MNDaily.com – By Sara Nicole Miller
“Dykes do drag” challenges gender lines with a drag show that goes beyond feather boas.
Drag performer Esm? Rodr?guez is perched before a green room mirror in Bryant Lake Bowl’s basement, donning fake black eyelashes, a quart of turquoise-encrusted eye shadow and obscenely large diamond chandelier earrings. As she teases the sculpted mass of red and blond tresses on top of her head, she sighs with satisfaction.
“The higher the hair, the closer to God,” Rodr?guez said.
Soon, Rodr?guez – who jokingly claims that glitter is her seventh food group – will emerge onstage to do a walk-through tech rehearsal.
“It’s not about where you start, but about bringing yourself to the high art of the drag queen. And it takes a lot of boobs and butts to get there,” she said as she straps on a gelatinous nude-hued brassiere.
Rodr?guez, whose person behind the persona is a University Ph.D. candidate in Spanish and Portuguese studies with a focus in gender and performance theories, has been involved with the performing group “Dykes Do Drag” for five years.