Who: Director Raechel Gilland is a long-active member of the Bend theater community and has performed in many productions, most recently as Biondello in Guerilla Shakespeare Co.’s July production of “The Taming of the Shrew.” Now, Gilland is bringing to life “Queens of the High Desert,” featuring a cast of a dozen in what she promises to be a family-friendly drag show, in performance at 8 p.m. Aug. 10 and 11 at 2nd Street Theater, 220 NE Lafayette Ave., in Bend. Tickets are $18 and $24, plus fees, at bendticket.com.

Q: How did “Queens of the High Desert” come to be?

A: (Laughs) Well, I had been around a lot of drag in my life. … Just stories and stuff that I’ve seen, and I’m a RuPaul fan, and the whole thing. I’ve wanted to do something like this for a long time, and I’ve seen the need here in Bend. There’s a lot of queens here, but there’s no outlet. They don’t have — usually they see them coming from Salem or Portland. There’s not really a place for them to go. … Usually shows are 21 and over, and we are not like that at all. We’re family-friendly. My 16-year-old (in the cast) is my most fierce queen. He’s made all of his own clothes, does all his own makeup. He’s great.

Q: What form does the show take? Singing, lip-syncing?

A: There’s a little bit of everything. It’s not like a traditional drag show where you hire out, and they come with their own piece, and the emcee goes to the next (performer). Our emcees are a part of the show. We do group numbers. Yes, we do have individual pieces, but it all comes back around to a group piece. They’re all working together. We even have a poetry piece. … It’s not about sexuality, it’s not about gender or any of those things. Even though this is a drag, and there are gender swaps, we’re focused more on the community part, the being together. Learning together, pushing boundaries they didn’t even know they had. A lot of these, most of the people that are in the show have never been in theater or never performed in their life. They’re learning dance and choreography and how to sing, working together. … I’m in theater a lot, and when I go to a rehearsal, when they say, “We’re done,” everybody (usually) scatters. It’s time to go home. … But this, it’s like, “Can y’all please go home? I’m tired now. I really love that you’re all getting along, but I need to go to sleep.”

Q: Does that mean in the future there might be more of these?

A: I hope so. … We haven’t officially said anything yet, but I know most of the queens in my cast want to do stuff.

—David Jasper, The Bulletin