It seems appropriate that a drag king troupe would form around a gender theorist, even though no one would have guessed that the successful Alberta Beef formed at the urging of LF Crawford in the bowels of the U of A. Taking inspiration from Judith Halberstein, renowned gender theorist, performer, and author of the “Drag King Book”, how could they go wrong?
‘There were a couple kings in Edmonton performing on their own but it was more of start from scratch,” explains LF Crawford, Founder and Performer with Alberta Beef. The call out to the community for performers yielded eight participants who strutted and swaggered for a surprisingly packed crowd at Prism Bar and Grill on January 25th of last year.
Since then they have packed the house for two more full performances, one in June of last year as part of Pride month, and this past November as part of the Exposure Festival.
Both events took place at Prism. “It’s one of the only [woman-oriented] places in the city so we do want to continue to support them.”
The performers have changed over the year, as members move to other cities, or move on in life. The current six regular performers include: Lawrence of Alabia, LJ Steel, Buzz E. Brator, Lil’ Mak, Randy Packer, and Master B.
The troupe works well together - as Crawford puts it, ”We inspire each other.” They have lent smaller performances to other events, participating in the Exposure festival costume ball, and smaller gigs around the city. This gives the performers the opportunity to spends a lot of time together and grow closer.
An eclectic mix of personalities, backgrounds and ideas helps to bring passion, politics and fun to their numbers. Some members participate in the Edmonton Court – the Imperial Sovereign Court of the Wild Rose (ISCWR); others the Edmonton Pride Center or the University of Alberta. Because of this, the group tries to involve as many people as possible in their large performances, including groups that are trying to raise funds for charities, and alternate performers ranging from spoken word, belly dancers, and more.
Aside from the thrill of the show, there are motivations behind the mustaches that drive these gender deconstruction workers.
“There is something really radical about acting, and we try to push the boundaries of what is drag and what is trans,” Crawford explains.
”Drag Kinging seems so impossible to a lot of people but I’d like to encourage people to give it a try at home, just start experimenting with it, it’s really exciting. No matter how much you want to challenge other people, you always end up challenging yourself and the way you think of gender.”
Societal expressions of gender are linked so closely to the legal category of sex in North American culture that we often overlook the markers of behavior that betray the performative nature of gender. Maleness is used as a base for behavior and humanness, (for example you can call a female actress an actor but never the other way around). Therefore the inherent power in exposing masculinity is explosive in the little conservative sphere that we call Albertan.
Crawford has high hopes for expanding the drag culture in Edmonton. Tentative plans for the coming Pride celebrations involve creating a combination of women and trans identified performance nights or sex parties, which they hope to host in one of the bath houses in town. It is an opportunity to challenge ideas about sex, public expressions of sex, and give performance spaces to community members – and it is incredibly exciting!
Until then, grab five bucks and support your local gender deconstruction worker as they tear down gender stereotypes for all of us.
