us Is Yet A Robot
The Book
Seven turbulent years. Five radical performances. One landmark publication.
None of Us is Yet a Robot charts artist and performer Emma Frankland's gender transition against a shifting social and political landscape, while grappling with the systematic erasure of trans history.
Richly illustrated with images from the performances and designed in close collaboration with the author, the book is a new experience in itself as well as a vital document of Emma's groundbreaking work in theatre.
Featuring introductions from foremost theatre practitioners, including Maddy Costa and Travis Alabanza, this collection of work is an evocative exploration of a trans experience in twenty-first century Britain.
'Draws on a vital history of trans performance – an emerging canon that may no longer be ignored.'
Morgan M Page, from her foreword
The Podcast
We Dig
We Dig was an exhilarating theatre project led by Emma, alongside a company of trans performers. Built from conversations with trans women and trans feminine people around the world, particularly the UK, Indonesia and Turtle Island (Canada), We Dig centred around the actual excavation of a giant hole - a literal representation of a queer community needing to bury itself for protection. It formed part of the closing season of OvalHouse Theatre, one of several unique commissions to help demolish the historic building through performance.
We Dig was a collaborative devised process with other trans artists, including Travis Alabanza, Morgan M Page and Tamarra.
We Dig was performed by a changing company of trans femmes, with a surprise guest performer each night.
“mournful and magnificent”.
Lyn Gardner, Stagedoor
“Frankland skilfully weaves multiple themes together. We Dig is a well-structured and powerfully direct piece of theatre that mines the earth to create an illuminating and enthralling performance.”
The Stage
“Emma does what you expect, providing strong eloquent monologues, even whilst operating a pneumatic drill”.
LGBTQ Arts Review
Republica
“You know when you wait years to see a show and then you do and it is fireworks and bonfires, furious and loving and sorrowful and piercing and fierce, and beyond anything you spent all that time anticipating? Republica is that show. loved it."
maddy costa
In a fusion of anarchic theatre and dance, a flamenco dancer, a guitarist and a stripper reclaim the forgotten history of events preceding the Spanish Civil War.
With the rise in opposition between anti-austerity and far-right movements all over Europe and the UK, REPUBLICA is a timely examination of the last time a government dared to take power from the super-rich to distribute it equally amongst its people.
Made in collaboration with Keir Cooper, Carlos Otero and Lola Ruerda.
All Apologies
“Kurt Cobain was trans. Kurt Cobain was a trans woman. What if…”
All Apologies questions our desire for trans celebrities and what happens when they do not exist - delving deep into internet discourse, classical mythology and radically mis-remembering Nirvana’s iconic 1994 MTV Unplugged concert.
Written and performed by a two time Fringe First award winner, it fights back against the pressure on trans people to mold ourselves into images that are acceptable to society and the danger that lies when we are not able to live as our full, vibrant selves.
“Such an eye opening, mind blowing show” audience member
Originally concieved as a cabaret piece performed at Trans Pride Brighton, Glastonbury Festival, Outburst Festival, Belfast and Buddies in Bad Times, Toronto - Emma has developed this into a full length solo performance, touring in 2025.
Rosie Powell, 2024
I am having a conversation with my younger self... I’m apologising.
For not having the words
For wasting time
For not learning the guitar...
For allowing myself to feel ashamed.
For not trusting myself sooner.
Cabaret Acts
Emma frequently appears at club nights and events presenting short performances.
Previous pieces have been inspired by Cher, Kurt Cobain and Prince William.
Please enquire regarding current acts.
Arts Council Wild Conference
This was an event run by Slung Low, “for people who care how culture works in the UK and pledge to commit time and effort to take action to make it better.” Wild Conference was for passionate people who wanted to listen, engage and share ideas and then leave the conference prepared to take responsibility for making positive change happen.
Emma performed as part of the “Wild Cabaret” a performance highlighting the lack of diversity on UK stages.
Give Us Our Flowers Now
“Give us our flowers now” is a response to the fact that Black trans people are only celebrated after a tragedy. We should celebrate the Black trans people around us every day. 🌸🌺🌸🌺
Inspired by four Brighton based Black trans artists (Xandice Armah, Vlad von Kitsch, Kuchenga and Subira Joy)
this mural offered flowers ahead of Trans Pride Brighton.
Please support the work of Black trans arists, support their fundraisers and their Etsy stores.. as many have been saying lately, once Black trans people can live freely and safely - the rest of us will be too.
Palgrave History of Women on Stage
Emma contributed the final chapter to this recent anthology about the history of Women on stages around the word.
