Agent Cleave
With a career spanning 8 years and roots in the drag club culture of Melbourne’s inner north, Agent Cleave’s commitment to character and story have propelled his work internationally. In 2014, Agent Cleave embarked on his debut solo cabaret for the Melbourne Fringe, and the following year he found himself on an international tour with the electronic musician Peaches. This September, Cleave has just released an album in collaboration with Richard Andrew: He Cries Diamonds.
Creatrix Tiara
Whether through performance art, writing, or creative production, Creatrix Tiara aims to explore ideas around community, identity, liminality, belonging, and social justice. The performer gained acclaim in the Australian burlesque scene for creating a politically-aware and radical work: a reverse strip into a Muslim prayer outfit (later a burqa) commenting on the performers upbringing colliding with sexuality. Creatrix Tiara’s performance work intertwines burlesque, physical theater, circus, improv, spoken word, dance, and other forms together with writing, research, digital media, and activism.
DANDROGYNY
DANDROGYNY is a hybrid of Dance, Drag, Colour, Shade, Openness, Queerness and Love. A performer who blatantly defies gender norms, exposes heightened performatives, working to construct and deconstruct our personal identities. The contemporary performance artist work highlights include performing with Kylie Minogue, Rafael Bonachela, Bollywood Film, Opera Australia and local independent artists and companies.
Glitterfist
Glitterfist is the glamdrogynous draglesque whose performance art shapeshifter is also responsible for burlesque siren Little Skink and drag king Ziggy Discoballs. Glitterfist’s subversive humour, twisted eroticism, and filthy-tongue spoken word is known to have spread gender bending blur of perversion, smut and glitter across events including Gaytimes Festival, Honcho Disko, MAX FREAK, Freaky Sexy Weird, Found Festival and Ball of Wax. Go with the performer into a menacing world of surreal seduction.
Karen From Finance
Karen From Finance is the premiere 'corporate' queen of Melbourne known for her unique comedic grandeur. She lives alone with her budgie 'Dantè'; enjoys tax time, office-based bonding activities, and invoice archiving. After being made redundant from the accounts team at a small pie wholesaler in Geelong, Karen From Finance moved to the big smoke to become a real team player here in Melbourne. In 2017, Karen went on her first international tour to USA where was featured at RuPaul’s Drag Con, and continued to headline drag shows in New York City, Minneapolis and Los Angeles.
Katheryn Niesche Mouse
Since 1981, Katheryn Niesche has performed in physical theatre, traditional and contemporary circus, dance theatre, theatre for young people, cabaret, as well as large-scale events. She has worked with many small independent companies whose main artistic focus were either feminist/queer/alternative burlesque/physical theatre/circus. A founding member of Club Swing: a female performance aerial company that toured nationally and internationally in the 90s at numerous queer arts festivals. Her current guilty pleasure is a passion for Bollywood dance.
Mama Alto
Mama Alto is a gender transcendent diva, cabaret artiste, jazz singer & community activist. A non-binary trans femme person of colour who works with the radical potential of storytelling, strength in softness & power in vulnerability. Mama Alto has recently worked with Brook Andrew, Phillip Adams BalletLab, featured in Declan Greene’s “The Homosexuals” for Malthouse Theatre Company, and in 2016 Alto won the Outstanding Access Award at the Melbourne Fringe.
Miss Ellaneous
Miss Ellaneous has had an extensive career in the performing arts industry in Australia. Beginning the journey in 2002, Miss Ellaneous, also known as MissE has established herself as one of the country’s finest Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Drag Queens. Some of MissE’s highlights include performing with the ensemble from the all-female hit show, ‘Hot Brown Honey’ plus touring throughout Australia, UK and Indonesia.
Pinky-Von-Sox
Pinky-Von-Sox is a practitioner of absurdity, idiocy, and basking in the shiny glow glistening off beautiful lakes of unadulterated silliness. A comedian, improviser, painter, musician and writer, Pinky is a member of clown group Choo Choo Troupe; co-founder and organiser of Crown Comedy; plus a teacher and member at Laugh Masters Academy. Pinky-Von-Sox has performed and studied improv, sketch, theater and clowning all over North America, Australia and France.
Sham
Sham is a Malaysian Indian queer woman, and a sometimes-femme-sometimes-dykey-always-fab delight. Dance styles vary from contemporary, hip hop, ballet, Bollywood, vogue and tap; and acts, models, dabbles in spoken work, physical theatre and roving performance art. Sham believes in the power of art and performance for communities; for crossing barriers between politics, ideologies, race, language, sexualities/genders.
Tristan Meecham
Tristan Meecham is an artist, performer and the Artistic Director of All The Queens Men. All The Queens Men create spectacular theatrical and participatory arts experiences that have been seen at ANTI Contemporary Arts Festival, Sydney Festival, Darwin Festival, and Next Wave. Tristan is the recipient of the VCA George Fairfax Memorial Award, British Council’s Realise Your Dream Award and the inaugural Richard Pratt Scholarship, and is currently Tristian is working on The Coming Back Out Ball (www.thecomingbackoutball.com), a community spectacle that celebrates LGBTI elders at the Melbourne Town Hall.
Valerie Hex
Valerie Hex is a performer, choreographer and producer with a decade of professional experience in dance and cabaret. Hex performance is centred around queer dancer in a cabaret context and has performed internationally with numerous companies including BRIEFS, Finucane & Smith’s Glory Box, and the performers very own cabaret YUMMY. YUMMY is a highly in demand subversive drag and burlesque ensemble. See the performers work.