Drag queens from all around are coming to the Rialto Theatre today at 9 p.m. with “RuPaul’s Drag Race: Battle of the Seasons,” and a UA professor will be competing in the next season of the popular show.
Hosted by Bianca Del Rio, the event features some of the public’s favorite drag queens from the past six seasons of the competitive reality show “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” Included in the lineup are Adore Delano, Alaska 5000, Ivy Winters, Manila Luzon, Phi Phi O’Hara, Raja, Sharon Needles and special musical guest Cary NoKey.
If the show is to be anything like shows in the past, audience members are in for a night of performances, laughter and drag queens galore. In previous years, the performing queens were given a few chances to show off their talents that the show typically wouldn’t have time to include, according to an article on www.redesignrevolution.com.
Patrick Holt, also known as Tempest DuJour, has taught in the School of Theatre, Film and Television for 13 years and has a husband and two children.
“In the world of drag, there’s a lot of different genres, and I guess you would classify me in the comedy or camp drag,” said Holt, joking that he isn’t expecting anyone to mistake him for a woman when dressed as DuJour. “To me, it’s all about theatricality and over-the-top fun.”
Holt said that he has been interested in drag since a young age and attended shows often. It was only over the last eight or nine years that he has begun to do drag regularly. Since then, he has competed in various drag pageants and won several awards as DuJour but explained that the pageant world wasn’t for him. Holt’s ultimate goal was to compete on “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”
“Getting on the show means that you’ve reached a certain level in the craft,” Holt said. Holt has auditioned several times and got close to making the final cuts for seasons five and six. This year, he finally landed a spot on season seven, breaking the records for tallest contestant at 6 foot 6 inches, oldest contestant at 47, and first contestant from Arizona.
Holt couldn’t say much about his time on the show until the season airs, but he said that the environment was emotionally intense, exciting and stressful at the same time. Holt said the contestants were sequestered away and cut off from all media and outside contact for the duration of filming, so the group became like a small family — only accompanied by the tension that comes along with a competition.
Holt is dedicated to his craft and suggested that anyone interested in doing drag should put that same amount of dedication in their work.
“A lot of people don’t regard it as a legitimate art form,” he said, “but if you’ve been to a real, great drag show before, it’s amazing.”
Tickets for tonight’s live show are on sale at www.rialtotheatre.com. Holt can be seen competing on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” on Logo TV on March 2.
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