Front Row

Director Chase Joynt joins us to talk about his film No Ordinary Man, an in-depth look at the life of musician and trans culture icon Billy Tipton. Tipton was born in Oklahoma in 1914, and with the limited resources of the 1930s, had no choice but to transition alone. Entering the heady world of jazz as a pianist and band leader, he enjoyed a long and successful career, becoming a husband and father of three adopted sons in the 1960s. He never shared his gender history with anyone and when he died in 1989, the press seized on the public outing, generating much lurid coverage and incredulity. No Ordinary Man uses a unconventional format to explore the meaning of his life and legacy from the perspective of trans artists today.Dream is a new collaborative production by the RSC which isn’t quite like their usual work. It uses actors, stop motion techniques, graphics and interactivity familiar from gaming and puts them into a pandemic-proof online show inspired by A Midsummer Night’s Dream: a live performance in