Alec Butler
{{short description|Canadian filmmaker and playwright}}
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{{Infobox person
| name = Alec Butler
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name = Audrey Butler
| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1959}}
| birth_place =
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| nationality = Canadian
| other_names =
| occupation = {{flatlist|
- Playwright
- filmmaker
}}
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works = Black Friday (play)
}}
Alec Butler (born Audrey Butler; 1959) is a Canadian playwright and filmmaker.{{Cite web|last=Helkio|first=Raymond|date=January 18, 2017|title=Alec Butler's "Rough Paradise" – Living Life Shamelessly|url=http://thebuzzmag.ca/2017/01/alec-butlers-rough-paradise-living-life-shamelessly/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200919212641/https://thebuzzmag.ca/2017/01/alec-butlers-rough-paradise-living-life-shamelessly/|archive-date=September 19, 2020|access-date=|website=The Buzz}}
Life and career
Butler was born in 1959, and is non-binary and intersex.{{Cite news|last=Butler|first=Alec|date=2016-04-22|title=At 12 I grew a beard and had a period|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36092431|url-status=live|access-date=2020-12-26|archive-date=November 8, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108095741/https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36092431}} Butler uses they/them and he/him pronouns.{{Cite web|last=Noyes|first=Jenny|date=2016-04-25|title=Playwright on growing up intersex: 'At 12 I started growing a beard and had a period'|url=http://www.dailylife.com.au/dl-people/playwright-on-growing-up-intersex-at-12-i-started-growing-a-beard-and-had-a-period-20160425-goe3p7.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190713045445/http://www.dailylife.com.au/dl-people/playwright-on-growing-up-intersex-at-12-i-started-growing-a-beard-and-had-a-period-20160425-goe3p7.html|archive-date=July 13, 2019|access-date=|website=Daily Life}} Assigned female at birth, he initially presented as a butch lesbian before coming out as transgender the late 1990s. Before he came out, his work was published under his birth name.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=September 8, 2005|title=Why be just one sex?|url=http://www.macleans.ca/article.jsp?content=20050912_112043_112043&source=srch|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100613195234/http://www.macleans.ca/article.jsp?content=20050912_112043_112043&source=srch|archive-date=2010-06-13|access-date=|website=Maclean's}}
He was a nominee for the Governor General's Award for English-language drama in 1990 for his play Black Friday. He has also worked on artistic projects with The 519 Church St. Community Centre as their first artist-in-residence. He was named one of Toronto's Vital People by the Toronto Community Foundation in 2006.{{Cite web|title=Announcements « The Centre for Women and Trans People @ University of Toronto|url=https://womenscentre.sa.utoronto.ca/announcements/page/11/|access-date=2021-04-02|archive-date=April 2, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210402072917/https://womenscentre.sa.utoronto.ca/announcements/page/11/|url-status=live}}
He identifies as two-spirit and has Miꞌkmaq heritage.
Plays
- Shakedown
- Cradle Pin
- Radical Perversions: 2 Dyke Plays (1990)
- Black Friday (1990)
- Claposis (1990)
- Hardcore Memories (1993)
- Medusa Rising (1996)
- Trans Cab (2005)
Books:
- Radical Perversions: two Dyke Plays by Audrey Butler published by Women's Press, 1991
- Novella called Rough Paradise published May 31, 2014 by Quattro Books
Films
- Trans Mission: Get Yer Motor Runnin
' – One-man show at A-Space, Toronto, 2003. - Misadventures of PussyBoy: First Love / Sick / First Period – Screened at many queer film and video festivals, First Love won the Charles Street Award for emerging video and film makers in 2002 at the InsideOut Festival.
- Audrey's Beard – Named one of the top ten films about transitioning by Curve magazine.
- 5 Seconds of Fame – Commissioned by Toronto's Pride Committee for Pride Toronto, 2007.
- My Friend, Brindley – Works in progress; experimental doc about human rights activist and painter, Kathleen Brindley.
- Darla's Goodbye – Short film based on a short story of the same name published in Red Light: Superheroes, Saints and Sluts.
- Trans Cabaret: The Video
References
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Category:20th-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights
Category:21st-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights
Category:Film directors from Nova Scotia
Category:Canadian LGBTQ dramatists and playwrights
Category:Canadian non-binary writers
Category:Intersex non-binary people
Category:Writers from Nova Scotia
Category:21st-century Canadian LGBTQ people
Category:Non-binary dramatists and playwrights
Category:Canadian intersex people
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