Recipe for the “Drag King Karaoke Rooftop Hootchie Cootchie No Name Show and Musical Extravaganza:” Start with the musical “West Side Story” and combine professional actresses with Northwestern students. Generously add race and gender issues. Garnish with magenta silk dresses, ties and high tops. Prevent mixture from settling.
What else would you expect from a show that advertises “Sharks and Jets fight the night away in gender-bending glee?”
This is a performance that refuses the advice of one of its songs to “Stick to your own kind/ One of your own kind.” This version of “West Side Story” stars women playing men, men playing women and variations thereof.
“There needs to be more theater like this,” says K. Bradford, the professional actress who plays Johnny. “It’s visionary.”
Co-director Coya Paz, a performance studies Ph.D. student, started developing the idea for the show two years ago with fellow performance studies Ph.D. candidate Michelle Campbell. Paz is the founder of Teatro Luna, an all-Latina theater group; several of its actresses are performing in this show.
Giving directions like “you need to hump more in this dance sequence” makes ensemble work fun, she says.
Bradford says that the show has helped her recognize lopsided racial constructions in the film version of “West Side Story.”
“When you look at the difference in development of the white and Puerto Rican characters, you realize it needs to be exposed,” Bradford says. “Everyone needs to help undo the story of racism, and this story creates space.”
Michelle Campbell agrees.
“As a Latina growing up in America, there were few positive role models,” she says. “I remember looking up to Natalie Wood (who plays Maria in the 1961 film) and identifying with her and then disidentifying with her when I found out she wasn’t Latina at all.”
Communication sophomore Rebekah Albert plays Maria in this version. “Everyone loves Maria, but I don’t know if we portray her as sweet,” Albert says.
“She’s not as lovable as she’s always seemed.”
Women aren’t the only actors exercising their talents here, however. Raffaele Furno, a performance studies Ph.D. student, plays Consuelo, a Puerto Rican woman.
“It’s very difficult to wear skirts and wigs,” Furno said before complaining to fellow cast members about wearing a push-up bra. “Gender is not so specific here. We bring attention to cross-gender issues.
“Shakespeare was performed by an all-male ensemble; we have a female cast in drag,” he says in a monologue introducing the show.
Out of a cast of 20, seven are NU students. All crew members except for the sound and set designers are also NU students.
“It’s striking to mix drag kings — some who have it as their lifestyle and some who are just having fun — with students,” said Communication senior Katie Hall, assistant light designer for the production.
Founded in 2001, the Chicago Kings are performers “helping to creative a positive community that celebrates diversity in masculinities, genders, sexualities and cultures,” according to the Kings’ Web site. Eight Kings will perform this weekend.
Although many performers lip synch, some sing. “We … had to figure out how to sing in unusual ranges,” said Tamara Roberts, music director and Kings member. Roberts combined karaoke, lip synching, a cappella and rearranged songs for the show.
Set designer Deanna Zibello was given the tasks of referencing the film and simultaneously creating a projection screen for the karaoke lyrics. The result is chain link fencing and hanging sheets reminiscent of the film.
“Portraying a bunch of rough ‘n tumble boys and portraying the movie’s homoeroticism has been fun,” performer Jessica Hudson says of her role as Riff, the leader of the Jets.
“It’s a good mixture of the mediums of drag and musical theater.”
‘Drag King Karaoke Rooftop Hootchie Cootchie No Name Show and Musical Extravaganza’
What: A wild take on ‘West Side Story’
Where: Wallis Theater in the TI Building
How much: Free/Seating is first come first serve
When: Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m.
Medill sophomore Emily Goligoski is a writer for PLAY. She can be reached at [email protected].
