Alec Butler (born Audrey Butler; 1959) is a Canadian playwright and filmmaker.
Life and career
Butler was born in 1959, and is
two-spirit,
non-binary and
intersex.
Butler uses
''they''/''them'' and
''he''/''him'' pronouns.
Assigned female at birth
Sex assignment (sometimes known as gender assignment) is the discernment of an infant's sex at or before birth. A relative, midwife, nurse or physician inspects the external genitalia when the baby is delivered and, in more than 99.95% of bi ...
, he initially presented as a
butch lesbian
Butch is most often a term used to describe a lesbian, or sometimes a bisexual woman, who exhibits a masculine identity.
Since the lesbian subculture of 1940s America, "butch" has been present as a way for lesbians to circumvent traditional ...
before
coming out
Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity.
Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...
as
transgender the late 1990s.
Before he came out, his work was published under his birth name.
He was a nominee for the
Governor General's Award for English-language drama in 1990 for his play ''Black Friday''. He has also worked on artistic projects with
The 519 Church St. Community Centre
The 519, formerly known as The 519 Church Street Community Centre, is an agency of the City of Toronto. A Canadian charitable, non-profit organization, it operates a community centre in the Church and Wellesley neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, ...
as their first artist-in-residence. He was named one of Toronto's Vital People by the Toronto Community Foundation in 2006.
He identifies as having
Miꞌkmaq heritage.
Plays
* ''Shakedown''
* ''Cradle Pin''
* ''Radical Perversions: 2 Dyke Plays'' (1990)
* ''Black Friday'' (1990)
* ''Claposis'' (1990)
* ''Hardcore Memories'' (1993)
* ''Medusa Rising'' (1996)
* ''Trans Cab'' (2005)
Books:
* ''Radical Perversions: two Dyke Plays by Audrey Butler'' published by
Women's Press, 1991
* Novella called ''Rough Paradise'' published May 31, 2014 by Quattro Books
Films
* ''Trans Mission: Get Yer Motor Runnin
''' – One-man show at A-Space, Toronto, 2003.
* ''Misadventures of PussyBoy: First Love / Sick / First Period'' – Screened at many queer film and video festivals, ''First Love'' won the Charles Street Award for emerging video and film makers in 2002 at the InsideOut Festival.
* ''Audrey's Beard'' – Named one of the top ten films about transitioning by Curve magazine.
* ''5 Seconds of Fame'' – Commissioned by Toronto's Pride Committee for Pride Toronto, 2007.
* ''My Friend, Brindley'' – Works in progress; experimental doc about human rights activist and painter, Kathleen Brindley.
* ''Darla's Goodbye'' – Short film based on a short story of the same name published in ''Red Light: Superheroes, Saints and Sluts''.
* ''Trans Cabaret: The Video''
References
1959 births
20th-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights
21st-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights
Film directors from Nova Scotia
Canadian LGBT dramatists and playwrights
Living people
Canadian non-binary writers
Intersex non-binary people
Writers from Nova Scotia
21st-century LGBT people
Non-binary dramatists and playwrights
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