The Dirty Blondes Celebrate 6 Years Of Making Feminist Theater With DRAG

The Dirty Blondes, the feminist theater company behind the critically acclaimed production of The American Play at Soho Playhouse, will celebrate their six years of creating theater with a special event called DRAG. Featuring some of the most exciting and emerging drag performers in New York City, DRAG will celebrate inclusivity by deconstructing stereotypes, defying expectations and honoring individuality - everything The Dirty Blondes stands for as a theater company. DRAG will be held on Thursday, May 31, 2018, at The Gallery at Le Poisson Rouge (located at 158 Bleecker Street, between Sullivan and Thompson Streets) with doors opening at 7:00pm and performances beginning at 7:30pm.

A raucous, uninhibited night featuring performers who continuously challenge expectations while delighting audiences, DRAG will usher in the new era of The Dirty Blondes. DRAG will invigorate audiences and help raise necessary funds for upcoming programs including: The Hair Project, a one-night only event featuring 20 solo artists - performers, musicians and writers - celebrating and investigating the role hair plays in building and defining our individual and cultural identities; UnBanned Plays, a twelve-hour performance cycle with live music, poetry and performances of plays that have been controversially banned from American stages, fostering an important conversation about censorship while celebrating the most cutting edge artists in American history; and important development programs for new artists including a summer reading series and workshop, incubator performances of new plays.

DRAG will be emceed by NYC comedy queen and creator of "Dream Queen Tours" Glace Chase and will feature performances by anarchist and androgynous self-described punk rock mermaid drag queen BearLee Legal, performance artist Chris Tyler, fashionista Dynasty (named one of the "fierce queens fueling Brooklyn's drag renaissance" by IntoMore.com), and activist/choreographer/dancer/singer/actor/ gender-nonconformist/drag queen Donald C. Shorter Jr.

DRAG will take place at The Gallery at Le Poisson Rouge (located at 158 Bleecker Street, between Sullivan and Thompson Streets) on Thursday, May 31 with doors opening at 7:00pm and performances beginning at 7:30pm. Tickets, costing $35 each, can be purchased online via Eventbrite. For more information about DRAG and/or The Dirty Blondes please visit www.TheDirtyBlondes.org

The mission of the NY based theater company, The Dirty Blondes, is feminist in nature, with a goal to break down stereotypes and encourage a nuanced, inclusive dialog. Founded by Artistic Director Ashley Jacobson and Executive Director Elizabeth Sarkady in 2012, the company seeks to explore the nature of all human prejudice, subverting face value perception with sophisticated and subtle shades of distinction.

Notable productions include the Off-Broadway premiere of Jacobson's (Winner, Overall Excellence in Playwriting, 2015 FringeNYC) The American Play at the Soho Playhouse; The Resister Project, a week long, ACLU fundraising festival, held during the first days of the Trump presidency; SEX by Mae West, a staged reading spotlighting the icon's famously banned play with panel discussions featuring sex workers and feminist historians; and Detroit, NY a short play festival featuring seven Detroit-based playwrights, aiming to shed light on Detroit's shifting culture and state of bankruptcy.

The Dirty Blondes are resident artists at Horse Trade Theater, producing in its celebrated downtown venues Under St. Mark's and The Kraine Theater. For details about The Dirty Blondes and the upcoming season visit: www.thedirtyblondes.org

Glace Chase is a multiple award-winning multi-disciplinary drag performer / playwright / comedian / screenwriter / tour guide / bon vivant. She hosts & performs across NYC - including "Neurotica" at Metropolitan Bar (1st Saturdays), "Singaling" comedy karaoke at Belle Reve (Wednesdays), "Disgustation" at Rosemont (Fridays) & various bingo gigs at Le Poisson Rouge & Madame Maries. Time Out NY has described her as "a "bonkers drag darling"... "delightfully satanic" & "not to be missed". Her acclaimed 5 star Trip Advisor reviewed underground LGBT walking tour Dream Queen Tours won best Alternative Tour 2018 - International Tourism & Hospitality Awards. Lover of extremely wealthy older men with no living beneficiaries with terminal health conditions.'

Bear Lee Legal is an anarchist and androgynous self-described punk rock mermaid drag queen here to fuck with gender, break the rules, and make a damn mess while doing it.Typically you can find this queen wandering around Brooklyn covered in blood, or at their fave monthly show Queer as in Fuck You (also usually covered in blood).

Chris Tyler is a performing artist examining the intersections of popular culture, collective action and digital identity. Recent projects include the ongoing MAKE AMERICA series (Ars Nova), flesh failure (The Civilians' R&D Group), R*NT (University Settlement), and TOTAL REJECTS LIVE!!! (Public Theater/Under the Radar Festival). His performance style has been called "equal parts hilarious and chilling" (Fusion) and "precise-yet-butchered" (Out Magazine). AB: Brown University. Follow him @NOTCHRISTYLER.

Dynasty is an up-and-coming fashion forward drag queen diva who pushes the boundaries of drag, gender, and of course, fashion, at parties and events all throughout Brooklyn and Manhattan.

Donald C. Shorter Jr. is an artist living in Bushwick, Brooklyn and holds a B.A. in Liberal Studies from West Chester University with a minor in Dance and an M.F.A. in Dance from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Labels such as activist, choreographer, dancer, singer, actor, gender nonconformist, and drag queen are interchangeable on any given day. Shorter is a former company member of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. During that time he had the honor of creating THE NAZ with Bill T. Jones, which was performed in his one-man show As I was Saying. Donald has appeared in Broadway national tours such as: Hairspray, La Cage Aux Folles, A Chorus Line, and Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Donald is the creator, writer, and performer of his one-woman show GENDEROSITY, which looks at the process of his drag transformation and uses drag to talk about gender nonconformity. Shorter has restaged choreography from the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company at Barnard College, Towson University, and University of Idaho. He has premiered solo works at the Pompidou Centre, American College Dance Festival, ALLGOLD artist space at MOMA PS1, The Actor's Fund Building, Center for Performance Research, 92nd Street Y, and at the Performance Mix Festival. Shorter is currently a co-host of the PBS Digital Studios web series First Person PBS.