Burlesque is terrain deftly navigated by strong femmes. But in New York City, Victoria Libertore turned the genre toward those of us who transgress men’s style in a 6-week study and one-nite performance that spanned butch, genderqueer and trans.
I’d never performed anything but written word before. But my wife, Shannon, had already taken the plunge in one of Vic’s classes and strongly urged me to give it a go when Vic went rogue with the concept. It wasn’t until after I agreed to participate and recruit others that I realized this wasn’t drag kinging. I would have to REMOVE MY CLOTHES. I’m no friend to nudist beaches so I was freaked.
But the strength it took me and my classmates to find ourselves within this milieu was wildly empowering. Victoria is no longer teaching the class but I’m hoping these videos will inspire someone else to do the same.
My piece is inspired by the prison matron in the 1958 movie, “Caged.” It’s a crumb for those of you jonesing for Session 2 of “Orange is the New Black”. I performed as dapperQ because I coined the term and here’s why I was drawn to play a prison matron.
It took way too long for me to get these two camera edits of the sold out performance at Dixon Place produced but, for your viewing pleasure….