Trans performer Sydney Germaine was slightly perplexed when recently interviewed for making their Goodman Theatre debut in the 1955 Broadway comedy The Matchmaker by gay playwright Thornton Wilder. Germaine plays the female assistant milliner Minnie Fay in director Henry Wishcamper's new production, which is non-traditionally cast in multiple ways.
"It's interesting to me that I'm of all the people being interviewed," said Germaine, who moved to Chicago last year after graduating from the acting program at University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. "I still feel like I'm not very attached to the trans community because I'm so new here."
Germaine is also humbled to be profiled as the only non-Equity member of the Goodman's professional cast of "The Matchmaker," which includes Tony Award-nominee Kristine Nielsen starring in the title role of Dolly Gallagher Levi. If the character's name sounds familiar, it's because The Matchmaker is the source material for Jerry Herman's 1964 Broadway musical smash Hello, Dolly!
"Part of the intimidation was that everybody else in the show is very established," said Germaine, happy to experience "everybody's willingness and ability to just play and let go from the very first rehearsal—that reckless abandon that so many people had. I admire it so much."
Germaine heard about The Matchmaker last year, when it was made known by casting agents that director Wishcamper wanted to form a contemporary company of performers made up of different races, ethnic backgrounds, gender identities, sexual orientations or with disabilities.
"One of the things that I think is amazing about the play is how polyglot the New York that Wilder creates in that people of a whole variety of ethnic backgrounds and classes are not only amongst each other, but all mixed up together," Wishcamper said. "I also think that Wilder had chosen to look back to an earlier time in order to make social commentary on his own time, particularly when he [originally wrote it as The Merchant of Yonkers] in the 1930s. I wanted to do something similar with our production to look back at this older play and this sort of old-fashioned theatrical form and say things that are really relevant to today."
Wishcamper didn't initially see the role of Minnie Fay to be played by a trans performer, but was intrigued by Germaine's audition and what they could bring to the role—which also includes a certain amount of skills playing musical instruments for this particular staging.
"When Sydney read the role, then it made the character feel not only did they make sense, but they were somewhat more expansive of a human being—more multi-dimensional that I had seen previously," Wishcamper said. "Only afterwards we found all these places in the text where it felt like Sydney as a trans performer illuminated moments."
For instance, there's some farcical business involving attempted disguises in Act II when the male shop clerks Cornelius Hackl ( Postell Pringle ) and Barnaby Tucker ( Behzad Dabu ) don the women's cloaks and hats of Fay and her boss, Irene Molloy ( Elizabeth Ledo ). Since Wishcamper asked permission from the Wilder estate to reinstate a 1930s line of Minnie Fay's asking why it is that men aren't allowed to wear women's clothing, what could have been just an old-fashioned laugh of men acting and looking feminine is called into question.
Germaine's casting at the Goodman, Chicago's oldest and some would say flagship professional theater, isn't quite a first. Openly transgender actor Jax Jackson broke that barrier in 2013 playing a trans character in Christopher Shinn's college drama Teddy Ferrara.
Nonetheless, Germaine's appearance in The Matchmaker might make Chicago theater casting directors more willing to see trans performers playing roles not traditionally bound to gender binaries. There's some sign of recent progress since trans actor Malic White was cast as St. Jimmy in The Hypocrites' 2015 production of American Idiot. Also trans actress Delia Kropp, currently playing a trans poet in Pride Films and Plays' Raggedy And, was cast as an understudy to two female roles in David Rabe's Good for Otto at the Gift Theatre last year.
But rather than wait for plays to be produced featuring trans characters or casting directors to be more open to non-traditional casting in classic theater texts, Germaine is also writing their own work to perform. It's a tact that's also been taken by the likes of Malic White in the recently closed Neo-Futurists show Pop Waits and in the many autobiographical performance art pieces by trans educator and performer Rebecca Kling.
"I do mostly short plays and things like that and I include a lot of trans characters," said Germaine, noting that their work isn't necessarily autobiographical in the way that many trans youth productions by the likes of About Face Youth Theatre and the Youth Empowerment Performance Project draw upon its performers' personal experiences.
"It's not something strictly from my life, but it's definitely all connected," Germaine said. "I'm still interested in having other people play characters and I also want more queer-trans work out there. I've not seen a lot of that yet, so I hope to write and make more opportunities for some people who are identified like me."
Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker continues through Sunday, April 10, at the Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays ( also March 27 and 29 ), 8 p.m. Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $25-$82. Call 312-443-3800 or visit www.goodmantheatre.org/Matchmaker.
Pride Films and Plays' Raggedy And continues through April 10 at Rivendell Theatre, 5779 N. Ridge Ave. Performances are 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays ( 6 p.m. on Thursday, March 24 ) with 3:30 p.m. matiness Sundays. Tickets are $22-$27. Call 800-737-0984 or visit www.pridefilmsandplays.com for more information .
