Mass Drag
on Campus
"Five drag nuns. One gay bar. A thousand years of queer history the Church would rather you not know about."
A world-premiere musical about faith, belonging, and institutional change — built for the conversation it starts as much as the show itself. Two formats, built to fit a class period, a colloquium, or a full community event.
Mass Drag isn't a novelty booking. It comes from a former Jesuit candidate and Harvard-trained theologian who spent decades as a Catholic cantor, and it's already generating exactly the kind of two-hour conversation a class period rarely gets on its own.
Two Ways to Bring It In
Happy to work within grant parameters and departmental budgets, especially for a first collaboration.
From the Table Read
March 2026 — 20+ participants, standing ovation, two hours of discussion afterward.
Planning Questions, Answered
Where Things Stand
- World premiere confirmed — Sept. 15–18, 2026, ESL Rochester Fringe Festival, the Biltmore.
- First campus engagement booked — Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Oct. 29, 2026.
- Active conversations underway at the University of Rochester and RIT.
- Fiscal sponsorship through Fractured Atlas, plus a Rochester Fringe Production Launch Fund grant.
The Annotated Reader
Newman Project Press
Rochester · MMXXVI
Mass Drag: The Annotated Reader is a companion text to the show — equal parts theatrical script, cultural history, and academic resource. Designed for classroom use, it traces the documented and interpretive history behind every major claim in the production, distinguishing clearly between what is verified, what is interpretive, what is historically disputed, and what belongs to the mythology of the Sisters of the Blessed Canon themselves.
Five Original Essays — Potential Course Assignments
Each essay addresses a distinct historical and theological question raised by the show, and can be assigned independently or as a sequence.
-
Essay 1The Church Made Brothers: Adelphopoiesis and Brother-Making Rites An examination of the medieval Christian rite of same-sex union — its liturgical form, its geographic spread across nine centuries, and the ongoing scholarly debate about what the ceremony meant to those who performed and received it.
-
Essay 2The Same Hands Burned: The Burning of Sodomites How the same institution that blessed same-sex unions came to criminalize and execute men for sodomy — and what that institutional continuity reveals about the relationship between theology, politics, and historical memory.
-
Essay 3Heart Speaks to Heart: Newman, Ambrose St. John, and the Theology of Love The life, love, and theological legacy of John Henry Cardinal Newman — his thirty-two-year relationship with Ambrose St. John, his motto Cor ad cor loquitur, and the question his canonization quietly leaves open.
-
Essay 4The Dig: The Surprising Exhumation of the Future Saint Newman, 2008 A close account of the Vatican's 2008 attempt to exhume Newman's remains from the grave he shared with Ambrose St. John — what they found, what it meant, and why the empty grave became one of the stranger footnotes in the history of Catholic sainthood.
-
Essay 5Again: Fiducia Supplicans and the Return of Blessing Two People of the Same Sex Pope Francis's 2023 declaration permitting the blessing of same-sex couples — its language, its limits, its reception, and the question Mass Drag asks of it: is this a breakthrough, or a homecoming to something the Church already knew?
Available for university and college workshops, course adoption, and institutional use. Contact the author directly to discuss bulk orders, classroom licensing, or a campus visit in connection with a production or reading.
Start a Conversation
Every campus is different. Happy to talk through what fits your community, your calendar, and your budget — even a preliminary conversation is welcome.
Email Jim