I'm so excited to share my conversation about asexuality, aromanticism, and queerness in Shakespeare with Beks Roen, theater maker and storypreneur. We talk about ace representation in love stories, stage combat helping reduce gender dysphoria, how theater can support communities, and much more.

You can watch our conversation as a YouTube video, or, read it in this newsletter post - up to you!

Let's dive in!

Beks Roen & Rey Katz chat about queer Shakespeare

(This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.)

Beks Roen: My name is Beks Roen. I use they/he pronouns, interchangeably. I also use both names interchangeably and I am a theater maker and a self-described storypreneur.

I focus on telling queer stories in Shakespeare and fantasy to help people remember that they are loved and they're not alone.

Rey: Do you think Shakespeare's plays are queer, both back when he wrote them and also the way that people perform them today?

Beks Roen: This question is itself a whole thing. Asexuality and aromanticism studies, when they're looking at a Shakespeare play as early modern literature, they will look for queer resonances rather than strict definitions. Language has shifted so much over the centuries, and obviously the lived experiences might still resonate. But the words non-binary and aromantic and asexual may not have existed in the vernacular. Similarly, we no longer use the familiar second person - thee/thou/thine pronouns - in English anymore.

I find a queer resonance in the texts that we have. We don't have what Shakespeare actually wrote. We have a combination of basically pirated scripts. People would sit in the Globe theater frantically scribbling along and writing it all down to then publish it without Shakespeare's permission.

And we also have the prompt books. As an actor, you would not get the full script. In Shakespeare's day you would get a cue script, which had the line before yours, when you enter, your lines, and when you exit. So nobody except for the prompter had the full script. But because of theater fires, we don't have a lot of the full prompt books anymore. So as Shakespeare's company started dying, a few of the actors wrote down what they could remember.

As we don't even have the original texts to begin with, there's already some interpretation in there, as well as queer resonance.

All of the cast in Shakespeare's day would've been male identifying, playing all of the roles regardless of gender. A lot of people will point to that as the gender fluidity of Shakespeare, especially in casting discussions.

But I find more interesting trans resonances outside of that. Viola from Twelfth Night , for example, starts the play female identifying, disguises herself as a man, and then by the end of the play, part of the happy ending and the reveal is her returning to her cisgender presentation.

I find more queer resonances in some of the comedies, like Much Ado About Nothing , where I have yet to see an interpretation that really leans into the language of Beatrice saying, "I would rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me."

I think there's more room to play with ace and aro resonances in the plays. Part of why I became a producer and started Roguish Goblin Stories was to dig into that.

Rey: I love hearing the story of Viola. Fictional characters really meant a lot to me growing up as a transmasculine person, like Mulan or the Alana Books by Tamora Pierce.

I'd love to hear a little more about how being asexual fits into these stories.

Beks Roen: I draw a lot of inspiration from ace and aro scholars like Dr. Liza Blake, Dr. Aley O'Mara, Dr. Cat Clifford, Liesl Jensen, who are working in early modern asexuality studies. They have some really, really cool talks.

Dr. Liza Blake talked about Much Ado and the aro and ace resonances with Benedict and Beatrice.

I'm also in the process of doing text prep as an actor specifically playing an ace Romeo. Which feels very counter - I am so excited.

I've been in quite a few conversations with people saying Romeo and Juliet is "the greatest love story of all time."

But I'm like, do you want to take relationship advice from anybody in this story?

For Romeo in particular, I'm looking at, how do they describe love? How do they react to it? How do they describe somebody who they are drawn to? For Romeo, the language stays a lot in aesthetic, visual imagery realms.

Part of that is Shakespeare poking fun at the Petrarchan lover archetype and saying, look at how ridiculous this is. But it also reads very much as aesthetic attraction, especially considering that Romeo is a teenager, about high school age.

For me in high school, before I realized I was aro, I very much confused aesthetic attraction and also gender envy. Being a trans masculine person, I assumed I was straight because I liked hanging around guys, and had no idea that that was not what everybody else was talking about with dating.

I see a lot of that struggle to figure out how to verbalize attraction in Romeo's language.

Similarly with other stories, I'm always looking at the text. Jaques in As You Like It , who does the "All the world's a stage" monologue has another line to one of the lovers in that play, where they say, "the worst fault you have is to be in love."

Anytime I see somebody commenting on love, the characters who flat do not choose to be in a partnered relationship always ping my radar.

Rey: I was wondering how Romeo was going to be asexual, but then you said, well, he's a teenager and brought it back to a high school experience. That made so much sense to me. These kids feel drawn to each other, but it's not necessarily a sexual relationship. I actually really like that interpretation.

Beks Roen: With this production that we're doing in particular, I have not met the actor playing Juliet as of yet, but it sounds like we'll get to explore what an ace/allo relationship looks like because our Juliet actor I don't think is coming to the table with an ace perspective.

So it's like - whoa - more confusion to put on stage. Now we have these two characters as they're trying to navigate a mismatch of relationship expectations and the pressure that they have from society for the relationship to look a certain way, further underscoring the tragedy.

Rey: I'd love to ask you about stage combat, which sounds fascinating. We both have a background in martial arts. So I'm really interested in what stage combat is like and how it's influenced your gender journey.

Beks Roen: I started my martial arts journey when I was very little, single digits. I had recently seen Star Wars as a kid and was like, I wanna be a Jedi. And so my parents put me in Ryukyu Kempo karate classes. I trained in pressure point martial arts for years on and off into high school.

And then coming out of high school, I accident-ed my way into my first Shakespeare gig. I thought I was going to be an engineer, but I went to this audition just to learn what an audition is. I had never spoken Shakespeare out loud. I wasn't an actor. And then I got cast.

