Picturesque views, a thriving queer community, scores of eager tourists, and no shortage of performance venues attract dozens of drag performers to Provincetown every summer. But when the weather turns cold, most of these queens flee the Cape to pursue gigs in New York or go on tour.
Not Jonathan Joseph Peters, who is part of a small group of drag performers who are also year-round residents. Peters, whose drag persona, Vivienne Fontaine, is familiar to many because he works at Joe Coffee. But he has long had another career as well. He was the sixth-place contestant on season seven of Project Runway. After spending some time selling clothing and jewelry at makers’ markets in the Northeast, Peters spent much of last winter designing costumes for himself and other drag performers in town.
“I’m not really a seaside-town, beach kind of person,” says Peters. “I’m definitely more of a New York City kind of person.” His first season in Provincetown was 2017, and he moved back in 2021. “I think it’s one of the most magical places,” he says. “It’s also a place where I feel intensely creative.”
This past winter, he worked on costumes for Hilarie Tamar, whose show Cry Baby at the Crown & Anchor opened June 22; designed outfits for EDIE, who does an evening show and Friday drag brunch at the Post Office Cafe and Cabaret; and created a dream look for Delta Miles inspired by the musical Kiss Me, Kate. Peters also made two costumes for the parody show Schartt$ Creek 2.Ew! at the Post Office, in which he also stars as David and Johnny Rose.
The look for Delta, which Peters says she has been wanting to create for several years, is a royal-blue 1940s-esque robe with a silk chiffon skirt over a nude teddy. It is, Peters says, “very dramatic and over the top” — much like the custom bridal gowns he used to build as a boutique designer. For Hilarie, in contrast, Peters got to experiment with a more rock-and-roll-inspired aesthetic. “It is drag, in a way, but it has this harder edge than maybe something I would normally do,” Peters says.
The drag community dwindles during the off-season, Peters says, and after the annual holiday Holly Folly, performance opportunities become more infrequent. “So, you know, we all grow beards,” Peters says.
He’s shaving these days. Now’s when “you get to see your sisters that you haven’t seen since last season,” Peters says. “Once they’re all here, it feels like the family’s back together.”
