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Spencer McCairns

Multidisciplinary Artist

About

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Visual Works

Writing Pieces

Contact

The Killing Game

Scenic Designer

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I Speak to the Flesh

Artist

I Speak to the Flesh is an exploration of man’s relationship with masculinity and the metamorphosis towards one’s true self. It is a celebration of queer and trans identity. Through this exhibition, I sought to answer my own questions about gender and sexuality, and find spaces in which I could experience euphoria in a time when basic human rights for transgender individuals are being challenged. This is a reminder that trans people have and will exist in all timelines.

Costume Design Concepts

Selected Costume Designs

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

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Anywhere but Here by Carmen Aguirre

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Scenic Design Concepts

Tango Palace by Maria Irene Fornes

Tango Palace by Maria Irene Fornes is an absurdist comedy centering around two characters called Isidore and Leopold as they struggle for power. I chose to set the play within the psychiatric ward of a hospital, wherein the two characters - in this case, two soldiers returned from war - are trapped without escape. This concept allows for the characters to live between the real world and the world they have created inside their heads, in which everything is warped. My main consideration with the piece is the idea of the physical world and the mental world, and watching these worlds combine together within the space as Isidore and Leopold exchange the power balance throughout the play. At the beginning, the world is Isidore’s - fanciful and escapist - versus at the end, when the world belongs to Leopold, who frees himself from Isidore’s mental cage (finally getting to open the door.)

Submerged by Tanya Tagaq

Submerged is written by Inuk throat singer, songwriter and visual artist Tanya Tagaq, and is the core inspiration for this set design. When I first heard the song Submerged I saw packs of whales hunting their prey through an icy abyss as the last rays of sunlight fell onto the waves. For this set, I chose to explore something out of my realm of comfortability by involving bright colours into all the main elements of the set. This resulted in a visually stimulating recreation of the icy northern ocean and the vast stretch of the setting sun. Additionally, this design was inspired by the designs of Ralph Koltai, who utilised large, sweeping structures within his sets that draw the audience’s eye to the movement of the piece, with a focus on large structures.

New York at 42 by Nancy Mercado

In her poem, Nancy describes the beauty of New York City; its wonders and its multicultural histories woven into one story. She sees past the gritty, dark corners and into the vibrant city people fantasize about; she looks at New York through rose tinted glasses of nostalgia. However, New York is a notoriously dirty city strewn with trash and rats and grime. In juxtaposition to the poem, I present a set riddled with dirt and discarded wonders, the memory of what used to be a vibrant place now being taken over by the realities of big-city life. My set offers a glance at the beauty Nancy recalls in her poem - once beautiful wallpaper torn off to reveal the foundations, scenic fire escapes that have since been worn out from use, a bewildering chair discarded with the hopes of finding a new home. Nancy sees past the crumbling city and instead chooses a lens of hope and love.

The Song of Death by Tawfiq Al-Hakim

Studio Work

An Ongoing Exploration of the Human Form

We Riot for Trans Youth

Artist + Founder

We Riot for Trans Youth is an ongoing t-shirt campaign supporting transgender youth in North America, whose rights are continually being challenged and taken away by governing bodies.Our first campaign in 2023 aimed to help transgender youth living in Tennessee, USA, with proceeds being directly donated to the Tennessee Equality Project.