I was in the ensemble, so I got looped into a couple of the group fights in Othello. I picked up a sword and was like, oh, oh, this is fun. I really like this.

Stage combat is one of the quickest ways for me to be fully present in my body. I don't know what it does to completely bypass gender dysphoria - it's probably the sword! It helped me as I was early in coming out to have a positive relationship with my body physically, as I was struggling to figure out how I was going to present and what my transition goals were.

And then I became a teacher, getting to work with other trans and queer individuals who maybe didn't have a lot of physical presence or confidence, and putting a sword in their hand.

It is so cool to just watch their eyes light up and their shoulders drop. I think part of it is, you're so focused on getting the technique right so you don't hurt your partner. You don't have as much space for the physical anxiety that gender dysphoria is tied to.

And, you're learning a new skill and you get to say you're swinging a sword around, like, how fun is that?

Rey: Sounds like so much fun.

I can really relate to a lot of that, like to have a correct posture, you have to drop your shoulders and stand up straight. A lot of us trans people who are used to doing the "hide your chest" hunch, hard to do while you're running around holding a sword.

So I really love that you're inspiring confidence.

Beks Roen: Yeah, and it tricks you into working out - bonus!

Rey: That's excellent.

You mentioned when you reached out that theaters can take on some really ambitious projects to nourish and fight for our communities such as building a community garden, working on affordable housing, and even returning stolen land. That sounds so much more beyond what I would imagine a community theater could do.

Could you share some of how that's possible?

Beks Roen: Americans for the Arts has an Arts Impact Explorer, this huge color wheel of different sectors, including housing, political involvement, diversity, equity and inclusion, and immigration.

Stories are so foundational to how we learn and give meaning to the world as humans.

I have a background in a lot of outdoor Shakespeare, naturally in parks and other outdoor settings. It would not be too much of a stretch to have an outdoor theater company partner with a local group that's working on community gardens. And as we build the community garden, we're just going to stick a stage in there.

A lot of the theater that I've been able to do has been possible because the companies have actor housing. In 2025, I was traveling in 10 states, going from show to show. I could only do it because the companies had an apartment available.

As you build resources and partnerships, it's not too much of a stretch to create a land trust or communally held space, with Indigenous leadership, and working on building affordable housing for artists and queer communities.

Theater already feeds the mind and the soul, just as the nature of the art. You're telling stories together, you're sharing life together, you're sharing food together.

Taking the lead from local Indigenous stewards just seems like the natural logical next step for me. I'm really excited to see what could that look like.

Rey: I love that you said that theater nourishes the soul. Bringing that nourishment to the community is important all by itself.

I went to a night sky stories talk by park rangers, out in California. They told stories that they had learned from Indigenous people and elders, telling some of the stories from the Americas about the night sky. I thought that was really special, bringing some of the local culture into what they were doing.

In your Adventurers Guide to Hope Keeping , I loved your affirmations. One of them was, "I am worthy of love."

Do you think self-affirmation is particularly important for queer people and LGBTQIA+ people?

Beks Roen: Every morning the first thing that I try to do when I wake up is affirmations. A friend of mine, Shaneh Woods at Profit is Protest, taught me EFT tapping, which is gently tapping on pressure points as you are saying the affirmations.

One of the things I like about it is the physical response: your body is safe, you can breathe.

This is not just being like, I'm happy when life sucks. You're acknowledging that there's part of me that might not be all the way there yet, and that's okay. I can let that go, and I still love myself regardless.

It's being able to hold on to: I love myself, I love myself, I love myself.

I and my family have noticed a measurable uptick in my mental health since I've been tapping every morning for about three weeks now.

Any time I start to feel my anxiety activate, my immediate next reaction is to sit, take a breath, and start mentally running that affirmation script in my head, even if I don't have the time to fully do the tapping.

Rey: I experience anxiety also. So I really think that I would benefit from doing this. Unconditional love for yourself seems really important.

What brings you hope?

Beks Roen: This might be a little cliche, but theater, really and truly.

I love getting to see theater, especially from students and emerging actors.

Such a pure love comes through. Part of it has to do with the vulnerability of doing a live show where if you drop something and it rolls across the stage, it reminds everybody in the room, audience and artists alike, that we're all on this journey together.

We are all on this life journey together. We don't do this alone. We're not meant to be lone wolves.

I'm inspired by and find hope in the work of other trans and ace and aro creators. I recommend Trans News that Doesn't Suck and Ace Dad Advice and Gentle Giant Ace.

I keep coming back to stories. The emotional support and camaraderie that you get working on a production is very deep, very quick. It brings me hope, getting to gather people in a room and tell a story together and remind each other: you're loved, you're not alone.

The core of everything that I do is: You're loved. You're not alone.

Rey: It's really powerful: You're loved and you're not alone. I think we all need that.

Beks Roen: Absolutely.

Rey: Is there anything else that you were hoping we'd talk about but I didn't bring up?

Beks Roen: I run Roguish Goblin Stories which is a theater streaming platform.

We're working on funding our first couple shows. We're going to do mostly theater, live shows, but we record everything. We have a couple of shows and a lot of behind the scenes content already on the platform.

Rey:Beks, thank you so much for such a lovely discussion. I love your excitement, your enthusiasm, and the work you're doing to support the community.

Beks Roen: Thank you for having me. It's been so much fun to chat.

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Please check out Beks Roen's newsletter which comes with an excellent booklet called the Adventurer's Guide to Hope-Keeping :

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And here's Roguish Goblin Stories :

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