Sit and listen while these drag queens ‘Park and Bark’

Maeve Bauer, Spectrum Editor 

Rachel Nicholas, Contributing Writer

Drag troupe “Park and Bark,” kicked off its second season on Sept. 14. The energy in the Shafter Street Playhouse was booming, as drag enthusiasts buzzed with excitement to see what the queens have in store this year. 

The troupe started this season with “The Pink Show.” Every seat was filled, and the crowd stomped and barked as they cheered on the cast. 

“I feel like in the beginning it was just a lot of theater students, and now it’s like, I don’t even recognize anyone in the audience,” said Mary Kalinowski, a third-year VCU theater student. “I think it’s so cool, because like, so many different groups of people are coming to see it.” 

“The Pink Show” is whatever you make of it, as long as it is pink — there were pink outfits, pink wigs, pink makeup and to top it off, volunteers from the audience had a lip-sync battle to the song “Pink” by Lizzo.

“Park and Bark” had its first show in 2024, and has hosted a show every month VCU has been in session — “The Pink Show” is their ninth.

There have been a myriad of themes, according to ChiChi Ronnes, a founding member of “Park and Bark.” Her personal favorite is their retro night. 

“Both of my numbers were Donna Summers, and Donna Summers is one of my favorite artists of all time,” Ronnes said. “ I also love 80s music. I think the 90s, 70s music is premium, I love disco. I think that it really got to introduce our audience to drag classics, as well as showing that like, queer people need to know their history.”

The group formed last year because the lack of active drag troupes at VCU left a campy void that needed to be filled, according to Ronnes. They perform once a month at the Shafer Street Playhouse, located in the heart of the Monroe Park Campus. 

“Park and Bark” is a term in theater referring to a performer who does not do much dancing. Instead, they park, stay still and bark, sing — or in queens’ case, lip-sync. However, these divas are doing everything but as they crawl, gyrate, flip and death drop across the stage. 

Meet the Queens

ChiChi Ronnes

As one of Park and Bark’s founding members, Ronnes is not a newcomer to the drag community. She discovered her passion for drag at a very early age when her “guncle” [gay uncle] offered her wigs, makeup and encouragement to dress up. Ronnes saw her first drag queen in 2016 when she attended Pride, and has been performing ever since. She made her debut as ChiChi in her high school’s senior show, her name being a play on the word chicharones, a native dish to the Philippines, paying homage to her culture.

“Drag has always been so fierce to me and something I wanted to do, and I was very lucky that I lived in a place where I was able to do it,” Ronnes said. 

ChiChi is not just a character that Ronnes takes on — she is a part of her and helped Ronnes navigate her personal identity. 

“She’s a multifaceted person, with stories to tell and an experience,” Ronnes said. “She, to me, feels like almost an armor that I can wear and then put on stage and then I like, I don’t know, fight for the divas, like the enemies. Last year, I’d go to auditions in ChiChi, and go for female roles and I love it.”

Ngozi

Ngozi is the drag persona of Jhay Williams, a main Park and Bark cast member. She has been with the troupe since their Lollapalooza show in 2024, a competition taken from RuPaul’s Drag Race, where participants choose an opponent and the opponent chooses the song. Williams was invited to join the main cast after their Black Excellence Show. 

Ngozi is an alien creature, sent out to be a freak-weirdo, according to Williams. She may be in her first year of drag, but her alter-ego has been in the works since middle school. 

“I’m just like an alien creature,” Williams said. “You don’t know where I’m from, and you really wanna know where she’s from. You really don’t understand her, and she’s always weird. She’s really weird and creepy, but like, in a fierce way.”

Williams learned how to do makeup as a requirement for dance classes, and got extra creative with her makeup supply when she had to quarantine during the pandemic.

Camilla Versace

Cam Malone is new to drag and debuted as Camilla Versace at the Pink Show. Her first performance was to Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face,” styled in six-inch heels, a pink slip, a pink robe and more feathers than a peacock. 

Malone knew she wanted to incorporate her real name into her stage name, creating Camilla. The Versace part was added when she and a friend were going over ideas, taking inspiration from the legacy fashion houses. 

As a newcomer to the group, Malone has found the members of “Park and Bark” to be very welcoming. 

“It’s very community-oriented,” Malone said. “Everyone there is so sweet and so hype.”

And as Solicity said at the end of the show, “Never forget foreplay, take your meds and serve c*nt.”