By Brian Argabright
830 Times
Unity, inclusion, confidence and acceptance were the themes of a unique event that packed Brown Plaza Thursday night.
The cast and crew of HBO Max’s “We’re Here” taped an episode of the show at the historic part of San Felipe, bringing a piece of Hollywood to this small corner of Texas.
For the uninitiated, “We’re Here” focuses on three famous drag queens – Bob the Drag Queen, Eureka O’Hara and Shangela Laquifa Wadley – as they travel to small towns across the country and put on drag shows with members of the community they visit. The performances aren’t meant to be strictly shows that dress up men and women in drag and show them off, but they spend time visiting and learning about the community and helping their protégés by using drag to inspire them to overcome whatever issues they may be facing in their lives.
While Thursday’s event was free and open to the public, there were rules and guidelines in place. One of the biggest was the signing of a nondisclosure agreement by attendees. That meant no photography or video recording was allowed during the show. The event was recorded and will be edited before it airs, but it was interesting to see the show raw and as it happened with the mistakes and flubs and miscues that happen during a live performance.
All three drag queens had individual performances and also performed with their drag daughters, the loving titles given to the people they worked with over the past several days.
As for who was selected to perform at the show, that will be kept under wraps until closer to when the show airs. No airdate had been revealed yet.
The crowd was a mix of people of all ages. Many of the people in the crowd were part of the LGBTQ+ community, others were allies such as family members or friends, and others were there just to have a good time.
But the event was special to many attendees. Chris Saldaña, who graduated from Del Rio High in 1994 and who is openly gay, called the event “monumental.” He attended the event with his father, whom he said wanted to go to show support for the LGBTQ+ community.
“I’ve been getting chills all night,” Saldaña said. “It’s very emotional.”
Despite the warm temperatures, which were probably the biggest complaint of the drag queens, the plaza was filled to standing room-only. Those folks who were seated closest to the stage were friends or family members of the local performers or had stood in the blistering Texas heat for hours to get the best seats in the house, even if they had to bring them from home.
Throughout the first season of “We’re Here,” the performances were held in smaller venues and often resulted in people being turned away. Not so in Del Rio. The open venue allowed as many people as were comfortable being there. That wasn’t lost on the drag queens who complimented Del Rio on being the most welcoming community they’d visited and for featuring the largest crowd they’d seen.
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Contact the author at drnhsports@gmail.com
