From the plays of Shakespeare to Charlie’s Aunt, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Kinky Boots and Casa Valentina, drag has a grand tradition in the theater. This year that was quite apparent at The 68th Annual Tony Awards. There were several actors playing women or crossdressers/TGs and one woman who won for her portrayal of a drag king.
The new play by Harvey Fierstein, “Casa Valentina,” as most everyone knows, is based on the real Casa Susanna. In the 1960s Virginia Prince attended a weekend gathering there to promote her idea for the Society for the Second Self. The play is a fascinating look into the transgender experience of the early ’60s and it is based on a book of photographs taken at Casa Susanna. In this article Dallas Denny reveals who took most of those photographs and how they ended up inspiring Harvey Fierstein to write “Casa Valentina.”
The new Harvey Fierstein play “Casa Valentina” has opened on Broadway. It’s the story of the crossdresser resort in the Catskill Mountains in 1962 where Virginia Prince proposed the creation of Tri-Ess. Jan Brown of the MHVTA support group attended a preview night with several other ladies. This is her review of the play.
