Smuin Contemporary Ballet has a yearly tradition Smuin’s The Christmas Ballet LGBTQ+ Night. During the 2021 performance of The Christmas Ballet, Lady Camden, the drag persona of ballet dancer Rex Wheeler, was slated to host and perform “Santa Baby” the show’s signature holiday piece. Mercedez Munro stepped into the red hot heels of Lady Camden and hosted the event and afterparty when our diva fell ill with COVID. (She is fully recovered and was named runner-up in season 14 of RuPaul’s Drag Race!) Our team connected Smuin with the nonprofit Project Open Hand, working to improve health outcomes and quality of life by providing nutritious meals to the sick and vulnerable, caring for and educating our community. Nearly $5000 was raised to support the mission of POH!

In addition to developing the ad look and logotype for the event, we coordinated the philanthropic aspect of the event, afterparty plans and donations, and ran communications with Project Open Hand. We also followed up working with Smuin’s publicity team to facilitate news coverage of the event.

Photos of Lady Camden by Maximillian Tortoriello