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{PHOTO BY HEATHER MULL / DRAG QUEEN PHOTOS COURTESY OF CONNIE DORSETT}
Flip your wig: At left, drag performers Terry and Bobby Lopez of the Pearl Box Revue, circa 1968; at right, JoJo, circa 1973
[STAGE]
DRAGGING THE THREE RIVERS
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The Broadway Musical /07&.#&3 %&$&.#&3 t BENEDUM CENTER /07& 55SVTU"SUT PSH t #PY 0ĂŻDF BU Ç°FBUFS 4RVBSF t (SPVQT 5JDLFUT XXX &-'UIF.VTJDBMPOUPVS DPN PNC Broadway Across America-Pittsburgh is a presentation of The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, Pittsburgh Symphony and Broadway Across America.
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PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER 10.23/10.30.2013
TM & Š New Line Productions, Inc. All rights reserved. Illustration by Hugh Syme. Photo by Amy Boyle.
{BY BILL O’DRISCOLL} THANKS TO vehicles like RuPaul’s Drag Race, drag has gotten pretty mainstream. But it wasn’t always so. And audiences can witness living proof of Pittsburgh’s rich, if largely hidden, drag heritage, especially its African-American incarnation, on Oct. 26. That’s when “One More Time, An OldSchool (Drag) Ball� reunites — perhaps for the last time — retired performers whose careers date back up to a half-century. The ball will be staged at Homestead’s BulgarianMacedonian Cultural Center. It includes, naturally, a pageant with cash prizes, featuring a 1960s runway competition and 1970s-2000s lip-sync category. Event organizer Harrison Apple says he expects 20 or more contestants from all eras of
North Side native, did her ďŹ rst drag performance in 1968, at that neighborhood’s Greenwich Village Inn, on Lacock Street. These days, many drag performers focus on lip-syncing. But back then, “Most of the drag queens would strip, dance with snakes or ďŹ re,â€? she says. “If you were able to get a show in a bar, you were doing good.â€? Dorsett emceed shows and did comic monologues. She also founded, with Angel DeSilva, the troupe Pink Fantasy, which played both gay and straight nightclubs throughout the 1970s, from Pittsb u r g h t o U n io n t ow n . Other troupes included the Lavender Lads, mainstays at long-running and iconic Shadyside club The House of Tilden. The local drag scene was somewhat integrated racially; on Oct. 26, ball guests will include both white and black queens, though most of the performers will be black, says Apple. Though Dorsett, 67, hasn’t performed in decades, her legacy thrives. In the early 1970s, she became drag mother to one of that era’s stars, Denise Darshell. “He looked glamorous and did well,â€? Dorsett now says proudly. In the 1980s, Denise in turn was drag mother to contemporary drag eminence Kierra Darshell. “She pretty much created my character,â€? Kierra says of Denise — everything from makeup to “how to carry myself on stage, how to entertain.â€? Kierra Darshell went on to found the annual, long-running Miss Tri-State AllStar Pageant and to stage shows year-
“THESE FOLKS PAVED THE WAY FOR ME TO DO THE THINGS I DO.�
ONE MORE TIME DRAG BALL
7 p.m.-midnight. Bulgarian-Macedonian Cultural Center, 449 W. Eighth Ave., West Homestead. $20-25 (includes buffet and open bar). www.onemoretime.brownpapertickets.com
Pittsburgh drag. “There’ll be people in their 80s and there’ll be people in their teens, hopefully,� says Apple. One “drag grandmother� being honored is Connie Dorsett. Miss Connie, a