Lloydminster’s Slay the Night is returning with a new show and taking on a larger challenge as they perform online for the audience once again.
For Valentine’s Day Saturday, the drag performers will be doing a story based on the musical and film Grease. In the past, the performers would do their acts separate with the emcee introducing them. Now, the show will have a narrative arc, a first for the performers.
Event Organizer Jenson Brown says that while their drag show is an art that feeds off a live audience, they’ve worked hard and built their confidence in the medium.
“The nice thing is, with going virtual, in a lot of different areas, it has given us a lot of practice. Through our monthly episodes that we do now, our live episodes that we do, and our other performances that we’ve done virtually as well.”
The online aspect has also helped them bring the Lloydminster drag community to a worldwide audience, while also keeping it local. Through their Facebook and Youtube channels, people in the United States and other countries have come and watch.
Brown also notes that they’ve seen more interest in the drag arts here in the community as their performances continue.
He considers that many people might be interested because of shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race becoming pop-culture icons, and hopes that it builds more acceptance of LGBTQ+ art and people in Lloydminster.
“As a group, we’ve really tried to advocate for, and push forward to, is exploring that community base, exploring that acceptance piece, looking at gender as a spectrum, even in a lot of performances that we do, there is an element of that.”
The event will also be raising money for the LGBTQ+ Society of Lloydminster through their raffle. From there, the donations raised will go towards planning Pride related events for the summer of 2021.
“June is going to come before we know it, and Pride Month, of course, is still a new thing in Lloydminster,” Brown says. “So we’re still trying to gain traction and gain support, so anything we can do to help the local LGBTQ+ Society to gain that traction, to have a really successful happy Pride for everyone this year, we will do what we can.”
The event will be online 7 PM February 13th, but virtual seats will be limited. A link to the show’s Eventbrite can be found on the Slay the Night Facebook page.
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Correction: A previous version of this article stated the date as Friday the 13th. It is actually Saturday the 13th. We apologize for the error.