Sid talking about hanging out with his little nonsense children fans during the Sid City Social Club, and about Garashir!
He says THE SWEETEST THINGS about us, about me, and my Garashir play Little Achievements.
In Little Achievements, the second fanfic play that you performed, the relationship between Bashir and Garak is openly romantic. What inspired the decision to perform a fanfic with that element rather than just leaving it to subtext?
AS: Well, there’s a lot of things. First thing is that Elmie, who wrote it, is a very prolific fanfic writer in the community. Everybody seemed to know them, and they certainly seemed to know everybody else and seemed like a really, really nice person. We had a chat online in our Zoom thing, and they said that they would love to write the piece if I wouldn’t mind. And I said just deliver it and we’ll have a look at it and see what we think. [Andy and I] thought that they’d done a really good job — it was charming, it was pure, and it was completely non-canonical, but that’s not the point!
This [play] is different and delicious, so it’s kind of an amuse-bouche. Ira [Steven Behr], funnily enough, said in front of everybody that had he been able to write a little bit more explicitly back in the 90s, he would have, regarding Garak. He just knew [then] that there was absolutely no way he was going to win that fight. So in a way, [performing Elmie’s play] was a full circle. It was really nice to go, oh, this is what’s happening. I just think it’s a very sweet story.
But this is my favourite part:
Myself, I was a fairly awkward young man. A stranger in a new land. Always been an outsider, having never quite been Black enough, and never quite been white enough. I could fulfill [Bashir], imbue him with my sense of respectful awkwardness, and sudden flurries of enthusiasm that I probably had myself. I’m very proud that the LGBTQ+ community and the neurodivergent community wrap their arms around him, and in a way I think this Sid City Social Club is me saying thank you [by] actually getting people’s stories. We have a disproportionately high percentage of those communities in the social club who have become great friends as a result of being together in this. I’m really proud of that. And I’m really proud of Bashir being the catalyst for that.
Bless you, Sid <3
Anyway, the whole article is a great read, so go check it out!
