Lauren Patten picked up her first Tony Award amid the controversy surrounding her role in the musical Jagged Little Pill.
The 29-year-old actress won for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical at the 2020 Tony Awards on Sunday (September 26) at the Winter Garden Theatre in New York City.
The producers of the musical recently acknowledged missteps in how they publicly spoke about and identified Lauren‘s character Jo. The character was played as a non-binary person during the show’s pre-Broadway run in Boston in 2018. When the show moved to New York City the next year, all the references to the character being non-binary were removed. Lauren also stopped referring to Jo as “they” or “them” and started using “she” or “her” to describe the character, according to Deadline.
Lauren acknowledged her non-binary and trans colleagues in her acceptance speech.
Click inside to find out what she said…
“It is such a joy to finally be able to celebrate all of these phenomenal artists in this room after this long, long pause. It is also a strange time for awards. We are in the middle of a reckoning in our industry. And first and foremost I want to thank my trans and nonbinary friends and colleagues who have engaged with me in difficult conversations that have joined me in dialogue about my character Jo,” Lauren said.
She continued, “I believe that the future for the change we need to see on Broadway comes from these kinds of conversations that are full of honesty and empathy and respect for our shared humanity. And I am so excited to see the action that comes from them, and to see where that leads our future as theatre artists in this country.”
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By: Just Jared
Title: Jagged Little Pill's Lauren Patten Thanks Non-Binary & Trans Colleagues While Accepting Tony Award
Sourced From: www.justjared.com/2021/09/26/jagged-little-pills-lauren-patten-thanks-non-binary-trans-colleagues-while-accepting-tony-award/
Published Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2021 00:09:09 +0000
