Jasmine Rice is Her Own Birthday Present

Jasmine Rice LaBeija may not be lip syncing for her life anytime soon, but that’s because she can actually sing. The opera singing drag queen is bringing her talents to a new performance about her life.

“Birthday Presence,” which is “like the birth of me as an artist,” according to Rice will be at the Guggenheim on March 8th and Lincoln Center on May 17th. “I’ll be singing songs from all the important events that happened in my life, like my college audition songs, or when I got my first role, or what songs are significant to me.”

The name “Birthday Presence” comes from the chosen performance dates; March 8th is Rice’s father’s birthday, and May 17th is her birthday. “My father loves classical music. And he is the one who introduced me to music and the art form of opera.” Rice is taking this opportunity to “celebrate his birthday and give him a little gift.” Although her father unfortunately won’t be in attendance at either performance, given that he lives in Korea and the journey is too far.

The Los Angeles born performer moved to Korea before she was one, and moved back to the U.S. in her teens to join Julliard’s high school program. Since then she has stayed in New York pursuing drag and opera (often both at the same time). She originally became interested in opera as a child because of the “fabulosity of it all. I loved dressing up, I loved playing with my imaginations and making up storylines and costume and makeup, all that stuff.” Unsurprisingly, there was a lot of overlap with drag.

In drag performance, where lip syncing is the norm, Rice comes as a surprise for her live singing performances. “I’m basically mixing two different gender identities,” she says. “I think I present very feminine and all of a sudden I start singing and the voice is quite masculine. So it’s like a mind game for them [the audience] and it’s usually a good type of shock.”

Eventually Rice was invited to join the Royal House of LaBeija, the first ever ballroom house which started in 1972. The House of LaBeija was created as a response to lack of diversity in the drag scene during the 1960s. They spent the following decades supporting drag performers of color to help them find jobs and community. In 2003 the house disbanded but reemerged in 2012.

The House of LaBeija has been featured in documentaries including 1968s “The Queen” about the founding member of the house, 1990s “Paris is Burning,” and most recently the 2022 feature “The House of LaBeija.” Members of the house are all over the world, with notable members appearing on shows like “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”

Rice notes the influence of LaBeija internationally, commenting, “Ballroom now, it’s all over the world. There’s ballroom in China, ballroom in Korea, ballroom in Japan, ballroom in Paris, Russia. I feel like we just created this giant safe space for everyone all around the world.”

Jasmine Rice is known as the International GodMother for the house, though she has yet to make major appearances outside of New York City where she has made a local name for herself. “People ask that all the time, ‘Oh my god watch drag race, why don’t you do this?’” She says. “I would love to do all those things. I would love to walk the Grammys, the Oscars, the Tonys, and everything. But I do not get to decide if I’m going to do those things so,” instead it’s up to casting directors.

While earlier in her career Rice took jobs both in and out of drag, now she almost never performs outside of drag. Both drag and opera are important to Rice, but she finds opera (especially outside of drag) to be more restrictive. “It is quite square,” she says, describing needing to follow other people’s creative direction in opera. “I leaned more into drag as a career because I can become my own director, producer, costume designer, makeup designer, wig person and storyteller at the same time.” The creative elements of both performance styles will be incorporated into the upcoming “Birthday Presence.”

Part of Rice’s success on the drag scene she credits to it being “more easily digested than opera.” She blames this largely on those in charge of opera houses for reasons lack like of accessibility. “You definitely have a learning curve when you want to go watch opera,” she says.

Inversely she credits the changing political climate for making drag easier. The past few years have seen the beginning of drag story time and the emergence of new TV show such as “Pose” and “Dragula.” The backlash to which Rice sees as a response to growing visibility for the community. “They’re trying to distract from what is actually happening in the world and the actual important issues like gun violence and police brutality,” says Rice. “Drag Queen Story Hour, it’s a person dressing up as a character to read to children. How is that so different from a clown or a magician at a birthday party?”

Her upcoming performance marks the second time Rice has performed at the Guggenheim. She previously performed in the rotunda during COVID, but now she will be taking over their theater for the first time. Rice is prepping by taking voice lessons: “They get me back in shape.” While performing both opera and drag is her center focus, it’s not the only takeaway she wants her audience to have. “I love performing. I love attention. I love validation,” she says. “I think the most important thing is that everyone follow me on all kinds of social media.”