Play in the Gray is a penetrating, and at times vulnerably raw, portrait of the work, art, and emotional lives of the members of All The Kings Men.
All The Kings Men is a drag and cabaret inspired theater troupe based out of Boston. The troupe intrigues— on stage they perform as old ladies or appear to be women dressed as men or men dressed as women. Their electrifying, award-winning show makes audiences laugh while also questioning themselves and the world. Behind the scenes, Katie, Maria, Julee, Karin, Jill and Leighsa, the members of All the Kings Men, practice hard, spend long hours on the road, and struggle to “make it”—they want All the Kings Men to be a household name.
Personally, they struggle to discover who they are, who they want to be, and who they are afraid of being. Play in the Gray travels with the troupe members as they visit their hometowns, have difficult conversations with family, work their day jobs, maintain relationships, and share their stories of personal struggle and identity.The troupe members challenge the notion of what it means to “be a man” or “be a woman”, shedding light on what happens when the answer is not that easy.
On its face, Play in the Gray is a simple dismantling of the “man-woman” binary that pervades popular culture. But this film is more than just an exploration of gender theory. Play in the Gray is a tiny, yet profoundly intimate, glimpse into the human experience. This film is about the complications of loving, being loved, getting hurt, suffering disappointment, questing for approval and being courageous.
All The Kings Men
Katie“to me, drag is putting on a skirt and high heels to give me long hair and being a girl. that’s drag to me” -play in the gray
Julee“What I think we all gain personally, is that we—we’re all fighting our own selves. At this point now is, I think, is the first time that everybody in the troupe at some point does something that they would never do or plays a character that is really, really opposing to who they are in life.
Leighsa“Beyond being friends and being close and being artists together, we’re family.” -play in the gray
Jill“One of our greatest challenges is trying to figure out, what are we? Are we a comedy troupe? Are we a dance troupe? Are we a drag troupe? And it’s funny that we struggle with that because in life we are kind of like, am I a boy? Am I a girl? Am I in-between? And we’re OK living in the gray.” -play in the gray
Maria“We got our start in the drag community and we don’t want to ignore that or forget that, but we really want to step into and be seen in a new light. We’re sort of in a transition of how to describe ourselves. We’re definitely queer. We do drag, but it’s not that simple.” -play in the gray
Karin“When I put on the mask of a character, when I’m performing drag, the comment that I’m making can be any comment. There are comments that I care about, there are comments that I hope the audience gets out of it, but I’m also really not interested in dictating what those comments are or should be.” -play in the gray
