Story by Michael Vu, Contributor, Special to the Cypress Chronicle | Photo Courtesy of Cypress College Pride
The Pride Center will host its second annual Spotlight Drag Show in the Fine Arts Swing Space lobby to showcase the efforts of student performers and local professional drag artists on Friday, April 25, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
The show lasts up to two hours, with each performance lasting about three minutes. The professional drag performers, in between their performances, will be on a panel to evaluate the student acts. At the end of the show, they will choose performers to have titles such as “Best Overall” and “Best Makeup.”
This event started in Spring 2024, hosting a crowd of 200 people. Despite the free admission, it received nearly $1000 in donations, which were subsequently spent on student scholarships.
The idea was brought up after students in the Pride Center watched RuPaul’s Drag Show; it sparked their curiosity about hosting one in Cypress. Their process began with a series of workshops open to the club with one-on-one mentoring, but it soon evolved into a more focused series of workshops for students who wanted to perform in the show.
Student performers had the chance to attend workshops led by Terra Ace, the lead coordinator of the drag shows. Ace taught them about costuming, acting, makeup, and song mixing. She plays a crucial role in arranging events, from publicizing through flyers and emails to mentoring the students.
Ace sees the drag workshops and the show itself as a way to ease students into the process of drag and to consider drag as a viable career opportunity.
“I want them to have a payoff. I want them to feel like their work has led them somewhere…you can do drag, but until you’ve performed in front of a crowd of people, it’s like a completely different experience,” said Ace.
However, Ace stated that the students have to cover the fees for costumes and makeup.
“Drag is a very individualistic process. If you were a drag performer, it’s something that you were doing out of your own pocket and your own budget.”
Despite the difficulties, drag performances act as an escapism to many of the students who identify as LGBTQ+. Ace noted, “Drag helps alleviate these pressures [of gender conformity]; It is the art of playing with gender. [In it] you can be anything you want.”
“Drag is the limitless expression of gender,” said one of the upcoming student performers, who goes by the stage name Luna Stone.
Another performer, who goes by the stage name Goofy G, adds that drag is a way to express feelings and to experiment with gender. In the previous year, they had performed under the name Freaky G, with a different presentation.
Doors will open at 6 p.m. For more information, visit the Pride Center in Humanities 101. To RSVP for the free event, sign up here: link.
