Today we’d like to introduce you to Cordelia Facade.
Hi Cordelia, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Born from two South Florida bartenders, the soundtrack of my time in the womb was 90’s club music, so it seemed only natural that a career in nightlife would be my destiny.
In many ways, I feel less that I chose to do drag, and more so that it was my only option. Having grown up in the arts from a young age, I always knew that I wanted to be a performer, but all of the avenues presented to me still felt incredibly restrictive.
For most of my life, I was training with the goal of becoming a Broadway actor but still found that, amongst the flamboyancy, a strong presence of masculinity was the most desirable in casting.
Being someone that was always far more jealous of the female costuming around me, drag became a sort of rebellion against classical theater and was the only performance art that intersected with all my interests; makeup, fashion, comedy, gender expression, politics, activism. The first time I put myself in drag was in May 2018 and, like most baby queens, it was absolutely tragic.
That being said, it was enough of a spark to ignite what would soon become the wildfire that is Cordelia Facade. Flash forward to November of that year and I did my first official drag performance for a small show at my college. It was at that moment, performing “Sparkling Diamonds” from Moulin Rouge that I became absolutely hooked.
From there, I started seeking out amateur performance opportunities in Chicago and began working with Beck Rogers (@beckrrogers), my close friend and collaborator, on photo projects to create content for social media. I was on a roll there for a while until, like many, the pandemic stunted both my life and creativity.
Unsure of what my next chapter in life was going to be, I decided it was time for a scene change, and on a complete whim, my best girlfriend ARREIS (@arreisrising) and I packed up our lives and moved to Nashville in June 2021.
Many people around me were skeptical of this move and would ask, “Why would you move from a major metropolitan city to a red state in order to pursue a queer art form?” A valid question- one that I still don’t even have a perfect answer for, but having visited Nashville the year prior on a brief weekend trip, I just had a gut feeling that it was the right choice.
As an artist, your gut is everything, and as it so happens, mine led me to exactly where I was meant to be. Upon arriving here I started doing open stages as often as I could and found a spectacular community of drag artists who saw my potential and embraced me.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
As with many young queer people, I was bullied relentlessly through middle school, learning to fear the word “gay” before I even knew the definition or how it could apply to me. Repressing all feelings of that inevitable truth, I didn’t come out to my friends until my sophomore year of high school, and my family two years later.
In jumping that hurdle, I began to blossom more into who I was as an individual, experimenting with “boy-beat” makeup, nail polish, and more eccentric fashion choices during my college years. In time, I realized that I had much more autonomy over my own life than I had originally given myself credit for. You get to choose how to build your life, so I made mine pink and sparkly.
Even today with this newfound confidence, drag can be a very high-risk, high-reward endeavor due to its self-produced nature. As a queen you are your own makeup artist, stylist, director, manager, chauffeur, etc. so when you accomplish something, it feels incredible, but when you stumble it can sting even more knowing that you only have yourself to blame.
That being said, I have a wonderful support network of fellow queens, artists, and friends that keep my stumbles to a minimum. Being a full-time queen also presents the challenge of surviving financially as a freelance queer artist.
With its current mainstream popularity, every business is looking for a way to integrate drag programming into their brand but oftentimes will not consider how much time, energy, and upfront cost goes into us executing our bespoke looks and custom performance numbers.
While things are improving, and Nashville hosts one of the better cultures around paying their queens, a large aspect of our work is still fighting for a fair paycheck.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Cordelia is a Trophy-Wife-On-A-Mission; she’s here to steal your heart… and maybe even your husband. Drawing slightly from vintage styles and silhouettes, the concept behind my drag character is always to ride the line between beauty and brains. I want to look as stunning as possible, but then always be a bit sharper in my approach than you’d expect.
Within the drag scene, I’d say I’m most known for my custom performance mixes which integrate music, dialogue, and pop culture references all to create a full story arc within my numbers. Over the past year, I’ve grown and accomplished more than I ever thought was possible in such a short amount of time.
I’ve had the opportunity to perform at City Winery, Exit/In, The Bobby Hotel, The Virgin Hotel, Play Dance Bar, Tribe, Canvas, and at the time of writing this I’ve just come off of performing on the Mainstage of Nashville Pride, which had over 100,000 attendees this year.
I am also a proud member of the Music City PrEP Clinic’s Drag Nurse Program- an elite group of queens who represent the brand and raise awareness for sexual health, PrEP, and HIV care at events nationwide. Looking to the future, the ongoing project I’m most excited to be working on is SiSSi: A Queer Competition (@sissinashville) at Exit/In.
As the winner of Cycle 1, I’ve stepped into a producer role alongside co-hosts Vidalia Anne Gentry (@vag4short) and Cya Inhale (@cyainhale) and can be seen guest judging and performing at the current cycles. Beyond that, the road ahead is a bit unknown.
In my experience, I’ve found that the looser I am on the reins of life, the more things seem to work themselves out and, as one of my drag idols Willam Belli once said, “If you’ve got a check, I’ve got a talent.”
What were you like growing up?
The front half of my life was rather nomadic, moving to a new state almost every school year due to my father’s work until we finally settled in the southwest suburbs of Chicago in 2008. While the constant change was difficult to adjust to, it exposed me to a variety of cultures at a young age and taught me the ever-important skill of adapting.
But, through it all, the core of who I was, a little gay boy who pranced throughout the house on his tiptoes, remained unchanged. Growing up, one of my earliest childhood idols was Glenn Close as Cruella De Vil in the live-action 101 & 102 Dalmatians movies, and subsequently, my first career aspiration was to be a fashion designer.
This morphed and changed over the years, and I went through a phase of wanting to be a pop star as well (which still isn’t completely off the table). Always being very tactile in my approach to self-expression, I would build elaborate sets out of paper and foamboard in my living room and put on performances for my family after dinner.
In reflection, it seems as though I was always trying to build a world where I felt like a star, where I felt invincible; no doubt a defense mechanism against the reality around me. Always in search of the spotlight, I joined my middle school’s choir and theater department as soon as I could, and by my senior year of high school was a member of our top choral group and president of the drama club; very Sharpy Evans.
From there, I attended college in pursuit of a musical theater degree but was never content with the liberal arts education structure of still having to take gen-eds when I solely wanted to focus on performance. At that time, drag was starting to become a more prevalent force in my life, so I made the rather bold decision to drop out of school and reevaluate where my life was heading.
One pandemic and a move to Nashville later, and here we are!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://cordeliafacade.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cordeliafacade/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cordelia.facade.1
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/CordeliaFacade
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvKKWOt4z481LgkEXkNdmZg
Image Credits
Cody Stallings and Maya Ruchman
