Contemporary Drag Practices and Performers: Drag in a Changing Scene, Volume 1

242 Pages·2020·2.837 MB·English

by  Mark Edward (editor), Stephen Farrier (editor)

Contemporary Drag Practices
and Performers
Methuen Drama Engage offers original reflections about key practitioners,
movements and genres in the fields of modern theatre and performance. Each volume
in the series seeks to challenge mainstream critical thought through original and
interdisciplinary perspectives on the body of work under examination. By questioning
existing critical paradigms, it is hoped that each volume will open up fresh approaches
and suggest avenues for further exploration.
Series Editors
Mark Taylor-Batty
University of Leeds, UK
Enoch Brater
University of Michigan, USA
Titles
Authenticity in Contemporary Theatre and Performance
by Daniel Schulze
ISBN 978-1-3500-0096-4
Drama and Digital Arts Cultures
by David Cameron, Michael Anderson and Rebecca Wotzko
ISBN 978-1-472-59219-4
Social and Political Theatre in 21st-Century Britain: Staging Crisis
by Vicky Angelaki
ISBN 978-1-474-21316-5
Watching War on the Twenty-First-Century Stage:
Spectacles of Conflict
by Clare Finburgh
ISBN 978-1-472-59866-0
Fiery Temporalities in Theatre and Performance:
The Initiation of History
by Maurya Wickstrom
ISBN 978-1-4742-8169-0
Ecologies of Precarity in Twenty-First Century Theatre: Politics, Affect, Responsibility
by Marissia Fragkou
ISBN 978-1-4742-6714-4
Robert Lepage/Ex Machina: Revolutions in Theatrical Space
by James Reynolds
ISBN 978-1-4742-7609-2
Social Housing in Performance: The English Council Estate
on and off Stage
by Katie Beswick
ISBN 978-1-4742-8521-6
Postdramatic Theatre and Form
Edited by Michael Shane Boyle, Matt Cornish and Brandon Woolf
ISBN 978-1-3500-4316-9
Political Dramaturgies and Theatre Spectatorship
Liz Tomlin
ISBN 978-1-4742-9560-4
For a complete listing, please visit
https://www.bloomsbury.com/series/methuen-drama-engage/
Contemporary Drag Practices
and Performers
Drag in a Changing Scene Volume 1
Edited by
Mark Edward and Stephen Farrier
Series Editors
Mark Taylor-Batty and Enoch Brater
METHUEN DRAMA
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK
1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, USA
BLOOMSBURY, METHUEN DRAMA and the Methuen Drama logo are trade-
marks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published in Great Britain 2020
Copyright © Mark Edward, Stephen Farrier and contributors, 2020
Mark Edward and Stephen Farrier have asserted their right under the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Editors of this work.
Series design by Louise Dugdale
Cover artwork © Mark Wardel / Trademarkart.com
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval
system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers.
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc does not have any control over, or responsibility for,
any third-party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given
in this book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and
publisher regret any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites
have ceased to exist, but can accept no responsibility for any such changes.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN: HB: 978-1-3500-8294-6
ePDF: 978-1-3500-8296-0
eBook: 978-1-3500-8295-3
Series: Methuen Drama Engage
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This volume is dedicated to the drag warriors and the fabulous kings and
queens of performance from the past and present. We salute the drag worker,
butching, femming (or both), glamming or trashing on small stages throughout
the world. We acknowledge the personal and transformative effort of your
art form, which takes risk, investment and bravery. And heartfelt respect goes
to those practising drag in places where there are legal restrictions, state laws
and hostile, dangerous social environments; we admire and support you. Keep
being dragulous! For those yet to experience the many landscapes of drag,
welcome. Mind your step; the floor’s probably sticky.

Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Notes on Contributors x
Acknowledgements xvi
Foreword Mark Ravenhill xviii
Preface Mark Edward and Stephen Farrier xxi
1 Drag: Applying Foundation and Setting the Scene Mark Edward and
Stephen Farrier 1
2 Dragging the Mainstream: RuPaul’s Drag Race and Moving Drag
Practices between the USA and the UK Joe Parslow 19
3 Race for the Money: The Influence of RuPaul’s Drag Race on the
Livelihood and Aesthetics of New York City’s Drag Culture Kalle
Westerling 33
4 Chinoiserie Drag: Masquerading as the Oriental Other Rosa Fong 45
5 ‘It’s Always Better Performing with the Troupe’: Space, Place and
Collective Activism Jae Basiliere 59
6 Of Hills and Wheels: Tilda Death Drags Memory Raz Weiner 73
7 A Transfeminist Critique of Drag Discourses and Performance Styles
in Three National Contexts (US, France and UK): From RuPaul’s Drag
Race to Bar Wotever Kayte Stokoe 87
8 Not a Cock in a Frock, but a Hole Story: Drag and the Mark of the
‘Bioqueens’ Stephen Farrier 103
9 Destabilization through Celebration: Drag, Homage and Challenges to
Black Stereotypes in the Practice of Harold Offeh Kieran Sellars 117
10 Gender Euphoria: Trans and Non-Binary Identities in Drag Olympia
Bukkakis 133
viii Contents
11 The Tranimal: Throwing Gender out of Drag? Nick Cherryman 145
12 Drag Kings and Queens of Higher Education Mark Edward 159
13 Drag Publique: The Queer Spectacle, the Emaciated Spectator and the
Public Secret Allan Taylor 173
14 ‘Blessed Is the Fruit’: Drag Performance, Birthing and Religious
Identity Chris Greenough and Nina Kane 189
Index 206
Illustrations
1.1 Horrora Shebang (Otto Baxter) at Alternative Miss World, 2018 2
6.1 Tilda Death in performance. Clipa Theatre, 2018 80
8.1 Holestar 108
9.1 Harold Offeh in Covers 118
9.2 Harold Offeh in Covers 119
9.3 Harold Offeh as his drag alter-ego Divana 125
10.1 Olympia Bukkakis at Get Fucked in 2016 142
11.1 Austin Young, Untitled Tranimal Portrait 147
11.2 Austin Young, Portrait of Squeaky Blonde, and Austin Young,
Untitled Tranimal Portrait 152
12.1 Mark Edward performing at Henry Africa’s in 1989 160
13.1 Poor, Unsuspecting Cow, Glamping, Angus Og and Wishing You
Were Here 176
13.2 Appliqué test shot 177
13.3 Image from the performance Stripper Vicar 179
13.4 Image from the performance Shopping’s A Drag 181
13.5 Teenage girl takes selfie with me in drag 183
13.6 Image from the performance Executive Realness 186
14.1 Virgin and Child by Fiorenzo di Lorenzo 196
14.2 Sr Polly Amarosa of the Blessed Mercy Beau Cul and Bona Aris,
Manchester Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, campaigning for LGBT*
people in Chechnya, Manchester Pride, 2018 201