Portrait of the Artist as a Young Drag Queen

Dragapalooza exposes students to different experiences, ideas

ANN MARIE TRIETLEY
Special to The Leader
Event Review

Shakespeare's drama As you Like It opens with "All the world's a stage." Never did the Bard imagine the stage to be set for 7-inch heels and glittery glamour, however.

Oct. 4 was the night Dragapalooza, Pride Alliance's annual event in the Williams Center Multipurpose Room.

The event featured professional drag queens from Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse as well as amateur student competitors. Brian Moe, senior psychology major, activities director of Pride Alliance and professional Syracuse queen of sex years, hosted the event.

"Basically, we just want to show everyone a really good time," Moe said. "The competition is just fair and fun. Outside of this, we all pretty much know each other, so it's a friendly activity. We just want to have fun and show everybody something different."

The crowd stood in anticipation, waiting for the event to commence at 8 p.m. Technicolor lights flashed and songs like "Dude Looks like a Lady" by Aerosmith blared.

"I want to see some gorgeous women and some gorgeous shoes," said Robin Rowe, a freshman speech and language pathology major, prior to the event. "I want to see some singing and dancing."

In a secret dressing room, Robotika 2 K was dressed in purple lipstick and elaborate silver eye shadow.  Robotika, 28, has been working at Buffalo's Club Marcella for eight years and has been a professional queen for 10.

"I like to use drag as an expression of art," she said. "Sometimes it helps me express the way I feel on the inside. I like to transform from one person, one entity, to another."

The queens were all taped, tissued and transformed, emerging one after the other in a sparkling flurry like majestic butterflies from their cocoons.

Melody Rose, also known as Brian Moe, was a host described by the announcer as the "rudest, crudest bitch in Fredonia." Between five costume changes, including leather hot pants and red stiletto boots, the frenzied host back-flipped and gyrated with abandon.  The crowd cheered and squealed, while maintaining looks of disbelief and shock.

"When I'm on stage, I usually think of how I can get the crowd the most excited," said Moe. "The whole thing with drag is it's definitely an art, to tape yourself and walk around in 7-inch heels. It's the whole performance of entertaining and lip-synching. Some people think lip-synching isn't really a talent, but it comes down to the whole performance."

The queens raged on under the flickering strobes with nicknames and commentary not fit to print. It became a fantastical masquerade where the most valuable tools became an open mind and a thirst for experimentation.

After the professional queens completed their acts, students took the stage.  Men dressed as women and women dressed as men. One performer, "Oliver Clotheshoff," boogied to "I'm Too Sexy" until a bra was thrown onstage from one audience member.

Following each amateur performance the professional queens judged and critiqued the act. Their comments were hilariously off-color.

Samantha Vega, looking like a diva in a jeweled leotard said to one queen, "I lost an eyelash from your whip around, but...I still love that booty."

"A lot of people are in [Pride Alliance] that do this," says Mike Raisch, a sophomore math education major. "I'm not in [it]. I'm more into the performance and I like to dress up as characters and be onstage. Playing a woman is just like playing any other character. It's acting."

Raisch's onstage interpretation of Britney Spears was by far the most theatrical. After losing a wig, going crazy and lip-synching to Amy Winehouse's "Rehab," this queen truly got into her character. "Well, it sucks getting ready because it takes so long and you have to put in so much effort," says Juventino Castro, also known as Kristie Kreme, a sophomore math and computer science major. "But once you're onstage and you're actually performing, everything is worth it."

Dragapalooza 2007 was an event that brought an assortment of people under one roof.  There were those ready and expectant of what was to come and others experiencing the jamboree for the first time.

Whether clad in casual jeans or full fishnet regalia, everyone was sure to walk away having experienced another point of view.

"I just hope that everyone enjoys it and takes it for what it is," said Robotika 2 K. "Because more than tip money or the money that you make, you hope that the people who watch the show are entertained. That's the best tip you can get, when somebody understands your art."