Editors note: This story has been updated to correct a title.
Picture a small town full of hard-working people. They’re not small-minded, just comfortable in their lives. Their town is a hub of the industrial boom and most of the people living there are working on factory floors like the generations before them. But the factories are leaving town and work is getting harder to come by.
This is the town of Northampton, England, where the setting of “Kinky Boots” is currently on stage in University Theatre from the Department of Theatre and Dance. To the Department Chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance and director of the show Bill Jenkins, this is the story of Muncie.
“Northampton, UK, is very similar to Muncie — a community where there was a lot of manufacturing jobs. A lot of manufacturing jobs exist, and it had to reinvent itself, and that's something that I think Muncie is working to do,” Jenkins said. “I have so many friends in the community who are part of that reinvention, and so I really love that part of it.”
“Kinky Boots” tells the story of Charlie Price, a young man who unexpectedly gains control of his father’s shoe factory, drawing him away from his new life in London and back to his hometown of Northampton.
Faced with the challenge of finding a new niche of shoes, Charlie runs into a drag artist by the name of Lola, sparking the idea to create a line of stiletto boots that can hold the weight of grown men and last for an extended period of time.
According to a survey conducted by YouGov, one in four Americans has attended a drag show. That same poll, however, found Americans are divided on who should be allowed to attend drag shows.
The majority of responders said events should be restricted to people ages 18 and up.
Fourth-year musical theater major Jarius Newman said this idea comes from a lack of understanding.
“I think just, as humans, sometimes we just need permission to do something, and we don't know it … I think this show will give people the permission to think outside of themselves and look at life a little bit different,” he said.
Newman plays Lola and said his character is the “ultimate representation of overcoming obstacles” who will “stop at nothing to feel safe and seen.”
He said in this current climate, putting on a show that “celebrates differences and commonalities” is especially important.
“We need to do this show right now. We need it. … I think we all need to sit down and be like, ‘Wow. We have greater things in common other than our skin color, our political beliefs and sexual orientation,’” Newman said.
Second-year musical theater major Avery Nienhuis agreed with Newman and said while his character, Charlie Price, does not directly partake in drag, the lessons he learned doing the show are ones he can’t wait to share.
“I mean, there's a lot that I would never claim to understand but ‘Kinky Boots’ — it's an educational experience,” Nienhuis said. “ … It's a beautiful thing really. We've had several emotional conversations with our creative team just about how we want to put this story forward and how we want to educate the community.”
Nienhuis said the overarching goal of the cast was to put on a good show and also to ensure the audience leaves with a new understanding. He said Jenkins made sure the cast held all these values and understanding headed into production.
“We have a lot of students who are LGBTQIA in the department and certainly students who have responded very — I would say — proactively and viscerally about some of the things that are happening across the country related to drag performance in general and the implications about what that performance is and is not,” Jenkins said. “It was important for that audience to have a voice, and this is a show that celebrates; the show is really all about love. It's all about love and acceptance, and it's joyful.”
With the cast and crew only having five weeks together, Nienhuis said the process was initially daunting, but he and the rest of the cast and crew knew the show was worth taking on.
“This show, it's ultimately about [how] all of us have way more in common than what we think … What unites us is ultimately greater than what divides us and what separates us,” Newman said. “We're all different, and I think this show does an excellent job at celebrating differences while also celebrating commonalities.”
To ensure the show became all they envisioned it to be, including accurate portrayals of drag, Jenkins and the production staff decided to bring on a drag expert, alumni Easton Michaels.
“Easton has been an extraordinary resource for us, and Easton came right in from the beginning through the audition process … and said, from the beginning, drag is not about one group portraying some other group,” Jenkins said. “They said, anybody who is willing, is open to audition for the drag performers because drag is a celebration of your inner self.”
Jenkins added that their cast of drag performers span across the gender spectrum, including male and female-identifying actors.
Newman shared that all the actors portraying drag artists in the show spent most of the summer and the start of the academic year in makeup tests, costuming, and taking time to learn about drag and the art of drag.
“Every single element of the drag, every single piece of the drag elements in this show have been meticulously planned and chosen. And I think that's what makes this, the show, so great,” Newman said. “I think every single choice is specific, and I definitely think specificity is what helps audiences understand the story that we're telling you, especially with something that's over — over the top — like this.”
For Jenkins, he hopes this show can continue a conversation of acceptance and serve as an educational tool with the art of drag.
“One way in which you can inform people is to do it in a way where it's not just talking at them, but hopefully speaking engaging them in a conversation,” Jenkins said. “And to me, this show invokes a conversation, and it's a conversation about acceptance, and it's a conversation about love.”
Kinky Boots is on stage Sept. 20-21, 25-28 at 7:30 p.m. and Sept. 22, 28-29 at 2:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased in person at the College of Fine Arts Box Office, by phone at 765-285-8749 or online at www.tix.com/ticket-sales/bsu/969.
Contact Olivia Ground via email at olivia.ground@bsu.edu or Trinity Rea at trinity.rea@bsu.edu.
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