If you’re in the audience at “The Legend of Georgia McBride,” one of the first things you might notice is Kevin Kantor’s tattoo.
It’s on their left forearm and it looks like a DNA symbol intertwined with an infinity symbol.
They’ve had it since 2016 and they were one of the 50 sexual violence survivors that got the tattoo after performing with Lady Gaga during the 2016 Oscars.
Yes, THE Lady Gaga.
Graphic designer Jacqueline Lin created the tattoo to represent the strength and unity of survivorship.
Kantor is a Chicago-based actor who was studying at the University of Northern Colorado in 2015 when a video of their slam poetry piece “People You May Know” went viral.
The poem, which now has 1.7 million views on YouTube, eloquently discusses the feelings of seeing their rapist on the Facebook feature “People You May Know.”
After their brush with fame, Kantor found a home at the Arizona Theatre Company, where they starred in “Things I Know to be True” in 2019 and “The Legend of Georgia McBride” now on stage at the Temple of Music and Art.
Kantor, who uses They/Them/Theirs pronouns, plays the role of Casey, who is a troubled Elvis impersonator who becomes a drag queen to support his pregnant wife.
Casey is a straight man, “who is sort of a fish out of water and is learning about an art form that has its foundation in queer culture,” says Kantor.
Although the character at first feels uncomfortable with the femininity of being in drag, he eventually blossoms into a fabulous star who embraces drag regardless of his sexuality.
Kantor joined a cast that includes two real drag artists, Armand Fields as Rexy and Courter Simmons as Miss Tracy Mills.
Kantor says it is a joy to be able to center queer experiences and have drag performers as mentors.
“I work on a lot of plays, shows, stories, etc., that don’t necessarily center queer experiences, and don’t have a majority queer team,” they said, adding that “Georgia McBride” is a tribute to the art of drag and the queer community. “So very often, I’m being asked to reframe my understanding of a story through a straight and cis (identifies with the gender assigned at birth) perspective.”
Kantor believes that queer characters should always be played by queer actors and since “queer and trans people being historically marginalized, it only stands to reason that we should be arbiters and benefactors of the stories that we are telling about our community,” they said.
As far as that tattoo, Kantor said they have run into strangers on the street who have gotten it because of its now immense meaning.
Georgia McBride continues at the Temple of Music and Art through June 24th and then moves on to Phoenix.
Tickets and times at The Legend of Georgia McBride — Arizona Theatre Company (atc.org)
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On June 11, Alex Newell and J. Harrison Ghee became the first nonbinary people to win Tonys.
