I personally being a trans direct, really connected with this role because there were so many themes to it that I could connect to. And I know that many others could connect to, to show sort of that multifaceted personality where they can do both really bad and like really good things. You just see a realistic character where straight people experience that all the time and normal media itself. The musical Hedwig
and the Angry Inch debuted in the 90s Off Broadway since it has been turned into a feature film and made her debut a decade later on Broadway winning several Tony's the musical is the story of an East German singer in a fictional rock and roll band. A portion of the play will be performed at Heartland Community College as part of a literature and film course. This is random acts of knowledge presented by Heartland Community College. I'm your host Steve fast. Today we're speaking with an actor who will be performing the lead role of Hedwig at Heartland Community Colleges presentation.
Hi, my name is Kate McConville, I am a theater education major and a drag queen known as poor Schulen snaps. You can find me on Instagram under that. And I will be performing as headache for Heartland.
So let's talk a little bit about Hedwig. How would you describe the musical the play Hedwig and the Angry Inch
so Hedwig and the Angry Inch in my opinion, take a Barbie doll cut their hair a little bit to drag them through a dirt pile, and then give them a jean jacket. And that's Hedwig. Like you basically are Hedwig like its head, we're performing a show for everyone and kind of telling their life story where they started out in East Berlin during the time of the Berlin Wall. And they try to get a sex change surgery so that they could escape the country with their husband, and unfortunately, was botched. However, they still got to America and all of that, but her husband eventually did leave her for another gay man. And so she kind of goes through this period finds another guy, he ends up leaving her as well. And a lot of the play is just her struggling with a lot of factors in her life, such as self identification, love, all that stuff, and just truly finding room to accept herself for all of her flaws. And admittedly, I find this musical to be kind of revolutionary. Because you see so many plays and musicals be like, Oh, the main character is perfect. They have no flaws whatsoever. This character is the complete opposite. I would go as far as to say they are honestly a pretty bad character. Not in the sense that they're poorly written, but in the sense that they do bad things. And instead of trying to sugarcoat it, or make it look pretty, the writers fully make it clear. No, they did something wrong. However, they also show some form of redemption and healing in that.
You know, that raises an interesting point. Anytime you have drama or theater, you need conflict, right to move things across the story. So what would you say is the central conflict in Hedwig in headway the play,
I'd say the central conflict is definitely internal within Hedwig herself, where she's trying to fight off a lot of her past traumas, such as having about sex change surgery, leaving her home, having no one like those are all things that cause so much damage. And when you have all those things, and really no one to listen, it really does start to take a toll on your mental health. And if I did have to say that there was an external conflict, I would probably say that it was with Tommy for a minute, Tommy spec, as I will definitely be starting a few times in the show where she has a lot of anger and resentment towards him. Because unlike Luther, where she constructed practically a different person for him. She had fully settled into this new person and showed that to Tommy and the same thing happened. So I think that there is more of an internal conflict than an external but they're both definitely there. We can kind of see some examples of this internal conflict primarily in when she rips up yet Sox passport. This to me, kind of struck a chord with me a little bit because we've all had to deal with problems in our lives. And I think with Hedwig, I definitely would say that they suffer from depression, looking at a lot of the signs, because a lot of people and I said this in the audition a lot of people think that depression is dressed up Well, they lay in bed a lot, oh, they cry all the time. Oh, they're just sad. That's not the truth coming from experience depression shows itself in many ways. And in my case, it was anger, I was really angry a lot of the time at a lot of people. I mean, it could be really anything that sets you off. But coming from headworks perspective, where they have constantly had to deal with change. And the one constant they've always had is music. And so when they have this band, this stable foundation, and it looks like it might just be taken away from them, they try by any means to keep it the same, thus ripping up the passport. And so obviously, that causes a rift between her and the band, and it causes them to leave her. And well, yes, it was an awful thing to do, Emily, yes, a lot of people will see that and be like, Well, that was just a dick move. And it was, however, it genuinely did come from a place of hurt. And from a place of I need you here. So
I want to get back to the importance of music in the end the way that music works in this play, and the performance you'll be doing in a second. But one of the things you said a little bit back, as you said that Hedwig has no one to talk to. And in the play. Hedwig addresses the audience, Mark Harper, who brought this production to Heartland for the thing that you'll be doing said, if you're in the audience, you don't get anywhere to hide. So do you agree with that statement? And is that part of what makes this uniquely structured?
