Music plays as DJ Cinnamon Dubois stands at one corner of the room, and the spotlight in the other corner draws all eyes to the stage as Blanche Dubois walks down the aisle in a simple, solid yellow fringed dress.
The Sanctuary Lounge in Herrin is packed, and the air warm. Red lights gleam against the rusty brick walls as people mingle and drink, moments before the drag show begins.
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The crowd started the night off with low energy, but as drinks were downed and spirits were raised, Blanche Dubois brought the show from zero to 100 in no time.
The crowds cheered for each performer as they walked down the aisle to the stage, lip-synching and dancing under the colored lights. The crowd went wild for Jodi Santana’s performance of Dolly Parton, a smash hit in Herrin’s rural community.
“Well, I knew I had some people coming that was in my family, so I did some of my all-time favorite,” Santana said. “Dolly Parton was always a big draw. Everybody loved that.”
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Many of the performers at the show are title-holders from Missouri. The Sanctuary Lounge also had some familiar faces including Santana and Dubois.
Dubois said that she has been performing at the bar in Herrin for about four years before it was the Sanctuary Lounge. “It used to be another bar,” she said. After performing at the building for many years, Dubois said that the new owners continued to host their drag show.
One of the owners of the Sanctuary Lounge, who asked to remain anonymous, said that the bar has been open since July of 2024.
“We came up with this because my partner and I met at a bar that I owned in Brooklyn, New York in 1997,” they said. Their partner knew of Dubois and Santana because of the artists’ fame in southern Illinois, they said. “So, I mean they’re just legends in the scene. And so, I sat down with them in our living room before we even opened the bar.”
The Sanctuary Lounge hosts shows and adds a safe space to the Herrin community for everyone to enjoy themselves and be themselves, according to the Sanctuary Lounge co-owner.
Santana echoed this statement about the bar. “I’m really, really proud of the way that people have respected us and treated us and everybody has a good time,” she said. “I mean most of the people that come to see me that I invite are straight people. And they’re just here to have a good time.”
To Blanche Dubois, the audience at Herrin is a lot different than the audience at Carbondale, where she and Santana often perform.
“Well, it’s a different place obviously because this is not a college town,” she said. “When you’re in a college town, you get all kinds of, you know, lots of college students, but here it’s just you get a lot of local people,” Blanche Dubois said.
But it’s this community that makes Herrin unique. Santana said that her drag shows are an opportunity to bring people together and have fun. “Drag has been the one thing that I think has always united the communities, the gay and straight communities,” she said.
Santana said that, though she’s seen drag change over the years, she has a positive outlook for the southern Illinois drag scene. “I think classic drag will always be very popular because we have a big following that’s followed me and Blanche for many, many years,” she said.
A lot of work goes into shows like the one put on in Herrin this Saturday night. “It takes probably a couple week’s preparation because I want to plan what song I want to do and my costumes usually revolve around that song,” Blanche said.
“Then the final week before the show, a couple days before, I’m just pre-prepping everything and packing. And packing is a big issue,” Blache said. “Sometimes I find myself doing a checklist. Like today, I ran off and forgot the hat.”
The Sanctuary Lounge is planning their next drag performance on April 12 with Blanche Dubois, Jodie Santana and other drag performers from southern Illinois and beyond.
Photo Editor Enan Chediak can be reached at echediak@dailyegyptian.com. To stay up to date on all your southern Illinois news, be sure to follow The Daily Egyptian on Facebook and Instagram @dailyegyptian.
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