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Drag queen¹s first time will be on Halloween
by Aristita Albacan
argonaut staff
Tomorrow night starting at 9 p.m., The Beach is hosting a virgin drag queen show, specially conceived for Halloween night. Due to the suspense inherent in many venues of Halloween entertainment, the virgins¹ identity is a mystery. However, we do know that one of the audience¹s favorite drag queens, Miss Jade, will host the show.
Miss Jade was herself a virgin on the drag queen scene one year ago, when she jumped into this business for pure fun and eventually for collecting funds for charitable purposes. Because she already had a makeup designer and costume designer, all she had to do was sit in a chair and let her crew prepare her for the glamour and fun that was to come.
Miss Jade is convinced that everybody will have a lot of fun tomorrow because the virgin drag shows are special. A lot of the new drag queen¹s friends come the to support her performance and to enjoy the R&B, hip-hop or classic Broadway music. Also, the Moscow drag queen shows tend to have fewer rules when compared to the Imperial Court of Spokane. The strict rules that usually govern contests and shows are put aside in Moscow so sheer fun may dominate the scene. There is a lot more amateur fun going on, and the audience can see first-hand how much the performers enjoy being somebody completely different for a night. Drag can be defined as a formerly transgressive dress code that crossed over from gay culture in the early Œ90s. The modern post-Stonewall Gay Rights Movement of the Œ70s and Œ80s often treated drag queens as an embarrassment. They first had to establish their place within the modern gay world. New York City¹s annual Wigstock festival, started in 1984 by the Lady Bunny, was instrumental in liberating the drag show.
Though drag performances are traditionally exercises in lip-synching, they have more recently become full-fledged performance art pieces featuring live singing and speaking. Old-time drag icons like Judy Garland, Liza Minnelli and Barbra Streisand have been supplemented with contemporaries like Taylor Dayne, Ricki Lake or Patsy and Edina of ³Absolutely Fabulous.² By 1995, there was also a small but growing contingent of female drag performers, or drag kings, such as L.A.¹s Split Britches.
Drag has been a respectable part of mass entertainment since before Tony Curtis dragged up in 1959¹s ³Some Like It Hot,² but the subculture itself came out of the closet in 1991 with the release of the famous documentary ³Paris is Burning². Jaye Davidson¹s 1992 Oscar-nominated performance in ³The Crying Game² was followed by a slew of cross-dressing films: ³M. Butterfly² (1993), ³Orlando² (1993), ³Priscilla Queen of the Desert² (1994), 1995¹s ³To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar,² a Wigstock documentary and a remake of French drag classic ³La Cage aux Folles² (³The Bird Cage²) (1978) starring Robin Williams.
In 1993, singer RuPaul became the first drag pop star and two years later was anointed the official M.A.C. cosmetics girl. During that time, performers like Evan Dando, Bono from U2, Nirvana, and Duran Duran also dabbled in drag. Fashion designers like Todd Oldham and Thierry Mugler began featuring cross-dressed models in their fashion shows. De-sexualized drag comedians Robin Williams as Mrs. Doubtfire; Mike Myers as Linda Richman; and Martin Lawrence as Shenehneh, for example, made for even broader exposure.
To see a little piece of drag history, check out The Beach this Wed. at 9 p.m. and welcome a virgin drag queen and friends.
| front» news[9] art[6] letters[2] opinion[2] sports[3] edition » 103001 |
editor in chief david browning
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