Very much. So I Oh, my gosh. And one of the reasons I love this show so much. And one of the reasons I'm so excited to perform for it is that while yes, there is a script, and you do have to memorize a lot of it, a lot of it is audience participation, and improv. Because like, from reading just one scene of it, I had to kind of construct my own ideas and ways of moving around things. Like for example, say a joke doesn't land, which I mean, it won't, but you know, it's fine. And the audience doesn't do anything, you have to find a way around that. Because really, there's so many times where Hedwig will look out into the audience and use that as sort of an imaginary set. And so like if I'm pointing out to a specific part of the little auditorium, that's now officially part of my world. And it is a really interesting format, because obviously, with a lot of plays, and musicals. While yes, you can add audience participation, and you can add fourthwall breaks. With a lot of shows they really isn't a norm. They're here to tell you a story. And well yes, Hedwig is also here to tell you the story. They want you to fully be aware of everything going on, like everything everywhere, all the time, point blank period.com.
So let's talk a little bit about music in the play. And there's so many different parts of the character of Hedwig that are they come from different places, they're not really in a box, right?
And that's kind of the wig and a box. That's something different. Yeah,
that is different. So Hedwig is in a rock band and this Iraq musical, I think, probably if you look back at the inspiration of it probably came from kind of that golden age of androgynous rock stars like David Bowie and Lou Reed and clam was kind of really starting to happen the first time you're a younger person. There's no way you were around when that happens. So how do you interact with the music and did the music of the play? And the inspiration for this music? Does it say anything specifically to you as a performer?
So in regards to interacting with the music, I was I was right now. i Oh my God, I've never really been like a rock and roll type of person. Like I can name two rock songs that I'm into into the past, but interacting with the music, there were a few songs that were harder to get through where I was just listening to them and I'm like, I What's going on here like, but the more and more you like look into it, and like research into it like looking at the lines specifically. And honestly, I think I am actually going to bring up we're gonna box because as that was my audition piece, I listened to it and I Loki was panicking. I was like, Oh my gosh, I I don't know how I'm going to perform this song. There's so many different moments and words and below love, like all of that sort of thing. But there's one part where the tone shifts from like, happy go lucky to like the standard rock and roll like, oh, you son of a bitch. Like that sort of thing. And it all made sense, because this song was all in reaction towards Luther leaving Hedwig and of course it showed how do we kind of recovering from that but also still showing such immense anger towards this. And so that kind of helps me out. lot with interacting with the music.
I wonder if this music seems at all maybe new to you, because it's something that I believe the first production came out like in the 90s. Right? Some somewhere in there.
Yeah. So there was the 90s. And this is a little fuzzy to me because like, I kid you, not one of my friends emailed me being like, this part would be perfect for you. And I'm like, How have I never heard of this before? So an entire week, I researched this entire musical and everything about it. And even when I got what was even better, was the fact that somebody came out of the audition room and was like, Yeah, I've known this musical since the eighth grade. I've read it and researched it. And they were so talented, and amazing. And I was like, shit. Oh, God, I'm not gonna get about. Yeah, in regards to this music being new to me. Oh, hell, yeah. No, it was new. It was very new. Just hearing a lot of it. When people think Broadway, they don't usually think raw, they don't think. And yes, there have been examples of it in the past, but it's been so rare. And why yes, you see sort of insertions rock instruments being used such as more, you know, guitars, drum, stuff like that. It's never been fully in your face. So to kind of hear this music, and to watch many renditions of where you think it would be so hard to transition from a song like that back to like, a normal speaking, but they did it. And they're still doing it. And then like, oh my gosh, the music was definitely new to me. However, I mean, I didn't let that stop me from persevering.
