“It’s liberating. It’s precious, and, it’s heart-warming…This is something I wish everyone could experience,” says Marina Summers about drag in an interview with Village Pipol magazine.
As you may or may not know, Marina Summers was one of the top finalists in the first season of RuPaul’s Drag Race Philippines. Although having not snatched the crown by the end, as she is a runner-up next to Precious Paula Nicole, Marina was a force to be reckoned with in the show. She brought beauty and brains (and drama) into the table, literally and figuratively, through her terrific antics and talents ever since the start of the design challenge, to the improv challenge, and even in the iconic ‘Snatch game’ challenge – a total slayage.
But, precedent to these events was a boy in a small town in a province. A boy who first found his stage in the privacy of the shower, with the hot water dripping from the showerhead, having shampoo and soap as his first audience as well as his silent keepers of secrets – a calm respite, in stark contrast to the outside world, wherein there are still people who detest the queer community and their forms of expression, like a stain they can’t erase. “It’s okay that you’re gay, just don’t wear women’s clothing,” Marina recalls her mother’s words.
Growing up in a province, young Marina did not have the same exposure to the LGBTQIA+ community as she has today, although it was when she moved into the city at college that she had an eye-opening experience. Immersed in queer culture and drag culture more so, Marina shared in an interview with Spill the Tea magazine that this is also around the time when she was introduced to RuPaul’s Drag Race because of the iconic “So Emotional” lip-sync battle. However, this was not the turning point that made her enter the drag scene.
“I worked as a TV producer for ABS-CBN before. It’s been a dream of mine to be able to produce queer content — and that includes drag, and I was fortunate enough to be given a chance to feature some of our local queens from Nectar Nightclub in BGC (The Nectarines) in one of our TV shows,” said Marina in an interview with ABS-CBN. Marina wanted to feature local queens from a bar in Manila for a show she was producing because she was a producer by profession. But it was these conducted interviews and conversations with the queens that truly gave her the inspiration to start practicing drag. Discussions on drag as a form of expression, art, and a profession, as well as cosmetics, fashion, performance, and other related topics, lit a fire inside her young, brazen heart. This was the fire that birthed the Marina Summers.
And so, the Philippines version of the Drag Race franchise was unveiled in August 2021. But for Marina, the timing couldn't have been worse. She had to pay for a new house, a new job, and a savings account in addition to the unimaginable costs of drag. She had limited resources and was mentally exhausted. But alas, it was Marina's mother who persuaded her to apply. Their mother-son relationship has come a long way since her childhood, and it was this extra push that aided in immortalizing Marina’s name as one of the twelve drag queens who first stepped foot into the Drag Race “herstory” of the Philippines.
Marina tells ABS-CBN that she felt as if they [the cast of Drag Race PH Season 1] are the torch-bearers and champions of queer talent and excellence since drag representation in the mainstream media of the Philippines has never truly seen the light of day – a “cultural reset,” as she describes. Marina says she is honored to be able to inspire, touch lives, and share stories, since “Yun naman yung main agenda namin coming into the competition,” she added.
Drag, simply put, is a form of art in which performers dress in accessories and make-up that emphasize and exaggerate a certain gender identity, typically that of the opposite sex. Drag Race Philippines has expanded the art form beyond the boundaries of the nightlife scene into drag brunches and pop-up events for all demographics, including families, parents, and kids. In an interview with Teen Vogue, Marina mentions that “They’ve become more aware of what drag is, and in a sense [it sparks] a conversation about SOGIESC, that these queens who are trying to imitate a woman, doesn’t necessarily mean they want to be women,” Marina says
There is more to drag than just the looks served or the performances that are displayed on stage. It is a culmination of creative talent, individual expression, and a conduit for good causes in our communities. In Marina’s own words, “Before, I saw Marina as an escape and as a way to further express myself. But later on, through the people, stories, and experiences I’ve encountered along the way, I found a greater purpose – And that’s to hopefully help elevate the craft and bring more light to the local drag scene.”
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