12
BROOKLYN WEEKLY, JAN. 20, 2019
DRAG KID
PUPPETS
get worse. She has an even
worse secret by the time
she leaves.”
The 25-minute show
was inspired by a real-life
art project titled “Here Lie
the Secrets of the Visitors
of Green-Wood Cemetery.”
French artist Sophie Calle
installed an obelisk in the
historic graveyard in 2017,
where visitors can write
down their secrets and slip
them inside. Calle plans to
return annually over the
next 25 years to exhume
and burn the buried secrets.
Krasnow, who fi rst saw
Calle’s work in France,
researched the history of
the artist and the boneyard
while working on her
script.
“After that point I did
more research on the cemetery
itself, I don’t think I
had ever been there before
that,” Krasnow said.
Krasnow will work
with another puppeteer,
Stephanie Sleeper, to manipulate
fi gures on a pair
of projectors during the
play, while her husband,
James Ilgenfritz, performs
music that he composed
for the show.
The show will use dozens
of elaborate puppets,
created with the help of designers
and artists Shannon
Iriarte, Virginia Wang,
and Emma Wiseman, said
Krasnow. The puppets,
made of black cardstock,
were built with the help of
a special printer that could
spit out the most intricate
details, she said.
“Shannon would draw
the puppet or whatever
character she wanted —
send it to a printer called
a Cricket and cut out really
intricate patterns,”
Krasnow said. “One piece
of scenery is a gothic-style
gate at Green-Wood, it’s
very complicated with little
spikes coming out.”
“Secrets of Green-Wood”
at the Brick (579 Metropolitan
Ave. between Lorimer
Street and Union Avenue in
Williamsburg, www.theexponentialfestival.
org). Jan.
30–Feb. 2 at 8 pm. $20.
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But after a 6-year-old
Desmond went trick-ortreating
dressed as Elsa
from the movie “Frozen,”
mom’s old duds just didn’t
cut it anymore, and he
started asking for his own
feminine wardrobe, according
to Napoles.
“He went as Elsa for
Halloween, and something
really clicked for him,”
she said. “After that, every
time we went to the
store, he wanted a skirt or
a dress.”
Unsure of their son’s
burgeoning sense of style,
Napoles and her husband
took Desmond to a therapist,
who advised neither
discouraging, nor encouraging
his behavior, and
suggested it could just be a
passing phase.
It wasn’t, said mom.
“It was never a phase for
him, and soon dressing up
at home wasn’t enough,”
she said. “He wanted to
dress up and go outside
— then he wanted to perform.”
Desmond made an early
drag appearance in a music
video for fellow queen
Jinkx Monsoon — who
won the fi fth season of television’s
“RuPaul’s Drag
Race” competition series —
but his career really took
off after his Pride appearance
went viral, Napoles
said.
Since then, the boy has
rubbed shoulders with Ru-
Paul himself at the iconic
queen’s DragCon convention,
walked the New York
Fashion Week runway as a
model for designer Gypsy
Sport, and signed with
a talent company, which
started booking shows for
Desmond earlier this year,
according to his mom.
On stage, the tween
wows spectators by doing
impersonations of celebrities
including Gwen Stefani,
whom he channeled during
his so-called controversial
performance at 3 Dollar Bill,
and Winona Ryder as Lydia
Deetz from the fi lm “Beetlejuice,”
Napoles said.
And although Desmond
may have inherited
his early wardrobe from
his mother, she said his
penchant for performing
in front of an audience is
uniquely his own.
“He has no nervousness,”
said Napoles. “He
just gets up there. I don’t
know where he gets the
confi dence. I could never
do it. I would die.”
FAMILY AFFAIR: Desmond’s
dad Andy Napoles, above left,
and mom Wendy Napoles receive
almost daily visits from
city social workers investigating
complaints fi led against
them after their son’s December
show at Williamsburg’s 3
Dollar Bill, but refuse to let
their critics get them, or their
boy, down.
Photos by Caroline Ourso
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