Muskingum University’s Equality Alliance hosted their yearly drag show Friday, March 18 in the John Glenn Gym. Maria Garrison led the way as she and her Queens took to the stage for a night of music and live performances.
Equality Alliance has been bringing drag shows to Muskingum since the early 2000s. Originally, the shows were much smaller and took place in Kelley Coffeehouse. The event was moved to John Glenn Gym in order to allow room for a larger audience and more Queens. This year, a mocktail bar was added to the event.
“We’re always adding new things and making changes,” said Equality Alliance President, Harold Norsic. “We actually scaled back from doing two drag shows a year to one.”
Norsic said that Equality Alliance will be reserving drag shows for future spring semesters.
However, these were not the only adjustments made to the event. While the drag shows have always had “amateur hours” where students could participate in the shows, this year was a little different with the introduction of the Drag Workshop.
“To participate in the drag show, you have to participate in the workshop where you get trained on how to do makeup, hair, dress, nails, all that kind of stuff,” said Norsic. He said that the reason for this is to promote the entertainment value.
“Any student on campus is more than welcome to come enjoy themselves and participate if they want,” said Norsic.
The aim of the drag show, according to Norsic, is to impart the Muskingum community with LGBTQIA+ culture in a safe and comfortable environment.
“We also want to promote the [Equality Alliance] Club and let people know that no matter who you are, we’re here,” said Norsic. “We like promoting that because it makes people feel welcome. They know that, ‘no matter who I am, these people love and accept me and they’ll even exemplify that on stage.’”
Norsic said that Equality Alliance will begin planning for next year’s drag show as soon as possible, and that students interested in helping out with that planning are invited to attend Equality Alliance’s weekly meetings Mondays at 8 p.m. in room 318 of the Chess Center.
