A BIT TOO MUCH HAIR Comes to The Queerly Festival

Butch Mermaid Productions will present A Bit Too Much Hair written by Ania Upstill and William Duignan. The production will be presented as part of the 2024 Queerly Festival with FRIGID New York at UNDER St. Marks (94 St Marks Pl, New York, NY 10009) with performances on Tue June 18 & Mon June 24 at 7pm. Tickets ($25/$20) are available for advance purchase at www.frigid.nyc. The performance will run approximately 60 minutes. 

A Bit Too Much Hair is a gender euphoric musical cabaret for thems, mens, femmes, and everyone in between. The 2022 New Zealand premier was nominated for Excellence Awards for Theatre for Social Change and Best Ensemble at the 2022 Wellington Theatre Awards, and in 2023 A Bit Too Much Hair garnered four- and five-star reviews at Edinburgh Fringe. You won't want to miss it! After all, "[h]owever you express your gender, and whatever form it takes, Butch Mermaid make you feel at home instantly in this uproarious gender reveal party for the ages" (Binge Fringe 2023).

The Queerly Festival cast will feature Evan Michael Smith (he/she/they), Kendall Perry (he/they) and Ania Upstill (they/them). 

Evan Michael Smith (Member of Actors' Equity) is a Wagner College alumnus with a flair for the dramatic, has been captivating audiences with his dynamic performances in musical theatre from Broadway to the rolling decks of Norwegian Cruise Ships. A devoted student of his craft, Evan honed his skills at the revered Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin and earned the distinction of an Ensign-Darling Vocal Fellow at the Bushnell Center for Performing Arts in Hartford, CT. His performances have spanned the globe, from New York to Dublin and beyond, embodying a diverse array of characters with equal parts wit and intensity. Select roles include “HUD” in HAIR, “Man 1″ in Songs for A New World, and “Victor” from Smokey Joe's Cafe. 

Kendall Perry is a Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist musician, composer, and artist exploring the in-between, liminality, and connection in their work. They received a MMus from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2019.  As a composer, they've created new works alongside theatre makers and dancers across the globe, including three original productions with Colorado-based company Wild Heart Dance.  As a drummer and guitarist, Kendall loves collaborating on original live performance work, new musicals, and gigging with singer-songwriters across the city. 

Ania Upstill is a queer and trans performer, director, theatre maker, and clown. Ania's recent work celebrates LGBTQIA+ artists with a focus on gender diversity and they were most recently seen performing their solo work Transhumance in the Millenium Stage Series at the Kennedy Center. Select performance credits include War and Play, a clown show about the war in Ukraine in the Criminal Queerness Festival (Lincoln Center); Today's Mess, a clown show about diversity, at Nancy Manocherian's the cell theater; and In Many Hands (Brooklyn Academy of Music).

Butch Mermaid Productions believes that representation matters - you can't be what you can't see. Putting positive queer and trans stories on the stage helps us not just survive, but thrive. We make art that celebrates the beauty of embracing your authentic self because visible joy is a political act in the struggle for equality.

Founded in 2014, Queerly is FRIGID New York's annual celebration of LGBTQA+ artists. Queerly strives for diversity on and off stage, seeking out queer teams and artists of all kinds as well as a wide range of shows and performances. Our goal is to provide a space for queer artists who've rarely or never seen their identities portrayed on stage to be able to represent themselves and tell their stories their way, as well as to provide a space for queer celebration, pride, and strength. Curated by FRIGID New York Co-Artistic Director, Jimmy Lovett. 

FRIGID New York's mission is to provide both emerging and established artists the opportunity to create and produce original work of varied content, form, and style, and to amplify their diverse voices. We do this by presenting an array of monthly programming, mainstage productions, an artist residency, and eight annual theater festivals that create an environment of collaboration, resourcefulness, and innovation. Founded in 1998, the aim was and is to form a structure, allowing multiple artists to focus on creating and staging new work and providing affordable rental space to scores of independent artists. Now in our third decade we have produced a massive quantity of stimulating downtown theater. www.frigid.nyc  

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