9 till 10 August 2022

Queen of Disco

RIGHTABOUTNOW INC. | NL

Share this show

From choirboy to superstar: Sylvester [1947-1988] was an American disco legend and LGBTQ activist. In Queen of Disco, he embodies the tempestuous rise, tragic fall and miraculous resurrection of disco music. Moving, over the top and unsuspectedly topical.

Location BLVRD Theater aan de Parade
Running time 80 min.

Sylvester grew up in Watts, a black working-class area of Los Angeles. A child prodigy with angelic vocals and androgynous features, he went far in the gospel choir. Later, he would score huge hits, including You Make Me Feel [Mighty Real] and Do Ya Wanna Funk. He died of AIDS in 1988. For millennials and the forgetful: disco emerged in the early 1970s in a semi-legal circuit of black and Latino gay clubs and parties in New York. It coincided with the emancipation of the LGBTQ community in America and became an unprecedented phenomenon. In the 1970s, the whole world was on the dance floor - often in a sea of epileptic light effects. It was party time! But the recession, Ronald Reagan and a raging AIDS pandemic drove disco underground again in the 1980s. Later, as house, it would conquer the world again. Queen of Disco is about identity, emancipation and activism. But also about the deadly impact of a pandemic, the impact of the underground and the dance floor as an arena for [cultural] renewal and zest for life.

"Touching portrait of a man for whom disco culture was both an emancipation platform and a refuge from harsh realities"

NRC

Credits

Direction: Marjorie Boston, Maarten van Hinte
Performance: Drussilla Mputu-Mola, Susan Malaika Bailey, Juan Wells, Jasmine Perez, Robeathy Corea
DJ & Sound/beat creation: DJ Jasmine Perez
Dramaturgy: Maarten van Hinte
Script: Maarten van Hinte
Direction Assistent: Kaja van Bruggen
Artistic coordination: Ritzah Statia
Scenography: Marjorie Boston
Vocal coaching: Monique Bakker
Publicity: Emily Perez

Context and Education: Tomas Leijen
Production leader: Patrick Karijowidjojo
Production assistent: Alleryn Beaulieu
Costume: Iris Elströdt, Stef Krull
Light design: Vincent Romijn
Set design: John Lippens, Koen Jantzen, Staalwolf & Lightning
Technology: Art Support
Video technology: Bart Scholten 
Office Manager: Gloria Hoop
Photography Neeke Smit

Theaterfestival Boulevard thanks:
  • Gemeente 's-Hertogenbosch
  • Den Bosch Partners
  • Provincie Noord-Brabant
  • Fonds Podiumkunsten
  • VSBfonds
  • Fonds21
  • Vriendenloterij Fonds
  • Creative Europe Programme (EU)
  • Gieskes-Strijbis Fonds
  • Dioraphte
  • VandenEnde Foundation
  • Fonds ZOZ
  • Jeugdfonds Sport & Cultuur
  • Jan van Hoof Galerie
  • Apap
  • Feminist Futures
  • Performing Gender