Divas face off over awards

Divas face off over awards

The move to resurrect Sydney’s drag awards has been labelled a slap in the face by former DIVA chair Paul Croft.
The DIVA board started winding up the company last week, after a 17-year history hosting Sydney’s version of the Oscars for drag queens.
A new company, Avid Events Ltd, last week announced its intention to resurrect the industry awards nights, promising a new format and a fresh set of faces.
The event, to be held on October 26 at an undisclosed venue, will no longer be called the Drag Industry Variety Awards, but will now simply be referred to as Diva.
Croft said the original organisation had served its purpose in many ways. It had reached its natural life end.
If you look back over the last 18 years of DIVA, drag in Sydney has changed considerably, he told Sydney Star Observer.
The number of venues offering drag has decreased remarkably. We used to give out 21 awards and there was a genuine need for those awards.
As the number of venues offering drag has lessened, the demand for that structure has changed and it came to a point where something new needed to happen.
Croft said he was unhappy the new organisers had decided to continue using the word Diva.
Every one of the [DIVA] directors has offered their ongoing support, but the new board has come back and said it doesn’t really need anyone’s support.
I think it would be the common view of a number of us that a new organisation needs to stand on its own two feet and come up with its own concept. It needs to re-invent itself and not just borrow from what DIVA has created.
It’s a slap in the face to anyone who has ever worked on DIVA. If you want to start something, you start something new and if you want to distance yourself from DIVA then distance yourself from DIVA, but don’t borrow on its reputation and goodwill.
But new co-chair Greg Steele, aka Sheila Blige, refuted Croft’s claim, saying the new organisation was rescuing the awards night.
We saved it. If we hadn’t have stepped up there wouldn’t have been an awards night this year, he said.
What will be different will be the format. In the past, it’s been a sit down round table event and this year it won’t be like that, he said without elaborating on future plans before an official launch event.
Fellow co-chair Dejay Toborek (Shelly Legs Diamond) said the new organisation had spent a long time talking to the scene’s showgirls.
We have really listened to the showgirls about the future direction of the awards night. There are exciting changes to the format which will provide a very social evening we know the showgirls, their friends and admirers will enjoy.
The new Avid board includes DIVA founder David Wilkins (Dot Dingle). He  said he was very happy to be a link between the original version of DIVA and the new, and working with the new team on the necessary rethink and fresh approach of the big night.

You May Also Like

31 responses to “Divas face off over awards”

  1. All this infighting in the community is really disheartening. Where is the uniting spirit? As far as I am concerned, DIVA is practically a tradition.

  2. Hey Rebecca,

    I am a gay man you’re not I didn’t find Simone Troy homophobic.

    I know it’s a tough issue and we can argue back and forward about it for a few months but Simone’s specific type of humour is not for everyones taste, I agree.

    But for me her saving grace was that she was just as keen to send herself up as any on else in the crowd.

    Do you also find Edna Everage mysogynistic?

    Humour is a fine line – one persons punchline is another persons lawsuit.

  3. Peter Cross, I’m a woman, you’re not. I found Simone Troy misogynistic. I’m probably a little more senstive to it than a man is. I wouldn’t tell an Indigenous person who found something racist, ‘That was by no means racist.’

  4. Why do people always say that drag is dead? Have you been out on a Thurs,Fri,Sat night on Oxford st? my gosh, these days so many clubs have drag comp’s going and they never run short on people who want to perform! (Taxi club one example)

    I dont think drag will ever die.

  5. i dont where all this talk about drag being a dying artform came from…but its SO not true. Maybe the queens they knew went stale and died a tragic death.

    Just look at me…for instance-

    My name is Kitty Glitter
    I am a drag queen
    I love what I do for a living…and so do MANY MANY others.
    I am not only alive and well, but kicking arse, BITCHES!!!

    I wish the new team all the love and strength they need to take “our” night of the year, thriving into a more glamorous future.

    Now..WHERES MY RISING STAR!!?? meow xox

  6. Drag goes in both directions. Cate Blanchett, and Pamela Rabe played Shaespearean kings in STC’s War of the Roses, a new twist on the men playing women of the time. Indeed Cate’s performance outshone many actors who had taken on Richard II.

