The Princess photographed at Play
Adam Biga had a RuPaul CD as a tween, and as a teen would sneak-watch the drag queen’s ’90s talk show at his grandmother’s house.
“I didn’t know what RuPaul was,” Biga tells the Scene. “I knew he was a drag queen, but what is a drag queen? I didn’t know.” This was before Google and social media, and definitely before YouTube drag makeup tutorials and the phenomenon that would be RuPaul’s Drag Race.
Biga definitely knows what a drag queen is now. In fact, he’s mastered the art. For the past 13-plus years, it’s been Biga’s full-time job, performing four to five nights per week locally at Play Dance Bar and Tribe as The Princess, who emcees drag shows, trivia nights and Drag Race watch parties, among other events. The Princess was also a Season 4 competitor in 2012, and finished touring just in time to land in Nashville in 2013 as the city began to boom.
The Princess is gifted on mic, connecting with the variety of queens who visit the bars. Her role also includes reminding the crowd that drag is meant to be interactive; it’s not just something you watch on TV. And that means cheering — and tipping, especially the local queens who aren’t paid thousands of dollars in booking fees to perform.
Drag is more mainstream now than ever before, thanks primarily to the aforementioned competition show, but “boy queens” like The Princess often aren’t highlighted. Audiences don’t understand just how many different types of drag there are, Biga tells the Scene.
“Drag is an infinite amount of ways, and there is pretty drag and ugly drag and feminine drag and masculine drag,” he says. “You can put any adjective you want in front of the word ‘drag,’ and it’s that. And when an audience only wants one type or one certain way, that can be really frustrating.”
In his youth, Biga was “very prissy and proper,” he tells the Scene, so his friends called him “Princess.” The Princess (“The,” rather than “Miss”) is singular in her aesthetic — pop punk mixed with a superhero motif and angular shapes that strike a balance between masculine and feminine. Her jewelry and pins rattle as she strikes power poses onstage.
“I realize I look like a Muppet sometimes too, but that’s what’s fun to me, is wearing all the bells and whistles and big hair,” Biga says. “That’s why I do drag. I don’t want to be a woman. I want to be a drag queen.”
Thanks to having a home bar in Play, Biga wants to stay in Tennessee — even as the Tennessee General Assembly continues its attempts to limit drag performances. Play is one of just a few places like it in the country, with a stage dedicated solely to drag rather than a dance floor that pauses for drag numbers. The Princess and her castmates (Playmates) call it “conveyor-belt drag.” They come out in new looks two to three times per night for the 9 p.m., 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. shows.
The Princess photographed at Play
“When I’m not at work, when I’m not The Princess, I’m just at home recharging my battery, so I can keep doing it four nights a week,” says Biga, a self-described introvert at heart.
Biga’s pipeline to drag was through marching band and musical theater, whereas many of the younger queens had the visibility of RuPaul’s Drag Race and access to other drag queens on social media as they were honing their craft. In some ways, Biga says he feels like a dinosaur.
Younger queens might go to social media for advice before they’ll go to a veteran queen, but it’s in live, face-to-face interaction that The Princess has found her niche and purpose. She’s a steady force, an older sister of sorts who can sense who is new and invite them into her world — sharing all the forms drag can take.
Biga just turned 47, and he always told himself he didn’t want to be onstage at 50.
“But why though — why is that the cutoff point?” he asks himself.
He’ll stop when he’s not having fun anymore, and he hopes that won’t be for a long time.
Profiling some of Nashville’s most interesting people, from a Paralympic gold medalist and a longtime horror host to a 'Drag Race' alumna and more
