Diane Marian Torr (10 November 1948 – 31 May 2017) was an artist, writer and educator, particularly known as a male impersonator and for her

drag king Drag kings have historically been mostly female performance artists who dress in masculine drag and personify male gender stereotypes as part of an individual or group routine. As documented in the 2003 ''Journal of Homosexuality,'' in more r ...

, "Man for a Day" and gender-as-performance workshops. For the last years of her life, Torr lived and worked in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, where she was Visiting Lecturer at

Glasgow School of Art The Glasgow School of Art (GSA; ) is a higher education art school based in Glasgow, Scotland, offering undergraduate degrees, post-graduate awards (both taught and research-led), and PhDs in architecture, fine art, and design. These are all awa ...

Biography

Diane Torr was born in

Peterborough, Ontario Peterborough ( ) is a city on the Otonabee River in Ontario, Canada, about 125 kilometres (78 miles) northeast of Toronto. According to the 2021 Census, the population of the City of Peterborough was 83,651. The population of the Peterborough ...

, but grew up in

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

, Scotland and later attended

Dartington College of Arts Dartington College of Arts was a specialist arts college located at Dartington Hall in the south-west of England, offering courses at degree and postgraduate level together with an arts research programme. It existed for a period of almost 50 ...

, England, where she studied with dance luminaries

Mary Fulkerson Mary O'Donnell Fulkerson (1946–2020) was an American dance teacher and choreographer. Born in the United States, she developed an approach to expressive human movement called 'Anatomical Release Technique' in the US and UK, which has influence ...

and

Steve Paxton Steven Douglas Paxton (January 21, 1939 – February 20, 2024) was an American experimental dancer and choreographer. His early background was in gymnastics while his later training included three years with Merce Cunningham and a year with Jos� ...

, art pioneer

Paul Oliver Paul Hereford Oliver MBE (25 May 1927 – 15 August 2017) was an English architectural historian and writer on the blues and other forms of African-American music. He was equally distinguished in both fields, although it is likely that afici ...

, and theatre innovators, Peter Hulton and Peter Feldman (of the

Open Theatre The Open Theater was an experimental theatre group in New York City, active from 1963 to 1973. Foundation The Open Theater was founded in New York City by a group of former students of acting teacher Nola Chilton, together with director Joseph Chai ...

). She graduated in 1976 and arrived in New York that same year. Her first dance performances in New York (''Egyptian Stock''; ''Half-Lives of Plutonium''; ''World Shift''; ''Wind Fertilization'') were in downtown loft spaces in 1978. Torr took class at the Cunningham Studios, and began her practice of the Japanese martial art of

Aikido Aikido ( , , , ) is a gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art which is split into many different styles including Iwama Ryu, Iwama Shin Shin Aiki Shuren Kai, Shodokan Aikido, Yoshinkan, Renshinkai, Aikikai, and Ki Aikido. Aikido is now practic ...

at New York Aikikai in 1977 and in 2003 achieved the rank of sandan (3rd degree blackbelt). Torr received her MFA degree from

Bard College Bard College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains within the Hudson River Historic District ...

in New York in 2004. From the onset of her career in the late 1970s, Torr was a leading figure in creating

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

that challenges contemporary edicts and perceptions of

gender Gender is the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man (or boy), woman (or girl), or third gender. Although gender often corresponds to sex, a transgender person may identify with a gender other tha ...

and sexuality. With her drag king workshops, which she began teaching in 1990 in New York, with artist Johnny Science, Torr was a pivotal force in the establishment of

culture in the US, Europe,

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

and

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

. In collaboration with performance artist, Bridge Markland, Torr co-directed the highly successful godrag! Festival (2002) in Berlin - a one-month-long festival of women performing masculinity, femininity,

androgyny Androgyny is the possession of both masculine and feminine characteristics. Androgyny may be expressed with regard to Sex, biological sex or gender expression. When ''androgyny'' refers to mixed biological sex characteristics in humans, it oft ...

and drag. Torr's performances are a radical synthesis of dance, film (original and archival footage), installation, spoken word, invented soundtracks, and borrowings from other sources such as magic tricks, and secret society signals. Her rich performance palette has resulted in an unusual body of work that continues to influence and inspire new generations of independent artists. More recent performance enquiries cover a diversity of material including: exploring her brother's (who died of

AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

in 1992) performance of

Dusty Springfield Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien (16 April 1939 – 2 March 1999), better known by her stage name Dusty Springfield, was a British singer. With her distinctive mezzo-soprano voice, she was a popular singer of blue-eyed soul, Pop mus ...

