Torr, Diane, 1948-2017

Diane Torr (1948-2017) was an artist, writer, and educator known for her drag king performances, "Man for a Day" workshops on movement and gender expression, and artistic interrogations of conceptions of gender. She worked in multiple mediums, including dance, film, installation art, and performance art.

Torr studied Dance Education at Dartington College of Arts in England and moved to New York in 1976 following graduation, where she become involved in the city's Downtown arts scene. She regularly performed at the Mudd Club, Club 57, The Pyramid Club, MoMA PS1, Franklin Furnace, Performance Space 122, WOW Cafe, and La Mama Theater. She was an original member of the female art band DISBAND, along with Martha Wilson, Ingrid Sischy, Ilona Granet, and Donna Henes. Her performances critically examined gender and sexuality, and the performative nature of femininity and masculinity.

Torr's earliest dance performances were in 1977, and her first performance in drag was "Arousing Reconstructions" in 1981. Torr performed several international tours, including "Amoebic Evolution" and "Catastrophe and Beguilement" in the late 1980s, "Ready Aye Ready (A Standing Cock Has Nae Conscience)" in the early 1990s, "Drag Kings and Subjects" from the 1990s through the 2010's, and "Donald Does Dusty" in the 2000's. She organized the "Go Drag!" Berlin drag performance festival with Bridge Markland in 2002, and participated in numerous exhibitions at galleries such as the Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art, NYU's Grey Art Gallery, and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston.

Torr was an integral part of the "young kings" movement, establishing a scene of drag kings in 1980's New York City. This community of drag kings is the subject of the 2002 film Venus Boyz. Some of her most performed characters include Danny King ("Drag Kings and Subjects"), a "middle-aged, middle-American, middle-management guy" who "represents a stereotype of what it is to be a man"; Jack Spratt, a singer/songwriter Cockney character who is a fan of the Who; Hamish McAllister ("Ready Aye Ready"), an aficionado of the Scottish poet Robert Burns; and Charles Beresford, a gay man based on one of Torr's friends who passed away in 1992 from HIV/AIDS. Collaborators and contemporaries include Annie Sprinkle, Johnny Science, Bridge Markland, and Del La Grace Volcano. Torr was also involved in many community organizations, including Guerrilla Girls, PONY (Prostitutes of New York), FTM International, and F2M Fraternity.

She received her MFA from Bard College in 2004, and spent her later years in Scotland, where she was a visiting lecturer at Glasgow School of Art. In 2010, Torr published the book Sex, Drag, and Male Roles: Investigating Gender as Performance, which documents her career in the context of a wider history of female-to-male cross-dressing and performance. Diane Torr passed away in 2017.