A Royal Flush Hits the stage for the Amateur Drag Show

For clips of the show, check out the April 15th edition of The Clock outLOUD

On Thursday, April 14, PSU hosted its widely anticipated Amateur Drag Show for Pride Week where eight drag queens and one king strutted their stuff on stage for a room full of faculty and students.           

            The show opened with two quirky MC's, Lexi Casale and Brenda Shively, who provided plenty of entertainment while introducing each fabulous contestant.  Starting off the performances in a hot pink tutu was "Pretty in Pink," or as Plymouth State knows him, Loren Couse, who lip sank to Cyndi Lauper's pop hit "Girl's Just Wanna Have Fun." Following Couse/Pretty, was Colin Conneally as Miss Splendora Fine, Jay Hunter as Safari Riesling, Nate Obin as Christina Drambuie, Jordan McKenney as Tequila Mockingbird, Nicholas Dean as Ivy St. Dean, Josh Cooley as Deirdre Brentwood, Lee Nangeroni as Frankie Astro, and Tim Gendron as Evelyn Ecstasy.  Each performer dropped it low for the audience and lip sank to some sexy ballads, except for Nangeroni/Frankie, who represented as the only drag king and performed to "Grease Lightning."

            During the intermission, the talented ladies of the female acapella group, Mixed Emotions, came on stage to perform their version of Michael Jackson's "The Way You Make Me Feel," led by senior, Krystal Morin. In honor of Pride Week and the Drag Show, the group showed up and performed dressed as kings.

            After an ode to the King of Pop, the judges, made up of Allison Jacques, Megan Burke, Janel Forcier, Morgan Riley, and Audrey Brown, deliberated on the top three contestants to "lip-sync for their lives" in order to be crowned the Queen or King.  Out of the nine contestants, only Safari Riesling, Tequila Mockingbird, and Ivy St. Dean made the cut and took to the stage to battle for the right to be the top drag queen.  Each queen made sure there was plenty of grinding, strutting, loss of clothing, and attitude to entertain the onlookers. Even after losing her fire engine red pumps and staying on her toes for the duration of the song, Safari Riesling impressed both the crowd and the judges and took the title of Queen. 

            The show had a lot of support from the PSU community, with the help of some great make-up artists, stagehands, and a technical crew. First-year stage manager Angelica Rosenthal had nothing but positive feedback for the participants.

            "As far as the contestants, they were fantastic to work with.  As more and more people came, and we ran out of room, you could tell the excitement in the room pushed the show to be a success. Not to mention, it was the biggest turn out for Pride even I have ever seen."

            The show closed out with a few parting words from Josh Cooley, president of PSU Pride, announcing the Day of Silence for the following Friday where students would abstain from talking to raise awareness for all those who have been bullied due to their sexual orientation.