; investigations on beauty and age; transferring to performance written works of surrealist artist,

Claude Cahun Claude Cahun (, born Lucy Renee Mathilde Schwob; 25 October 1894 – 8 December 1954) was a French surrealist photographer, sculptor, and writer. Schwob adopted the pseudonym Claude Cahun in 1914. Cahun is best known as a writer and self-portra ...

. Over the 26 years Torr lived and worked in New York, she performed in downtown locales such as the

Mudd Club The Mudd Club was a nightclub located at 77 White Street in the TriBeCa neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It operated from 1978 to 1983 as a venue for post punk underground music and no wave counterculture events. It was opened ...

ABC No Rio ABC No Rio is a collectively-run nonprofit arts organization on New York City's Lower East Side. Founded in 1980 in a squat at 156 Rivington Street, following the eviction of the 1979–80 Real Estate Show, the center featured an art gallery s ...

, Club 57, Tier 3, The

Pyramid Club Pyramid Club may refer to the following night clubs: * Pyramid Club (New York City) The Pyramid Club was a nightclub in the East Village of Manhattan, New York City. After opening in 1979, the Pyramid helped define the East Village drag queen, ...

, S.N.A.F.U., Limbo Lounge and in art spaces/performance venues PS1,

Franklin Furnace Franklin Furnace, also known as the Franklin Mine, is a famous mineral location for rare zinc, iron, and manganese minerals in old mines in Franklin, Sussex County, New Jersey, United States. This locale produced more species of minerals (o ...

The Kitchen A kitchen is a room used for the preparation of food. Kitchen, or The Kitchen, may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Films * ''Kitchen'' (1966 film), an American film * ''Kitchen'' (1997 film), a Hong Kong film * ''The Kitchen'' (1961 film ...

, PS122, WOW Cafe,

La MaMa La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (sometimes abbreviated as La MaMa E.T.C.) is an Off-Off-Broadway theater founded in 1961 by African-American theatre director, producer, and fashion designer Ellen Stewart. Located in the East Village neighborho ...

and Limbo Lounge. As a member of the art group

Colab Colab is the commonly used abbreviation of the New York City artists' group Collaborative Projects, which was formed after a series of open meetings between artists of various disciplines. History Colab members came together as a collective in ...

, she was a participant and performer (with filmmaker Ruth Peyser) in

The Times Square Show ''The Times Square Show'' was an influential collaborative, self-curated, and self-generated art exhibition held by New York artists' group Colab (aka Collaborative Projects, Inc) in Times Square in a shuttered massage parlor at 201 W. 41st and ...

(1980) (where she performance with a rubber inflatable porno doll and

sex toy A sex toy is an object or device that is primarily used to facilitate sexual pleasure, such as a dildo, artificial vagina or vibrator. Many popular sex toys are designed to resemble human genitals, and may be vibrating or non-vibrating. The ...

s), and as a solo artist at WPA, Washington (1981). Torr was one of the original members of the all-girl art band,

DISBAND ''Disband'' (stylized as ''disBand'') is a Canadian reality show that was produced and broadcast by MuchMusic that arranged and permitted aspiring music acts an opportunity to garner industry attention and achieve a recording contract. It was hos ...

(along with members

Martha Wilson Martha Wilson (born 1947 in Newtown, Pennsylvania) is an American feminist performance artist and the founding director of Franklin Furnace Archive art organization. Over decades she has developed and "created innovative photographic and vide ...

Ingrid Sischy Ingrid Barbara Sischy (; March 2, 1952 – July 24, 2015) was a South African-born American writer and editor who specialized in covering art, photography, and fashion. She rose to prominence as the editor of ''Artforum'' from 1979 to 1988, and ...

Ilona Granet Ilona Granet (born 1948) is a contemporary American artist. Granet is known for her works, which stem from her experience as a sign painter. As a feminist, she has collaborated with local communities and the New York City Department of Transporta ...

and Donna Henes). DISBAND formed in 1978 and most recently performed at the Incheon International Women Artists' Biennial (2009) in South Korea, and in Salzburg at the Museum der Moderne, on 29 November 2014. Torr was the recipient of

Scottish Arts Council The Scottish Arts Council (), was a Scottish public body responsible for the funding, development and promotion of the arts in Scotland. The Council primarily distributed funding from the Scottish Government as well as National Lottery funds ...

funding, and received funding from

Fund for Performance Art, Joyce Mertz Gilmore Foundation Fund, Art Matters,

New York State Council on the Arts The New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) serves to foster and advance the arts, culture, and creativity throughout New York State, according to its website. The goal of the council is to allow all New Yorkers to benefit from the contribution ...

