Goblin Mode

The first thing to do is learn how to move.

Your body, usually stiff and polite, must become rubbery and free, able to withstand tiny shocks intended and unexpected. Your first exploratory session alone brings you a discovery, an obsession with consistent tiny movements. You will never be upright, nor willowy, but like a whip cracked too many times, languid then sharp.

The voice comes from movement. Because it is meant for the stage, it must be clear and articulate, but also possessing a sense of strain and misuse. You futz with your resonators, find the precise combination that will mimic a croak without ravaging your instrument. There is a musicality, too, that must be honed. A voice that used to sing, to orate, and still clings to rhyme.

The ground becomes your friend. Your legs take on a strength they lost during months of isolation. Your lungs become small bellows, first easily exhausted and then with time a bolstering force. You consider your other senses: fingers that grasp, eyes that dart around in the dark, a keen sense of smell, a dulled tongue.

The first night you take this new body and voice for a whirl before onlookers, you trip from a small height and nearly fall face-first. Instead your instincts take over, you execute an off-the-shoulder forward roll, and you spring to your feet. You consider this the greatest victory so far.

You have become the goblin, and that becoming has protected you.

We are in full swing! Our first reviews are coming back raves, and we’re only going to get better as the weeks go on. But tickets are selling out quickly! Reserve your seat with us now and join the sing-a-longing, popcorn-slinging, boo-hissing, “alas”-saying fun before 8/24!

Recent Gigs

Since my last update I’ve provided additional voices for the following shows:

• An Archdemon’s Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride, Episode 12

• Wistoria: Wand and Sword, Episode 1

Wind Breaker - Episodes 11 & 12

By the time this newsletter is published, the final episode of Wind Breaker’s first season will be released. I jumped back in as Kotoha Tachibana to provide some good advice and delicious egg salad sandwiches.

My director and I were talking about how we expected Kotoha to appear more in the show — as the sole girl in the cast, she would normally have pride of place in a story starring a bunch of teen boys. But Kotoha more than makes up for her long absences in the show, and I want to make a case for her as a near-perfect example of how to write women in a show created for a male audience.

Wind Breaker might be one of the few Shonen titles I’ve seen that puts the concept of toxic masculinity under the microscope. Its protagonist is an angry, lonely kid eager to prove himself, and at the beginning of the show he is convinced that the only way to do that is to beat the crap out of anyone who looks at him funny. Step-by-step, he’s then presented a slew of positive and negative role models, introduced to the idea of fighting as a form of dialogue, and repeatedly educated on how to use his strength to benefit those who can’t fight for themselves. His path towards self-loathing and self-destruction is diverted, and going into the next season he has a real chance to make a positive impact on those around him without sacrificing the traditional traits of a “strong man”.

Kotoha could be considered another tool in this toolbox to foster Sakura’s personal growth, but she’s given an incredible amount of agency in fulfilling that role. From episode one she takes the reins in strengthening her relationship with Sakura, and thereby strengthening his relationship with the rest of the town. She speaks to him as an equal, she is NEVER treated as a sex object or put on a pedestal, and she clearly has her own life with its own priorities. She’s not a spunky little sister with a desire to fight alongside the boys, or a doting mom, or a perky cheerleader — she’s her own woman who finds fulfillment in serving her community, which INCLUDES the Furin boys. An A-plus support class character.

I am ecstatic to say that Wind Breaker is returning for a second season in Winter 2025. I can’t wait to see what the new arc has in store for our boys and my best girl.

Consume!

There a misconception about creating diverse, inclusive pieces of art that the end result has to be “nice”. The adjectives above are associated somehow with softening blows, navigating around difficult conversations, mitigating trauma in service of appealing to a broader audience. Charlie Jane Anders’ “Unstoppable” trilogy effortlessly grinds this idea into the ground with a relentless adventure about defeating cultural homogeneity through the kind of love that can burn with its honesty and leave you gasping.

Best of all? It’s also genuinely fun. What other sci-fi series gives you a universal translator that communicates the speaker’s personal pronouns? Or an addictive video game called “Worst Best Friend”? Or an alien race whose language and culture is centered around the idea that there are always three solutions to every problem? Tell me you aren’t a little bit intrigued.

Performance of the Week

So I watched “Call Me By Your Name” recently and I’m still unsure how I feel about the movie, but I think I finally “get” Timothee Chalamet?

Chalamet was fairly young during this movie’s production, and he perfectly captures what it’s like to be a young, weird, queer kid presented with the first interesting choice of his life. On paper the stakes of this story are relatively low compared to similar films, but the sheer sensitivity that Chalamet exhibits as Elio makes every twitch feel like a slice. As a side note, he had to do some WEIRD crap in this movie (I can’t look at peaches the same way again) and he approaches each scene with a seriousness and earnestness that really heightened my respect for him as an artist.

Go get that Wonka money, Chalamet. You deserve it.

Inside the Goblin

The goblin impacts your life in other ways off the stage.

As strictly as you’ve timed your falls and grabs and bumps, you in fact are not covered in chitin — your tender skin retains bruises, which add to the overall effect of your costume but elicit concern from friends.

Your sleep schedule could more accurately be called “sleep guidelines” now - the goblin sleeps when it can, but this sleep is deeper and more focused on rejuvenation.

What is the difference between “girl dinner” and “goblin dinner”? Goblin dinner has a creative bent and a sense of transformative presentation. The end result still looks like dog food, but tastes like part of a royal’s buffet.

The goblin likes you. But the goblin can’t answer your text messages right now. Maybe later, once base needs have been met.

Big Brother 26 has just begun airing and the goblin will be talking about nothing else until the end of September.

Throughout all this, the goblin still finds ways to connect with the world and build something new. Through beginnings and endings and the inbetween. And when this is over, the goblin will rest until it is needed again.