The Gladys Bentley Project

It is 1952 Harlem’s most (in)famous drag king, Gladys Bentley, has hung up her gender-bending/queer affirming act, married a short order cook in Los Angeles and decided to write her life story.

Join Gladys as she pitches us (the audience) her new biography. We’ll travel with her to the clubs that made her, the night Prohibition ended an era in her career, the doctor’s office where she sought sexual conversion “treatment”, and—all the while—we’ll ponder, “How does a vibrant dreamer like Gladys Bentley thrive in a world that limits her dreams?”

THE GLADYS BENTLEY PROJECT was selected for development for The Trans History Project, a revolutionary national initiative.

Created by Bo Frazier, Baltimore Center Stage’s Artist-in-Residence, and led by Baltimore Center Stage and Breaking the Binary Theatre, this project aims to commission, develop, and publish 10 new plays about the real history of gender non-conformity which has existed across all cultures since the beginning of time.

THE GLADYS BENTLEY PROJECT will be developed in residence at Diversionary Theatre.