So at the heartland performance, it's not the full play. It's
just part is a one scene showing as sort of like a representation of what it would be like on stage. When I first heard that this was available for auditioning for ISU students. I was like, so let me get this straight. We're going to do an entire show in one month. And then hearing that it was one scene, I was like, Oh, thank God. Now it is one scene. Unfortunately, I know, everyone would just love to see me on it more, but you know,
and then one song that is either part of the scene or after the scene, right? So yeah,
we have one song, it's sort of in the middle, like, we'll get through a little bit of it. And then there's the song and then we'll get through a little bit of it. And then that's it.
So tell me about the song that will be part of the performance.
So the song is wicked little town is one of the more slower songs in the piece. And it is, in my opinion, along with we're gonna box it is one of the more revealing songs that actually does show all of Hedwig because, you know, you see a few songs like some of the beginning where it's like, more so confident, like, Whoo, I'm that bitch. And you know, I'm that bitch. But then you get to this, and you see actual trauma being uncovered. Where in wicked little town, we see Hedwig sing to Tommy, as like, sort of themselves as well, like, it's a weird mix, where like, you don't really know who they're singing about. Until they make you're clear in some lines, or it's like, and then you're somewhere you are not in Junction City ain't the spot. And it's like, okay, so they're talking about themselves. And it's just that sort of thing, where it's like, weirdly intricate, and not what you'd expect out of this musicals, seeing all of the other songs that are presented
this role in particular in the show, does it offer anything unique to queer performers, actors or actors, but the material can really offer different things to different people.
Let me get on my soapbox real quick, okay, coming from a trans person seeing this role, there are very complicated feelings on it. Because I've seen many articles that are like, Oh, this is how Hedwig has hurt trans representation, oh my gosh, they shouldn't show it. And I have mixed feelings on it. Because on the one hand, it's representation. And that matters so much, especially in a space such as theater where, like it or not, it is heavily queer centered. And when you see a musical like this, where it features a trans drag queen, who is into rock and punk that speaks to such a specific niche that doesn't really get any representation. Like I personally being a trans direct queen, really connected with this role, because there were so many themes to it that I could connect to, and I know that many others could connect to and to show sort of that multi level like multifaceted personality where like they can do both really bad and like really good things. You just see a realistic character where straight people experience that all the time and normal media itself. And not only that, but coming from a drag perspective, you see, a lot of shows primarily repulse drag race, where drag is this like, specific, it has to be glam. It has to be beautiful. It has to have a heel, wig, makeup, everything, it has to have everything, you need to have big boobs, like you need to have hip pads, like all this stuff, and headway just tears that shit down. And there are many queens and performers and kings that I could reference that do that on the daily. But they don't get to have a stage. Unfortunately, that's as big as this where Hedwig, they don't have to have heal, they don't have to have these glamorous wigs or outfits. They're punk. And that's the point. And it's just oh my god. So to see that representation where it doesn't have to fit any specific mold. And yeah, with that being made in sort of the late 90s wasn't going to be a little skewed held to the app, because obviously, this has never really been done before and mass media. So, you know, did they blur the lines of drag and being trans? Yeah. But I think looking at it now you can be trans and do drag that like no one ever said you couldn't. So yeah,
well, I think I don't want to spoil anything for people that don't know the show at all. But ultimately, yeah, we spoke a lot, but but I think that there's still a lot to unpack in that this is fully you know, there's a fully realized character, as you say, character that has a number of internal things to reconcile by the end of the show.
Very much. So like representation is important. But what I find to be more important is accurate representation. Like trans or not, you can still be an ass. Like I know, I've been asked many times, and I've known many drag artists who are very mean, you know, it just happens. We're all people we're all like fighting through similar traumas and challenges in our lives. And when you see Hedwig, and they do do a lot of really bad things that damage other people as well as themselves. However, they move on. And then the last song, I think it's like standing with pride, realizing that yeah, life's gonna suck, and life's gonna suck and all that, but if you stand up and just continue moving, it can get better. Well, thanks
so much.
Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.
Kate McConville is an actor, a theater student at Ohio State University, and a performer they are betraying the lead role of Hedwig in the presentation of Hedwig and the Angry Inch at Heartland Community College. If you're interested in other interviews about theater, literature, performance and more, subscribe to random acts of knowledge on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you heard this one. Thanks for listening
