It’d be easy for a bunch of theater-minded folks to say to themselves, “I’m not part of the drag community, but I can put on a play about drag, no problem.”
That would be a trap, though, and one the Live Arts’ production team wants to avoid in its latest play, The Legend of Georgia McBride. The show, which tells the story of an Elvis impersonator who attempts to become a drag queen to make a living, opens at the Water Street theater on March 4.
“The biggest challenge we took on from the get-go was making sure we were stepping into this in an authentic way,” says director Perry Medlin, who’s helmed three shows for Live Arts and many others at Tandem Friends School, where he teaches theater and public speaking. “None of the company has had a great deal of experience in drag, so we wanted to make sure we were coming to this from a place where we were able to learn about what that culture involves and to honor it, not just imitate it.”
Enter Jason Elliott, a former drag queen and current model and public speaker. Live Arts and the Georgia McBride team recruited Elliott as a production consultant, and Medlin says Elliott’s ability to “take that world and put it onstage” has been critical to developing the show’s authenticity.
The Legend of Georgia McBride, written by Matthew Lopez and winner of multiple awards, will be the third show in Live Arts’ current six-play season. The company is trying not only to recover its stage legs post-pandemic, but also integrate a new artistic director’s vision. Susan Evans, who joined Live Arts last June, said presenting inclusive shows with a variety of perspectives would be central to her mission. “More voices need to be heard,” she told C-VILLE in October.
The show will feature five cast members changing in and out of more than 50 costumes. It lines up with the theme of the company’s annual fundraiser—this year, Elliott will host the fundraiser on March 20. Marketer and Design Coordinator Katie Rogers calls it a “big, boozy brunch and live drag show.”
The Legend of Georgia McBride will be the company’s annual mentor/apprentice show, too. Live Arts’s mentor/apprentice program has been giving high school students the chance to participate in community theater for at least a decade, according to Education Director Miller Susen. The program invites students to act as production team apprentices in one mainstage show per year, typically drawing eight to 10 student volunteers and assigning them to areas of their choosing. This year, six high schoolers will apprentice in stage management and scenic, props, lighting, sound, and costume design.
Susen says the mentor/apprentice program has brought countless students back to Live Arts over the years to volunteer on later productions, as well as helping push others on to drama school and even theater careers. That benefits Live Arts, but it’s also good for the theater community in general, according to Susen.
“We have a great group of apprentices on Georgia, and we are delighted to have people finding their way back to Live Arts,” she says. “It’s been a difficult time for theater, so that’s really important.”
What can folks who come to see The Legend of Georgia McBride expect? Medlin calls the show “a huge number with so many moving parts.” In addition to those 50-plus costumes, the production boasts extensive setwork, props, and technical lighting and sound—all great opportunities for those high school apprentices.
“The thing I love about this show is it is this great big drag extravaganza, but at its heart it is a story about somebody who wants to be better and meet the people around them,” Medlin says. “It’s that core of humanity amidst the feathers and the bangles…that make the show interesting for the audience.”
As the five Georgia McBride cast members—Brandon Bolick as the lead, plus Danait Haddish, Marc Schindler, Randy Risher, and Jude Hansen—move around the stage and (hopefully) perform without a hitch, Medlin says it’s important to remember just how many people are working behind the scenes to make it possible.
Oh, and he suggests remembering one more thing: “Don’t forget to tip your drag queens. They get mad when you don’t.”