It started off in chaos. Both dressing rooms were filled with makeup-covered counters, clothes tossed everywhere, hangers dangling on the doors. Performers taped back their breasts, dusted glitter around their eyes and strapped their feet into platform heels. There were only minutes before it was time to perform. If someone had to go on stage before they were fully dressed, they had to just go up.
The House of Queer People of Color (QPOC) took the main stage for the first act. They replicated ballroom culture by having four different categories that different members walked for. QPOC members walked for Vogue, Butch King, Face and Body, with Raven McClendon ‘22 emceeing and announcing the winners. Three judges sat on the side of the stage, placing up scores in true ballroom style. With the three competitive categories complete, the entire House of QPOC walked the runway and partied on stage before the first performance.
Romeo Garcia, also known as Caesar, walked for Butch King as one of the Kings of QPOC. He is new to the drag scene and has been learning more about the culture in his tutorial this semester. This was his first time using KT tape, which is what some Drag Kings use to help make their figures appear more masculine. He also did a full face to exaggerate more masculine features, a skill he learned while doing color guard.
There were a wide range of performances. Some were meant to be laughed at, some made people cry. Some were just gorgeous representations of queer people. The performance of Tucker Haddock ’21 left the audience in silence until they received a standing ovation from nearly the entire crowd. “I wanted to take a more serious perspective,” they said.
“[My performance] was definitely about living with dysphoria and being a trans person and just living with my body,” Haddock said. When they went on stage, they were dressed the same as the opening of the show. They didn’t want to portray the opening performance as a different person from the character with dysphoria. A few lines into the song, Haddock dropped their dress and showed scars painted onto their skin. It was raw and beautiful and they managed to steal the show.
Until Virgin Walk, that is. Virgin Walk is when first-time audience members come on stage. One little kid in attendance walked onto the stage in their princess costume and stole the hearts of audience members “I was kind of surprised to see a little girl there,” performer Lizzi Kelly ’22 said.
The little girl walked backstage with a handful of bills and gave it to the other performers. Other performers went onto the stage to pick up the bills she wasn’t able to grab. “That little girl killed it!” Errol Blackstone ‘20 said.
Blackstone, also known as Queen Maggie, is one of the leaders of QPOC and went on stage as the eighth performance. He performed to a Britney Spears song mashup with a new style and new brand from previous years. He had a total of five costume changes throughout the show.
Performer Danielle Gillis ’20, also known as Nat Kinkhole, joined this semester as one of the dancers in Gender Revolution for Prince songs. She hadn’t fully done drag makeup and outfits before, so this time she wanted to go all the way. “I got this image in my head that was probably semi-Prince related.”
Her group wanted to reject ideas of dress styles. “Historically there’s been different tensions about way you dress. Not even just historically, but now too.” Their songs and dance were about being who you want and rejecting the gender-binary.
The finale was partially choreographed by Jason Rodriguez or Slim Xtravaganza, a choreographer and actor from the TV show Pose that visited campus two weeks ago. Rodriguez taught a group of students how to vogue over a four-day period. The dancers on stage for this portion were a combination of QPOC and Dance Ensemble.
For future shows, QPOC wants to hold workshops to help participants with thinking about clothing, makeup and names. They also may push back the spring show by a week to give more time to prepare. QPOC welcomes every person to help with setting up before the show or backstage helping the performers prepare. QPOC meets every Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the SRC. Any queer people of color are more than welcome to join in the discussion and help with planning events like Drag Show.
