Hot Peaches was a
drag theatre company
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perfor ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
that would put on one play a week, active from the 1970s-1990s. Hot Peaches was founded by
Jimmy Camicia in 1972, who encountered a group of
drag queens
A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have usually been gay men, and part o ...
and began writing work for them to perform.
Their work has been described as "political camp, dominated by drag".
Contents
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1Description
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2Early work
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3Notable Members
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4References
Notable Members dit
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Marsha P. Johnson
Marsha P. Johnson (August 24, 1945 – July 6, 1992) also known as Malcolm Michaels Jr., was an American gay liberation''I've been involved in gay liberation ever since it first started in 1969'', 15:20 into the interview, Johnson is quoted as ...
, a prominent queer activist throughout the late 20th century, performed with the troupe starting in 1972 clear through the 90s.
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Peggy Shaw
Peggy Shaw (born July 27, 1944) is an actor, writer, and producer living in New York City. She is a founding member of the Split Britches and WOW Cafe Theatre, and is a recipient of several Obie Awards, including two for Best Actress for he ...
performed with the troupe through the first half of the 1970s as one of only three women at the time.
She took on a prestigious role in the drag theater sphere after crossing paths with Spiderwomen during Hot Peaches' 1978 tour stop in Berlin.
This encounter was formative for both the troupe and herself, as she went on the become a part of Spiderwomen and then co-found
Split Britches in 1981 with
Lois Weaver
Lois Weaver (born 1949, Roanoke, Virginia) is a Guggenheim-winning artist, activist, writer, director, and Professor of Contemporary Performance at Queen Mary University of London. She is currently a Wellcome Trust Fellow in Engaging Science. H ...
, another member of Spiderwomen.
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Bette Bourne
Bette Bourne (born Peter Bourne, 22 September 1939) is a British actor, drag queen, campaigner, and activist. His theatrical career has spanned six decades. He came to prominence in the mid-1970s onwards after joining the New York-based alterna ...
was only a member for a year after experiencing his first Hot Peaches performance, ''The Heat,'' in 1974, though his time with the troupe influenced his creation of a similar, London-based group, Bloolips.
Troupe Culture dit
While the group's main objective was performance, Hot Peaches' primary function was to provide a nurturing queer community, and a platform for members self-expression.
Camicia has been quoted as saying "We're not actors, we're entertainers. Rather than becoming the script, the script becomes us."
The impact of the community on its members also included interactions with fellow drag performance groups and queer revolutionaries. Jimmy Camicia and Peggy Shaw were influenced by a conversation on feminism with Mallory Jones, sister of Kate Millett, and thus instituted feminist messages into their performances.
The early work of the company often created their performances around the fashion and outfits its performers wanted to wear. These outfits were often ostentatious, sparkling outfits, which included platform boots and feather boas.
The vibrancy of the troupes costumes became a defining moment during their European's tours stop in Berlin in 1978, when they lent their wardrobe to the Spiderwomen, whose luggage had been lost during travel.
The two groups had conflicting styles. According to Lois Weaver, the Spiderwomen were a feminist troupe devoted to "deconstructing the feminist image," while Hot Peaches' wardrobe consisted of "excessive femininity".
References
{{Drag performance
20th-century theatre
Drag groups
Defunct Theatre companies in New York City