Photo: Daniel Gagnon Photography
Vivienne Fontaine Plays Drag Counselor at Summer Camp
by Steve Desroches
Who looks at their newborn baby girl and thinks, “She looks like an Elaine Beatrice to me?” That was the question that came to Vivienne Fontaine’s mind while hosting her weekly wild hootenanny Summer Camp at the Post Office Café one Saturday night. Chatting with the Elaine in question, who then revealed her middle name to be Beatrice, became a point of crowd-pleasing comedy at the weekly drag show-cum-party with dashes of improv and whatever else you got. And Elaine was a great sport, testament to her good sense of humor and the comfortable vibe Fontaine maintains with the help of her rotating roster of drag co-hosts. By the end of each night Fontaine knows most everyone’s name at Summer Camp as she keeps a campy camaraderie going. Some nights she’ll host live game shows like her version of The Newlywed Game or The Weakest Twink. One night she married a couple on the spot and another she had to cut the music and announce their can be no piggy back rides as the ceiling fans are way too low for that. No night at Summer Camp is ever the same, and often not even planned. It’s just a good time.
“I love Summer Camp because no one ever told me what Summer Camp was supposed to be and I don’t know what it is,” says Jonathan Joseph Peters, the man behind Vivienne Fontaine. “And I don’t want to know what it is.”
After years as a fashion designer, appearing as a cast member in season seven of Project Runway, Peters made the dive into drag 10 years ago looking for a new creative outlet. A native of Woonsocket, Rhode Island, Peters and friends began running around Providence in drag just for fun. But it wasn’t until after a move to Provincetown that Peters actually performed in drag in 2022 at the Crown & Anchor at the Queers for Ukraine benefit. Upon invitation he was excited. Upon reflection, and finding out the Paramount room was sold out, which meant he’d be on stage in front of hundreds, he was terrified. But Vivienne Fontaine was a hit, and Peters decided that she should have a larger life here on the Cape tip. In a flurry of chiffon, marabou, and sequins Fontaine became a fully formed character ready to hit Commercial Street to join the ranks of the armada of drag queens that festoon life on the Outer Cape year-round.
“The idea of the name Vivienne Fontaine is that you get this classic, elegant woman when you hear the name, but she is actually really kind of a bimbo in that she’ll say the wrong thing in the most grand way,” says Peters. “Kind of like Goldie Hawn back on Laugh-In.”
A multi-genre art form, drag incorporates many of Peters’ passions and talents, including fashion. However, his work as a drag queen and in operating the boutique Dün, in the gazebo at the corner of Commercial and Winthrop streets, Peters is too busy to sew his own looks as he’s preoccupied selling his own designs and actually entertaining as he’s also appearing in the comedy spoof The Golden Mean Girls at the Post Office Cabaret and making guest spots in shows all over town, often working in drag seven days a week in summer. He works with other designers to create Fontaine’s looks. And it is a very interesting time for both drag and fashion as both are changing, propelled by the popularity of RuPaul’s Drag Race and all its international incarnations. No longer are drag queens seen as wearing costumes, but rather actual respected fashion, with some queens starting out as models and other being dressed by some of the biggest names in the fashion industry.
“Fashion is infiltrating drag and drag is infiltrating fashion,” says Peters. “I mean, [Drag Race cast member] Shea Couleé wore couture Valentino. That never happened before. And Valentino was thrilled to dress her.”
Peters can’t remember a time when he didn’t want to be a fashion designer. He also never imagined a life in drag when he was a little boy reading Vogue and watching runway shows. So, it’s a thrilling time for him in that he can participate in a cultural conversation that is evolving in surprising ways. “Fashion is hard to define,” says Peters. “It’s hard to say what fashion is. I’m fascinated by the debate as to what is fashion. Fashion isn’t tangible. Fashion is a feeling. I’m fascinated intensely by that idea.”
It’s much the same with drag itself. It’s expanding in not just popularity, but also scope and imagination, something Peters explores with his variety of co-hosts that include Kira Stone, Hilarie Tamar, Suzi Toot, and most frequently, Raquel Blake. It’s a night of stream-of-consciousness drag, with the audience largely directing the course, often surprising Peters himself with what can happen.
“I don’t know if you can put it in the magazine,” says Peters. “It wasn’t anything illegal, of course. It was last summer, Memorial Day, I think. No, wait it was Girl Splash. Whatever. There were a lot of lesbians there that night and one was so much fun. She just kept shouting out the funniest things. And Raquel ended up on the floor scissoring with her, this hilarious lesbian. See? Anything can happen.”
Vivienne Fontaine presents Summer Camp at the Post Office Café, 303 Commercial St., from 9 p.m. – 12 a.m. Saturday nights all summer. There is no cover charge. Fontaine also appears in The Golden Mean Girls at the Post Office Cabaret Friday, Sunday, and Wednesday at 10 p.m. now through September 14. Tickets ($35/$45) are available at the box office and online at postofficecafe.net. For more information call 508.487.0006.
