PORT ANGELES — Studio Bob will offer a weekend of drag performances led by Port Angeles High School alumnus Blake McCabe on Friday and Saturday night.
Blake will serve as hostess for Neon Nostalgia at 8 p.m. Friday at the studio at 118 ½ E. Front St., Port Angeles. Doors wll open at 7 p.m. for an audience of 18 and older. Admission is $15.
This show features queens from out of town and out of state: Javon Love, Brit Neon and Vivienne Duchanne. Blacklight is the theme.
On Saturday, doors will open at 7 p.m. for an all-ages show at 8 p.m. Paradiscan Nights, with McCabe as hostess, will star Drew, Jessica and Sara Monet. Admission is $15.
There is a special price of $25 for both shows. Tickets are available for Neon Nostalgia at https://neonnostalgia.bpt.me and Paradiscan Nights at https://paradiscannights.bpt.me. A link for tickets to both shows is at https://neonparadiso.bpt.me.
McCabe said his love of costumes and fashions was sparked by Kate Winslett in the movie Titanic wearing a fitted women’s white and purple pinstripe Edwardian day wear suit and an oversized matching purple hat.
At 12, he began drawing ensembles and by 14 had learned to sew. In his sophomore year in high school, his mother took him fabric and pattern shopping to create his date’s gown and a matching vest for himself, he said.
“I was shocked at how little outfit coordination mattered to middle school and high school dance dates and I was determined that would not be the case for me,” he said. “From that point on it was pretty common for my date, myself, or both of us to attend dances and other functions in attire sewn up by yours truly. That was still only the beginning.”
Two weeks after graduating from high school in 2011, he began summer classes for fashion design in Seattle. In his third year in a fashion design school, he became drawn to drag performance costuming.
“My repertoire includes simple colorful leotards, extravagant gowns, complex characters, high fashion attire, celebrity impersonation designs, to intense Disney character costumes and pieces,” McCabe said.
“These days my work can be easily found in the drag scene in the Pacific Northwest but has reached many other states outside of my little corner up here in Washington.”
For more about him, see blakemccabedesigns.com.
