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Kicking off a season of "Queer Revolutions"
The BSR Podcast, Season 9, Episode 10: EgoPo reimagines Mae West's The Drag
"Queer Revolutions" is the theme of the season at EgoPo Classic Theatre, and they're beginning with a new staging of Mae West's The Drag. Before becoming a movie star, vaudeville and Broadway performer Mae West wrote for the stage under the pen name Jane Mast. She and her creative team were arrested after the premiere of her show Sex, which she wrote, directed, and starred in. She developed The Drag in partnership with gay friends, hoping to accurately portray their lives. The show premiered in 1927 and was quickly shut down.
Director Rebecca Wright is partnering with playwrights Thomas Choinacky and AZ Espinoza to revive the story for today. As they explain in this conversation alongside performer/composer Pax Ressler, they don't just want to provide a piece of history; they also want to create something fresh that speaks to making queer community today. West was working in the genre of what we would probably call devised theater today, and the artists share their own parallel process in creating this staging, which includes new characters and additional scenes that "celebrate or challenge the way we interact with this work."
The show is happening at Old City's Christ Church Neighborhood House and runs January 29 through February 9, 2024. Get your tickets now.
Listen above, visit the BSR Podcast episode page, or subscribe on Apple Podcasts.
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