When 4am Productions owner John Duncan produced the first drag show in Prescott in December  2014, he wasn’t sure what to expect, but crowds happily attended. Dozens of shows later he finds it bizarre that the Republican Party has demonized this popular form of entertainment, portraying it as something dangerous to society, especially since drag has been a part of theatre since the days of Shakespeare, through to The Bird Cage on stage and screen and now RuPaul’s Drag Race on TV.

“I’ve always been fascinated with the art form, since I was a teenager,” Duncan said. “It always seemed to me to be the highest form of flattery when someone impersonates an artist.” The DragTime artists who first came to Prescott dressed as and lip-synced to Reba McIntyre, Dolly Parton and Cher songs, as well as portraying original personas. For the first production Ofeelia Buns helped book the talent through a connection with Coco St. James. Both are well known drag artists based in Phoenix.

Duncan thought the first show would attract LGBTQ+ people in the community, but was surprised at the most consistent demographic among audiences attending. “It was all 55-and-above women who just wanted to watch and enjoy a show, and had a great time,” he said.

In the middle of the first show a woman in the audience got up and appeared to be leaving, and Duncan stopped her and asked whether everything was okay. “I was totally stressed out, thinking that she was completely offended and just wanted to leave,” Duncan said. “And she said, ‘No, this is fantastic! This is something that I always enjoyed where I used to live. And I think it’s amazing that I’m able to enjoy it now in my new home.’ Then she asked about the restroom.”

The drag shows have helped build a community of people who are open-minded and supportive of LGBTQ+ people. “Having something like this in a rural area is more beneficial for the community than actually going to the show,” Duncan said, “because then it creates a dialogue with your co-workers, it creates a dialogue with family, to where you can actually have an open discussion about something that’s very gay.”

Duncan later produced shows such as The Vagina Monologues and Five Lesbians Eating a Quiche, which blended comedy with sharp societal observation, and both shows did well. His production company hosted The Vagina Monologues as a charity event for Prescott Area Shelter Services (then called Prescott Area Women’s Shelter) at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. (Recently ERAU canceled a drag show planned by students because of concern about possible protests. The show moved to the facilities of the Granite Peak Unitarian Universalist Congregation.) “We ended up raising over $8,000 for that organization, which was unbelievable, and I wouldn’t have been able to do that without doing the drag shows first,” Duncan said.

His 4am Productions has sold out every DragTime show, building an audience that is open to edgier performances, in contrast to the umpteenth production of Oklahoma! or other old, recycled musicals. He also feels that it has helped build community and goodwill that has “overshadowed any type of success” in ticket sales.

After seeing the drag show Prescott native Kevin Moore transformed himself into DD Alexander, and though he now lives in DC working at a government job, he returns regularly to perform in local shows.

As to the effects the shows have had on audiences, Duncan says, “It’s transformative. It’s taking you in and, in giving you a chance to change your mood, changes everything. It makes you feel more at home, just on cloud nine, and its not about drugs or drinking alcohol, because the first shows that we ended up doing were in dry zones — we didn’t serve alcohol or anything like that. People look at drag as a theatre piece, rather than it being something for a nightclub.”

The attacks by conservative groups like the Proud Boys, who are harassing patrons at drag shows around Arizona and in other states, seem absurd to Duncan.

“It doesn't have anything to do with politics,” Duncan said. “Politics was never talked about during the shows, never joked about. I mean, you went from Whitney Houston to Dolly Parton to Lady Gaga and, you know, it wasn't anything more than that.”

But those political attacks have raised concern about security even here, so the upcoming DragTime shows will have added security and special insurance. Duncan said the political atmosphere has also made it harder to find venues for the show.

“So now it’s becoming more volatile than when I started,” Duncan said. “The event itself is turning into a way to show we can present it to audiences who want to see it, people who have grown to know and love it. … People have choices about what they want to read and what they want to see, and that’s protected by the Constitution.”

This season’s DragTime shows will be held June 16 and 17, 7 and 9pm at The Federal, and a show benefiting Northland Cares June 18, 5:30pm at The Raven Café. For more information visit 4amproductions.net.