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It's a Drag: Cross-Dressing in Performance - Paperback | Diverse Reads

It's a Drag: Cross-Dressing in Performance

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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?

ISBN-13: 9781493059058

Media Type: Paperback

Publisher: Applause

Publication Date: 08-15-2022

Pages: 262

Product Dimensions: 6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

Janet Tennant spent many years lecturing, researching, and training in Europe and beyond, focusing on improving workplace relationships. Tennant's fascination with cross-dressing originated in her experiences as an amateur actor, often playing the glamorous prince in pantomime and less glamorous male roles in girls’ school Shakespeare productions. She has four grown children and lives with her partner in Lichfield, UK.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

1 Overture and Beginners 5

2 Boys Will Be Girls-Will Be Boys? 17

3 Restoration-A New World 33

4 The Lure of Shakespeare 53

5 Witches, Bitches, and Britches 73

6 Leaping the Divide-Cross-Dressing in Dance 93

7 Music Hall and Vaudeville 107

8 War Is a Drag 133

9 There Is Nothing Like a Dame 157

10 The Other Dames 167

11 Queening It 183

12 Pretty Women? Handsome Men? 193

13 Cross-Dressing-An Outdated Concept? 215

Acknowledgments 227

Notes and References 229

Index 243