  7. Thanks Peter. Drag, like any form of entertainment, has it’s good and bad performers. Drag at its best is a tribute to women who were and are icons, who portrayed strong female archetypes in the movies or stirred people with their music, and on top of that drag is a refreshing reminder that sexuality can be fluid. The same can be said for Drag Kings. Crude people will be crude whatever they’re wearing.

  8. To accuse all drag of being mysognistic is to miss the point of ‘good’ drag.

    Simone Troy was by no means anti- women. she was/is a comedian who likes to push an envelope. Her humour was equally aimed at gays, straightmen, Dawn; really anyone that came within her radar.

    While some drag maybe indeed be anti-women, good drag isn’t.

    Drag is a wonderful old tradition in theatre. Even the STC have used as recently as 2007 men dressing as women to play a part (Peter Carroll in Patrick Whites Season at Sasparilla. In fact Peter was hardly ever out of a frock for most of that season.)

    In the bars of Sydney one need only look to Courtney Act, Trevor Ashley, Tora Hymen – none of whom are remotely anti women.

  9. Surely the point of progress is to learn from the mistakes made in the past? Only focusing on the future and denying past experiences is only further ignorance.

    -˜1959′ is isn’t but our communities’ culture is derived on a past that is steeped in oppression and struggle to be where we are today-¦ and I think that’s somewhere that’s pretty fabulous!

    Acknowledging identities, drag queens or other, that put themselves out there to be a part of our culture is something that we should continue to celebrate.

    Times have indeed changed and we change with them and if your not going to be a part of that then don’t try spoil it for everyone else.

  10. Phil Scott, I really enjoy your column, but I think you’re off the mark on this. I’m a woman and I don’t think drag is a tribute to women at all. It’s often a badly-conceived caricature. And, as Chris’ examples show, a lot of the ‘humor’ is misogynistic, pure and simple. Simone Troy, anyone? Specialized in misogyny, racism and anti-lesbian comments.

    Some of the strongest anti-lesbian sentiments I’ve ever heard have come from the mouths of drag queens – usually something to the effect that lesbians aren’t real women. The stage of the Albury, back in the day, was full of it.

    Ask yourself how you feel about minstrelsy. Some whites see it as a tribute to African Americans, many African Americans see it as a demeaning racist insult.

    I respect Maxi Shield for her unswerving devotion to the community (and she doesn’t stoop to misogyny) but we could easily live without most of the other drag performers.

  11. Phil Scott…”It’s a tribute to women, not an insult.”

    Really?..Funny that..at the last Drag Show I saw the performer referred to herself and other women as fish.. and her crude joke about mensturation was expected to raise the roof .

  12. Stop your bitching queens, and enjoy the night!

    I want the awards to continue until next year at least, when I’ll clean up!

    Everyone knows I’m the next big thing!

  13. It is absolutely unbelievable that all this rubbish is happening.

    To all the original (and subsequent) directors of the various iterations of DIVA, let me remind you that you guys decided to leave of your own accord.

    To then criticise the people that have the generosity of spirit to keep the Awards going is, in my view, plain and simple troublemaking. Move on!

    The 2008 Awards were held amidst grim and worsening economic conditions, with sponsorship drying up and costs spiralling. Claims of poor management are just sour grapes, and a bit rich given that some of those making the claims walked away from DIVA in years previous, without any real care for its future.

    I admire everyone that put their hand up to run DIVA over the years. The time commitment is substantial and it’s mostly a thankless task. You obviously all have a common love of drag, so why are you engaging in this schoolyard -œhe said, she said carry on? It really just makes all of you look like amateur fools.

    Yes, the drag scene has contracted in the last few years with many of the big stars leaving town or retiring, leaving a bit of a talent vacuum, but there has been some promising younger kids coming through, so the Awards are still relevant and much loved by many.

    I wish the new team all the very best. I hope you guys can ignore and survive all the bitterness and create a great night out for all!

  14. I am a drag queen for the taxi club. i perform regularly you got a problem get over it coz im a drag.

  15. As a sponsor of the DIVA’s for all but the first year (when there were none) I to am a little saddened to see all this going on, but would like to wish the new team well.
    Here’s a tip for the new team, if you get sponsors, treat them well and if you have presenters, don’t let them go on stage drunk and forget to mention who the sponsor is.

