After the muted and makeshift celebrations of the past two years, Pride month is busting out all over in 2022. And one of D.C.’s newest LGBTQ-owned venues is working to establish itself as a hub of Pride-related activity.
Over the next couple of weeks, Crazy Aunt Helen’s will host a variety of shows offering a veritable smorgasbord of LGBTQ-identified drag performers, comedians, and nascent playwrights and local actors.
The latter comes courtesy of a new play reading series that launched last month from D.C.’s queer-focused Rainbow Theatre Project.
The series, featuring casts of assembled local actors giving rehearsed, dramatic readings of stage works in development, continues with a reading of Faux Flowers, Anthony Green’s tale, set in present-day D.C., of “trauma turned to murder during an Easter dinner,” presented with a brief post-reading discussion with the playwright and cast. (6/15, $15)
The next night comes a reading of Author’s Note by Nell Quinn-Gibney, a new play that, to quote the brief official description, focuses on “high school explorations of sex and sexuality through a classic educational source: badly written fanfiction.” (6/16, $15)
The following week offers a “Pride Comedy Show!” touted as “the first-ever All Queer Comedy Show,” hosted by “the premiere drag queen stand-up comedian” Frieda Poussay and her band of misfits, including “the Minnesota leader of the Dick train” Anja Dick, the award-winning female comedian Miss Chocolate, funny local LINOs (Ladies In Name Only) Ba’Naka and Dabatha Christie, and “the hardest-working D.C. king of comedy,” Gray West. (6/23, $15)
It’s followed by “Pride-A-Palooza,” a variety show with live music, comedy, and lip-synching featuring queens Anja Dick and Tula, resident queen Tara Hoot as host, plus the promise of “special guests, dinner, prizes, and more!” (6/25, $20)
All shows start at 7 p.m.
Upstairs at Crazy Aunt Helen’s, 713 8th St. NE.
Call 202-750-8140 or visit www.crazyaunthelens.com.
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