‘Really awesome and engaging’: Chabot combines science education with drag performance under planetarium dome

Under the planetarium dome on Friday evening, Chabot Space & Science Center hosted the third annual space-themed drag show “Science is a Drag!,” which featured performances from Bay Area drag kings and queens, interactive science experiments and pre-show access to the center’s exhibits. 

Science is a Drag was hosted by VERA!, an Oakland-based drag king and co-host of the drag troupe Rebel Kings of Oakland. This year’s event also included performances from Sally Limón, Helixir, Jota Mercury and Ryder Die.

Drag kings and queens in fantastical, feathery and futuristic outfits danced up and down the auditorium to “Good Luck, Babe!” by Chappell Roan and “A Day in the Life of a Tree” by The Beach Boys, while galaxies unfolded on the planetarium screen above them.

“ For those of us who are passionate and love science, it provides us a way to kind of combine not only the science but also the drag aspect. Like, drag brings joy, it brings excitement, it brings entertainment,” said Marcelo Quijano, a science teacher who was among the 150 or so people in the audience. 

Ryder Die opened the show wearing a white lab coat and performing to “She Blinded Me With Science” by Thomas Dolby. She was formerly the lead public programs developer at the Chabot Space & Science Center, and founded the event three years ago as a way to create a space for “queer joy and self-expression” at Chabot. 

Jota Mercury has been a drag king for 10 years and, with VERA!, co-hosts Rebel Kings of Oakland, which performs every first, third, and fifth Wednesday at Oakland’s  White Horse Inn. This was his first year performing at Science is a Drag. The outfits he prepared for the night included a headpiece made of olive tree branches from his backyard, and an oversized pink, feathery cape.

“We can all acknowledge that things are kind of crazy and hard right now,” he said. “We can all still gather and get behind real science and learning, and still support queer rights and existence just by attending events like this.”

Nate Elwood, who grew up in the Bay Area, said events like this provide important representation to the queer community.

“There’s not a lot of representation of queer people in the wider hard sciences,” he said “There’s a lot of people in sociology and that kind of thing, but in stuff like physics, math, chemistry, there’s a lot of cis male dominance.”

Throughout the night, drag performances were interspersed with science lessons on the planetarium stage, allowing audience members to participate in experiments ranging from mixing chemicals and creating different colors, to showing how electricity travels. Experiments were led by Daniel Erenstein, a science instructor on the center’s museum programs team. Erenstein was dressed in drag as Miss Sizzle Ph.D., a play on Ms. Valerie Frizzle from “The Magic School Bus,” complete with an orange wig and long blue coat.

Science is a Drag ended with a final routine from VERA!, who wore a Mr. Spock costume, held large red feather fans in each hand and performed to the song “Finale” by The Cher Show Ensemble. The show closed to applause and cheers from the audience, as the cast held hands and bowed.

“I don’t do drag myself, but to be able to watch someone express themselves freely through their drag and incorporate science into it just feels like seeing someone live their passion on a stage,” Quijano said. 

Mercury enjoyed seeing parents attend Science is a Drag with their kids. Such events, Mercury said, are an important way for “folks who are fresh to this kind of crazy adult world” to enjoy both queer performance art and education.

“Science is always changing. There’s always new discoveries. So we have something like that, and we combine our art with it,” Mercury said. “I just think it’s really awesome and engaging, and it’s just a new, fun way to learn.

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