Drag monarchy dolls up, dances for donations

Wearing a dress crafted out of newspaper along with fake breasts molded with pantyhose and stuffed with decorative Halloween spider webs, Fuchsia XYZ nervously stormed down the runway for the first time in her career, lipsyncing “Eros and Apollo,” a song popularized by the Studio Killers, as audience members showered her with dollar bills.

Patrick Geraci, a junior linguistics major playing Fuchsia XYZ for the night, ensembled his drag show get-up and bosom in just more than a day to join 18 drag queens and kings for Pitt’s 14th annual Drag Show.

Hosted by Rainbow Alliance on Thursday at 9 p.m. in the William Pitt Union Assembly Room, the show attracted an audience of about 500 students. Men and women dressed in drag and took to the catwalk to raise money for the Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force, a local organization that strives to prevent the spread of HIV infection and provide services for those infected. The performers strutted and danced while collecting donations during the two-hour event.

Serving as master of ceremonies, Marsha Monster Mallow — a royal queen on the Pittsburgh drag scene — introduced each of the performers to the stage. She encouraged the audience to donate at the door, have “safe sex all the way” and to toss the performers a few dollars.

“I’m like Ronald McDonald’s and Wendy’s f*cking love child right here,” Mallow said of her costume and makeup, which featured a curly red wig that added almost two feet to her height.

Noah Sanders, known as Mona Lott on stage, and Danielle Quigley, known as Pitbull Terrier, dressed as pop stars Kesha and Pitbull and danced to the two performers’ hit song, “Timber.” As part of their performance, Sanders and Quigley faked a fight for the microphone, showing that either the king or queen would have to go down. The audience gave the lip-synching duo a standing ovation.

Aramae Bader, a junior accounting major, returned to see the Pitt Drag Show for the second time. Bader appreciated all of the performances and was undecided on who was her favorite king or queen.

“They all have such realized characters,” Bader said.

Throughout the show, Brandon Benjamin, president of Rainbow Alliance, distributed condoms to members of the audience. Benjamin, a junior majoring in linguistics, performed in the Drag Show last year.

Benjamin enjoyed performing so much last year that he volunteered to return to the stage for the audience competition “Lip-synch for Your Life.” Mona Lott and Pitbull Terrier selected five students from the crowd, including Benjamin, to demonstrate their dancing skills onstage as the audience erupted with cheers.

Benjamin tied up his button-down shirt to display his midriff before deciding to ditch his shirt completely, leaving him in his undershirt as he joined in the dance for donations.

A performance by Chance Thomas, also known as Chance Encounters, was dedicated to Peter Mastracci, a 2010 Pitt graduate who passed away in December 2013 and was an integral part of Pitt’s Rainbow Alliance during his undergraduate career. Thomas lip-synched to “Nothing More,” a somber, sorrowful switch from the upbeat dance numbers. A slideshow of photographs of Mastracci played behind Thomas as he performed.

Michael O’Brien, vice president of Rainbow Alliance and chair of the Drag Committee, organized the venue, the security and the performers for the show. O’Brien considered the show his pet project of the semester.

“I personally think it all came together beautifully,” O’Brien, a sophomore German and Russian languages major, said.

O’Brien didn’t have time to participate in the show this year, but he said he’s looking forward to introducing his drag queen persona to the world next year.

“You can look forward to seeing me on the stage very, very soon,” O’Brien said.

It takes love and support to tackle the stage as a drag queen, and the performers had strong fan bases rooting for them in the audience.

Rachel Lehman-Merrick, a junior studio arts and physics major, attended the show for a second year to support her friend Trevor Bublitz, who performed as Ambrosia Bubbles.

“They’re a lot better dancers than you think,” Lehman-Merrick said, adding that the dancing and costumes were her favorite parts of the show.