Still wrecked after all these years

There's good news and bad news for fans of TraniWreck and Wreckage, the deliciously demented performance art cabarets that have livened up Boston's drag scene for the last three years. Truth Serum Productions has lost its residency at The Milky Way, and with no home base the future of Wreckage, beyond the next two scheduled shows, is up in the air. The good news is that Aliza Shapiro, the brains and sweat behind Truth Serum (and behind Wreckage's velour-smooth MC, Heywood Wakefield,) isn't going anywhere.

"The Milky Way is one of the few cabaret-style spaces in Boston, and that's what our shows are suited to," said Shapiro. "So it's kind of a shame that they're looking to do more live music. But I plan to keep doing TraniWreck quarterly, and I'll pitch shows to the Milky Way."

When I caught up with Shapiro by phone, it was a grey day and she'd been up till 4 a.m. preparing hand painted ties for Truth Serum's holiday fair, Crafts in the Clubs. Mind you, this was after an exhausting night of teaching an overfull drag king workshop. I felt tired just thinking about Shapiro's schedule, which also includes preparing for the upcoming Wreckage drag contest and Dr. Sketchy art event, but she was brimming with energy and enthusiasm.

"[The workshop] was awesome," she said excitedly. "It was a nice mix of people, including two straight women who were excited to go home to their boyfriends in drag. And two of them are going to perform at Wreckage."

It's that infectious energy and enthusiasm that have established Truth Serum as an indispensable part of Boston's queer scene. But Shapiro found her way into nightlife almost accidentally, after graduating from RISD with a degree in architecture. (Ponder that for a moment: the purveyor of wild, loose, gender bending entertainment came from the analytical, detail oriented world of architecture.)

"The economy was really bad then," recalls Shapiro. "I started working in carpentry, then took a job managing a record label, Pop Narcotic. When the label dissolved I kept working with some bands and booking shows locally. So that was the beginning of me producing events."

Although Shapiro still produces concerts, she eventually grew tired of a diet of nothing but music. "I got tired of standing in clubs watching band after band after band," she laughs. "So I started mixing it up but putting a comedian or a drag artist on in between acts. That's how I moved towards these variety shows."

Meanwhile, she was checking out the drag scene at Jacques, especially the drag kings. Her alter ego, Heywood Wakefield, made his debut there on Valentine's Day of 2000. The performance was meant as a gift for Shapiro's partner, but it turned out to be the gift that kept giving. Bitten by the performance bug, she frequented Jacques' amateur night and went on to host Glitterswitch, a drag karaoke night at Hollywood. When a hole opened up in Jacques' programming schedule Shapiro seized the opportunity and TraniWreck was born. From the beginning, the idea was to bend, if not quite wreck, typical ideas about drag shows.

"My base of friends are more in the art school world and theater world," explains Shapiro, "and I wanted to give them the stage. I wanted to get some new, younger people in and present a place for trans performers." Shapiro had also noticed that many of the more traditional drag artists had talents they couldn't use in a typical drag show; there's no room for slam poetry, for instance, when you're lip syncing. At a TraniWreck show, on the other hand, you'll see anything from old school drag to interpretive dance to baton twirling.

Despite being an uneasy fit at Jacques, the show was successful enough to pack the house once a month, and to expand to a second night for an amateur contest, Wreckage. Soon the crowds were exceeding Jacques' capacity and Truth Serum set up shop at Great Scott before settling in at The Milky Way.

"The great thing about being in one spot is you build an audience," sighs Shapiro. She goes on to joke that doing less shows "will take less energy!" In a more serious vein, she ponders the silver lining.

"Doing a quarterly show gives us the opportunity to make it really creative and spectacular. I'm also excited to do the Wreckage contest once a year. It'll be a blockbuster. We've got 14 people signed up to compete, and in the old days it might only be 3."

She also notes that the anarchic spirit she tried to foster with TraniWreck has a life of its own. "Rebecca and Tatya, who are part of the TraniWreck family, have started their own shows. Miss Dominica K started Eleganza. So that's three nights in the calendar doing different drag shows, and attracting the same community."

That ability to honor the work and talent of others is another charcteristic of Truth Serum, and one of the main ingredients of its success. Shapiro's last comment on this weekend's drag competition?

"I'm excited to see the new talent!"

So say we all.

Wreckage: The Contest Show starts at 9 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 9 at The Milky Way, 405 Centre St, Jamaica Plain. $8, 21+. Info: www.truthserum.org.