Dance + Live Performance | Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh City Paper: In 1993, Kierra Darshell and her drag mother, Denise Darshell, organized the inaugural Miss Tri-State All-Star Pageant, surely Pittsburgh’s first annual drag competition. In Pittsburgh, the fine art of female impersonation was then limited to gay bars, so this was a big step. Kierra had been doing drag for just four years, in clubs including Downtown’s fabled Pegasus, but was determined to take drag to a wider audience. That first pageant, held in the ballroom of the Radisson Hotel in Monroeville, went well. Miss Tri-State even survived Denise’s death, in 1995.
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As someone new to Pittsburgh and the surrounding area it is very nice to see that there was a well supported popular drag queen contest, showing the diversity in Pittsburgh. When Kierra Darshell said that she was told by her drag mother, Denise Darshell, to keep the tradition alive, I saw an instant parallel to the theatre. Theatre after is an ancient tradition passed down and asked to be kept alive to the core. Denise said to “keep the dream going”. Something I’ve encountered a lot here at Carnegie’s School of Drama. People are around the clock pushing themselves in order to maintain their dream. I think this article is a beautiful reminder that when the tough gets going, remember the goal and keep pursuing the goal even when it catches then pursue the new goal. It is nice to see that Kierra Darshell will continue to lead other drag events and that she recognized a need to update. This is another direct parallel to the theatre, which is constantly updating and evolving to match society’s needs and demands.
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