MASS DRAG
A Drag Liturgy in One Act
Five drag nuns · A gay bar · A Mass built from queer history
A world-premiere musical blending ritual, comedy, and documented queer Catholic history — built for Fringe and beyond.
This is a production in motion.
Teaser Video
Created from the March 15, 2026 table read — 20+ participants, standing ovation.
Mass Drag · Table Read Teaser · March 2026
| Format | Staged ritual / musical theatre — one act, no intermission |
| Cast | 5 performers + Music Director |
| Runtime | ~60 minutes (Fringe edition) · ~90 minutes (full-length) |
| Tech | Minimal — flexible staging, fast load-in/out · 15-minute turnover ready |
| Audience | LGBTQ+, progressive faith communities, downtown theatre |
| Premiere | Biltmore Bar and Lounge, Rochester Fringe Festival, September 2026 |
- 60-minute Fringe edition and full 90-minute one-act — scales to the venue
- Minimal set, flexible staging — bars, black boxes, sanctuaries, found spaces
- Cast of 5 — no ensemble, no chorus, no flying rigs
- 15-minute turnover ready
- Strong musical spine — 10 original songs, score complete and recordable
- Built-in audience infrastructure: LGBTQ+ communities, progressive faith networks, Fringe circuit
Listen
Selected Tracks — Demo Score
Full score — all 10 songs — available upon request.
The Story
It is October 9th. The feast day of Saint John Henry Cardinal Newman. Five Sisters of the Blessed Canon have taken over a gay bar and are performing High Drag Mass — complete with original music, liturgical drag, and the full sacramental arsenal.
It is a celebration. It is a reclamation. It is, unmistakably, a show. But underneath the sequins is a real argument: before the medieval Catholic Church burned sodomites at the stake in the 14th century, it performed same-sex union ceremonies — called adelphopoiesis — for almost a thousand years. When Pope Francis blessed same-sex couples in 2023, the Church called it a breakthrough. Mass Drag calls it a homecoming.
Blessed Sister Donna Wanna-Noh · Sisters of the Blessed Canon
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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. Available on request — please use your institutional or organizational email so we can confirm and keep advance materials properly credentialed.
The Trajectory
Rochester is where the show gets built. New York is where it gets recognized.
If this is something you want to be part of, this is the moment to say so.
Why Audiences Will Come
James Lopata
Book, music, and lyrics.
- Studied playwriting with Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott, Boston University
- Master of Theological Studies, Harvard Divinity School
- Former cantor, St. Francis Xavier Church, New York City — a decade
- Music industry veteran — former Member of the Recording Academy, Grammy Voting Member
- Director, Drama League of New York
- Previous musicals: Collage and Summer Camp (book, music, and lyrics)
- Executive coach — Tesla, SpaceX, Boston Children's Hospital, NY AG's office
- Bylines in NPR, The Boston Globe, and The New York Times
- Founder, Massachusetts LGBT Chamber of Commerce
He wrote this show because it needed to exist.
How to Engage
Request the Script
The complete script and full score are available upon request. Contact directly below, or download the one-pager to share. Available on request — please use your institutional or organizational email so we can confirm and keep advance materials properly credentialed.
Interested in production,
partnership, or development?
Full script, score, and additional materials available. Let's talk. Available on request — please use your institutional or organizational email so we can confirm and keep advance materials properly credentialed.
Get in TouchJames Lopata · james@massdrag.org · 617-676-8864
massdrag.org