U.S. Drag
University of South Florida
Playwright: Gina Gionfriddo
Director: Dan Granke
Costume Design: Chante Knight & Jem Mason
Photos by: Kyle Scharf
We follow Allison and Angela through this darkly comic play about two young women in Manhattan who are seeking love and happiness, but they'll settle for rent money. Along the way, they volunteer for a community advocacy group called SAFE ("Stay Away From Ed") named for an elusive serial attacker terrorizing the city. Their new circle of "friends" includes their socially stunted roommate; the celebrated author of a fictional memoir; a lonely man who feels a connection with crime victims; and a timid "Ed survivor," reveling in her fifteen minutes of questionable fame. Everybody is looking for something from each other in a group where no one has very much to give.
The sound for this show was fairly simple, a couple of recorded voiceovers and sound effects but mostly just transition music. The opening sequence here played over the women graduating college and a transition showing them moving to the city and clubbing. The music was chosen for its opening voiceover of Barbara Streisand describing New York and the staging included the girls looking around as if listening to this voice that was calling them to the city.
The transitions all had a motif of subway sounds mixed beneath pop music to give the sense of traveling between locations while keeping the show fun and keeping us in the girls' world.
One of the most successful laughs of the show was largely supported by sound. During a very cheesy and cliche romantic encounter, "My Heart Will Go On" (from the Titanic) starts underscoring the scene. The sound jumps quickly to the next scene where the girls are watching a documentary about refugees, cutting from the titanic theme song to splashes and screams and a voiceover about how there was "no room left on the boat.