We’re partnering with Portland Institute of Contemporary Art to profile artists in their 2025 TBA festival. Next up, Seattle-based Elby Brosch and Shane Donohue of Drama Tops, who performed on Sept. 7. Get your tickets to the rest of TBA’s amazing performances here.
Q: How would you describe your relationship to the West Coast?
A: Elby Brosch and Shane Donohue, the founders of Drama Tops, were both raised in rural America. The West Coast is a mecca of queer art and culture, creating a fertile environment for queer artistic insemination. The West Coast is where we feel most free.
Q: Name one thing you’ve read, looked at, watched, or listened to this month that left an impression on you:
A: While on tour to Portland, we went to Stag and pondered the performers’ underwear choices.
Q: When did your artistic journey begin and what was the spark?
A: Drama Tops formed in 2017 through the friendship of Elby and Shane and our artistic desires to be sassy little shits!
Q: How has your work changed in the last five years?
A: We’ve followed our desires to become more irreverent, more vulnerable, and show our butts more.
Q: If you had to choose a new medium to work with, what would it be?
A: Sculpture (dildos)
Q: Shared workspace or solo studio?
Shared, but just by Elby and Shane.
Q: Five artists, dead or alive, that you’d invite to dinner:
Miguel Gutierrez
Oskar Schlemmer
Jesus
Joni Mitchel
Divine
Q: What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned recently, art-related or not?
That Elby needs a double artificial disk replacement in his cervical spine, and Shane needs more attention.