“Fun Home” Finds Itself at Oberlin

When Visiting Assistant Professor of Theater Katy Early ’16 had the chance to function school director for a theater manufacturing, she selected the musical adaptation of Fun Home, the 2006 graphic memoir written by Alison Bechdel ’81. 

There was a lot enthusiasm for the manufacturing, which ended up as a student-driven theater division Winter Term venture, that Early and her crew determined to double-cast the present.

“The excitement was there from the jump,” Early says. “It felt like a good connection between my interest and student interest. … [And] it’s been important to me to work on this [musical] with students.”

The enthusiasm is sensible. In 2007, the graphic novel gained the GLAAD Media Award, the Stonewall Book Award, the Publishing-Triangle Judy Grahn Nonfiction Award, and the Lambda Literary Award. The 2015 Broadway musical, in the meantime, was nominated for 12 Tony Awards and took dwelling 5, together with Best Musical. 

In each mediums, Fun Home, which tells the story of Bechdel’s coming of age and popping out with a powerful deal with her relationship along with her closeted father, has been praised for its nuanced exploration of queerness. As such, the present’s advanced structure was the work of many palms. 

To inform the set and costume design, Early and the scholar forged and crew immersed themselves in Oberlin’s archives to search out artifacts of queer life throughout Bechdel’s time as a pupil. 

“That task of archiving queer life is so important to the DNA of this show, and [is] what Alison Bechdel is doing with her life,” Early says.

Dallas Street ’26, who portrays Alison within the Maple Avenue forged, cites as inspiration a presentation by Lee Must ’25, who got here to campus to current his analysis on the Oberlin queer archives to the forged and crew. .

Street says that the Fun Home manufacturing additionally has its personal collaborative “masterdoc” during which forged and crew members contribute notes and analysis to collectively draw from. For instance, he researched Bechdel’s previous weblog posts for the manufacturing. 

Costume design affiliate Calcifer Avins ’27, working beneath Associate Professor of Theater Chris Flaharty, drew inspiration from Oberlin archival pictures for his or her costume design for the character of Joan, Alison’s faculty girlfriend. 

Avins says they and Flaharty additionally closely referenced the Fun Home graphic novel of their design, notably in the way in which that Bechdel attracts her household. “We’re seeing what kind of pants they wore,” says Avins, who’s excited about pursuing a profession in costume design. “What are the shapes of the collars? How does Alison differentiate herself from her brothers with her clothes?”