QUEER & NOW: A LIP SYNC SPECTACULAR
2017–18
A life-changing transformation from the Christian Mother Mary into the Yoruba water deity Oxum.
A look 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.
Photos by Jennifer Gately
Trailer by Alyssa Labrie; footage by Dr. Megan Lewis
COLLABORATORS
Director and Producer Garrett Sager
Dramaturgs Fig Lefevre and Helen Woods
Lighting Designer Jordan Mitchell
Makeup & Hair Designer Sarah Talaid
Sound Designers Ethan Gourlay, Olivia Holcomb, Alyssa Labrie, Fig Lefevre, and Garrett Sager
Costume Designer Jordan Reed and ensemble
Stage Managers Olivia Hall (2017); Afrikah Selah and Maeve Connolly (2018)
Choreographer Alyssa Labrie (2018)
Ensemble Faolain Bobersky, Jessie Junk, Lucas La Guardia, Cynthia Lizardo, Melissabeth, and MerMx
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
SUPPORT & DEVELOPMENT
Queer & Now: A Lip Sync Spectacular was created as part of Dr. Megan Lewis’ Theaters of Dissent course at UMass Amherst in the fall of 2017. The project received funding from the UMass Arts Council.