DIVA shows its love for Valentine

DIVA shows its love for Valentine

With this year’s DIVA Awards only days away, Sydney Star Observer can exclusively reveal the recipient of the 2010 Hall of Fame award to be seasoned drag identity Trudi Valentine.

Valentine (aka Phillip Suitor) performed in a multitude of venues across Sydney in the 1990s and was an integral member of popular drag troupes Transformers and Pleasure Pact.

“I was very happy to hear it. I’m pretty much retired now; I’ve given it away to focus on my day job, as a public servant,” Valentine said of her impending induction.
Suitor’s drag career garnered him a massive 18 DIVA gongs, but he said the experiences and friendships forged were his most lasting memories of his time as Valentine.

“Performing in drag gave me the opportunity to do so many things I never thought I’d do: leading a show at Mardi Gras; being in the closing ceremony of the Sydney Olympics; meeting so many wonderful people.”

He said he had particularly fond memories of his time as a member of various drag groups.

“Being a part of the Transformers at the Midnight Shift in the early ’90s, we were breaking a bit of new ground — pulling big crowds for a Wednesday night show.

“The other thing I’m very proud of is Pleasure Pact. I joined Pleasure Pact in 1989, when it had already been going for nine years, and it continued as a performing, functioning group until 2006. That’s 26 years of a single group performing — that’s pretty amazing.”

Suitor’s old friend and fellow Hall of Fame inductee David Wilkins — aka Dot Dingle — will deliver a tribute speech at the DIVAs before presenting the award, and he was suitably effusive in his praise for Suitor’s drag talents.

“I’ve known Trudi for more than 20 years. Along with Chelsea [Bun], he’s one of my closest drag friends. He’s a real talent, and a damn nice person too.

“His drag career was exciting, dynamic and funny — it gave me and a lot of other people in Sydney a lot of pleasure.

“With Trudi, you knew you were going to see perfect choreography and a high-energy performance. And great comedy, too.”

Wilkins was still writing the speech when we spoke to him, but promised to include a few wicked stories among the praise.

“It’s DIVA, so it’ll come complete with barbs. Some of the funniest times I’ve ever spent have been at ARQ or the Shift with Trudi and Chelsea at the pool tables.

“They’d be wearing micro-dresses and taking on straight boy after straight boy at pool, and just trouncing them. Often trashed.”

And despite already owning a swag of DIVA Awards, Suitor said this new gong would take pride of place in his collection.

“My DIVAs all sit on top of my tallboy. This one will be brand new and untarnished, so it’ll go straight to the front of the pack.”

info:
The DIVA Awards will be held on Monday, September 6 at the MCA. Get your tickets now at www.divaawardsaustralia.com.au

DIVA Hall of Fame
2009 Chelsea Bun
2008 Mitzi Macintosh
2007 Maude Boate
2006 Penny Clifford
2005 Dawn O’Donnell
2004 Mogadonna
2003 David Wilkins
2002 Monique Kelly
2001 Miss 3-D
2000 Simone Troy
1999 Polly Petrie
1998 Miss Rose Leaf
1997 Carlotta
1996 Carmen
1995 Cindy Pastel
1994 Leigh Jennings
1993 Fanny Farquhar and Leggs Galore
1992 Tallulah Brite
1991 Robyn Lee
1990 Rose Jackson

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6 responses to “DIVA shows its love for Valentine”

  1. How fabulous. Congrats Trudi.

    I came out in 1995 and you were one of the first Drag Queens along with Mitzi and Chelsea I had the pleasure of watching.

    Drew xx

  2. Hi Chris. I won’t judge all gay men by your example and I’d prefer you did the same with Drag. There are some performers who lack taste and talent but the most popular are clever, funny, self deprecating, talented, creative people and Trudi is definitely the latter….

  3. Drag queens have played an important role in establishing venues for gay people, they have done endless charity work for our community (as well as supporting other charity organisation that are not for gay issues), even though im not a drag queen and never will be, I find drag queens as an important element to the community.

    We already have a time and place to celebrate being attracted to the same sex, its called Mardigras?

  4. It’s your undergraduate analysis and political correctness that’s dated. Cross-dressing has always been in the performing arts across all cultures. You do know that women were not allowed on stage in Shakespeare’s day so all the roles were played by men? This is even acknowledged in some of the plays – Rosalind’s speech near the end of As You Like It – rendered silly these days since it really is a woman in the part. Then there was the film Shakespeare In Love where Gwyneth Paltrow won an Oscar for playing a girl pretending to be a boy in order to play Juliet in order to win her Romeo. The writers had a field day with that, also bagging them an Oscar. With drag it’s not about writing but performance – the costumes, the music, the attitude. It’s satire, pastiche and – with the best – it can also be subversive. Hell, even some women are pretty good at drag – Mae West. Marlene Dietrich. I believe Dolly Parton is active on Facebook, contact her and say she’s misogynistic!

  5. A a white person putting on ‘blackface makeup’ parodying an african american is racist, offensive and just plain wrong .For a gay man to dress up as a fake woman is mysongenistic offensive and just as wrong .We are living in 2010 not 1950 !
    Its time to consign this quaint activity to the archives of gay history.We are same sex attracted- we should be celebrating that ! Not enacting some sad parody of a man dressing up as a woman which is more often than not bitchy, often racist and always and by its very nature mysogenistic.