First-Person - Sheila L. Cavanagh on Queer Bathroom Stories

(photo by Drasko Bogdanovic)

72 Speak
by Sheila L. Cavanagh

Sheila L. Cavanagh is an Associate Professor in Sociology & Sexuality Studies Coordinator at York University. Her research is in the area of gender and sexuality with a concentration on queer, cultural, and psychoanalytic theories.  Cavanagh recently co-edited a collection  titled Skin, Culture and Psychoanalysis (2013), published by Palgrave Macmillan. Her first sole-authored book titled Sexing the Teacher: School Sex Scandals and Queer Pedagogies (UBC, 2007) was given honourable mention by the Canadian Women's Studies Association.  Her second sole-authored book titled Queering Bathrooms: Gender, Sexuality, and the Hygienic Imagination (UTP, 2010) is a GLBT Indie Book Award finalist and recipient of the CWSA/ACEF Outstanding Scholarship Prize Honourable Mention (2012). Her performed ethnography titled Queer Bathroom Stories premiered at the Toronto Fringe Festival (2011) and was given the Audience Pick Award. The play will be professionally produced at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre as a WorldPride Toronto affiliate event. 

Queer Bathroom Stories (QBS) is a verbatim play about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) experiences in Canada’s public facilities. Three talented actors play all 72 characters. They showcase much more than the secret sex life of the bathroom! A brutally honest display of gender politics in public washrooms, QBS is inspired by 100 interviews I completed for my book titled Queering Bathrooms: Gender, Sexuality, and the Hygienic Imagination.  The book is about the regulation of gender in public facilities and how the cultural politics of excretion is of significance to sexuality studies. 

On November 7, 2010 during the launch of Queering Bathrooms at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto, I staged the first iteration of the QBS (then titled Queer Bathroom Monologues) to give the audience a flavour of the interviews. To my surprise, 150 people in attendance gave QBS a standing ovation. Thanks to the energy and enthusiasm generated by the reading, I decided to develop the script into a full-fledged production. I entered my name into the 2010 Toronto Fringe Festival lottery, was put on a waiting list and two months before the festival opened got the call: “Queer Bathroom Stories is in! Do you want the spot?” I was thrilled!  Then, the panic set in.  As a sociologist I had little experience in arts-based methods or performance studies. I had no director, no actors and had never staged a play in my life. To say this was a huge undertaking was the understatement of the year! But, I was haunted by a vision, coming from an interviewee about how the research might become part of a travelling “installation…an experience…through film or audio or…re-enactment or theatre”. Like the interviewee, I was intrigued by expositional and performance-based writing (for the stage, radio, and so on). It was important to capture the emotional and visceral components of the interviews. I had only ever published my work in academic and textual formats but saw the value of theatre. So, I threw caution to the wind and wrote what became the first version of Queer Bathroom Stories.

Review: (Toronto / Theatre) Queer Bathroom Stories

Tyson James, Chy Ryan Spain, Hallie Burt (photo by Dahlia Katz)

Fuck the Binary 
by Spencer Malthouse

A lot of things happen in public restrooms and it is time we discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of life behind the stick figures. Libido Productions Queer Bathroom Stories explores 100 experiences of gender identity and perception. The 70-minute production camply portrays these experiences with lots of humour and even more heart. 

I confess I am unfamiliar with Sheila Cavanagh’s academic work but I commend her writing for its cohesion and themes. This strength of the script is the diversity of the issues it explores. It does not paint all Queer people as victims but rather showcases the ups and downs of Queer identity. The play flows well, interspersing discussions of violence with heartwarming stories and Gay frivolity. The stories progress seamlessly and weave a profound picture.