cut QuASA\u2019s budget by $14,000<\/a>, dramatically reducing funds for the drag show. <\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s hard not to notice that [the cuts are] the result of current political views on queer people, because the student assemblies that were cut were the Black Student Assembly, the Latine Student Assembly [and] the Queer Student Assembly,\u201d Bagwell said. <\/p>\n
Among the other assemblies most heavily affected by USG\u2019s budget cuts were the Asian and Pacific Islander Student Assembly and the Student Assembly for Gender Empowerment. <\/p>\n
USG declined repeated requests for comment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to find the perseverance to keep going, but that\u2019s why we do drag. That\u2019s why we do art,\u201d Bavoso said. \u201cWe just want to have three hours where people can forget about things that are going on outside and celebrate the joy that is drag.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, the performers have no doubt their show will go on.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite the politics of it all, we\u2019re still gonna be here to show our art, and show out,\u201d said performer Carlos Menendez, a Biological Sciences major.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if there was $0, the drag show would still happen \u2026 It\u2019s probably going to look different this year because of the budget cuts, but it\u2019ll happen,\u201d Bavoso said. \u201cYou can\u2019t keep a queen down.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the workshop at GFS on Sunday, Bavoso and Bagwall shared their own musical mixes for their numbers and gave insightful feedback to the other performers. Bavoso \u2014 known onstage as Kolypso \u2014 described their set as \u201cgrand\u201d and \u201cburlesque,\u201d with gold costumes and music by Michael Bubl\u00e9 and Christina Aguilera. <\/p>\n
Lurdes Loza, a Stage Management major, described the vision for her set as a \u201cPan Latina Apocalyptic Carnival,\u201d exploring carnival tradition across Latin American countries as it \u201cslowly just descends into madness.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m specifically selecting countries that have historically unstable and corrupt governments, and I\u2019m commenting on how a lot of Latin American governments will use passion as a way to mask insecurities from the outside world,\u201d Loza said. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor example, Brazil has one of the highest rates of femicide in the entire world,\u201d Loza said. \u201cIt still has a huge travel economy, but violence against Black and indigenous women is not reported on at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Loza plans to incorporate the aesthetics of Las Vegas, another large travel and tourism economy, into her performance, noting, \u201cLas Vegas is glitz, glamour, beauty, but Las Vegas is also one of the highest sex trafficking spaces in the country.\u201d <\/p>\n
With the parallel between beauty and corruption in Las Vegas and Latin America in mind, Loza said her show is \u201cgonna be pretty, but also get increasingly \u2014 pardon my French \u2014 f***ed up.\u201d <\/p>\n
Theatrical Design major Duck Brown, who performs as Miranda Rights, explained his concept as \u201chalf a commentary on the military industrial complex, and half \u2018Duck has a fun time with sexy male dancers on stage.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe story is a young man joins the Navy, but he\u2019s just such a boy failure and just so bad at it,\u201d Brown said. \u201cBut then, through the power of love and friendship, he realizes that his homosexuality is something to embrace, and makes the rest of the Navy gay. And then everybody\u2019s gay, and they dance.\u201d <\/p>\n
Featuring music by the Village People and clips from \u201cBut I\u2019m A Cheerleader,\u201d Brown said his \u201cnumber is just to have fun, and to have a silly, goofy time and to take the seriousness out of the punching power of the US military.\u201d <\/p>\n
Menendez, also known as Karyotype, took inspiration for his set from his favorite artist, Ashnikko, whom he described as an \u201cin the shadows type of girl, but then when it\u2019s her moment, she shines.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s loud and crazy in a way, and I feel like that\u2019s me,\u201d Menendez said. \u201cI really want the crowd to be engaged with my number \u2026 and make it three hours of just being free and having so much fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
QuASA\u2019s 16th annual Drag Show will be held in Bovard Auditorium on February 7, 2026. Whether they\u2019re first-time performers just entering the world of drag or rising stars of West Hollywood, the kings and queens will share the joy of drag with fellow Trojans in a fun and dazzling show.<\/p>\n
And, for some, the show might even be a gateway into flourishing drag careers in L.A. and beyond.<\/p>\n
\u201cTell baby 13-year-old me that I would have drag race finalists as contacts in my phone,\u201d Bagwell said. \u201cIt\u2019s like a weird thing to have experienced, especially as early in my career as I am. It\u2019s just really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An engineer, a biologist and a stage designer walk into Grace Ford Salvatori Hall. They aren\u2019t heading to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[1358,5615,1360,1016,9,24,63,32354,122,124,123,7397],"class_list":{"0":"post-60476","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-drag","9":"tag-drag-queen","10":"tag-lgbtq","11":"tag-los-angeles","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-quasa","16":"tag-queens","17":"tag-queens-headlines","18":"tag-queens-news","19":"tag-west-hollywood"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}