RENEE'S QUEER CABARET Comes to Artists Repertory Theatre

Hosted by Rockstar and B Movie Actress Renée Muzquiz, this "resistance variety show" defies the traditional cabaret with rock music and a focus on the intimate humor, joys and vulnerabilities of living on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum.

Borrowing from the B-Movie title, "The Day the Earth Stood Still," this show will feature some of Portland's top drag artists, comedians, musical acts and more!

See the full lineup below:

ARTIST: Pepper Pepper

TITLE: The Pepper Party

DESCRIPTION: Drag/Comedy/Multimedia. Pepper is a rockstar in her own mind.

ARTIST BIO: Kaj-anne Pepper AKA Pepper Pepper (They pronouns preferred) is a multidisciplinary artist who works and walks between and through the worlds of performance, video, drag, theatre and dance. Pepper has premiered hybridized dance/theatre work at RISK/REWARD, DANCE+ The Headwater's Theatre, PICA's T:BA festival, Performance Works Northwest and internationally at OFF! Biennale Budapest, and performed drag numbers around the world. S/he has performed with and studied Keith Hennessy, Linda Austin, Tahni Holt, Mizu Desierto Butoh Theatre and Guillermo Gomez-Peña/Pocha Nostra among others.

ARTIST: Jay Flewelling

TITLE: Jay Flewelling

DESCRIPTION: Comedic Storytelling

BIO: A native of Portland, OR, Jay showcases his broad comedic prowess in several different rodeos around town. Jay is not only a cast member of Curious Comedy Theater but also performs in the powerhouse troupe J Names (SF Sketchfest, Out of Bounds Comedy Festival). Jay has been featured on LIVE WIRE!, Kevin Allison' RISK!, Mortified, and has performed with Kevin McDonald (The Kids in the Hall) and Colin Mochrie (Whose Line is it Anyway?).

In addition to being a performer, Jay also is an award winning filmmaker and knows a thing or two about producing. His most recently produced film short won Best in Humor at Dan Savage's HUMP! Film Festival.

ARTIST: Sean Abplanalp

TITLE: Attachment Theory

DESCRIPTION: Dramatic Monologue/Music. The risk of love and loss.

BIO: Sean is an actor and artist from Portland and is a very funny and interesting person. You probably best know him from the back cover of his best selling book, Animals in Hats for Adults. You probably don't know him best from his not best role as Bank Robber #4.

ARTIST: Lily Le Fauve

TITLE: Just a Girl

DESCRIPTION: A feminist burlesque performance featuring a "Victorian Lady" costume, cat call flags, a "barbed wire" bustle, and sequined wound to a cover of No Doubt's "Just a Girl." While the earth doesn't stand still for cat calling, this act emphasizes a shift in culture where womyn are refusing to take anymore shit.

BIO: Lily Le Fauve is working her way to becoming Portland's Pin Up Pilot by taking to the air as much as she can. She believes in bullshitting with style and that red lipstick can save a life. She is a sequined storm and a class clown.

ARTIST: Nat Jacobs

TITLE: Queer AF Comedy

DESCRIPTION: 10 minute set on a range of topics from politics, identity, queerness and feminism.

BIO: Long time performer, rookie comic, co-host of Comedy Mom, a queer open mic. Enjoys shenanigans and kombucha.

ARTIST: Serah Pope

TITLE: n/a

DESCRIPTION: Poetry/Story

BIO: Serah is an asexual, aromantic, award winning writer/actor/director/lighting designer/stage manager/producer/everything-else-it-takes-to-make-a-show-happen-er. She hasn't made her mind up yet, and doesn't think she should have to.

ARTIST: Cocoa Venus

TITLE: Cocoa Venus

DESCRIPTION: Ritual/Music. Calling ancestors to the space.

BIO: Cocoa Venus-born Renee Dunn-is a Portland, OR based Black woman singer/songwriter. Being born into a gifted family of singers in South Central Los Angeles she found she had a talent for singing early on. Music was always a steady presence in her life and she grew up on a diet of gospel, soul, funk and blues. When her mother moved them to the suburbs of Seattle in junior high, she fell in love with new wave music. She was one of less than a handful of goth/industrial women of color in her late teens/20's in Seattle, Wa during the 90's where she found a home in dark wave electronica/goth and industrial rock. Renee decided to form her own soul cover band - Gold Ensoul-and ended up with incredibly talented bandmates. Within a year Renee grew the courage to take the songs that had been floating in her head for years and record. Cocoa Venus was born and her 1st E.P. Honey was released this month.

ARTIST: Hector Zaragoza Valentin

TITLE: To be determined.

DESCRIPTION: Lyrical Dance.

BIO: Lifelong dancer.

ARTIST: Marla Darling

TITLE: Lost in a Place Called America

DESCRIPTION: Spoken word/drag/performance art. This piece starts when the artist, a Native American woman raised on the American musical genre, was in 6th grade and watched West Side Story on stage and how the song America became an obsession, and later, a parallel to living under the regime of Trump's America.

BIO: Marla Darling has been described as raw and fierce. A Queen of a million faces, and exudes a punk, raw talent to everything she brings. Marla Darling is host and co-producer of Drag Dangerzone- a drag open Mic. She is a featured performer at Death of Glitter, Drag Dangerzone, and many more. She will be a featured guest at the Austin International Drag Festival in November.

HOUSE BAND BIOS
Lauren Hatch - Keyboards

Lauren is a keyboardist from Portland, Oregon. She currently plays in an all-female David Bowie cover band called Major Tomboys.

Alexandra Geffel - Drums

Alexandra Geffel has a B.A. in classical percussion from Biola University. She performs regularly with The Cabin Project, Secret Drum Band and various other musical projects and theater companies throughout Portland. Recent shows have been The Addams Family, Gypsy, Mamma Mia and Hedwig and The Angry Inch. As well as teaching music privately, Alexandra is an instructor with Girls Build, a non-profit organization that strives to inspire curiosity and confidence in girls through the world of building.

Shadow - Bass

Shadow began playing bass at age 12, upon first encountering Led Zeppelin. He attended Berklee College of Music, majoring in Composition and Arranging, plays 4, 5 and 6-String basses, fretted and fretless, and sings. He toured for many years in rock and jazz bands, sharing the stage with Carl Perkins, Chris Isaac, the Neville Brothers, Kansas, Dr. John and members of the Doobie Brothers, the Youngbloods, Quicksilver, Zero, Transistor Rodeo and others. In the Portland area he has performed with Natty Staggs, Shannon Tower, Cubaneo and was a founding member of Roseland Hunters.

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