Drag Season - Doing Too Much?

 Hello!

When I last left y'all, I mentioned a phone call.  My phone did ring, I answered and now I am currently a little busier than I ever thought I could be, especially in the drag arena.  I may be considering changing this blog to DRAG Alone With Me.com...

Here's the deal, I wanted to be more involved with BEST IN DRAG SHOW and now I am more involved than I'd ever thought I would be.  I am now entered in the BEST OF BEST IN DRAG SHOW!  I will be competing in the show in October as a former winner. Remember that time I won?

2018

I was so excited and fell in love with the show and have been very happily excited to take part in any way, ever since.  Now, I'm back.  This time, I guess, for a second chance to lose! When I got the call to compete again, I was torn.  I know how much work it is, how much there is to worry about and how much it might hurt to not win, again.  Of course, my ego wasn't going to win this battle.  I know exactly right now is when this charity, and many more all over the country, needs the help and contributions. With the current administration gutting all of our programs to fund turning DC into a swamp with a ballroom, I can't sit back and just 'like' all the Anti-Trump posts on the socials.  Besides, I have my strategy for doing this kind of thing in place: Put on the best, most entertaining show you can and that'll be the reward.  Who knows, maybe in this show I play the girl who comes in last.  I mean, Drew Barrymore DID play the first one to die in SCREAM, right?   I'm proud that I agreed to do it, I'm just not so excited about the timing, right now.  I have plenty to do this far in advance of October and that includes; planning my show, sketching out ideas & costumes, finding someone to build those crazy costume ideas on a limited budget, figuring out my talent portion & recruiting someone to be involved in that, sorting out logistics like load in of props & costumes and promoting the show. 

It's a lot, so wish this little(?) Yellow Rose of Texas, Reba Areba

MISS TEXAS 2026

lots of luck while I go back to the drawing board and come up with an entirely new show

My first sketch from the 2018 show

as I go up against these other girls for whom this isn't their first time at the rodeo, either!

Please get your tickets, now at BEST IN DRAG SHOW.COM

I need to do all that while in the midst of this 4 week run of CHICO'S ANGELS 2: LOVE BOAT CHICAS!

At this point we're two weeks in and I am exhausted!  We're running Wednesday - Sunday with 2 shows on Saturdays & Sundays. Look, at 58 years old this is not a breeze.  Also, I have to deal with things like my shoes breaking...

You can bet the replacement heels were 2 inches shorter!

and fending off, what feels like a forever threatening summer cold. We first did this show in March of 2004 and have done it a couple of times over the years, so it didn't take long to rememorize the lines and such.  What hasn't come back so quickly is the ability to run, fight and roll on the floor so easily.  We're very active putting on this non-stop drag extravaganza with drama, action, singing and dancing, but it's getting harder to keep up with high pace.  We still do, it's just not so easy.  As a matter of fact, this is our farewell performance to this episode.  I don't know how many of the 7 episodes we've done the past couple of years were the farewell performances to those!  To make things harder (poor me, right?) I had to get up at 4am to get ready to appear on the local morning news in hopes of selling tickets for our last two weeks of shows.      Check  it out HERE

Thank you KABC 7 & Tony Cabrera

"If it's so hard, why do you even do it?" you might not ask, so I ask it myself...
I'll tell you, doing the show is a blast!  It's all the producing and prep and aging that's starting to be a challenge.  Aside from the complete laughfest we have performing & rehearsing, there are a few perks.  For example, I love when the celebs drop by! (I'm a starfucker, so sue me!) I especially love when some of the people I count as inspirations and influnces drop in, Like Julie Brown, whom I laughed with and quoted from her MTV show JUST SAY JULIE!

Julie with the cast and director Sam Irvin

and 80's Pop star Debbie Gibson, whom I sang along with and of whose songs I made up parodies like "I Get Lost in My House" and "Shake My Butt" ...

Truly a friend of the show

Then, there's the cast!  All but 2 are original cast members from 2004. I love these people so much because when we laugh together as much as we do, we can't help but form a special bond

Here's most of the cast in a pic by Bill LeBeouf

My favorite members of the cast are our 2 hunks!  There's returning hunk Duke Shoman,

I love this guy

who was not able to cover all of the shows so we got a second hunk, making his Chico's Angels debut, Sebastian Gonzalez. ...or as he's better known on Insta, dino.mml

I love this guy

Casting hunks for a drag comedy play can be trickier than you might think and it was starting to be a special challenge, but we were lucky that Duke agreed to step in where he could and we were especially lucky to find Sebastian, courtesy of muh DAB, Dennis Hensley!  They both bring their own special brand to the role of Dick Hardo and our audiences seem quite delighted to see either of them.  What do you think?

Duke, courtesy of Bill LeBeouf

Sebastian, courtesy of Mike Pingel

Please, believe me that it is a great joy to work with both of these guys.  On a personal level, I love them for their unique and sometimes surprising personalities and what they bring to their shared role.  I'm only disappointed that I have one brief interaction with them throughout the entire 2 hour show!  Also, I would be remiss to in not reminding you that Duke agreed to help me out in 2018 as my hunk Pinata Assassin in BEST IN DRAG SHOW

Duke helped me during my talent portion - being a human pinata

So, I suppose I'll survive the current drag storm and live to see other adventures dressed as a guy, but I'll always be grateful to BEST ON DRAG SHOW and CHICO'S ANGELS for the gift of laughter.  

If you're planning on coming to see Chico's Angels, (please do!), you can get tickets HERE - kaysedia.com 

Keep in mind 

AND

That's right!  Ray Garcia leaves after this week and Jai Rodriguez is coming in for our last week as Chita!  It's all very exciting!!   I hope you'll come on board soon!!!

