Hiding in Plain Sight: Shimmering Queer Presence in Sasha Velour's Lip-Sync Performances

Abstract

This thesis provides a dramaturgical analysis of lip-sync performances by the drag queen Sasha Velour wherein she has made use of projection mapping. Velour started using projection as a means to light herself after which she began to explore the additional affordances of the medium as a source of light. This thesis investigates the dramaturgical strategies involving projection that Velour has developed to make her presence seen and felt and the affect that these strategies produce. In this thesis, it is argued that this affect can be understood through the concept of ‘shimmering’, a term adapted from Eliza Steinbock’s work on trans* cinema studies. The concept is used to denote a phenomenon that cannot be pinned down as a specific thing but is instead defined by its multiplicity and unstable nature. It shifts between poles of a binary and therefore challenges binary thinking. This thesis argues that shimmering can be used to understand the affect of drag more generally as well as the specific stage presences created in Velour’s work. The first chapter deals with various ways of defining drag, whereafter chapter two gives a historical account of the spaces in which drag has been performed. Chapter three gives a more detailed explanation of the concept shimmering, its origins as well a where this thesis aims to take the concept. Chapter four elaborates on two concept that are central to the analysis: presence and visibility. The analysis, chapter five, outlines five dramaturgical strategies Velour uses that ambiguate her visibility and presence on stage: reimagining the spotlight; using the body as a screen; transforming through projection; duplicating presence through pre-recorded material; and drawing parallels between the virtual and the actual. Through these strategies, Velour becomes the director of her own in/visibility and presence on stage.