Queens of Hearts
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- Written by Kris Legates
Rehoboth audiences are expressing their love for drag performers. (The feeling is mutual.)
By Jeanne Shook
Photograph by Butch Comegys
From the September 2022 issue
For renowned Rehoboth drag queen Roxy Overbrooke, it all began ahead of a New Year’s Eve “celebrity” costume party almost 20 years ago. “I could not figure out a male celebrity I wanted to be,” recalls Charles Bounds (aka Roxy). At the urging of a friend, he decided to dress as a female and ended up decked out as Billie Holiday. Already a singer at weddings and private events, Bounds sang a few numbers at the party, and a drag star was born.
The Rehoboth-area resident began performing drag as a side hustle, maintaining two other jobs in retail and hospitality in order to fund a growing wardrobe, a necessity that comes with the territory. “Just about everything I wear is custom made. … It’s very expensive,” he notes.
When all three jobs became too taxing and “drag was making me happy,” being Roxy became a full-time gig. You can find her four to five nights a week as the Blue Moon’s resident queen. In addition to performing, she serves as hostess and selects the evening’s lineup of performers. Unlike most drag queens, who lip sync, Roxy does her own singing, which she showcases at the Blue Moon’s drag shows and at her weekly cabaret there (a solo perfor-mance each Thursday billed as “A Night With Roxy”).
Eyes in the Sky
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- Written by Kris Legates
When summer traffic crawls, the Civil Air Patrol soars
By Bill Newcott
Photograph by Bill Newcott
From the August 2022 issue
The good news is there’s surprisingly little traffic on Route 1 heading down from Dover this afternoon, especially considering this is Friday before a long holiday weekend. From my back seat in this Cessna 182T, I can see that even the gauntlet of traffic lights in Dewey Beach — I call it the Bottle & Cork Bottleneck — is flowing freely.
The less good news is this givesmy flying companions very little to report to the Delaware Department of Transportation. Ostensibly, the reason we’re up here, making a lazy, 30-mile-long loop up and down the Delaware coast, is to help DelDOT keep track of the expected holiday backups.
But pilot Bill Trussell doesn’t seem to mind the absence of snarls down there, and neither does his co-pilot, Phil Schlosser. The most important thing to them, it’s easy to see, is that they are up here, taking in the vista of green land, sinuous waterways and blue sea.
Music in the Air
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- Written by Kris Legates
The Freeman Arts Pavilion is marking its 15th year with big sounds — and bigger plans
By Bill Newcott
Photograph by Butch Comegys
From the August 2022 issue
Asked to recall the earliest days of the Freeman Arts Pavilion in Selbyville, orchestral percussionist Dane Krich hears crickets. No, not the “I can’t think of anything to say” kind of crickets. He’s thinking real, chirping crickets.
“This was when the Freeman Stage was just a wooden platform, over by that pond,” Krich says, indicating the squared-off body of water that lies between the Freeman and a bank of four-story condominiums.
“We were playing, and all of a sudden there was this enormous chorus of crickets coming from the pond. It was crazy. You could hear them over the orchestra. Finally, the maestro, Julien Benichou, leaned over in that direction and yelled, ‘You’re chirping out of tune!’”