Our second campaign in 2024 aimed to help transgender youth living in Alberta, Canada. All proceeds of this campaign were donated directly to The Skipping Stone Foundation, Calgary, which works to connect transgender members of the community with proper healthcare that supports their needs. They provide programs on navigating the physical and mental healthcare systems, building queer communities (through music and game nights), and one-on-one support for youth and families. They also offer a vast number of resources through their website for gender-diverse people and their support systems.Transgender youth are not “other.” Yet, K-12 students in Alberta are being taught otherwise. Mirroring many of the anti-trans legislature in the United States, Alberta is working to create an unsafe school and home environment for gender-diverse youth, including restrictions on pronoun use, participation in sports and traditionally gender-based after-school activities, and the right to use a chosen name.In February, 2024, the Alberta Government announced their plans for new anti-trans legislation - the harshest in Canada - that would put restrictions on gender-affirming healthcare for minors including life-saving surgeries and access to hormone therapy. Alberta is the third province in Canada to recently introduce laws targeting transgender youth - however, Alberta’s approach proves to be the most severe. The attempted ban on top and bottom surgeries for minors would roll out in the fall with Premiere Danielle Smith concerned about the life-long “consequences” of these kinds of surgeries. However, even without this ban, top surgery for minors in Alberta is still nearly impossible to get given the requirements for surgery.Transgender youth are at a higher risk of experiencing depression and suicidal thoughts. By limiting access to safe environments, support systems, and life-saving healthcare, the Alberta government is directly influencing the mental health crisis in the queer community.

Archive of Our Unknown

Playwright

Produced by SATCo, University of Victoria

Archive of Our Unknown Script Sample

Archive of Our Unknown is a one-act play exploring the themes and tropes of late 2000s/2010s fanfiction found on popular websites such as Tumblr, Wattpad and Archive of Our Own. Fanfiction - fan written stories set in and around the characters of one or more ‘fandom’ - is a popular form of media dating decades back. Famous examples of fanfiction include Fifty Shades of Grey (Twilight) and City of Bones (Harry Potter). Archive of Our Unknown spoofs famed YA series Twilight by Stephenie Meyer and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and combines them with common fanfiction tropes including “only one bed,” “soulmates,” and “my parents sold me to (insert boyband here).”Narrated by an emotional rollercoaster of a narrator, the story chronicles Y/N (a commonly found title in fanfiction, wherein the reader inserts their own name into the story’s protagonist) as she stumbles upon a love triangle between two men from different worlds: the sexy and mysterious Jorgen, and the heroic Pita Bread. The characters manoeuvre from one trope to the next in this comedic play, which both challenges and accepts the themes of the past 20 years of fanfiction.

Eighteen Ninety Six

Desiger, Writer and Researcher

Unproduced

Eighteen Ninety Six Script Sample

Eighteen Ninety Six is an artistic exploration of youth male sex work in the late 19th century, with a focus on the “street boy,” as described by historian Steven Maynard. Many youth males in the late 19th century compensated their little-paying jobs - such as selling newspapers - by working in male brothels and selling sex. This work was inherently queer and fueled the homosexual underworlds of major cities across North America and Europe. The idea of youth male sex work has gone largely ignored by historians in the past, which is interesting considering the focus on youthful male sexuality in the present day - the oversexualisation of the youthful looking male (or, twink) in media has become popular in recent years. Going back further, the sexual abuse of male youths by older men in detention centers, churches, and residential schools has been the subject of large amounts of historical and political research. In this project, I have chosen to explore the intimate history of the youthful male in a script and accompanying set model, staging the fascinating culture of the 19th century street boy.The script focuses on the relationship between fifteen-year-old William, and adult Thomas, who visits William at a brothel and begins a relationship with him. Written in tandem with the creation of the set model, the two work together to tell the story of William and Thomas, as well as the broader experiences of male sex workers in an artistic blend of realism and the avant-garde. The minimalist set is outlined by LED hardware meant to reflect the tension and intimacy of the script, beating with William’s emotions and illuminating he and Thomas’ relationship. This, paired with the white curtains (which also act as projection surfaces) silhouette William and Thomas’ time together. In a time when homosexuality was criminalized, the use of shadow to reflect homosexual acts between men shows the common place that it was despite it’s need to be hidden. Further, the only characters in the show that are named are Thomas and William, in an attempt to show that this kind of story was happening around countless individuals, and often they go unnamed in history.

A Rendezvous with Death

Playwright

Unproduced

Based on the Poem "I Have a Rendezvous with Death" by Alan Seeger.