For most, the collegiate life embodies an exposure to an array of new experiences: learning a new language, living in a new location, developing a new set of comrades.
For others, it means viewing the world through the eyes of a different gender.
The Tufts Queer Straight Alliance (QSA) will host its annual drag show this Friday at 9 p.m. in Sophia Gordon's multipurpose room, where eight student performers and two drag professionals will sing, dance and model for spectators while dressed as members of the opposite sex.
For QSA co-coordinators, sophomores Ryan Heman and Tommy Calahan, the Tufts Drag Show and drag performance in general represent an expression that breaks down socially constructed gender barriers.
"One of the foundations of queer theory is that all gender is drag; all gender is a social construction," Heman said. "So drag is kind of playing with gender, figuring out what your gender expression is, what your gender identity is, and basically toying with the whole concept of gender."
Calahan explained that dressing up in "drag" -- as a member of the opposite sex -- isn't so different from the way people live their lives on a day-to-day basis.
"If anything, it shows that gender is a performance, and we all perform our gender all the time," he said. "It should never be taken for granted that someone who is male is necessarily masculine ... and it shouldn't be taken for granted that someone who is female is necessarily feminine."
Prior to the show, two Boston drag professionals will conduct a drag workshop in which they teach interested students to perfect the art of acting as a member of the opposite gender.
"We really try hard to make it a good atmosphere for people to feel comfortable, for professional performers to come and run a drag workshop beforehand and teach them the nuances of how to perform a gender," Calahan said.
Calahan, who was exposed to drag performance for the first time as a freshman last year, is making his own inaugural drag performance at this year's show.
"It's a low pressure thing, it's just about having fun and expressing yourself," he said.
Still, there are naturally some nerves and hesitations associated with performing in front of a crowd while dressed in drag.
"I don't really tell my parents or my family about it," he said. "Recently a friend of mine said that whenever he gets into drag, he has to have a few shots first to make himself not imagine what his Dad would think."
For most students, particularly those outside of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, a drag show is the last event they'd picture themselves involved in -- so much so that finding students to perform can be a difficult task.
"The most stressful part is getting people to perform," Calahan said. "I would love to see more people sign up. We have enough performers to have a decently lengthy program, but a few more definitely couldn't hurt."
The trepidation associated with the actual drag performance is not accompanied by a lack of interest by student spectators; in fact, the show drew a large crowd last year and is expected to bring even more viewers this time around.
"People really do get involved and enjoy it," Heman said, explaining that the event brings spectators from outside of the Tufts community as well as students themselves.
To those involved in the drag community, drag is not merely a spectacle of costumes and debauchery -- it's a distinctive art form.
"To say that drag isn't an art would be insulting to drag performers and professionals and people who really do know how to perform a gender impeccably well," Calahan said. "At the same time what we hope to do with the Tufts Drag Show is to open it up to amateur drag performance."
