Playwright/producer Donald l Horn had been working on this project for several years. Drag diva and club owner Darcelle, something of an institution in Portland, Oregon, had performed an earlier version, but was unavailable for the planned tour, so a casting search resulted in my becoming his/her replacement. (Thanks to Monica Rodriguez, founder of Actors Only in Portland, who was then my film & TV agent and who recommended me for the job, even though she was not Equity franchised and could not collect a commission for stage work.) After the San Francisco and Seattle runs had garnered the needed financial backing, it was hoped that this production would open in New York City in the fall of 1995, on the subject’s 50th birthday. The backing never materialized, and a dispute over performance rights to the character closed the show at the end of its Seattle run.
The amazing costumes by costumer/puppeteer Steven M. Overton (of The Olde World Puppet Theatre and the now no-longer-with-us Tygre’s Heart Shakespeare, among other Portland and San Francisco credits, as well as the organizer of a puppet exhibition at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry that included performances by world class companies) were put on Display in the Theatre!Theater!, the space which Don Horn, as Producer/Artistic Director of triangle productions!, and Myra Donnelley, former Artistic Director of Stark Raving Theatre, built in SE Portland for their companies.

Some reviews:

“Thank God for Maybelline and Eva Gabor wigs!” says Harris Glenn Milstead, the sad 5-foot-4, 200-pound Baltimore misfit who grew up to be the biggest, loudest, trashiest drag queen ever to grace the silver screen.
From the adolescent doormat he was to the tacky John Waters cult movie heroine “she” became (in raunchy epics like “Pink Flamingos,” “Mondo Trasho” and “Polyester”), Divine was an outrageous, tragic figure, willing to do anything to gain notorious celebrity, acceptance and self-validation.
As portrayed by Kevin N. Scott in “Dishin’ With Divine,” Milstead is also enormously sympathetic: a shy, soft-spoken, yet mischievous “character actor.”
In the relaxed structure of Donald Horn’s often funny script, Scott is by turns playful, caustic and deeply touching.

Tom Orr, The Seattle Times

“Dishin’ With Divine,” is, as the title suggests, a chatty little evening in which the character prattles on about friends, foes, experiences and everything else that crosses his mind. Kevin N. Scott does an agreeable impression of Divine.

David Lyman, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

As Divine, Kevin N. Scott is stellar. He puts on his makeup as we watch, and the transformation in appearance and attitude is stunning. The impression was impeccable. As Milstead, . . . he seemed sort of tragic in a way I never imagined Divine's creator would be. I dunno. I went home and watched “Polyester”. It made me really happy.

Spike Lalka, the stranGer

“Dishin’ With Divine” is a one-man drama (currently playing at the Velvet Elvis Theatre) that leaves audiences in the know about the life of one of the most controversial and misconceived cult-film stars of the ’70s and ’80s. The entire 90-minute show takes place in Harris/Divine’s New York penthouse the night before his death, with the Diva of Drag recalling the extraordinary path of his life from childhood.
There are many overt references to some of the more memorable scenes Divine acted in (including the scatophilogical scene [that ends “Pink Flamingos”]), but it is the presentation of Harris/Divine’s more personal side that makes for the most intriguing parts of the play.
Kevin N. Scott does an excellent job of bringing to light the discrete elements that made up Harris/Divine, and his impression of Divine in drag is impressive and authentic.

Marc Hawthorne, The Glass Onion
(a supplement to The Daily of the University of Washington)

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