{{short description|American drag king}} {{Infobox comedian |name=Elizabeth Marrero |image= |imagesize= |caption= |pseudonym = Macha |birth_name = |birth_date = {{birth year and age|1963}} |birth_place = New York City, U.S. |medium = {{flatlist| *Stand-up comedy *theatre *modern dance }} |active = 1991–present |genre = |subject = {{flatlist| *Gay rights *race *Ghetto issues}} |influences = |influenced = |spouse = |notable_work = ''Machataso'' |signature = |website = [http://www.myspace.com/kingmacha Official MySpace Site] |footnotes = }}
'''Elizabeth Marrero''' (born 1963) is an American of (Puerto Rican ancestry) performance artist, comedian, and drag king who is best known as Macha, the "papi chulo drag king", a character she created in 1999. Her solo and collaborative work is characterized by her open exploration of lesbian and Puerto Rican issues in a working-class or ghetto environment and by her links to stand-up comedy.<ref name=queer>La Fountain-Stokes, Lawrence. "Dancing ''La Vida Loca'': The Queer Nuyorican Performances of Arthur Avilés and Elizabeth Marrero." In ''Queer Globalizations: Citizenship and the Afterlife of Colonialism'', ed. Arnaldo Cruz-Malavé and Martin F. Manalansan IV, 162-175. New York: New York University Press, 2002. {{ISBN|0-8147-1624-5}}</ref><ref name=ricans>La Fountain-Stokes, Lawrence. ''Queer Ricans: Cultures and Sexualities in the Diaspora.'' Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009. {{ISBN|0-8166-4092-0}}</ref> She was born and lives in the Bronx, New York.
==Performance career== Marrero began her performance career with her first cousin, dancer/choreographer Arthur Aviles, performing the role of Maeva in over a dozen dance pieces since 1991, including ''Arturella'' (1996) and ''Maéva de Oz'' (1997).<ref name=queer/><ref name=ricans/><ref>Dunning, Jennifer. "[https://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/31/arts/review-dance-latin-americans-and-the-world-beyond.html Review/Dance: Latin Americans and the World Beyond.]" ''New York Times'' January 31, 1991, retrieved August 1, 2009.</ref> In 2003 she reappeared in Aviles's signature piece ''Arturella'' at Dance Theater Workshop in New York City. In 2001 she premiered her first one-woman show, ''Machataso: A One Woman Cho’'' as part of the BAAD! ASS WOMEN festival, which had a three-week, sold-out, extended run at the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD!) in Hunts Point. In this performance, Marrero presents five different characters, including the matriarch and slightly alcoholic Petronelia, the B-boy MC DJ Guilly-Guiso-Jugo, the hip hop supermarket cashier Wakateema Shaquasha de la Rodriguez, and Macha, a suave Latino crooner that loves women.<ref name=Waddell>Waddell, Robert. "Profile: Elizabeth Marrero. This Drag King Is Sinfully Delicious." ''Puerto Rico Sun'' (San Juan, PR) April 14, 2007.</ref> Since then Marrero has premiered a number of subsequent one-woman shows. For BAAD!'s “Out Like That” festival in June 2006, Marrero produced and performed their first ever drag king extravaganza. Marrero has also performed at Joe's Pub at the Public Theater and other major clubs in New York City, as well as internationally.
== Drag king performances == According to Robert Waddell, in her work as a drag king, Marrero "tackles issues of religion, sexuality, personal growth and personal responsibility."<ref name=Waddell/> Lauren W. Hasten offers an extensive interview with Marrero in her essay ''Gender Pretenders: A Drag King Ethnography,'' which is available online, where she discusses her drag king work.<ref>Hasten, Lauren Wells. [http://www.laurenhasten.com/genderpretenders.htm ''Gender Pretenders: A Drag King Ethnography.''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100718102829/http://www.laurenhasten.com/genderpretenders.htm |date=2010-07-18 }} Department of Anthropology, Columbia University in the City of New York, February 1999. Retrieved August 1, 2009.</ref>
== Solo performances == * ''Machataso: A One Woman Cho’'' (2001) * ''Macha Does Vegas'' (2002) * ''Petronelia’s Finca'' (2003) * ''Petronelia: Her Broadway Cho’'' (2004) * ''The Macha Monologues'' (2005) * ''Santa Macha'' (2006/2007) * ''HBO's Habla Ya I & II'' (2008) * ''Retro Petro'' (2008/2009) * ''Daca Boconoa'' (2011) * ''Wholly Macha'' (2015) * ''KqING#19: Conversations with a KqING'' (2019)
==Awards== Marrero received a BRIO (Bronx Recognizes Its Own) Award from the Bronx Council on the Arts in 2003. She also received a Tanne Foundation Award in 2006.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2006-01-01|title=The Tanne Foundation Awards - Elizabeth Marrero|url=https://tannefoundation.org/awards/elizabeth-marrero|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160401131431/http://www.tannefoundation.org/awards/elizabeth-marrero |archive-date=2016-04-01 |access-date=2020-06-10|website=Tanne Foundation}}</ref>
==See also== {{Portal|Puerto Rico|LGBTQ}} *Comedy *Humour *List of comedians *List of Puerto Ricans *List of gay, lesbian or bisexual people *Puerto Ricans in the United States
==References== {{Reflist|2}}
==External links== * [http://www.myspace.com/kingmacha Official MySpace page]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marrero, Elizabeth}} Category:Living people Category:1963 births Category:American drag kings Category:American lesbian actresses Category:American people of Puerto Rican descent Category:Hispanic and Latino American LGBTQ people Category:Comedians from the Bronx Category:Drag performers from New York City Category:American lesbian comedians Category:American women comedians Category:Drag performers from New York (state)