Conflict resolution has been the basis for centuries of playwriting, with the ancient Greeks providing the template. But playwright MJ Kaufman is about pulling away from the boundaries set by templates, especially in terms of gender, and an ancient Roman helped provide a key into a very contemporary conversation.
Around the time that Kaufman was writing Sagittarius Ponderosa, having its world premiere Jan. 30 at New Conservatory Theatre Center, this emerging playwright was also learning about an unusual form that Ovid used in his first-century epic poem Metamorphoses. Then a student at Yale School of Drama, Kaufman was taught about Ovid by widely produced playwright Sarah Ruhl.
"Usually in a story, a character changes or transforms, and that's the resolution of conflict. In Ovid, the characters shape-shift a lot, and it's about the landscape, not the resolution of a particular conflict," Kaufman said, finding the notion of constant change an inspiring way to write in a different way about gender, because the most stories about trans people generally are a transition story. "Like there are two gender boxes, and a character is in one and then moves to the other, while I think that a lot of us are different genders in different spaces."
While this gender fluidity is about freedom of personal expression, it can also be a much more practical matter. "I think that a lot of trans people around me shape-shift constantly in order to stay safe," Kaufman said. "There can be a harsh price to pay for a certain kind of gender non-conformity. Those were some of the questions I was exploring at the start of the play, and it also ended up being a love story about a young person taking care of a dying parent."
Sagittarius Ponderosa takes place in Kaufman's home state of Oregon, albeit among the ponderosa pines rather than urban Portland. The main character has taken the name Archer, after his Sagittarius birth sign, although the family he has come home to visit are used to calling him Angela. His mother, father, and grandmother often find themselves tripping over such pronouns as "he" and "she," with the former being Archer's preference. Kaufman herself uses variations on the gender neutral "they," which can be awkward at first. "It's kind been of an explosion of language," they said.
The play, being directed at NCTC by Ben Randle, served as Kaufman's thesis production at Yale in 2012, and has since gone through various readings, including one at Berkeley's Aurora Theatre as a winner of its 2014 Global Age Project. "I pretty much felt it was ready to go up on stage after the Yale production," Kaufman said, though still making tweaks as it moved along. "It's a play of not many words, so changing even one word makes a big difference," Kaufman said. "When NCTC called and said they wanted to produce it, I had two more readings lined up, so I had a chance to think about every single word. I loved the journey."
Kaufman has no interest in discussing their personal journey, and said the play should not be seen as autobiographical. "None of the characters are very much like members of my family," they said, "but I think that something about the relationships is translatable, what it's like to be intimate with someone whose frame of reference is so many years older than yours, and changing the way they think about the world. This play is a lot about a father who dies, and my father died when I was in high school, which I'm sure was a big part of working on this play."
In addition to Archer's family members, the characters include a young man working among the pines as a student arborist. Owen's first meeting with Archer beneath one of the oldest trees quickly becomes sexual. "I was writing Owen as queer, so he sees Archer exactly how Archer needs to be seen. I was kind of writing those scenes like a heightened fantasy, as in A Midsummer Night's Dream, where you could meet a magical lover who would understand things about you."
Another character who's not part of Archer's family is an elderly man represented by a puppet. "After Pops dies, that actor becomes the puppet operator for Peterson, so in my imagination part of Pops gets recycled into this other character."
Kaufman, coming to SF for final rehearsals and opening night, now splits their time between Philadelphia, where their girlfriend lives, and New York, where theatrical opportunities are more abundant. Kaufman also teaches at Philadelphia's University of the Arts, where they are also working on their newest play. "It's about our transgender ancestors, and how do we find them in history, and sort of imagining Joan of Arc as a trans ancestor."
Queer-gender issues and characters have been moving into the mainstream, but with a catch. "There is like an explosion of trans people on TV and in the media, but most of it isn't actually authored by trans people, and that's frustrating to us," Kaufman said.
Sagittarius Ponderosa is the first play in NCTC's mainstage season by a genderqueer playwright and featuring a genderqueer lead character. "I'm so glad that New Conservatory chose my play for this first."
Sagittarius Ponderosa will run Jan. 22-Feb. 28 at New Conservatory Theatre Center. Tickets are $25-$45. Call (415) 861-8972 or go to www.nctcsf.org.