Name as you’d like it to appear: Jennifer Tyler
Gender as you’d like it to appear: Non-Binary
City you live in and/or improvise in most: London, UK
Personal website or another project that you’d like to link to: @jennifertyler10 (Instagram)
Impro(v) Bio: Jennifer has trained in improv comedy predominately with The Free Association, as well as one-off workshops with Hoopla!, The Maydays, Maria Peters, The Bristol Improv Theatre, The Second City & The Groundlings. Most recently they have started training in improvised musical theatre with The Showstoppers. Jennifer performs with multiple teams across the circuit, including FA guest team Taco Cat, Snack Time, Waiting for Poirot & Film Club, who they toured the festival circuit with 2022-23 (Edinburgh Fringe Festival, VAULT Festival, Brighton Fringe). Jennifer teaches taster classes at the FA and run the FAQ workshops for trans, non-binary & gender-diverse improvisers, as well as coaching multiple independent teams on the circuit.
How does being trans/NB influence your impro(v)?
I started training and performing improv before I realised my identity as a pansexual and non-binary person, so it has been really interesting to see how my improv has evolved as I’ve developed more of a sense of feeling at home in who I am – I am able to have much more ease onstage now that I feel more comfortable in my own skin. I think it has really opened my eyes to the importance of broadening diversity within the improv community in order to create a more a honest and true reflection of the world onstage. In my teaching and coaching, I encourage groups and teams to share if anything onstage feels jarring, emphasising that we are all unique humans from all different walks of life and that bringing our full selves to the rehearsal room and the stage is not only important for creating more interesting, eclectic scenes, but also will help us become more empowered, confident and connected, and therefore ultimately funnier improvisers together.
Do you play trans/NB characters often?
I’ve just gone through an interesting process with this where, earlier last year, I asked all of my fellow teammates if they could try endowing me with they/them pronouns onstage, no matter what my name/character expression etc. I may take on a woman or man character from the get/opening if it serves the show, but otherwise any other character would be a non-binary character with they/them pronunous. I made this decision after thought-provoking discussions with fellow trans, non-binary and gender-diverse improvisers during the FAQ workshops I run and it was mainly an attempt to try and normalise they/them characters onstage in the same way we see plenty of “he’s” and “she’s”. This has now recently evolved into me saying to my teams that, “I’m happy to play anything, but I love being endowed as a they/them character”. This allows for a bit more flexibility around it – re-framing it as a positive affirmation of something to aim for as and when we can, which I feel could actually be more effective in helping people to build the habit. It has been wonderful to coach independent groups with a mix of cis and trans players and see these habits build for all the players involved! I think we still have a long way to go in terms of cisnormativity and heteronormativity being the assumptions onstage but after the progress I’ve made in my own practice and meeting and working with more queer and trans improvisers on the circuit, I am feeling hopeful!
How do you feel about cisgender actors playing trans/NB characters in impro(v)?
I think it can work on occasion from a supportive, informed and considered place. For example, after I’d mentioned the above to one of my teams, one of my teammates during our next show ended up weaving in that they were a non-binary character within a beautifully delivered and very funny monologue about challenging perceptions of people, and I thought that was clever and brilliant! They expressed their identity merely as an additional fact about themselves and it wasn’t the main topic of the scene – they just were who they were and it happened to come out through a funny speech. It inspired me to be able to do this in my own play and also showed how much they’d taken on board what I said and why it was it important. I think as long as it’s never the “unusual thing” in a scene, it’s just part of the fabric of the character and not in any form a stereotype, and it’s played by an informed and empathetic ally, then it can work on occasion. Like Stephen Davidson says, “I feel like it really depends on where you’re playing and with whom, as well as your own understanding. Let’s work to cultivate communities and audiences where diverse characters and actors can exist comfortably.”
Besides announcing it, how might you know/show a character is trans/NB?
You can endow a character with “they/them” pronouns to highlight a character might be non-binary or gender-diverse, or endow yourself, for example: “Everyone always says about me, “Ah that Jen, they’re always doing improv!” etc. I think, as Stephen details in his essay too, that it could also come up naturally within a character’s point of view or relationship, as part of building the details/specifics of these particular characters and their lives in the scene. Bringing your truth as a person to any character you play can bring out such wonderful unique specificities and therefore bringing your lived experiences/opinions as a trans person may include expressing your identity specifically or alluding to it through your thoughts/feelings onstage.
How do you feel about playing different genders generally, in terms of naming gender and of expressing it?
