Drag School
Extravagance, fierceness, glamour, glitter and self-expression. Welcome to Drag School: an intensely fun week of lip sync, dance, clowning, makeup and character and costume design. In just 8 days, you’ll learn how to create slick, simple, sickening stage spots that’ll leave the audience’s jaw on the floor. Drag is a fast evolving performing arts industry in Aotearoa and NYDS Drag School is ready to prepare the never generation of superstars. This class is suitable for anyone interested in drag performance of any kind (kings, queens or in-betweens!), of any performance level or experience. Drag is a gear-heavy art form. Our Drag Class wardrobe of donated goodies is available but students are also encouraged to bring as much of their own gear as possible – particularly makeup and heels. A full list of ‘useful things to bring’ will be provided after enrolment.
Students that are gender diverse, transgender or non-binary will be given priority, as a reflection of the rare and transformational opportunity drag experiences can offer to queer youth. If you fit this criteria, please mark this on your application. If you are uncomfortable or unable to mark this directly on the form, please reach out to @hugogrrrl directly.
If you suffer from sensory overwhelm, if wigs, high heels, scratchy costumes or loud music might be a struggle, then this class is not for you.
TUTOR: GEORGE FOWLER (AS HUGO GRRRL)
George is a rainbow diversity and inclusion consultant and a world-class drag performer based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa. As his alter ego Hugo Grrrl, he won Season 1 of ‘House of Drag’, making him the first drag king and transgender man globally to ever compete in or win a televised drag competition. He won an Absolutely Positively Wellingtonian Award and a Wellington Theatre Awards “Theatre Angel” Award for outstanding contribution to professional theatre in 2020. He headlined the Austin International Drag Festival in 2019, and was nominated for Wellingtonian of The Year in 2018.
