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New theater class explores ‘inclusive language’ and ‘anti-racist’ theater practices
A new University of Michigan course about stage makeup teaches “diversity” and “anti-racist” theater practices, including a module on drag taught by a performer from “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”
The class “Equitable Stage Makeup and Hair,” offered this spring through the public university’s Michigan Online program, teaches students how to use makeup on an array of different types of people: from curly to straight hair, various skin tones, and drag makeup.
Theater Professor Sarah Oliver created the course “to ensure that learners are afforded training and the makeup and hair skills that reflect the diverse community in which they will be working and performing,” according to a “Course Introduction” video.
Oliver is an experienced costume designer who has worked in both New York and regional theater, according to a March article on the university’s website.
Oliver said she developed the course after observing a consistent theme across productions: makeup artists and stylists not being trained to work with the full diversity of performers.
“We recognize that traditional modes of teaching theatrical makeup and wig preparation have privileged a global minority,” she said in the “Course Introduction” video, adding in the article that the focus is on “predominantly white” performers.
She also criticized the beauty and makeup industries for “defin[ing] beauty norms by featuring lighter skin tones and smoother hair textures.”
Oliver expressed hope that the course will help facilitate change in the entertainment industry.
According to the university article, the course “attempts to help both performers and makeup artists fill in their knowledge gaps with techniques and instruction applicable to more complexions, gender identities, and backgrounds so that performers can truly shine on stage and screen.”
The course description states that students will move through modules that include: aging, makeup kit building and preparation for performers, facial anatomy, specialized wig and hair instruction, “inclusive language,” and “anti-racist” theater practices.
It also includes a drag module covering skills such as eyebrow covering, contour and highlight techniques, lash work, and eye shadow glitter.
Alex Michaels, known as drag performer Alexis Michelle from the TV show “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” teaches the module on drag makeup.
The College Fix contacted the university media relations office twice over the past two weeks, asking about the number of students enrolled in the class, its educational benefits, and the amount Michaels was paid as a guest lecturer. It did not respond.
A fiscal watchdog organization that reports on government spending suggested the public university should spend its resources instead on business and STEM fields that help grow the economy.
“Ultimately, it’s up to Michigan taxpayers to determine what’s adding value to the state for their investment, but transparency reporting like this is critical to that cause,” Open The Books spokesperson Christopher Neefus told The Fix when asked about the class.
“The return on their tax dollars should be graduates ready to grow the state economy, make it competitive, and contribute materially to their community, state and nation,” Neefus said in a recent email. “Every dollar spent on building out these programs is a dollar that’s unavailable for business, STEM, and other fields where we need to be turning out future global leaders.”
But the “Equitable Stage Makeup and Hair” class isn’t the only way the taxpayer-funded university has promoted the transgender community in recent years.
In 2024, the University of Michigan’s Hatcher Library hosted an event called Dragademia with Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes, a UM professor and a drag performer known as Lola von Miramar.
Fountain-Stokes and another drag performer, La Whore Vagistan, spoke about drag as a form of “resistance” and ended the talk with a performance, according to an article on the library website.
La Fountain-Stokes’ work centers on queer theory, performance studies, and Caribbean cultural identity. The professor’s book “Translocas” explores Latin American drag performers, arguing that each individual “destabilizes (and sometimes reifies) dominant notions of gender and sexuality through drag and their embodied transgender expression.”
The University of Michigan has faced criticism for its intense focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion in recent years. Although the institution recently began to walk back DEI, The College Fix reported that it is still spending $15.3 million on 162 diversity-related employees
MORE: Harvard hires drag queen ‘LaWhore Vagistan’ to teach ‘Queer Ethnography’
