#representation in opera

[harmonicabisexuals]

why is hannibal applauding at the end of the B section of a da capo aria.....girl you still gotta get through the whole repeat of the A section!! #fakeoperafan

[starstrider-productions]

LOOKING FOR SENSITIVITY READERS (PAID!)

I am looking for two sensitivity readers for my next audio drama project from the following backgrounds: Jewish and Hindu. I am very committed to making my portrayal of these religions as accurate and respectful as possible, so would love to hear from readers with lived experiences.

Both readers will be asked to read 5 scripts. Each script is between 15-20 pages long. I will also give background information on the project to give you contextual knowledge of the over-arching themes/ideas of the plot.

If you are interested, please email starstriderproductions@gmail.com with your rates/experience, or any questions you might have! You are also welcome to reblog/comment with questions.

(Just a heads up - I am very bad at checking Tumblr messages, so I am MUCH more likely to see an email than an ask/message.)

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Francesca (Audio fiction writer - previous credits include The Pilgrimage Saga and H.G. Wells Has His Regrets)

EDIT:

I have been advised to be a little more specific in my post regarding the characters! Here are some additional details:

Character 1: Female, 20s, British Asian, practising Hindu. She celebrates Diwali in one of the episodes.

Character 2: Female, 70s, Dutch, Jewish. She regularly attends the synagogue, celebrates Jewish holidays such as Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and her faith is an important part of the story. This podcast is set in 2004, and this character is a Holocaust survivor (imprisoned in Dachau as a child).

FURTHER UPDATE: Thank you to those of you who have emailed me so far - a reader has been found for Character 2! Still looking for a Hindu reader :)

FINAL UPDATE: Thank you everyone who has contacted me - I have found readers for both characters! I hope you all enjoy the final product :)

[casual-eumetazoa]

Genre: adult sci-fi

Summary:

In the distant future, humans live in a utopia where even death is not the end—for everyone except Amber’s parents. At 25, she is a cynical, aloof Ph.D. in history who resents her sheltered life at home and yearns to find her place in the world. Then, an exciting job offer comes her way—the chance to uncover the mystery of a civilization that disappeared thousands of years ago. Teaming up with the archeologist Lullaby, Amber embarks on a hitchhiking quest to find the fabled Aquamarine Moon and, perhaps, some much-needed meaning in her life.

Publisher’s website | Amazon

Pre-order my novel if you enjoy: the myth of Sisyphus, space operas, hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy, autistic protagonists, disaster lesbians, insectoid aliens, existential crises, queer side characters, and Buddhist legends

[multifandominfj]

Telenovela WLW ships >> American Soap Opera WLW ships.

I said what I said. 🤷🏻‍♀️

And as an American fan of these shows, who’s a part of the LGBTQ+ community, these shows UNDERSTAND representation better.

[do-u-know-this-autisticcharacter]

Do You Know This (non-canon) Autistic Character?

Propaganda

He has a gift for musical performance (like his dad who also isn't very neurotypical) and (at least in the portrayals I've seen) usually has a one note and 'vacant' expression, like he's masking... he also sings about feeling different and viewing the world differently than other people (I know he sings this sort of sentiment with his father in "The Beauty Underneath" but iirc there are a few more instances of these kinds of feelings shared from him throughout the show).

[emotionalmotionsicknessxx]

Shall Not Covet

LND era Meg/Raoul 5k Smutty Angst

In which angry, jealous Meg takes matters into her own hands

“Please, Miss Giry,” he said, and her eyes found his blue ones pleading, pleasure and pain burning there. She shook her head. “They aren’t the only one who can hurt people,” she flicked her tongue against his lip as she whispered the words. “Show them that. Remember who you are.”

Read on Ao3

[lmsagas]

they're back! 💥💥💥 hitch a ride with team ambit on their next explosive adventure in GRAVITY LOST! out today in print, audio, and digital formats. grab your copy, buckle up, & get ready to have a blast*! (*& also maybe cry a little. oops? 😂)

p.s. if you're a fan of found families (of the bantery, shit-giving, 'nobody hurts my idiots but me' variety), feelsy fiction, and scifi you can sink your teeth into (a la firefly, killjoys, and becky chambers) and you haven't read book 1, CASCADE FAILURE, i hope you'll give it a shot!