  16. Always looked forward to the Divas each year, thanks Penny and Ian for many great memories. I have to take issue the ignorant claim that drag is a parody of women. Cross-dressing has always been an element of performing from ancient arts like the Peking Opera to Shakespeare when women were banned from performing. Who do you think played Lady Macbeth, Ophelia and Portia? Fast forward 400 years and Gwyneth Paltrow got an Oscar for playing a girl pretending to be a boy so he could play Juliet in order to win her Romeo. Clever stuff! The writers deservedly won an Oscar too. Drag can be a parody but it can also be pastiche, satire and gloriously subversive. Dame Edna is not strictly a drag queen but she is a perfect example of the enduring power of cross-dressing as entertainment and social commentary. I look forward to the new incarnation of the Divas.

  17. Apologies to anyone who has previously worked on DIVA for the comment “It’s a slap in the face to anyone who has ever worked on DIVA.”

    However, that is not a quote that can be attributed to me, but rather than fanciful “reporting” of Ani Lamont.

    Editor’s Note: We’ve offered Mr Croft the opportunity to come in and review the recording of his interview to refresh his memory.

  18. The DIVA awards have been such a great part of Sydney’s gay scene over the years. It is part of what makes Sydney such a fun and iconic gay city and the official ‘home of drag’ as it is known around the world. The name Drag Industry Variety Awards (DIVA) is brilliant and should not be allowed to disappear. It celebrates the many talented performers and technicians who work so hard every year on limited budgets. Long live DIVAS!

  19. I am also a founding member of DIVA, and spent 14 years building a great fun event. I’m a little saddened by these comments being made public, and i don’t think Paul, who may have had a difficult time on the board with the current economic situation, can really speak on behalf of all previous DIVA directors. I wish the new organization the very best in the future, the event has not died, its just more than ready for a new direction which the previous board couldn’t achieve. Drag is out there for those of you who enjoy it… support it! if you don’t like it… look the other way, there’s no need to try to ruin it for everyone else???

    Ian Jopson… New York City

  20. Interesting that someone is critisizing a group of people who want to do something positive for the community. Just because you think it’s time it died, doesn’t mean everyone else does too.

    And if they are not asking anything from you then why is it a problem for you?

    How ironic that in that case Drag Queen = Drama Queen! Stick to doing over the top dramatics in your performances people! not in real life!! LOL

  21. I am one of the founding members of Diva and a lot of what Paul said was not completely accurate and his opinion was not shared by many of the other Diva Members, which is why we sent out a letter last week.
    Many of us do support the new company and the sentence that ‘Diva had come to its natural end’ is a joke.
    Diva would have continued had the 2008 Diva Awards not run at a loss.
    Much of the problem was due to bad managament by the current board.

    Penny Clifford.

  22. DIVA is not a term owned by the Drag Industry Variety Awards – where is the trademark licence paul? – if anything the previous board leeched off a common term for years…

    so sad that you are bagging out people who are obviously concerned about the drag community.

    if you want to get bitchy mate, lets look into the fact that your DIVA failed, yet continually “sold out” events… so where the hell did the money go???

  23. Give these guys a chance. Given that DIVA often sells out, and the number of drag venues has declined significantly I support the new format and the fresh organisation. DRAG! at the Sydney Opera House has sold out within hours. There is a need for more drag in the community, it’s part of our culture.

    If Paul had the interest of the community at heart he would wish them well, not try to hold onto something that they chose to resign. Sounds like an ego trip of “If I can’t have it, neither can you!”

  24. I can see where Paul is coming from – why save something that’s dying? It’s like Mardi Gras – it should have folded naturally, or New Mardi Gras should have actually been *NEW*… all that ends up happening in these situations is that old formats get run into the ground…

    Let’s hope this isn’t the case with DIVA – only time will tell…

  25. It is 2009 not 1959! It is time to consign drag to the archives of Gay history . It is a ridiculous parody of women, some would also say it is insulting to women . When football players are doing it and just about the only place it is popular is the RSL you know it has past it’s use buy date – let it go !!