BWW Interviews: Wade McCollum Gets Us Ready For TUTS' PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT THE MUSICAL

Houston, it is a new theatre season and Theatre Under the Stars is kicking off theirs with the fabulously fun PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT THE MUSICAL. This heartwarming musical follows a trio of friends as they embark on a life-changing journey to the Australian outback, and it incorporates genuine themes of self-acceptance, belonging, community, camaraderie, and family. Comprised of popular hit songs from the 60's to the 90's, PRISCILLA is one glitzy party from beginning to end with a little something for everyone. Playing Tick/Mitzi, Wade McCollum took time out of his busy schedule to talk PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT THE MUSICAL and to let Houston audiences know what they can expect when the party comes to town.

BWW: It seems like you are drawn to sexually ambiguous/complex roles, such as the Emcee in CABARET and Velociraptor of Faith in TRIASSIC PARQ. Has your interest in redefining heteronormative gender/sex stereotypes and roles lead you to these roles or have these roles lead you to explore these ideas?

Wade McCollum: Hmm...what came first the chicken or the egg? That's a good question. I think early on, I would have to say that it was from me because during very early parts of my career I was drawn to into roles that explored complex issues around gender; for instance, HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH was one of the first professional, big-time things I ever did. I even did stuff in college, and I also, in high school, actually did the TORCH SONG TRILOGY in speech and debate and went to all of these competitions, national competitions included, with the opening monologue of the TORCH SONG TRILOGY while he is getting in makeup. Yet, I was doing it in a suit in the classroom kind of in the format of speech and debate, and I was talking about getting into makeup and all of these things that weren't obviously actually happening in the classroom. I think from early on I was just really interested in the non-binary characters because they spoke to that kind of grey area that I think everybody exists in whether they want to admit it or not. But, I really felt from early on that gender expression and sexuality were two different parallel and often related tracks, but also somewhat mutually exclusive. So, I think early on it was a curiosity of mine, but also just kind of a passion. I felt like it was a missing voice in the chorus of stories being told and there is an inherent drama in occupying the grey area. Androgyny has inherent drama in it because just the mere fact that it exists is sort of causing this beautiful tension between both the polar aspects of gender, and that to me is really exciting both from the inside and as an audience member. I think it is a really important story to tell, so it appeals to the activist in me, the artist activist that wants to tell stories that forward evolution and keep humans thinking about themselves in ways that maybe they haven't contextualized themselves in before and therefore they grow more compassionate, more empathic, and those things I think will help us survive as a species.

BWW: What roles do sex (i.e. male and female) and gender play in PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT?

Wade McCollum: It's a huge piece of the puzzle because you have your three main protagonists who kind of are all three very different in the way that they express gender and sexuality and could all be, from an objective point of view, lumped into one category of just drag queens or crazy, queer people. Yet when you spend time with these humans, you see that they are just as rich and complex in dealing with perennial tropes of any human, and I think that gender plays an enormous role for all three characters. I don't know if I'd want to say more importantly, but I think I do want to say most importantly Bernadette who is transgender and was transgender in the sixties. I think to have that amount of gumption and knowingness in an era when it was so taboo and so not a part of pop culture... So, I think you know, for her character gender is one of the seminal tropes of her being. She was born into the wrong body, to the point where she needed surgery and for her inner gender expression to match her outer gender expression for people to see her the way that she always saw herself. She has such a strength and dignity, and I just think that character is so beautiful. And Scott [Willis] as Bernadette is just exquisite; he's just absolutely divine. So I love her relationship to gender, and I think Tick's relationship is very different in that he very much keeps them separate. Early on, I was trying to find clues into this man. His drag name is Mitzi Mitosis, and Mitosis is a process of biology where the cells divide. It's a process of division, mitosis, and I thought, "Well there's the ringer. That's the key, is that he himself, where he is his most powerful super hero self, his most liberated aspect, he is named Miss Divided, and that divided nature I think is something that he is trying to embrace and celebrate. So I have really made the choice that he, I have come to terms with the fact that he, is divided. He keeps his male aspects, his heterosexual life very separate from his drag queen persona and his whole life in Sidney with his community of drag performers, and all of that. I think that his bisexuality and his bi-genderality is what makes him so cool to me. He is obstinate and won't fit into any box, but I also think he doesn't fit into any box, and that there's this incredible beauty in that. Of course it is not explored in a large way in the play because it really is just about singing these awesome disco gems (Laughs), but as an actor who is performing the show hundreds of times, it's a great thing to have percolating under the surface of this very glitzy musical, this really deep complexity, and it keeps me interested. It keeps me engaged. It keeps me making discoveries. That, to me, is very important as an artist. So I think gender plays a very pivotal role in PRISCILLA, very pivotal.

BWW: You have done extensive study and research on gender and gender identity. In what ways has that benefitted your portrayal of Tick/Mitzi?

