(Image: @phaseballspl via Twitter)
Capitol Hill’s latest labor issue is on the stage at Julia’s on Broadway where drag performers are asking for a better deal.
Performer Irene Dubois posted about the issues over the weekend and says that management fired its Le Faux Productions cast over the call for better pay and restrictions performers say are in place that limit the performers from appearing at venues besides Julia’s.
“Our intentions were to create an atmosphere of appreciation, respect and professional integrity. We work extremely hard, love what we do and it shows with how great our productions are,” the “Drag Union” group says in it update.
According to Ian Hill, the Seattle performer who appears as Dubois, the situation with the Julia’s crew began over issues around how to split tips with the rest of the restaurant’s staff as the reopening brought a return of in-person performances. The Drag Union post said that the discussions with Julia’s management grew into issues over compensation and requirements that performers are exclusive to the Le Faux shows and only perform at Julia’s. The Drag Union group says it asked for two changes. One, pay each performer $300 a show to cover the time required to rehearse, prepare, and perform and two, drop the exclusivity requirement.
According to the group, Julia’s responded by letting the performers go. A message posted by Julia’s says shows will be shut down for weeks this summer as the venue undergoes “a little nip/tuck to the inside.”
Julia’s management has not responded to CHS’s inquiry about the situation but we will update if we hear back. UPDATE: Julia’s owner Eladio Preciado denies many of the assertions and says the group’s approach didn’t leave much room to negotiate describing receiving a communication about the demands only hours before a scheduled show. “It was no way to negotiate,” Preciado says. Elements like the exclusivity requirements are off the mark he says, pointing out recent performances at other venues involving some of the cast.
But Preciado says he is ready to move forward and put the dispute behind everybody at Julia’s.
“I don’t have any ill feelings for them,” Preciado says of the young cast of performers he considered friends but is ready to move on from. “If they want $300 a show, they can find who wants to hire them.”
Preciado said he is already in talks with others who are interested in performing at Julia’s and that he believes he has the support of other workers around the shows. The hope, he says, is to have drag back in Julia’s in about four weeks.
The venue has faced years of challenges on Broadway that had the longtime space in the neighborhood nightlife scene considering a move downtown before the decision to increase its focus on drag and performance. Performers, meanwhile, struggled through the pandemic though some found new avenues including virtual performances to help keep the industry alive on Capitol Hill. Earlier this year, the Stranger talked with Preciado about the challenges his business faced during the COVID-19 crisis.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CRIazX-rvtn/
Capitol Hill drag was already hurting before the issues at Julia’s. Over the winter, R Place announced it had lost its lease and would be shuttering its E Pine location as it searched for a new home. It has yet to reopen. Meanwhile, Queer/Bar has upped its drag game with a summer-long slate featuring “nine national award-winning drag queens.”
At Julia’s, meanwhile, Dubois and crew are asking for support.
“We ask that our fellow performers, including kings, queens, burlesque, dancers & live singers, join us in solidarity and not accept bookings at Julia’s on Broadway or Le Faux Productions,” the group writes. “We deserve to be well compensated and can no longer accept that establishments do not make enough money” to pay their performers.”
Want to help? A Gofundme has been set up to benefit “The Former Queens of Julia’s.”
UPDATE: Dubois tells CHS that the group plans to meet “as a cast” with Julia’s management to discuss the situation but that other opportunities are emerging as the neighborhood and drag community responds. There are already offers of space to all the group to produce their own shows or to work with other performers.
“This has been terrifying to go through but so many people let us know they support what we’re doing,” Dubois said.
The performer said their effort at Julia’s fits in with larger movements of change in drag — “a community of people who want to create space — and an economic system standing in the way.”
There is energy, Dubois said, to explore forming a “wider union” with resources “to take ownership of a space” rather than depending on bar and restaurant owners to shape drag’s future.
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