25 Years of Hedwig - John Cameron Mitchell

Talk about trial by fire.

I was going to say, of all the places to cut your teeth.

Right?

Yeah.

And the queens were a little bit like, well, you're not a real queen.

You can't do this.

And Stephen argued for me.

It's like, look, John's a respected actor, but he is learning from y'all.

It's like you have stuff that nobody has.

And it's like, John wants to know how drag, which is simply a form of performance, can be pushed in another direction.

By way of Plato and the Gnostic Christian Gospels.

These are all of a piece.

Drag doesn't have to be one thing.

It doesn't have to be lip-syncing Dinah Ross.

It doesn't have to be singing punk rock here.

It can be a lot of things.

Don't get all conservative because you didn't get enough money and god knows they needed to get more money because they were considered low class right drag queens was considered low class entertainment

where it used to be high

class chinese opera shakespeare you know what i mean it's like these are drag things too context

is everything in it

yeah and cross-gender casting and working as we know a man a woman can be a female drag queen absolutely You know, it's like in some ways a man can play a male queen.

When you look at someone like, let's say a professional wrestler, you're like, you're a fucking drag queen.

Yeah.

Oh, hell yeah.

With the male side.

Talk about trial by fire.

I was going to say, of all the places to cut your teeth.

Right?

Yeah.

And the queens were a little bit like, well, you're not a real queen.

You can't do this.

And Stephen argued for me.

It's like, look, John's a respected actor, but he is learning from y'all.

It's like you have stuff that nobody has.

And it's like, John wants to know how drag, which is simply a form of performance, can be pushed in another direction.

By way of Plato and the Gnostic Christian Gospels.

These are all of a piece.

Drag doesn't have to be one thing.

It doesn't have to be lip-syncing Dinah Ross.

It doesn't have to be singing punk rock here.

It can be a lot of things.

Don't get all conservative because you didn't get enough money and god knows they needed to get more money because they were considered low class right drag queens was considered low class entertainment

where it used to be high

class chinese opera shakespeare you know what i mean it's like these are drag things too context

is everything in it

yeah and cross-gender casting and working as we know a man a woman can be a female drag queen absolutely You know, it's like in some ways a man can play a male queen.

When you look at someone like, let's say a professional wrestler, you're like, you're a fucking drag queen.

Yeah.

Oh, hell yeah.

With the male side.