This chapter argues for the importance of authentic representations of trans women on stage and explores the use of performance as a tool for political change and as a means of giving voice to an often maligned and marginalised group of women, largely excluded or invisible on stage and in performance. The chapter presents an account of trans women performers past and present, from the ghosts of trans women erased from records of theatrical history to the often- overlooked radical contemporary performances taking place in nightclubs and on the streets around the globe. This analysis contains interviews with trans women including the US actor and cabaret performer Mzz Kimberley and the acclaimed UK playwright Jo Clifford (author of the controversial play Jesus, Queen of Heaven). It also draws on the author’s own award-winning project None of Us is Yet a Robot and rehearsal room discoveries from her collaboration with the Before Shakespeare project on a revival of John Lyly’s trans-positive romantic comedy Galatea. We stand at a critical point of public opinion and censorship where casting practices and mainstream ideology are shifting and where the overt presence of trans women on stages around the world can affect positive change.
If you are interested in reading the chapter please contact Emma
e g g / b o x
e g g / b o x’, was a one-on-one performance taking place inside two giant cardboard boxes about biology, hormones, sea cucumbers and our place within the planet.
e g g / b o x formed part of the None of Us is Yet a Robot project - a series of performances which have been a response to Emma’s gender transition and the politics surrounding trans identity over the past seven years - recently published by Oberon Books as “None of Us is Yet a Robot - Five Performances on Gender Identity and the Politics of Transition”.
Doodle
Doodle, is a giant durational live-drawing conversation that takes place over 5–8 hour periods.
It has been performed in many locations including Forest Fringe, Edinburgh; Wadham College, Oxford Trans Pride, Brighton and as part of Dialogue Festival in London.
Doodle formed part of the None of Us is Yet a Robot project - a series of performances which have been a response to Emma’s gender transition and the politics surrounding trans identity over the past seven years - recently published by Oberon Books as “None of Us is Yet a Robot - Five Performances on Gender Identity and the Politics of Transition”.
BAC Bedrooms
High Tidings
From the arsenic stained cliffs of West Cornwall to the fishing ports of Newlyn, Cornwall has a landscape scarred and moulded by its industry. These patterns of rust and labour have a unique atmosphere that Mydd Pharo and I were evoking in our bedroom design for BAC. This combined with the breathtaking peace and meditative space that are provided by the Cornish skies and landscapes.
Taking inspiration from the water that flooded through the BAC following their fire some years back, the rooms have a beautiful rusting quality - the colours of the gorse, the mines and the seas... a vision of Cornwall that is separate from the picture postcards and the world of holiday makers, but exists alongside - both invisible and everywhere.
These bedrooms were commissioned by BAC for visiting artists to stay in residence in the Battersea venue. They have remained in use for the past five years and continue to be used today, having created a haven for hundreds of artists, creating and performing their work.
Don Quijote
An exploration of Miguel de Cervantes’ novel, combining incredible visual imagery, anarchic performance & original music. This production caresses & assaults the senses in their interpretation of this 400 year old text.
The title role was played by a secret guest performer, unique to each date.
Devised by Emma in collaboration with Keir Cooper, Carlos Otero and Anton Coimbra and performed across the UK and in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil at Tempo Festival.
Don Quijote was selected for the British Council Showcase for Drama & Dance 2013.
Postcards from the Gods - Andrew Haydon
****
THE GUARDIAN
.
‘a whirlwind of joyous disintegration that sees the novel emerge resplendent from its own destruction.’
TIME OUT (CRITICS' CHOICE)
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‘In an epiphanic volta of anarchic punk rock and uncoiled rage, it becomes a savage denunciation of cynicism and a lionised defence of idealism.’
THE SKINNY
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‘I can’t remember the last time i felt this grateful to a piece of theatre...A blast of dark light and hopeful hopelessness... More than ‘performance lecture’ this is really ‘performance literary criticism ’
TV BOMB
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Artmob
My work was exhibited as part of Continuum: Framing Trans Lives in 21st Century Britain at the People’s History Museum, Manchester
‘Hearty’ is Emma Frankland’s exploration into the effects of Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) on her changing body. Frankland draws parallels between her experience of gender transition and other women’s experiences of HRT around menopause.
‘I explore attitudes to the menopause and the use and development of HRT (hormone replacement therapy) drugs which are perhaps connected to the eradication of the crone from our society as well as the liberation of my body as a transgender woman’
The results, represented by a collection of ceramic vessels, made with clay and oestrogen, highlight the rituals around change, growth, ageing and transformation.
Some Daddies are Ladies
Filmed by My Generation for Stonewall as part of their Trans Allies Programme.