Journal article
Baking Cake Daddy: transforming fat-phobia to fat-positivity with a slice of fat-queer subversive fun to fatten the stage
R Anderson-Doherty, A Campbell, J Graffam
Fat Studies | Published : 2023
Abstract
This article examines the genesis, making processes and performance choices of Cake Daddy, a queer and fat-positive live performance work (Belfast, Melbourne, Sydney, 2018–19). The show was made in response to performer-creator Ross Anderson-Doherty’s experience of shock and fatphobia in the audience’s reaction to his naked fat body in a previous production. This experience–and the unpacking of it–proved a catalyst for Anderson-Doherty to respond in the best way he knows: through performance and his own form of queer performance pedagogy. Through a Practice as Research methodology we, who are also members of the Cake Daddy creative team, trace the queer and “fat” dramaturgical choices within..
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Funding Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the Cake Daddy team for their insights throughout the process of making and the production. Thank you to The Australia Council for the Arts, the British Council, Creative Ireland, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Theatre Works Melbourne, Outburst Festival, Midsumma Festival and the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras for production funding and support. Thanks also to the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne, for funding Campbell's time on this work, and Campbell and Graffam's travel.