Like I said previously, I now feel comfortable to play all genders onstage, with a desire to play more non-binary characters than I’ve been playing previously. I feel that, whatever gender I’m playing, their expression comes from their point of view in a scene, rather than any assumptions on their gender – they just happen to be that gender having that sort of view of the world. That being said, I also have years of subliminal brainwashing of gender stereotypes that I’m trying to un-do, so occasionally I have found myself playing up to stereotypes onstage. In those moments, like I encourage my students, I endeavour to notice, to reflect, and through compassionate growth, evolve and change and “unlearn” these habits of thinking and behaving.
Misgendering onstage can feel difficult, particularly if one is continuously being endowed as the gender they were assigned at birth rather than who they actually are. As well as encouraging performers to be aware of this and have conversations offstage, I also encourage trans improvisers to feel empowered to correct people onstage in character too if they feel it is affecting their playing, e.g. “actually my pronouns are she/he/they” and then powering on with the scene. Even if an audience finds the correction funny, we are in charge onstage of how to navigate that and if all players have an understanding of how to acknowledge it and move on as we would in life (“Ah cool, thanks for letting me know! So back to what we were discussing…”), this modelling can help open audiences minds about not making assumptions and how to receive that information, as well as helping the player relax and enjoy playing the scene.
Does your local impro(v) community know/understand your gender? If so, how has that been in terms of acceptance/understanding?
They do! The FA have been really supportive – from giving me the space and resources to run the workshops for trans, non-binary and gender-diverse improvisers, to giving me space and time to feedback our discussions in order to help improve inclusivity across all levels of intersectionality within the school training and performance spaces. There is still a long way to go in increasing diversity, accessibility and making these sorts of conversations the norm but I’m really pleased with the starting steps we’ve made.
What are some things that teachers/directors/other performers can do to make sure trans/NB improvisers feel safe and welcome?
- Always start sessions with offering and sharing names & pronouns. Setting up your classroom space as a held space, acknowledging that we are a group of human beings coming together from all different walks of life and the importance of respecting that.
- Encouraging participants to say if anything feels jarring onstage (and honouring that yourself too as a teacher) and to know as a group that we can bring these sorts of curiosities and discoveries to each other and see it as a gift to our learning and growth. Improv is a vulnerable exercise and so being able to have vulnerable conversations like this offstage can help us become more empowered, confident and therefore funnier players onstage, as well as evolving the worlds we create onstage to being much more diverse and inclusive across all levels of intersectionality.
- Being aware of consistent misgendering onstage and checking in with trans players as to their level of comfort playing all different genders onstage. And of course being aware of misgendering offstage too – doing group reminders of everyone’s pronouns, leading by example (affirming a players pronouns through feedback/notes), checking in with the person involved if they would like you to do more/less etc.
- Taking a moment at the beginning of each class/practice/jam to check in with each other if there’s anything we want the group to know that day before jumping into play e.g. someone might have had an injury, someone might have had a tough day, someone might be using new pronouns etc.
- Helping performers to feel empowered to bring themselves to the stage through their characters e.g. correcting a pronoun or the widening of typical references of behaviour across all levels of intersectionality and for that to be acknowledged and folded in by the team, i.e. not “the unusual thing” in the scene.
Thinking about examples of trans/NB characters across all media (Impro(v), TV, Movies, Plays etc), what are the best trans/NB characters or stories you’ve seen depicted? The worst?
I’ve loved seeing E.R. Fightmaster playing Dr. Kai Bartley in ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ (also a fellow improviser!) I love seeing trans/NB characters where their identity is an important part of who they are but not the totality of who they are. There is a definitely an important place for coming out/transition storylines but it is also wonderful and powerful to just see people who happen to be trans existing in television shows, living out all sorts of storylines, with their identity accepted easily and comfortably. Grey’s had already done this really well with Alex Blue Davis’ portrayal of Dr Casey Parker and I really hope E.R. continues playing Kai in future seasons! In terms of the worst, I feel the documentary ‘Disclosure’ is a brilliant analysis of the history of this – highly recommend watching and hopefully we will see far less detrimental depictions of trans characters in the future!
Who do you look up to/admire as a trans/NB person in impro(v) or the world generally?
Sam Burkett, a colleague of mine, is a wonderful improviser and has been a great collaborator in discussing and brainstorming how the improv world can improve in it’s inclusive practices. All of the improvisers who’ve attended my trans, non-binary and gender-diverse workshops have inspired me hugely and it’s been such a joy to work with them all over the past year. E.R. Fightmaster as previously mentioned! And Stephen Davidson of course, who runs so many wonderful initiatives such as this for building community amongst trans/queer improvisers and improving diversity and inclusivity within the improv world.
What’s something special that you and/or trans/NB performers have to offer?
The embracing of being able to question things, pull them apart, help reinvent systems for the better. Thinking “outside the box” and seeing the uniqueness of human expression in each and every fellow player, including yourself.
Is there anything else you’d like to say about being trans/NB or impro(v) in general?