Quince Productions is featuring new faces in its fourth annual “Full House: A Series of Cabarets,” running June 21-26 in the Red Room at Society Hill Playhouse. As in previous years, the series features well-known and undiscovered cabaret acts for a wide variety of performances.
Artistic director Rich Rubin said “Full House” is bigger this year than it has ever been.
“It has expanded to nine cabarets this year,” he said. “It’s gayer than it’s ever been, although it’s always been pretty gay. Basically, it’s the same kind of setup that we’ve had every year. It’s grown every year but the idea behind it is the same: a collection of different cabarets spread over several days so that every night and twice on Saturday and Sunday you have the chance to see different cabarets. The audience has been bigger and bigger every year. It has become one of our most popular events.”
Returning performers to “Full House” this year include Deborah Billups in “I’m STILL … Just Sayin’” (a follow-up to last year’s popular “I’m Just Sayin’”), AJ Luca, the only performer who has performed in all four years of “Full House”), and singer-actor Sarah J. Gafgen, a veteran of other Quince productions and last year’s “Full House.”
New faces include John Hodges in “Confused Pretty Thing” and Shannon Agnew in “If I Were a Drag Queen I Would Be Famous.”
Both the new performers’ shows have a drag element, but they said it was merely a coincidence.
“I had no idea what the other shows would be. It’s a funny combination,” Hodges said.
His show is described as a gender-bending cabaret.
“It’s more comedic,” he said. “I’m not doing full-on drag. I’m leaving on all the body hair and things. I’m only shaving my face and putting on some makeup. I figured for a half-hour in an informal space, it kind of fit pretty well. It’s going to discuss fashion, clothing and how hard it is to get dressed in the morning. It’s going to have songs with clothing pieces in them.”
Agnew’s show, on the other hand, is more of a nod to the glamour she associates with drag queens.
“It’s kind of my homage to the drag show I would do if I was a drag queen,” she said. “It’s a night of impersonations of all my favorite Broadway divas, with some forbidden Broadway songs thrown in of my own creation.”
Agnew said this show is her way of rebelling against the expectation people have about her.
“For a performer like myself, it gives me an opportunity to reclaim my femininity in a strange way by doing a drag performance,” she said. “Oftentimes in the lesbian community, I’m told I’m not butch enough to be a lesbian and it’s lovely that I can explore it and make a jest at it in this way. Drag queens offer this new heightened version of femininity and I aspire to it and I think it’s wonderful.”
Both Hodges and Agnew said “Full House” is an important forum for LGBT performers and audiences alike.
“It’s easily accessible and it’s something you identify with,” Hodges said. “It’s great to have those connections and those role models and examples that you can do anything you want and anything is possible.”
“It’s an evening of laughter,” Agnew added. “Things are difficult right now and I think laughter is so important. It can really lighten the mood.”
Quince Productions presents “Full House: A Series of Cabarets,” June 21-26 in the Red Room at Society Hill Playhouse, 507 S. Eighth St. For ticket information, show descriptions and a performance schedule, visit www.quinceproductions.com.