The Drama Queens took the stage March 2 in the Blackbox Theatre, where they performed original monologues, scenes and other performance art pieces. The Drama Queens, led by arts teacher Tracy Poverstein, is a student-run performance group comprised of students in Archer’s intermediate and advanced theatre classes. Their recent performance tackled themes such as body image and body dysphoria from a female perspective.

“The Drama Queens are focused on working on their acting skills. They are looking to be a performance group for this community,” Poverstein said. “Sometimes they like to deal with certain topics that they feel that their peers would be interested in. Sometimes they’re just looking to entertain and do more comedy. It’s really a student driven group. So when they finish a performance, they get to decide what to perform next.”

Each group member wrote their own piece and played a role in one of their peers’ performances. The pieces drew inspiration from the play “Love Loss and What I Wore” and were centered around clothing and accessories that tell the performers’ life stories. Sophomore Hayden Seid wrote a scene titled “100% Just Socks,” which highlighted her struggle coping with anxiety and stress.

“I wrote one about an article of clothing that was heavily linked with worries and anxiety. I tried to illustrate how different articles of clothing can be linked to powerful feelings or memories,” Seid. “I was also involved with one one with Bryce Collis. We did a scene about growing up and coming to terms with who you are and how you fit into a new school or a different part of your life.”

The audience was limited to upper school only because of the themes involved.  Sophomore Bryce Collis wrote a scene titled “Star Pants Waiting in the The Sky,” which highlighted her journey from her fifth grade year to present day through a pair of pants.

“I wrote about a pair of pants that I got in fifth grade that shaped who I became as I went through the rest of my life at Archer and in general, ” Collis said. “I love these pants because they’re super bold and fun. They were so special to me and felt so out of this world. I set the scene in space with space, nebulas and aliens and then had a little space alien girl going on her first day of school as if it was me, symbolizing the fact that she is so extraterrestrial.”

The Drama Queens plan on performing at least once more time this school year in May and are currently collaborating and brainstorming ideas for their next performance. The group hopes to continue their tradition of integrating student-written pieces into their performances moving forward. This most recent performance was the group’s third show this school year.

“In the past, we’ve had lunch performances where it was focused on original work. And for multiple years now the English department has done a monologue competition where they submit monologues they were working on in an English class or creative writing class,” Poverstein said. “I think it’s a special opportunity for student writers to see their work actually performed. It’s very powerful.”

Collis said a highlight of being involved in Drama Queens is being able to witness and support her peers’ theatre journeys.

“I’m really looking forward to watching everyone perform having watched the development process our works and our stories,” Collis said. “It was really cool to watch them start from day one writing and then see how far they’ve taken their works. Getting to look into my friends…lives through their writings, the clothes that they wear and getting to look at how they express themselves creatively has been really amazing.”