Production Team

Producer & Artistic Director: Matisse DuPont
Rehearsal Director: Kylie Terra Burnham
Lighting and Sound Designer: Aaron Olkin
Stage Manager & Assistant Lighting Designer: Carson Morrissey
Slay Manager (Makeup, Hair, Costumes, and Props): Quin
Assistant Stage Manager: Correy Denihan
Stage Gremlin (Stage, Light, and Sound Tech): Rachel Olkin
Additional Tech Support: Camilla Elvis and Erica

ACT 1

A Fish Walked on Land Now We Have to Pay Taxes 

Music: “Hard Times” by Paramore; excerpt from David Attenborough’s Rise of the Animals 
Choreographer: Lucy Bertolet
Performers: Faelien Bean, Carly Lucas, Lilienne Lethe, Lucy Bertolet, Massood 

Choreographer notes: 
It must be emphasized that while Tiktaalik (the first fish to walk on land, our common ancestor) was one of the first dominoes to fall that led to our messed up current economic system, that fish is not the sole cause. I would dare not blame the poor fish for the atrocities of a few colonialists and capitalists when the greater whole of the planet is suffering under the white supremacist capitalist boot. 

While this piece is comically cynical, and ends on a vague, perhaps somber note, remember who the real enemy is. This fish is not the reason why you now have to pay taxes and rent. This fish that grew legs over millions of years didn’t force you to have insufficient amounts of sick pay or employment protections. This fish didn’t bust unions and police your gender expression and sexuality. This fish is you. That’s you. You’re the fish. We are all fish. The people who stole your connections to your inner fish and mangled you into a disposable, exploitable worker have names and addresses, and the absurdity of that fact should be pointed out every chance we get. 

Popular

Choreographer: Sherry Romanzi Haronian
Cast: Glinda - Sherry Romanzi Haronian, Elphaba - Kylie Terra Burnham

We’re bringing the sapphic subtext to the surface in this rendition of the eternal hit from Wicked. Glinda is a closeted mean girl who bullies Elphaba because she is secretly—even, perhaps, to herself—in love with the strong, competent green witch, and is jealous of Elphie’s security in the magic of her own verdant gender and sexuality. 

Glinda, trapped in her performative, male-gazey hyperfemininity, tries to force Elphaba to conform to the compulsory cis-heteronormativity that binds her. But her attempts are futile; in the end, Elphie rejects Glinda’s misguided “help,” and we see the initial glimmers of Glinda’s lesbian awakening as she comes into her power as a fabulous bubblegum-pink queer femme.

Julius Caesar Drag Race 

Adapted from Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
Cast: Caesar - Graham Cousins, Mintyus Brutus - Minty Breakdown, Skyus Cassius - Sky VerSteeg, Marc Antony - Massood, Trebonius - Alexis Urrata, Metellus Cimber  - Kerry, Popilius - Nathaniel James, Decius - Dana McCormack, Artemidorus - Lilienne Lethe, Production Assistant - Lucy Bertolet.

QA&P’s roots are in modernized and queerized Shakespeare performances. This piece was a collaborative exploration of Julius Caesar Act III scenes I and II starting from the simple vision of Julius Caesar being a tyrannical drag competition show host.  

Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl

Music: “Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl” by Chappell Roan
Choreographer: Layne Alexandra
Performers: Aurora La Veglia, Christine, Dana McCormack, Dani McPeak, Faelien Bean, Layne Alexandra, Sherry Romanzi Haronian

Chappell Roan x Musical Theater! What more could you ask for?

Love It If We Made It

Music: “Love It If We Made It” by the 1975
Choreographer: Layne Alexandra
Performers: Annie Noel, Carly Lucas, Jaclyn Torres, JB, Layne Alexandra, Rebecca Sarin

The 1975 wrote this song between 2016-2018 as a direct address to the political climate, namely because of a specific orange man. They’ve been incredibly vocal that this song is supposed to have a shelf life, but they will continue performing it as long as it’s relevant. It’s been 7 years since it debuted, and it’s more relevant now than ever. The LGBTQIA+ community has been fighting forever and will continue to fight until the war is finally won. They can try and silence us and suppress us, but we’ll always come back kicking and screaming. This piece begs the question: where can we find hope in a world that feels so desolate? 