, Yorkshire and Humberside Arts, Haupstadtkulturfonds, Berlin, etc. She was a fellow of the

Whitney Museum The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is a Modern art, modern and Contemporary art, contemporary American art museum located in the Meatpacking District, Manhattan, Meatpacking District and West Village neighbor ...

Independent Studies Program, and the Macdowell Arts Colony. Torr's performances, videos and installations are widely presented in venues including

GOMA Goma is a city in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the North Kivu, North Kivu Province; it is located on the northern shore of Lake Kivu and shares borders with the Bukumu Chiefdo ...

(Gallery of Modern Art) Glasgow, Theater Schmidt, Hamburg, the genders that be, Minneapolis, Magma, Istanbul, ICA, London, LLGF Festival, Migros Museum, Zurich, Theater des Augenblicks, Vienna, Helsinki Act, WAVES Festival, Vordingborg and RE.AL, Lisbon and Theater Pradillo, Madrid, German National Historical Museum in Berlin (June until December 2015). Torr's work has been reviewed in numerous publications, including: The New York Times, The Village Voice, New York Magazine, The Brooklyn Rail, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Boston Phoenix, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Chicago Tribune, El Pais, El Mundo, Contact Quarterly, Movement Research, The London Independent, The Guardian, The Scotsman, The Sunday Herald, G.Q. Magazine, ELLE Magazine, Cosmopolitan Magazine, Paris, The Japan Times, Turkish Daily News, Ballettanz, Berlin, Die Tageszeitung, Berlin, Süddeutsche Zeitung, German Vogue, der Spiegel, Brigitte Magazine, Maxi Magazine, Bild Zeitung, Freitag 38, de Volkskrant, Opzij Magazine, Helsingin Sanomat, Ylioppilasieht, Helsinki, Diva Magazine, Bizarre Magazine, San Diego Union Tribune. Torr died in

on May 31, 2017 of a brain tumour.

"Man for a Day" workshops

Since 1990, Torr, inspired by and alongside drag king and transgender man Johnny Science, taught "drag king" workshops in which women and transmasculine people can learn not only to dress as a man but also codes of behaviour, gesture, body language and movement that constitute the performance of masculinity. The workshops, which Torr and Science taught widely in Europe, the US, India and Turkey, have been hugely influential, inspiring other works and a documentary film.

Performances

* 1977 Egyptian Stock; World Shift * 1978 The Half-Lives of Plutonium; Wind Fertilization * 1979 Static Gravity; It's About Time (with Julie Harrison) * 1980 The Speed of Sight * 1981 Go-Go Girls Seize Control; WOW-A-Go-Go; The Right Thing To Do * 1982 Amoebic Evolution; Arousing Reconstructions (with Bradley Wester; costumes by Mary Bright); Go-Go World (costume by Mary Bright) * 1983 Vuur/Water (with Suze Hahn) * 1984 Girl in Trouble * 1985 Oedipus (with Billy Jacobson) * 1986 Girls Will Be Boys Will Be Queens (with Chris Koenig and Lizzie Olesker; Set and Costumes by Loredana Rizzardi) * 1987 Maldoror's Grey Lark (with Irving Gregory; visuals by Cathy Quinlan, and Martina Siebert; dramaturg - Billy Jacobson) * 1988 Catastrophe And Beguilement 1989 PSSSSSST; I.V. Mermaid (with Martina Meijer) * 1990 Crossing The River Styx (with performers: Martina Meijer, Marcel Meijer, Linda Yablonsky, Russell Christian, Steve Buscemi, Isobel Samaras; slide visuals by Nan Goldin; film by Peggy Ahwesh, and Jennifer Montgomery; costumes by Loredana Rizzardi; music by Judy Dunaway) * 1992 Ready, Aye Ready (a standing cock has nae conscience) (with performers Paul Langland, Irving Gregory, Scott Herron, Adolpho Pati, Thomas Keith, Robin Casey, and visuals by Russell Christian) * 1993 Scratch 'N Sniff/Touch 'N Feel * 1994 Open for Flavor * 1995 Drag Kings and Subjects; Context/Desire (with Daniel Safer, Elizabeth Albin); Jack Sprat/Happy Jack * 1998 BULL! by Ian Smith (with Divine David, Anna Seagrave, Andre Stitt) * 1999 Trans-Chans: Gender Is (A) Performance; Quick Change * 2000 Millennium - The Past Behind * 2001 Claude Cahun's Heroines; X Och Y * 2002 All About My Brother; Mister "EE" * 2003 Saint Sebastian in Mischief-La-Bas' "Painful Creatures" * 2004 Male Impersonations x 6 for Tromolo (curated by "A Band Called Quinn") * 2006 Donald Does Dusty * 2007 Homage To Nam June Paik (courtesy Larry Miller) * 2008 Fluxus Olympiad at the Tate (courtesy Larry Miller); All-In Grinsberg * 2009 Turning Sexty

