Interview: Eureka O’Hara (‘We’re Here’) and costume designer Patryq Howell on how drag is a family effort [VIDEO]

On HBO’s We’re Here (think To Wong Foo meets Queer Eye), three queens of Drag Race royalty – Shangela Laquifa Wadley, Bob the Drag Queen and Eureka – descend on Smalltown USA to give one or more of its denizens not just a makeover but so much more.

Interview: Shangela and costume designer Diego Montoya talk out and proud examples of visibility in HBO’s ‘We’re Here’ [VIDEO]

Each week of the 6-episode series, which is available to stream on HBO GO, HBO NOW, and on HBO via HBO Max, finds the queens and their teams turning shy boys, devastated moms, local queens and strong allies into confident performers. Working with the community and families, they bring joy and love and empathy as they set upon creating a one-night only drag show experience of a lifetime.

Interview: Bob the Drag Queen and costume designer Domino of HBO’s ‘We’re Here’ on drag as a patchwork of all that you are [VIDEO]

In my final interview in the We’re Here series featuring Shangela and Bob with their designers, I spoke to Eureka O’Hara (aka David Huggard) and their designer Patryq Howell about the challenges and rewards of working with an incredible range of small town folks trying to expand their horizons like straight cis guy Clifton, work through the devastating trauma of suicide like mother and daughter Jasmine and Stacey and repair deep wounds like mom conservative mom turned ally Erica.

Through our conversation we touch on the importance of visibility, on the 7-year collaboration between Eureka and Patryq (whose 30-year career has been a lifelong work with queens across the country) and how drag doesn’t show who are you, it reveals who you are.

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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