In the dressing room guys and girls are running around, putting on lipstick and eye-liner, pulling hair back and placing their wigs on. Trousers are pulled on and dresses are slipped into as the spotlights click on. It’s time to perform.

A man confidently walks to the center of the stage and takes his place as the intro to “I Will Survive” plays. He turns in one swift motion, lip-synching, dancing and blowing kisses, as the crowd goes wild. He shakes his booty in the tight, yellow skirt then struts in black, strappy stilletos to the front of the stage. Before he was Joseph, a businessman, now he is Kasey Cola, sex goddess.

For some, being in drag is a job; for others, an opportunity to take on a new persona, a way to have fun or an experience to try, succeed and put aside.

“Being in drag brings out a part of my personality I don’t normally show,” Ligaya Roque, a senior in chemistry and chemical engineering, said.

Roque, the winner of DragFEST 2005, has dressed in drag “10 or so” times. Roque enjoys being in drag, even though being a drag king can be physically demanding.

“Binding my chest is the most physically taxing thing,” Roque said. “It can be quite painful, hot and sweaty.”

Binding is when a girl tapes or wraps her breasts to make them disappear in order to have a more masculine physique.

Celeste Richie, assistant director of diversity and communication, agrees with Roque about binding one’s breasts.

“It’s hard to breathe,” Richie said. “You have to learn to take shallow breaths.”

Richie has participated in two performances at a monthly drag king show in Chapel Hill. She and some of her friends both lip-synching and make up their own songs to sing. They plan on doing more performances as they have time to practice.

Justin White, a senior in computer engineering, said being a drag queen was an educational experience and an achievement, but he doesn’t want to continue performing.

White has performed with amateurs at the DragFEST 2005 and for Everyone Welcome Here Week last year. He has also performed at Flex, a club in Raleigh with professional drag queens.

“[At Flex] I was on stage for three minutes and made $100,” White said.

When in drag, Richie and Roque said there are times when their friends don’t recognize them.

Before her first performance, Richie went to surprise her boyfriend at his house. When he answered the door and looked at her, there wasn’t “a look of recognition on his face.”

People have carried on conversations with White about DragFEST 2005 as if he was not there, when he was a performer. He said he had to remind them what dress he was wearing for them to remember him.

One time when Roque was making her transition to be unrecognizable, she was caught in what she calls an interesting situation.

She was in the men’s bathroom in Talley with her best friend, Jacob, binding her breasts for her performance in DragFEST 2005 after she had applied her facial hair. Roque was standing with her arms at a T, “braced against the wall” while Jacob wrapped saran wrap — one method used for binding — around her chest. While they are doing this, a member of the custodial staff walked into the bathroom. The man, who was obviously uncomfortable, and paused for a minute, turned around and left.

The performers say drag has a tendency to draw funny stories. White went out to eat at the Olive Garden with friends and other performers after the DragFEST 2005 and a woman at the next table asked them if it was Homecoming.

White, Richie and Roque said they believe people should dress in drag if they’re feeling curious about it in the least.

“I would totally encourage [someone interested in drag]; it’s definitely an experience,” White said.

“Why not [try it]?” Roque said. “There’s nothing harmful about it.”

While White is no longer a drag queen, Richie and Roque can still be found at drag shows placing facial hair, binding and caking on their make-up.