Melanie Dreams of Dani’s

Devised by ensemble
Cast: Melanie - Melanie, Bartender - Erica, Elder Queer - Sol k. Kokkinogenis, Benzy - Jaclyn Torres, Queer Boston Townie - Nathaniel James, Josh - Dana McCormack, Drag Queen - Kerry

dance, dance (the way they'd love)

Music: “Dance, Dance” by Fall Out Boy
Choreographer: Kylie Terra Burnham
Performers:  Alexis Urrata, Annie Noel, Aurora La Veglia, Camilla Elvis, Carly Lucas, Christine, Dana McCormack, Dani McPeak, Elliot Lee, Erica, Faelien Bean, Graham Cousins, Jaclyn Torres, JB, Kerry, Kylie Terra Burnham, Layne Alexandra, Lilienne Lethe, Lucy Bertolet, Massood, Melanie, Nathaniel James, Raminta Holden, Rebecca Sarin, Savannah Paul, Sky VerSteeg, Sherry Romanzi Haronian, Sol k. Kokkinogenis, Suzie Birdsell 

QA&P has a Qabaret tradition of doing a whole group act before intermission, or, shall we say, before “falling apart at halftime.” A slightly cheeky song choice when combined with the title of the show (dance, dance… revolution), while playing with the intense energy of this piece I was thinking about our internal and collective struggles. Queer love and longing is radical, especially in our context of reactionary, authoritarian control and attempts to prevent us from being ourselves publicly – attempts not only to erase us but also to intimidate us into compliance. Note, near the end, images referencing different forms of vital queer love: platonic love, sexual love, and collective love. 

INTERMISSION

ACT 2

Chicago Medley

Music: Selections from Chicago arranged by Suzie Birdsell
Choreographer: Suzie Birdsell
Performers: Aurora La Veglia, Christine, Dani McPeak, Elliot Lee, JB, Savannah Paul, Sherry Romanzi Haronian, Suzie Birdsell

Taste

Music: “Taste” by Sabrina Carpenter
Choreographer: Layne Alexandra
Performers: Faelien Bean, Annie Noel, Layne Alexandra, Nathaniel James

I am Not a Robot

Music: I Am Not a Robot (The Shoes Remix) by MARINA 
Choreographer: Dani McPeak
Performers: Dani McPeak

In the Electronic Dance Music (EDM) community, some ravers are flow artists who use various props to enhance their dancing at shows and festivals. Flow art at its core is allowing your body and movement to be guided by the music. As a former (returning?) theatre kid turned raver, choreographing a glow whip routine for Qabaret has been such a fulfilling creative challenge. And for the front row… I hope you like a little controlled danger…

The Raven

Text: “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe
Music: Selections from Shadow of the Raven by Nox Arcana arranged by Raminta Holden 
Creative Lead: Raminta Holden
Choreography devised by ensemble 
Performers: Camilla Elvis, Carly Lucas, Lucy Bertolet, Massood, Raminta Holden, Rebecca Sarin

Halloweenie; The Complete Anthology

Music: Selections from Halloweenie I-VI by Ashnikko arranged by Faelien Bean
Choreographer: Faelien Bean
Performers: Faelien Bean, Aurora La Veglia, Dani McPeak, Sol k. Kokkinogenis

This series of songs were released one by one of the course of years, but as I listened to them all together after the sixth and final installment was released, I began to see a thread emerge throughout all of the songs which carried our main character from a performative sensual feminine form through a series of reveals that exposed their true nature and inhuman form as she possess victims lured in by the facade to expand their band of wicked fae creatures. I see this piece as a reclamation of the use of one's feminine wiles to trap and trick those that assume us to be innocent, while a darker more sinister sensuality can hide beneath and ultimately be just as alluring.

I'd been planning an act around this track for an independent draglesque act but as the vision came into focus it became too grand for me to execute as a solo artist and was thrilled for this opportunity to be able to bring it to life collaboratively with fellow like-minded freaks.

Mein Herr (from Cabaret)

Music: Mein Herr by John Kander & Fred Ebb sung by Savannah Paul
Choreographer: Elliot Lee
Performers: Sally - Savannah Paul, Kit Kat Dancers - Alexis Urrata, Annie Noel, Elliot Lee 

Pink Pony Club

Music: “Pink Pony Club” by Chappell Roan, sung by Graham Cousins and Layne Alexandra 
Line Dance Choreo: “Escapade” by Tanaya Kelleher, coordinated by Annie Noel
Ending Choreo: Matisse DuPont
Performers: Graham Cousins, Layne Alexandra, Annie Noel, Minty Breakdown, Rebecca Sarin, Sol k. Kokkinogenis, ensemble