Television and film credits

Torr's film/TV credits include: * Protagonist in Gabriel Baur's pioneering film
''Venus Boyz''
* Part of "Mr. Braddock" in Mo Mahoney's film satire ''The Undergrad'' * BBC2 Q.E.D. Programmer, ''Sex Acts'' * HBO ''Real Sex'' * Guest on

Phil Donahue Phillip John Donahue (December 21, 1935 – August 18, 2024) was an American media personality, writer, film producer, and the creator and host of '' The Phil Donahue Show''. The television program, later known simply as ''Donahue'', was the fir ...

Jerry Springer Gerald Norman Springer (February 13, 1944 – April 27, 2023) was a British-American broadcaster, journalist, actor, lawyer, and politician. He was best known for hosting the controversial tabloid talk show '' Jerry Springer'' from 1991 to 2 ...

Montel Williams Montel Brian Anthony Williams (born July 3, 1956) is an American television host and actor. He is known for hosting the daytime tabloid talk show '' The Montel Williams Show'', which ran in syndication from 1991 to 2008. He currently hosts ''T ...

Gayle King Gayle King (born December 28, 1954) is an American television personality, author and broadcast journalist for CBS News, co-hosting its flagship morning program, ''CBS Mornings'', and before that its predecessor '' CBS This Morning''. She is ...

* Brigitta, RTL TV Magazine Programme
''A Shift Between Worlds''
- about experimenting with identity in the gendered world, based on two workshops led by Diane Torr, "Man for a Day" and "Woman for a Day." Kirsi Nevanti initiated and arranged the workshops at the

Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts The Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts (SADA) () was a school within the Stockholm University of the Arts The Stockholm University of the Arts () is a public University college (Scandinavia), university college created 1 January 2014 by merging th ...

in 2013–2014. They resulted in several component works, including two video essays, two audio works and two large-format photographic works, the latter in collaboration with photographer Johan Bergmark. This subproject was presented at the doctoral 75% seminar and in a master class at the Tempo Documentary Film Festival in March 2015 (StDH/Uniarts 2013–2015), and was expanded with a short commentary film entitled ''Diane Speaks Out'' (2016).

Publications

* ''Sex, Drag and Male Roles; Investigating Gender as Performance'' (co-authored by Stephen Bottoms) published by University of Michigan Press 2010. 978-0-472-05102-
www.press.umich.edu
* ''Man for a Day'' – feature film on Torr's work by Berlin filmmaker, Katarina Peters, premiered 2012.

References

External links

* Diane Torr's official website http://dianetorr.com * ''Man For a Day'' film official website http://www.manforaday-film.com/ * Video documentation from godrag! 2002 https://vimeo.com/160762937 * TedX Talk
Man for a day, woman for a day.

Obituary: Diane Torr, artist who challenged notions of gender
in The Scotsman, 27 June 2017
Diane Torr obituary
The Guardian, 29 June 2017
Obituary - Diane Torr, performance artist and Scotland's drag king pioneer
The Herald Scotland, 22 June 2017
Obituary: Diane Torr Saw the Power of Drag Before Anyone Else Did
by Henry Giardina, The Pride LA, 24 July 2017 {{DEFAULTSORT:Torr, Diane 1948 births 2017 deaths Alumni of Dartington College of Arts Scottish performance artists People from Aberdeen Performance art in New York City Canadian drag kings Queer feminists Deaths from brain cancer in Scotland British drag kings 21st-century Canadian LGBTQ people 21st-century Scottish LGBTQ people 20th-century Canadian LGBTQ people 20th-century Scottish LGBTQ people People from Peterborough, Ontario Drag performers from Ontario