On Saturday, Feb. 14, the University of Massachusetts Amherst student-run radio station (WMUA) hosted its fourth annual drag production in Black Box Theater. The show was hosted by UMass Amherst graduate Magnolia Masquerade and featured three additional local drag performers: Faye King, Entity, and Vitoria.
Before the performances began, Magnolia set important ground rules: Be loud, tip your queens, and most importantly, be clear when expressing consent, to ensure the show is a comfortable environment for all.
To open the show, Magnolia, dressed in a bubble-gum pink latex dress, performed a choreographed routine to a melody of Britney Spears’ “Oops!…I Did it Again” and “Baby One More Time.” Her vibrant, endearing presence set the stage for the rest of the show. Magnolia described drag as storytelling.
“To those who have never seen a drag show before, I would describe drag as a story,” she said. “For stories, we often suspend our disbelief and can enter a different sense of reality.”
Following Magnolia, Faye King, a junior performance art major, stunned the crowd with her floral ensemble. When the music briefly cut out, Magnolia urged the audience to keep the energy high.
“Every time you hear a crackling sound, clap louder!” Magnolia said.
Faye described that her drag is heavily inspired by classic showgirls and Old Hollywood glamour. Her drag persona, as she mentioned, is a cross between glam and “if I fell asleep in a forest, in that outfit, and it grew over me, how would that look?”
For Faye’s second look, later on in the show, she gave a powerful burlesque-inspired rendition of Lana Del Rey’s “Young and Beautiful.” Dressed as a Peacock, her eye-catching feathers fluttered and reflected off the light as she moved.
Faye said that the storyline for this look is an old peacock that is slowly dying and losing its color.
“Like my tail feathers won’t stand up, my costume is falling apart,” she said. “The concept of can I take off all these feathers and still be pretty?”
She mentioned how, compared to other queens, her method for putting her looks together may seem “backwards,” as she starts with her look and from there works it into a number.
“I kind of go based on look and then number,” she said. “Then once I have a vague concept of both, I try and basically AP English that sh*t and make up a connection.”
“Like being a peacock and dancing to Lana Del Rey,” she said. “Even if I think it’s kinda stupid, I feel like the imagined connection helps the storyline come through.”
Shortly after Faye left the stage, Entity performed a selection of Rihanna’s hits, including the emotional ballad “Love on the Brain.” The crowd roared when her long, semi-sheer brown dress was swiftly torn off to reveal micro shorts and dazzling silver heels.
“This next person’s bio I must get right because honestly, she’ll shoot me with a gun if I don’t,” Magnolia said jokingly.
Vitoria, a senior at UMass and an aspiring immigration paralegal, strutted through the theater adorned in a rhinestone-embellished corset and leopard-print fishnets. For her second song, she recreated the iconic lap dance from Troye Sivan’s “One Of Your Girls” music video. The crowd’s excitement echoed throughout the entire theater.
For Magnolia’s second routine, she hyped the crowd of over 50 students to a compilation of Lady Gaga’s most iconic songs. Her passion for drag as an art form radiates through her production of the show.
Aside from hosting WMUA’s annual drag show, Magnolia produces monthly drag shows at the Marigold Theater in Easthampton.
“Shows that I produce, like the WMUA show, always have a script and story, and the music I choose tells the story much like a musical,” she said.
“My favorite part of the WMUA show this year was definitely how much the audience bought into the fantasies we were putting on for them,” she said.
Faye also praised the great energy that the audience brought to the show.
“It was really reassuring to see that b*tches were still able to have fun not only without substances,” she said. “But, like, for a queer space that is a really vulnerable expression of your art.”
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