Wade McCollum: I think in numerable ways. I think that part of my passion about being an actor is research. It's my excuse to geek out in categories that I never necessarily would before. I really adore that, that I have this really bizarre, mish-mash education base from the roles that I played throughout my career, and I have played a lot of variant roles that deal with gender from lots of different angles. I think that all of the research that you do, all of the life experience that one has, all the books you read, all the places you travel, and all the people you meet on some level inform every aspect of your being. I think being an actor and being open and sensitive to those things is good, and I would say that all of the research that I have done specifically on gender and Shamanic tradition and indigenous rituals, where gender was used very intentionally by the leaders of the tribe in order to exorcize tension from male and female aspects of their society, all of those things of course play a pivotal role in dissecting this person's psychological process and how he moves through the world where we have this somewhat oppressive umbrella that really does say you have to choose, like you are either a man or a woman, and you must be one or the other; otherwise, you just don't fit. I think that being a person who has the propensities to veer towards the middle, I think having source material in my head as far as points of reference of thousands and thousands of examples of people who throughout the ages in different societal contexts have veered towards the middle, and how their society has viewed them has helped me understand why Tick has made the choices he's made, and how had he'd been in a different societal context he could have made very different choices. So I think the research gives one compassion. The research gives one analytic agility, and that analytic agility can lead to compassion and can lead to more informed choices in an actor. Or, of course, it could just lead to a big soupy mess of being in your head and trying to figure something out. (Laughs) That is where directors and other people in the room have a great role in clarifying what could just be a big soupy mess. I think the research has really helped very much in my making Tick's choices second nature and having all of these points of reference to rely on.

BWW: What is the most rewarding part(s) of playing Tick/Mitzi every night?

Wade McCollum: He is so anxious, and he is really struggling with this masculine mask, gender expectations of his culture, and how to be a father and a drag queen because those things don't seem like they could go together. He is making a pretty big issue out of it, and he spends a majority of the play with, if not external, internal anxiety about whether or not his son will accept him. On a very basic level, he is going to get rejected from his son and from making his whole journey there. I think the most rewarding thing about doing the play is reaching the end where he, as a character, interfaces with his son and kind of has a conversation with him, and the son makes no issue of any of it. It is a complete non-issue to the kid, and that is a testament to the mother as well, but the kid is definitely one of the wisest archetypes in the whole play. Everyone is sort of having issues around drag, gender expression, and sexuality, and the kid makes absolutely no issue of it at all. He is like, "I don't care. Let's have a good time, and will you read me this story?" So there is no issue, and I think that kind of obviously, deeply quells Tick's anxiety. In turn, I think he kind of has layers of self-acceptance, and through that accepts himself through the eyes of his son. Then, returning to his primary relationship with the three queens, they achieve a broader sense of belonging together. As we sing, "We Belong" at the end, this kind of declaration of inclusivity, it feels so incredibly awesome to stand on the mountain top and sing at the top of our lungs, "we belong." Reverberations of that theme of belonging are so transpersonal. I feel that everybody in the audience, on one level or the other, has some aspect of themselves that feels like an outsider, and watching these people who don't fit in boxes find their sense of belonging and find their sense of community, speaks to that piece in everybody. By the end, when we are declaring our sense of belonging in such a beautiful way, I feel like everybody is on board, and I feel like the audience is really with us, and then their response at the end is so overwhelming and so enthusiastic that I think that that is good confirmation. The best part about doing the play is finding that sense of belonging every night and making it this active discovery, which is really satisfying.

BWW: What is the most challenging part about playing Tick/Mitzi?

Wade McCollum: I think it is just purely physical. I think I am still trying to figure out how to make it through without hurting myself. (Laughs) I've been injured a few times. It's just the costumes, the shoes, the head dresses, the choreography, and the fact that I start the play and I do not stop. It's a marathon, and all I am doing is either singing, dancing, doing my scenes, or changing my clothes as fast as I can. There are so many moments of bending over and putting on shoes, and I know that sounds so innocuous, and it really should be, but when you do it twenty-five times a night, that makes fifty on two show days, and a hundred on your four show weekends, that bending over process, and doing it quickly with adrenaline, and pulling your shoe on, you know, I am having all sorts of physical "What are you doing to me?," and my body is rebelling. So, I think the biggest challenge is trying to figure out how to healthfully move through like an Olympian athlete. (Laughs) How to move through the play without kind of getting repetitive stress injuries would be the challenge. I am using that old college tool belt and applying all of the movement techniques that we learned to minimize tension and all of that.

BWW: Why should Houston audiences be excited to go and see PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT? It's your chance to pitch!

Wade McCollum: I mean, I think I have said a lot of lofty things in this interview, a lot of what could be seen as erudite statements, but I think the show itself is really fun. (Laughs) Despite all of the talk of gender, issues of sexuality, issues of division, and finding a sense of belonging, the play does a really, really, really good job of being an incredible party. The music is all really well known party tunes from the sixties, seventies, and all the way to the nineties. There is this incredible sense of celebration throughout the entire play, and I think that my character is sort of the counter melody to all of that. He is the anxious one, everyone else is just partying. I think Houston audiences should come see the musical because it is a grand, spectacular, fun show with an unexpected complexity and depth of heart, and that equals really great theatre.

It is almost here! PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT is coming to Houston September 29, and will be playing at the Houston Hobby Center through October 12. Theatre Under the Stars has a variety of ticket options available, including dinner-and-a-show packages and tickets to the Priscilla "Glitz and Glamour" VIP Event on Wednesday, October 2nd. For more information about PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT please visit www.tuts.com.

Photos courtesy of Theatre Under the Stars.

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