A Contemporary Queen in the Penn Museum
- Penn Museum
- Penn Museum
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Visiting Artists Grant
Eric Jaffe is the winner of the 2019 Drag Awards, Best Host, Best Alternative Drag Queen, and Drag Queen of the Year. They recently starred in the original queer musical Basic Witches at The Arden. They also starred in and directed Thweeney Todd: The Flaming Barber of Fleek Street at Franky Bradley’s in 2019, as well as the Barrymore-recommended Gay Mis in 2019. Below is a video of Jaffe performing “Doubletree” from Thweeney Todd: The Flaming Barber of Fleek Street.
The Penn Museum will engage drag artist Eric Jaffe to explore non-binary gender issues across time and space with a unique, site-influenced, drag performance developed for the Museum. This performance residency will coincide with the opening of a new exhibition, The Stories We Wear, in fall 2020. The Stories We Wear explores the simple premise that what we wear helps us shape who we are for ourselves and for others. A wide variety of material from the Penn Museum’s archaeological and ethnographic collections will be displayed alongside contemporary and local material, including a drag ensemble from Jaffe’s production of Thweeney Todd: The Flaming Barber of Fleek Street. In addition to the performance, the proposed residency will feature special Museum gallery tours throughout the collections, centered around gender and sexuality and led by drag performers.
Eric Jaffe performing “Doubletree” during Thweeney Todd: The Flaming Barber of Fleek Street: