Queerly Festival To Present CALICO This June

Queerly Festival will present Calico written by Kai Xing Mun and directed by Michi Zaya. 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) on Saturday, June 29 at 7pm. 

Tickets ($25) are available for advance purchase at www.frigid.nyc. The performance will run approximately an hour and thirty minutes.

Calico is an Asian American-focused neo-burlesque play that explores LGBTQ+ issues, language barriers, familial love, the burlesque scene in New York City, and the radical power of chosen family.

After coming out as a nonbinary ace, Peach doesn't speak to their mother Chyou for several years. Still, the future looks bright as Peach has built up a reputation as a burlesque artist, and is surrounded by a glamorous community that loves Peach for who they are. Suddenly Chyou gets into a car accident and develops retrograde amnesia.

Chyou seems free of her trauma and prejudices which allows the two to bond closer than ever before. Peach's closest friends, Naveena and Sunshine, begin to wonder if finding closure with their own families is possible. Sunshine begins to renew hope about reconciling with her own estranged family, while Naveena struggles to find romantic love to spite and replace the parental love she never seemed to receive. Will all this new hope bloom into a brighter future, or result in heartbreak?

The cast will feature Kai Xing Mun, Priya Roy, Marcina Manaloto, Angela Chew, and
Christian Masinsin. The creative team includes Stage Manager Lingyi Wang, Casting Associate and Co-Producer Lil Rhee, and Lightning Designer Non Kuromoto.

About the Artists

Kai Xing Mun (Playwright) (she/they/he) is a Malaysian-Chinese American nonbinary ace actor born and raised in Lenapehoking, also known as New York City. They write their own stories to understand the world and explore love in all of its shades. They've been performing Off-Broadway since their early teens with Urban Youth Theater and went on to become a theatre arts graduate of Marymount Manhattan College. They've since worked in theatre, film, and television. At night, they perform burlesque and drag. It's a dream come true for Kai to combine their love for theatre and burlesque to tell this story on stage. Insta: @kaixingmun

Michi Zaya (Director) (any pronoun) is a Mongolian storyteller of all trades, based in Brooklyn. Michi's work can be seen on stage as a performer/actor, projections designer, and director. Her primary interests are in experimentally bold and heart wrenchingly vulnerable presentations of art. Recent works include: Directing Credits: DIG IN (Connelly Theater), ANCIENT HISTORY (The Tank), PRIMARY COLORS (Pulp Stage), and THE BOY WHO BURNT HIS VILLAGE DOWN, MA AME Capstone Award Winning media project based on interviews with the tenants and workers of Manhattan Chinatown. Michi enjoys spooky stories, fact-checking inflammatory articles, holding their cat and kissing him, and any celebration of Queer BIPOC artists. Website: michizaya.com

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

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.

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