Drag Season - Back in Chains

It was June of 2025 when Drag Season hit really hard.  After a long break, the Chico's Angels cast got together and put on a show!  The break came mostly because one of our main Angels, Ray Garcia, moved to Bay City and opened his own dance academy, like he was Debbie Allen, or something!  Also, there was this pandemic thing that shut down all theater for a while.

As you can see, I was ready to be more gay and jump into rehearsal for the show we hadn't done in over 10 years.  After a few rehearsals, the lines and blocking were starting to come back to me.  What wasn't coming back to me as quickly was my ability to run & dance around in high heeled shoes!

Gosh darn it! I'm a pro, so I just kept going until it ALL came back to me.  I couldn't just decide to play Frieda Laye in flats!  Especially not this episode, where she has a scene as a sexy street walker with a full-on number. So, to get that back, I was sure to, at the very least, rehearse all my song & dance stuff with the shoes on, then wore the heels throughout for the final rehearsals.  Meanwhile, I wore flats for the regular scenes, like the office, the prison and the classroom, where I get to sit on the new hunk's lap.

This run of this episode features many of the original cast members, or a few mainstays, but we usually have to get an entirely new hunk, because they age out or get busy being hunky elsewhere.  This run's hunk was Joe Piccuirro.

He was a sweetheart and it was a pleasure to sit on his lap!

Speaking of new & mainstays, the actress we had playing the lead girl suffered a mishap that left her unable to be in the show at the very last minute.  What to do?  We reached out to someone who had played the role before, Natalie Lander.  She said she could do it, except for the opening week!  We were in such a bind.  Who could we ask that could learn the role in 3 days?  Enter Beth Leckbee-Makler, who has played the role before... YEARS before, but had since moved to Texas, as well.  One phone call and she was on a plane and ready to re-learn the show in 2 rehearsals!

Beth, with no signs of jet lag

Beth as Roxy

Kay Sedia and Beth as Warden Cox

She did it! She slipped back into the roles of Roxy & Warden Cox with expertise and style.  The opening weekend went off without a hitch! Immediately after the opening night show ended, I saw this in my mind!

With the scariness of the first weekend allayed, we said farewell to Beth and prepared for Natalie to take over the role. We had another card up our sleeves, too! Her name is, Claire Riffle. She was an understudy, of sorts. She couldn't commit to the role because she was performing in another show, but she knew the role well enough to go on while we waited for Natalie.

Hayes Dunlap as Stanley, Claire Riffle as Roxy

Claire did a great job considering she was very new to the role and had limited rehearsal.
Soon, Natalie was free from her previous show and could join us full time, (with Claire getting a few more performances here & there).

Natalie is a living doll and I feel honored to perform with her! With Natalie in place the show ran very well for everyone. ...Except for my shoes

Here I was worried that I wouldn't be able to do the show in these shoes and it turns out the shoes couldn't handle me!  In truth, I lost 4 pairs of shoes to this show!

It really is a grueling show, what with dancing, fighting, running backwards... I surprised myself, but I was very forgiving of the shoes.  I will admit that the replacement shoes I bought had my current age in mind and weren't quite as high heeled.  Sidenote:  There aren't nearly as many places selling these racy high heeled shoes as there used to be, especially before the pandemic. It's difficult to find appropriately slutty shoes at Marshall's & TJ Max these days! 

Also, we had a back-up Bossman, Daniel Mora, who donned the bandana a couple of times

Daniel Mora as Bossman undercover

So, here's the show in pictures, just for a taste...

The Angels: Frieda Laye: Me, Kay Sedia: Oscar Quintero and Chita Parol: Ray Garcia

Frieda with Director/Co-Writer, Kurt Koehler

Frieda with Natalie Lander as Roxy

Angels' entrance

Bossman, Alejandro Patino, explains the case

Angels undercover at South Oaks Prep
Lennon Hobson as Kelly, Cher Ferrerya as Becky

School Hunk, Peter, with Kelly & Becky

Stanley, Hayes Dunlap, has enough for Roxy, Natalie Lander

Frieda undercover as the prostitute substitute teacher

Kay thinks Peter might like her

Frieda teaches prostitutes, Gloria (Cher) & Sonya (Lennon)

The Angels end up in towels, in jail!

The Angels have time for a number with Spice, Lennon Hobson

Rhonda, Cher Ferrerya, and the Warden, Natalie Lander, run a loose ship!

Roxy isn't sure how, but the show ends.

...But not before Kay can sing a song for Peter!

The final cast (left to right):

 Joe Piccuirro, 

Oscar Quintero, Me, Ray Garcia, 

Cher Ferrerya, Alejandro Patino, Hayes Dunlap, Lennon Hobson, Natalie Lander

This was an amazing experience, doing so many shows over 3 weeks at a Broadway schedule. It was exhausting, but rewarding. And it was a blast!  The audience seemed to enjoy it as well!  We even got a few gifts!  One very notable one is this candle made especially for each member of the cast!

Thank you, Dennis Hensley!

If you're reading this post and regret missing this show, fret not!!

We're back to do 2 more weeks of this FINAL RUN of Chico's Angels 3: Chicas in Chains!

We're running March 4-15 (The 15th is Oscar Night so, plan accordingly!)

Tickets available at kaysedia.com

It's the same cast, except for our hunk, whom we lost to a tragic employment opportunity!
Who will be our new hunk?  I guess you'll just have to come see the show to find out!!

Thank you, Mike Pingel for the photos of the actual production!