It's a Drag: Cross-Dressing in Performance

From ancient Greek actors to all-male Elizabethan casts to the drag queens of today, cross-dressing performers have been around for nearly as long as live performance itself. In It’s a Drag, Janet Tennant provides a fascinating and colorful look at performing artists who adopt the characters and dress of others. With a particular focus on theatrical history in Britain and North America, Tennant also turns to modern performers like RuPaul, Mj Rodriquez, David Bowie, and Billy Porter. She surveys the many reasons that performers have cross-dressed over the years, whether to tell stories, to amuse audiences, to create distinctive alter egos, to call attention to social and political issues—or merely for reasons of expediency. In addition to its memorable portraits of Shakespearean boy actors, pantomime dames, and other cross-dressing performers across history, It’s a Drag takes stock of the present and considers the future of the practice: How will the drive toward equality affect the use of cross-dressing and cross-gender role casting? Will gender-blind roles become as prevalent as color-blind casting? And will cross-dressing continue to amuse and impress audiences, or can we imagine a time when gender differences will cease to be important?

Favorite examples of cross-dressing or cross-gender performances include Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie, Vesta Tilley as Burlington Bertie, Maxine Peake as Hamlet, and Drag Queen RuPaul outrageously fronting the RuPaul Drag Race. Cross-Dressing in Performance tells the story of the different ways performers cross-dress. Janet Tennant looks at many of the memorable performers over the years who have adopted the characters and dress of others, and why they have done so: to tell stories, to amuse, to create memorable alter-egos, to rebel or call attention to social and political issues or merely for reasons of expediency.

Tennant examines cross-dressing at different periods of theatrical history in the Western canon, predominantly in Britain and North America. Not following a conventional historical timeline, Tennant instead examines the different types of cross-dressing/cross-gender performance: Boys in Shakespeare, Heroes in Opera, Pantomime Dames, and Drag Queens being just a few. And no study of cross-dressing can, of course, forget its origins in Ancient Greece.

It''s a Drag: Cross-Dressing in Performance discusses the present and attempts to predict the future of cross-dressing in performance. How will the drive towards equality affect the use of cross-dressing and cross-gender role casting? Will gender-blind roles become as prevalent as color-blind casting? Will audiences continue to be amused and impressed, or will gender differences in entertainment cease to be important?

• | Author: Janet Tennant
• | Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
• | Publication Date: Aug 15, 2022
• | Number of Pages:
• | Language:
• | Binding: Paperback / softback
• | ISBN-13: 9781493059058
• | ISBN-10: 149305905X