[nipuni]

I got tickets for Phantom for the Spain reopening this autumn at the Albéniz theatre!!! 🥰🎉 auditions ended today and I saw Gerónimo Rauch mention auditioning? I’m so excited he is amazing I hope he gets it! I’m also happy about the spanish lyrics they are very accurate and sound good AHHH I can’t wait for autumn 😭

[flea-palace]

alert alert ive been reading susan kay again and it's got me mentally volatile !!

[metiredlr]

Brasil finally being part of an evil plan for once and its all in a sports anime thats suppoed to be about soccer im fucking crying

[tallysgreatestfan-art]

Disabled4Disabled ships spotlight for Disability Pride Month ➤ Senator Nara Oxham and Captain Laurent Zai from “The Risen Empire” by Scott Westerfeld

Going into this book I had no idea just how much disability representation is in this space opera (there also is a third character I focus on another time).

Laurent, despite his prostheses being more like his original limbs than todays prostheses are, for example he has tactile feedback to some degree, does not fall into most of the bad amputee rep pitfalls. They still very much are different to what he was used to, and the ten years in the past storyline shows how he still needs to get used to them.

He has internalized ableism, and this also plays into some already existing body image issues. He is shown having to do maintenance on his prostheses, and there is one scene where they just straight up do not work anymore due to some space battle interference stuff. It is only mentioned once, but he also does not have super strength, not because it is impossible for the technology, but because the power translation would massively fuck up his residual limbs. It subtly, but visibly affects his gait.

And there are a few scenes where he takes them off. One is an incredibly beautiful fade to black sex scene where he worries he is too broken for intimacy, and Nara reassures him being broken is okay, and he lets her take off his prostheses.

Because he lost his limbs through torture by an anti-Empire faction, he also has psychological problems, being passively suicidal, and starts to doubt his conservative, pro-Empire upbringing more and more. Unlike as giving him the prostheses and teaching him how to use them, the Empire completely refuses to do anything about his trauma.

Nara is a bit of a grey area, as her disability is completely fictional, but also I saw so much of myself in her symptoms.

Nara is a telepath, but the way it is written feels like an allegory for neurodivergence, especially autism. Yes, it helps her to come up with strategies in her political struggles against conservative politicians and finally the Emperor, but more often than that, it overwhelms her.

She has to take medication pretty much all the time to be able to function around other people, though it is administered through injections of a wristband, not pills. Even like this, feeling their presence and emotions is very overwhelming for her.

Without the medication or even if there are too many people for too long, she has violent meltdowns, which made her end up in a psych ward as an early teen, where she spent most of her youth.

Her family even abandoned her for it, and the media and her political enemies call her the mad senator. Despite that fearmongering, Nara is one of the most morally upstanding and powerful characters in the book.

Their romance feels real and tender and not gendered in a way fictional romances, especially romances between a man and a women, hardly ever do.

Laurents ethnicity is a bit unclear; in the German translation he is described as being black, so I originally assumed he was, but in the English original it is a bit more unclear. Nara is canonically brown though.

The novel deals with a few fairly dark topics, has several brutal and triggering scenes, and also the language is very technological, and the switch between the many POV characters can be confusing in the beginning. But if you can stomach that, I would very much recommend it.

[casual-eumetazoa]

put together a graphic of inspirations for Up The Entropic Hill, my queer, existentialist space opera. read more about it here and buy now on publisher's website or amazon!

[ghostinthemach1ne]

dominic sessa’s favourite musical being the phantom of the opera is my roman empire

[wttnblog]

Queer Representation in British Soap Operas

Soap operas have always held a special place in my heart. Growing up, I sought solace in soap operas, finding the big emotions of All My Children’s long suffering Erica Kane the perfect parallel to the big emotions I was dealing with as a queer kid. The powerful women and the seductive men offered an escape from a reality that was sometimes difficult to accept. I didn’t see myself reflected in…