\u201cThis is the first time I\u2019ve ever done any type of interview that is theater-related,\u201d says iconic New York City club promoter Ladyfag.<\/strong> Born Rayne Baron, Ladyfag has spent the past nearly two decades producing queer nightlife in New York, shepherding dance parties like Holy Mountain, Battle Hymn, and LadyLand, a Pride music festival whose headliners this summer were Cardi B<\/strong> and FKA Twigs.<\/strong> Now Ladyfag is stepping off the dance floor and onto the stage to produce a play called Smuta,<\/em> which premieres in Brooklyn on October 9.<\/p>\n \u201cI guess I\u2019m a theater queen,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Smuta<\/em> isn\u2019t much of a departure from strobe lights and the DJ booth. Written by up-and-comer Jacob Wasson<\/strong> and directed by Niamh Osh Jones,<\/strong> Smuta<\/em> (pronounced smoo<\/em>-tah) takes place in 2019, inside a club patronized by Moscow\u2019s queer underground. The two-hander stars Oh, Mary!<\/em> scene-stealer James Scully<\/strong> and The Morning Show<\/em>\u2019s Augustus Prew<\/strong> as Yakov and Goodboy, strangers who find each other as a spate of gay hate crimes ravage their community outside the club.<\/p>\n Jacob Wasson<\/span>RossCollab.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a play about two people caught in these circumstances that they have no way out of, and that\u2019s something that\u2019s familiar to me right now,\u201d says Wasson. The 29-year-old playwright first wrote and produced Smuta<\/em> in June 2023, putting the show up at Gymnopedie, a gymnasium in Bushwick that he rented by the hour. \u201cI set up the whole show 30 minutes before we let people in, and then I had to take it down because the guy would have bookings afterwards,\u201d says Wasson. He thought that short successful run would be the end of the road for Smuta.<\/em> Then he found himself talking to Ladyfag at a Passover seder. \u201cWe got to talking, and she\u2019s really interested in helping young artists in New York. And it got born out of there,\u201d says Wasson. \u201cIt was like, \u2018Oh, maybe this is an opportunity to do Smuta<\/em> again.\u2019\u201d Ladyfag has one word to describe their unexpected collaboration: \u201cSerendipity.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe only reason it\u2019s actually happening is because of Lady,\u201d says Wasson affectionately. \u201cWe\u2019re just two Jewish girls.\u201d Ladyfag chimes in: \u201cNice Jewish girls from the suburbs putting on a play.\u201d Wasson finishes her sentence: \u201cIn the big, bad city.\u201d<\/p>\n Rather than taking the traditional downtown or off-Broadway route, Wasson and Lady decided to take a big swing by mounting Smuta in<\/em> an actual nightclub: Refuge<\/a>, which recently opened in East Williamsburg and where Ladyfag serves as a resident promoter\/party thrower. \u201cWhat I loved was Jacob\u2019s use of an unconventional space,\u201d says Ladyfag. \u201cMy career, which obviously is not in theater, I have also searched that out. I used to do a lot of [parties] in different places that people wouldn\u2019t normally do.\u201d Part of that was born out of necessity, as she explains: \u201cThere\u2019s no funds and I want to do something crazy that\u2019s going to make no money: \u2018Hey, I know this weird spot.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Ladyfag<\/span>Peter Tamlin.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n The two-week-old Refuge is something of a culmination for Ladyfag. After moving from Toronto in the early aughts, she got her start in New York City nightlife as a cage dancer. \u201cI moved here in the classic \u2018I got a hundred bucks in my pocket and a dream,\u2019 and I didn’t even know what my dream was,\u201d she says. \u201cI just wanted to come here for a few months as my last hurrah before I was about to open a vintage and antique store.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"Ladyfag\"](\"https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/68e805e7d3bfb4d6891a05eb\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/vf1025-smuta-005.jpg\"\/)
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