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Identity and Acting
Identity and Acting
By: Maddy GoldbergIdentity and Acting
As an actor, Matthias Bolon is used to portraying characters that are vastly different from who he is as a person. However, this becomes more complicated when Bolon, a transgender man, is cast in a female identifying role.
This semester the University of Colorado Boulder Department of Theatre and Dance put on a production of The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. In the show Bolon played the role of Lady Bracknell, the aunt of the main character, Algernon. Throughout the months long rehearsal process Bolon collaborated with director, Chip Persons, as well as costume designer, Markas Henry, to make sure he was always comfortable on stage and in his costumes while also remaining secure in his identity.
Bolon is a graduate student in the University of Colorado Boulder Department of Theatre and Dance and, along with being an actor, he is writing his masters thesis focusing on the intimacy of transgender actors portraying characters who’s gender identities don’t match their own. Through his role in this production Bolon will be able to bring some of his own experience into his thesis as he will be playing a female identifying character.
The Importance of Being Earnest played in the Old Main Chapel at the University of Colorado Boulder in Boulder, Colorado from November 11, 2022 through November 20, 2022. Throughout the entire rehearsal and performance process Bolon had the support of his fellow cast mates and crew members, as well as audiences. The show had a successful run.
Matthias Bolon, a graduate student in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Colorado Boulder, preparing to get into costume and makeup for The Importance of Being Earnest at the University of Colorado Boulder in Boulder Colorado on Friday, November 11, 2022.
After getting off stage during Act 1, Matthias talks with run crew members, McKenzie James and Emily Littlefield, in the lobby of Old Main on Wednesday, November 9, 2022. The first time McKenzie saw him in costume she was surprised by his transformation.
All of the makeup that Matthias had to apply for the show every night laid out at one of the stations in the dressing room on Friday, November 11, 2022. Matthias does not have much experience with makeup, so one of the wardrobe crew members would have to help him with it every night before the show.
Matthias walks back to the University Theatre after picking up lunch on The Hill in Boulder, Colorado on Saturday, November 19, 2022. He says that during this production it makes him feel better to dress more masculine in his day to day life in order to make dressing more feminine for the play in the evenings easier.
Matthias backstage in the dressing room at Old Main adjusting his pearl necklace during a dress rehearsal on Friday November 11, 2022. He said he didn’t need help with the necklace because “there is a tradition in my family where all the young girls are given pearls,” so he knew how to put them on.
Koral Jackson and Matthias dancing in the green room before their performance began on Friday, November 11, 2022. The cast would often play music before the show to get energized before going on stage.
Actors, Cameron Hazlip, Matthias, and Wulfgar Parmenter, walking across Norlin Quad from the theatre building to Old Main for a matinee performance on Sunday, November 13, 2022. The actors would get ready for the show in the dressing rooms at the University Theatre and then walk to Old Main before each performance.
Matthias portraying the role of Lady Bracknell on stage in the Old Main Chapel on Friday, November 11, 2022. As a transgender man, portraying a feminine character has presented many challenges for Matthias, the greatest being challenges with gender dysphoria.
The cast of The Importance of Being Earnest taking their final bow in the Old Main Chapel on Sunday, November 20, 2022.
Matthias’s rack divider for the section of the rack where his costumes were hung on Monday, November 7, 2022. Of all the costume pieces, Matthias says that the tights he had to wear caused him the most dysphoria because it reminded him of having to wear tights as a child.
Matthias taking off his makeup after the closing performance of The Importance of Being Earnest on Sunday, November 20, 2022.
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