Drag Heals, Season 3, is a documentary focused on the theater and personal growth. Six strangers with different backgrounds and experiences come together to create a one-person show at Buddies in Bad Times a queer theater in Toronto. They attend stage director Tracey Erin Smith's workshop where they go through intensive exercises that help them develop their performances. Directed by Charlie David and facilitated by creator Tracey Erin Smith, Drag Heals is emotional and beautiful in its rawness. The production of the series is extremely well done with vibrant colors, flawless transitions, and dynamic camera work. It's an easy series to binge at just over three hours of screentime divided into eight episodes.
Episode 1, "Dream Team", introduces the viewer to the six performers: Tristan (they/them) who's stage name is Tristan Ginger; Tyler (he/him) who's stage name is Alice Starr; Rose-Ingrid (she/they) who's stage name is Reverend Love; Val (she/her) who's stage name is Al Val; Marissa (they/them) who's stage name is Buster Highman; and Alphonso (he/him) who's stage name is Jade Electra. Tracey opens up with the workshop by giving the audience and participants a clear understanding of the workshop's purpose: "I am thinking of this space as the delivery room. Where you are birthing different parts of yourself to gather them together and mix them up with some magic and create a one-person show. So our intention is that you go as deep as you can. That you push yourselves. That we are not a cast - we become a community." True to her words, Tracey continuously works at building a sense of community with the participants throughout the series. She starts off building trust between the participants and herself and the participants with each other. This trust really allows the participants to open up and be vulnerable. It almost feels like it could be a therapy session, except Tracey keeps everyone's focus on the end product: a theatrical show. Tracey gives the performers all the assignment of creating a solo show about a turning point in their lives.
I found the concept of Drag Heals really interesting. Tracey explained Drag Heals is "based on a process that I developed when I was teaching at Toronto Metropolitan University, that helps people excavate raw material from their lives, and, using what I call theatrical alchemy, transform it into something for the stage." This theatrical alchemy is present throughout the series, and it's amazing to watch.
While the performers work on their performance pieces, they disclose significant moments in their lives where everything transformed ranging from parenthood, coming out, HIV diagnosis, etc. These are powerful moments and powerful stories. The participants expose their insecurities, hurts, and vulnerabilities, not only to each other during the workshop, but also to the camera. These raw and honest moments are what makes this show more than just a drag theatrical performance, and why I found Drag Heals to be so compelling.
Although there are many heavy topics that are discussed throughout this series, there is also a lot of laughter, joy, hope. The final performance in Episode 8 was just fantastic. It was so rewarding to see all the hard work and effort come together into such an engaging and fun show. I really enjoyed the ending choregraph dance all six performers did, especially knowing how intimidating some of them found it in earlier episodes. All in all, this was a great series and extremely enjoyable. I highly recommend it and hope there will be a season four sometime in the future.
