Photo by Jen Gately
QUEER & NOW: A LIP SYNC SPECTACULAR
2017–18
A life-changing transformation from the Christian Mother Mary into the Yoruba water deity Oxum.
An entrance into the raunchy world of Marie Antoinette and her gender fluid lover Tomas du Pan.
An alternate ending to the tragic life of Judy Garland.
Queer & Now: A Lip Sync Spectacular is a theatrical experience featuring seven vignettes of drag, lip sync, and dance, each helmed by a member of the devising ensemble. Each scene offers one perspective of queerness, one possible transformation, one celebration, and one dissent. Together the vignettes become a tapestry of our lived experiences, our questions, our desires, and our possibilities.
Trailer by Alyssa Labrie; footage by Dr. Megan Lewis
COLLABORATORS
Director and Producer Garrett Sager
Dramaturg Fig Lefevre and Helen Woods
Lighting Designer Jordan Mitchell
Makeup & Hair Designer Sarah Talaid
Sound Designer Ethan Gourlay, Olivia Holcomb, Alyssa Labrie, Fig Lefevre, and Garrett Sager
Costume Designer Jordan Reed and ensemble
Stage Manager Olivia Holcomb (2017); Afrikah Selah and Maeve Connolly (2018)
Choreographer Alyssa Labrie (2018)
Ensemble Faolain Bobersky, Jessie Junk, Lucas La Guardia, Cynthia Lizardo, Melissabeth, and MerMx
Photography by Jen Gately
PRODUCTION HISTORY
UMass Amherst French Hall
Amherst, MA
December 2017 (premiere)
UMass Fine Arts Center 204
Amherst, MA
March 2018
WRITING & PRESS
Featured in dramaturg Fig Lefevre's chapter "Lip-Syncing for Our Lives: Queering Dissent in Queer & Now: A Lip-Sync Spectacular" in The Palgrave Handbook of Queer and Trans Feminisms in Contemporary Performance (published September 2021)
"Though the lip-sync showcases a talented cast full of ferocity and grace, the piece stands as a challenge to anti-LGBTQ rhetoric with empowering images and tangible moments of cast members embracing their identities and showcasing their journeys to achieve this autonomy.” —UMass College of Humanities & Fine Arts