In Tía Talk, two Latinas, Karen and Amelia, try to prove their Latinidad to themselves and the audience by embodying every stereotype they have been fed by the media, their peers, and even their families. By using the structure of a talk show, they invite the audience to participate in their exploration of identity by building interactive segments, offering advice, and posing unanswerable questions (e.g. how can we acknowledge the inherent racism and settler-colonial status quo of pan-Latinoism while also holding joy and pride in our heritage?). Additionally the performers unabashedly experience joy and pride of their own culture, delving into reggaeton, food and hoops. Drawing from their own unique experiences, as well as the influence of Latiné icons such as Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, Shakira, and Walter Mercado, Karen and Amelia explore issues of identity, including body image, fetishization and assimilation, and attempt to make sense of their place in the world. While they do not find a concrete or simple answer (how could anyone?), they do find connection with each other, and acceptance of the fact that identity is a journey, not a destination.
HYPERFANTASIA is a sci-fi fantasy drag cabaret about the proliferation of matter in the universe and life on planet Earth. Featuring original music and projections, this miniature epic draws on new evolutionary theories and ancient queer wisdom to dismantle the survival-of-the-fittest paradigm toward an ethic of abundance and extravagance. Hosted by Tiresias, the blind prophet of the Underworld, HYPERFANTASIA includes a reenactment of the Big Bang as a celestial orgasm, a heartfelt ode to our prehistoric unicellular bacterial ancestors, and a dance choreographed using movements of birds-of-paradise during mating rituals.
This is a two-person show performed by two butch actors. One plays Diana. The other, in drag, plays Nelu and a host of other characters from his life. Both actors wear identical Adidas tracksuits. My Cousin Nelu Is Not Gay features musings on the immigrant experience, an intimate dance with a disco ball, musings on the lesbian experience, two two-hundred-pound dogs, musings on the butch experience, and an epic yet disappointing cousin vs. cousin showdown in the space created at the ~threshold of revelation~. This is an absurdist comedy butting up against a confessional monologue. This is a bilingual play in which English clashes with Romanian and the gays wrestle the straights to take control of the stage. This is what happens when factual family history meets the stories we tell ourselves about how we grew up, or how we wish we had.
Rip Her to Shreds is a funny-terrifying roller coaster ride through girlhood; with all its ups and downs, twists and turns; alliances always shifting, and personalities revealing themselves more and more each second. A dark comedy that combines modern language, witchcraft folklore and sound-scape to explore femme friendships, consent, bullying and inherited trauma.
A playful send up of your local indie softboi and a reflection on the effects of the social internet and digital culture for us all. Butoh and gestural dance meets Taylor Swift and our iCloud archives. Through an increasingly scrambled collage format of precise choreography and found text, we attempt to re/deconstruct what it means that the thing we wrote over Messenger 10 years ago can still be accessed in about 10 seconds.
There’s Johnson #1’s feast at 2pm and Johnson #2’s daily prayer at 7am. There’s Johnson #1’s hour-long vomit and there’s Johnson #2’s hour-long jog. There’s Johnson #1’s 5 hours of restless sleep and there’s Johnson #2’s 3 hours of contaminated brainspace. deadbodydeadbodydeadbody is an invitation to voyeur into two unbeknownst rivals as they see sunrise and sunset… and sunrise and sunset… and sunrise and sunset… deadbodydeadbodydeadbody is the 72 hours before the start of the boxing match of the century, the generational death match, that is Stamps’ Blue Fire Burns the Hottest. Can preparation ever be on point?
Five Jewish nine-year-olds LARP Christianity! Watch as they role-play heterosexual marriage, don flame-throwing mech suits, stab each other to facilitate animal reincarnation and try to cross themselves. I’ll be in my Hanukkah palace is a feverish excursion back into the weirdo dreamscape of queer Jewish childhood.
Black and Blue is a solo show about a Black boy living in a society that doesn’t like it when our Black men show vulnerability, and this sensitive boy learns to bottle up his feelings and internalize his trauma. Over time, his hot pink shirts turn to faded black and his playlist turns from 90s boy bands to the gangsta rap of the early 2000’s. But at the end of this dark tunnel is a light that will lead us back to the path of joy, liberation, and freedom. Like the Backstreet Boys album, our biracial boy realizes it’s ok to be Black and feel Blue.
After discovering she was secretly filmed during her last hookup, Ella Van o’clock must decide: To Post, or Not To Post…the explicit video on OnlyFans. Clinton & Cosby & Eilish & Porter visit the broke, toking drag queen in the 11th hour, hoping to sway her decision with their music, policies & promises.
Catalina La O explores the life of creator khattieQ and of female Puerto Rican singing legends Myrta Silva and Ruth Fernández, among others. In Catalina, the ravages of a storm force her to take shelter in an abandoned studio. None of Catalina’s live audience has arrived, but she broadcasts her show to the millions of viewers she hopes are watching. Catalina is a piece for the queer communities, the colonized body, for Puerto Rico, for anyone who has experienced heartbreak. It is a piece for survivors. It is a piece that speaks to resistance.
Preston just wants to play the piano in front of people. But will Preston let Preston fulfill this dream? And will Preston be able to get Preston into the shower? How will Preston react when Preston finds out Preston locked Preston in the bathroom? Spanning stage and screen, Chicken Soup With Stars is an almost musical about walls and the many Prestons found within them.
God, Love, Death, Afterlife, Perversion and Depravity; philosophical subjects that even after 300,000 years of human existence still remain theoretical and controversial- and none better to unpack them then River L. Ramirez through their heightened, experimental comedic style that their mother often calls “disturbing and not for me.” Gathering highbrow and lowbrow authorities alike, from musicians to characters, comedians to writers, this series promises to be an unhinged meeting of minds for the ages.
God, Love, Death, Afterlife, Perversion and Depravity; philosophical subjects that even after 300,000 years of human existence still remain theoretical and controversial- and none better to unpack them then River L. Ramirez through their heightened, experimental comedic style that their mother often calls “disturbing and not for me.” Gathering highbrow and lowbrow authorities alike, from musicians to characters, comedians to writers, this series promises to be an unhinged meeting of minds for the ages.
God, Love, Death, Afterlife, Perversion and Depravity; philosophical subjects that even after 300,000 years of human existence still remain theoretical and controversial- and none better to unpack them then River L. Ramirez through their heightened, experimental comedic style that their mother often calls “disturbing and not for me.” Gathering highbrow and lowbrow authorities alike, from musicians to characters, comedians to writers, this series promises to be an unhinged meeting of minds for the ages.
With dramaturgy as the core of her artistic practice, Jillian is theatermaker as archaeologist. She investigates the processes and workings of time, ritual, identity and structure to unearth the ways theatrical forms can impact the larger cultural landscape. Through her residency at University Musical Society (University of Michigan), she researched her new play, Tignon, and a lecture/performance work, Songs of Speculation, which premiered at JACK in November 2018. Jillian was recently commissioned to create brand-new work for the critically-acclaimed Soho Rep. and holds an MFA in Dramaturgy from Columbia University.