Shadow Play: Visualizing Asexuality in New

Abstract

Asexuality—the perspective of not experiencing sexual attraction to others—is sometimes called the “invisible orientation” for its lack of representation in popular culture (Decker). Popularized in the early 2000s, the term “asexual” describes a spectrum of non-normative desire and is usually presented as a sexual orientation akin to “heterosexual,” “bisexual,” or “homosexual.” While framed as an essential, minority identity, asexuality can also describe a sensibility akin to queerness. Within the past few years, television series such as BoJack Horseman, Sex Education, Sirens, and Everything’s Gonna Be Okay have all spotlighted asexual characters. In theatre, however, asexual representation has remained rare. Being one of a few out asexual playwrights, I have stumbled upon pockets of asexual theatre-makers, often by chance, as colleagues have connected via social media or word of mouth through mutual friends. I have noticed (and been part of ) a cohort of artists working to tell stories of asexual experience and shift social understandings of what constitutes “natural” sexuality. Here, I spotlight a sample of plays from this cohort to investigate what asexual aesthetics and representation might lend to theatrical discourse more broadly.