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‘Drag Queen’ marks 10th year
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
YOUNGSTOWN
“How the Drag Queen Stole Christmas,” the money-making machine that propels Rust Belt Theater Company’s season, marks its 10th anniversary this year.
The theater will mark the milestone by pulling all the stops for the annual production, which opens Friday for five performances.
A risque retelling of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” the musical tells the story of Starrlet O’Hara, a tyrant drag queen who is visited by three ghostly divas on Christmas Eve, a la Ebenezer Scrooge.
Robert Dennick Joki wrote, directs and plays Starrlet in the show, which was seen by almost 1,500 people last year. Josh Taylor is a co-composer of the many songs in it.
As always, Joki has added new songs and updated the story, lampooning politics and pop culture. Joining him in the cast are Nicole Zayas, Alyssa Connelly, Marisa Zamary, Chris Hartman, Kage Coven, Mary James, Andrew Labedz, Bernadette Lim, David Cirelli, Katie Morris, Lisa Torrence, America NcNeil, Christine Featsent, James Hain, Amanda Baker, Celena Coven, Rachel Clifford and Heather Powell.
Joki shared his thoughts on his landmark production in this exchange:
Q. Since its inception, “Drag Queen” has not only made a lot of money for Rust Belt Theater, but it has raised more than $100,000 for local charities and nonprofits. That is extraordinarily generous. How do you do it?
A. Over the years, “Drag Queen” has become more of an event than just a musical. We have auctions, and raffles, and concessions and sponsorships. For the first six years, all proceeds from the ticket sales went to the Oakland Center for the Arts. For the last three years, tickets sales have benefited the Rust Belt Theater Company and the Calvin Center for the Arts. This one show supports all of our other programming. It’s what allows us to introduce new work, and produce locally written material, as well as offer our space throughout the year, free of charge, to organizations like U.N. Act, River’s Edge Productions and the Mahoning Valley Trans support group, as well as the RBTC Studio for Young Actors.
In addition to that, the cast and crew chooses several local charities to donate proceeds from the auctions, raffles and donations. In the past, we’ve raised money for MDA, Angels for Animals, the March of Dimes, the Ursuline Mother House, Violet’s Cupboard, the Dorothy Day House, the Rescue Mission, Silver Lining Cancer Fund, Purple Cat, the Artists of the Rust Belt, YACTA, Pride Youngstown and many more. We’ve hosted winter coat drives, food drives, giving trees, voter registration drives. Looking back, it’s almost impossible to remember all of it.
Q. It can now be said that “Drag Queen” has become a Youngstown holiday tradition. That’s a fact that at one time might have seemed very unlikely to happen. How has it overcome the odds to be the success that is has become?
A. When people hear the title of this show, they immediately make assumptions about its content. When we started doing this, the art of drag was much less accepted than it is now. In 2009, we were actually listed with 11 other “condemned” plays deemed “anti-Christmas” in an article that made its rounds via several national Christian publications. The writer had obviously never seen my show. Sure, it’s crass. It’s risque. It’s ridiculous. It has adult language and situations. But at its heart, it’s a morality play. It’s about making it through difficult times. It’s about finding your happiness, and holding on to it. I do that on stage ... and I try to do that in real life, too.
This show was supposed to be a one-night event. Ten years ago. I was working at the Oakland at the time, and the utilities were about to be shut off. The Oakland board was looking for a last-ditch fundraiser, something to get us through the winter. I had already been doing “Fundraising Is a Drag” performances for them each spring, to sold-out houses, so my goal was to build from that, using the same performers and hopefully drawing a similar audience. I wrote the initial script over a weekend and we put the show together in about six days. It was pretty rough. And to my complete surprise, it sold out days before we opened. Then we added a second performance and it sold out. So we added another weekend, and it became this unexpected hit.
There have definitely been years when I’ve wanted to call it quits. For me, It’s the most-exhausting show of the year, and the biggest undertaking. But the audience keeps me going. We have people who come every single year, bringing groups of 20 or 30 people with them. It’s become a holiday tradition for them, as well as for my cast and crew. And as long as there are people to participate, I’ll keep it going.
Q. Give us a hint as to what you’ve added to the musical this year.
A. One thing that happens every year, is that people want to know more about the backstory. They talk to me after shows. People even message me on Facebook, and email. They want to know more about Starrlet. Why is she so bitter, jaded? They also want to know more about the young heroine, Minnie Cooper, who is the Bob Cratchet character. So this year, I added some scenes that answer those questions. We’ve also added some minor characters to help round out the story, like Minnie’s hip, medicinal marijuana-smoking Nana, and Starrlet’s first boss, Farrah Fuzziwig, who is based on the character Fezziwig from the Dickens novel.
There are also four new songs: “Two Heads Are Better Than One,” which introduces Starrlet and her conjoined twin, Starrina; “You’ll Be Homo For Christmas,” an a capella throwback to the days when the show was made up of popular Christmas songs with alternate lyrics; “Nowadays,” a new song for the Ghost of Christmas Present that is about people getting offended over little things when there are much bigger problems in the world; and “There’s A New B**** In Town,” part of a scene from the future that means bad news for Starrlet.