Drag: Theatre or Flop?

A jaw-dropping and very difficult performance art, drag has recently come very close to my art.  My drag persona, Emerald Van Cartier, is barely even a year old yet she has already opened me up to an entirely new and exciting world of performance.

Many opinions surround the world of drag.  Putting the obvious bigotry aside, those who accept it are still torn on many questions.  For myself, I am an actor first and a drag queen second; however, I personally see no difference.

There are many individuals both in and out of the theatre community who would very much disagree with me.  In fact, a prolific theatre artist very close to me whom I respect dearly once told me that no casting director would take me seriously if I told them I was a drag performer.  This is was both shocking and terribly offensive - as I have dedicated so much of my time and money to this under-appreciate art form.

The more I have discussed this matter with others and researched the topic, the more I have come to realize that this misconception is widely spread within the theatre community - a fact I find quite shocking, considering the history of gender-bending in theatre (e.g. the potrayal of female roles by males during the time of Shakespeare, the modern day British tradition of Pantomime dames, the recent success of drag-centered Broadway shows such as Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Kinky Boots).

In Shakespeare's time, female roles were played by men.

Such disrespect goes beyond simply hurt egos.  Due to the lack of appreciation of drag and its segregation from more traditional theatrical arts, drag performers are grossly mistreated.  As previously mentioned, many in the theatre community hold prejudice against drag performers and therefore discriminate against them in the casting process, while the venues that do hold drag shows get away with paying their performers little to nothing.  This means that it is next to impossible to make a career from this beautiful and complex art form.  Indeed, there are no unions for drag performers - the very thought of such a thing is enough to incite laughter and ridicule in the theatre community at large.  A true shame, since in our current world, if a drag performer wants to become a career professional, she must make it nationally on RuPaul's Drag Race, or sache away!

The famous RuPaul is one of the far too few drag performers
who have been able to make a career from their art.