The most recent reimagining of the basic Broadway musical Cats seems like a daring reclamation rooted in ballroom and queer tradition.
For actress Kya Azeen, being a part of Cats: The Jellicle Ball is a full-circle second, and a mirrored image of how a lot the tradition has had a hand in her success immediately.
“Ballroom is how I grew to become who I’m immediately,” Azeen advised MadameNoire simply forward of certainly one of her showday rehearsals. “It was, in some ways, as a result of I didn’t get to attend faculty, and once I joined ballroom, I used to be like 19, so it was type of like my faculty years of me discovering myself and understanding who I used to be as a trans girl, and simply as a Black queer individual.”
She added, “So to be on this house proper now, for one, my background inside dance and inside performing, and to additionally see it in an area the place its theater blended with ballroom, is de facto bewildering for me, but in addition simply speaks to the younger child that’s like capable of simply do all the pieces that I used to be coaching for thus lengthy after which additionally to include a tradition that affect me so deeply.”
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Whereas it will appear that there can be a variety of stress that comes with creating an area the place some Black queer audiences may even see themselves mirrored for the primary time, Azeen recounts how Cats: The Jellicle Ball takes that vitality and grounds it in authenticity.
“It’s so innate in me to be a Black trans girl who’s from ballroom,” mentioned Azeen. “It’s simply pure, and what I add to the present is already a tradition that I’ve already come from, so it does really feel pure, essentially. I do hope that different queer youth are this and positively seeing themselves, as a result of I believe for a very long time, and it’s so wild, as a result of I’ve a good friend who, years in the past, I assumed I might by no means dance once more, and she or he all the time advised me, like, ‘Lady, you are able to do this. You are able to do this,’ and tried to push me ahead. But it surely was a unique time once I was 19, and simply wanting again, I actually hope that these queer people are seeing themselves and saying, ‘I can exist as myself and nonetheless carry out and execute issues inside theater,’ as a result of I simply didn’t see it on the time. I believe as a result of I didn’t see it, I didn’t assume it was attainable.”
As a Pose alum, a transfer made early in her profession, Azeen mirrored on not essentially realizing how a lot of an influence the present would have on the tradition, particularly because it pertained to the LGBTQIA-centered sequence and productions that might comply with in its footsteps.
She jokes that her character in Cats: The Jellicle Ball could be very adjoining to her position as Blanca in Pose.
“So, the character I play is Etcetera,” Azeen recalled. “I had a variety of assist constructing this character with N’yomi Stewart, who’s additionally a mom and inside ballroom, and our affiliate director. She had a variety of assist with me, simply type of piecing collectively who Etcetera is, and what she’s doing. She principally was from the home of Macavity, Macavity’s daughter, after which left, with aspirations of becoming a member of and creating her personal home.”
“All through the present, I’m scouting about and having these concepts of like, who can I type for me to have my very own assertion? Very Blanca in Pose, actually,” she chimed. “But it surely’s been cool. Once more, I really feel like I do know this tradition so nicely. It’s so dwelling for me. So it hasn’t been like a variety of loopy homework to embody Etcetera. The one factor that I might say is a bit of totally different is that typically, once I present up, I’m like, Kya may be loopy in her head. For the present, I really feel like I’ve to be extraordinarily fearless, which helps, as a result of we’ve got an incredible costume designer, Qween Jean, who has me on this lovely cheetah leotard and skirt that makes me simply step into simply leaving Kya past and being this final femme, and simply fearless all through the manufacturing.”
Azeen concludes our dialog by explaining why this reimagination of the Broadway sensation Cats is required now, greater than ever.
“It means a lot,” she mentioned. “I really feel like as individuals, particularly as Black folks, we’d like neighborhood greater than ever,” she mentioned. “We all the time want neighborhood, and I believe that’s the best way that we’ve got to rally via the exhausting instances and the triumphs that we’ve got needed to overcome via historical past. It means quite a bit to know that I’m in a manufacturing the place we’re celebrating one another each evening. We’re seeing one another, and there are even moments all through the present the place I’m getting emotional fascinated about it, like, particularly, when Chasity [Moore] comes out, and she or he’s singing ‘Reminiscence,’ I believe a variety of us are similar to, I can’t consider it. For somebody particularly from ballroom, a Black trans girl who’s being on a spectacle, in highlighting, and inside this manufacturing, and she or he’s singing an iconic musical theater tune like ‘Reminiscence,’ and consuming it up each evening, it’s bewildering to see this.”
“It means quite a bit to see ourselves in all our glory and in our gentle and simply shining,” Azeen concluded. “I believe with all that’s happening on the earth, wish to silence it, that this manufacturing is required greater than ever, not just for the those who come to see us, however for ourselves.”
Click on right here for upcoming showtimes for Cats: The Jellicle Ball now on Broadway.
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