seapony
seapony is a trans-masc pregnancy ritual inspired by the reproductive cycle of male seahorses, who take the lead in childbearing. This ritual is offered through poetry, puppetry, drag, burlesque, and sea song. The story follows a trans Dad-to-be who wishes to bear biological babies. He looks to the ocean as our original parent for guidance on alternative ways to create life and to queer family. He asks, Am I cut out for this? Am I still a boy if I birth a baby? No longer a daughter, can I be,“Daddy?” Along the way he meets a cast of campy characters that highlight the deep ancestral quandaries of parental attachment and identity formation: how we become who we become, and how on earth and under the sea might we change our becomings. With the help of the ocean and the songs of its many nonhuman inhabitants, the audience is invited to relinquish into the water what once was to make room for what can be: from daughter to seahorse daddy.
Kelindah bee Schuster T[he]y/them: is a writer, educator, and drag performance artist known as Theydy Bedbug. They have performed multidisciplinary drag at Signature Theatre, JACK, The Stonewall Inn, The Brick, The Kraine Theater, Lehman College, House of Yes, SVA, Triskelion Arts, Gibney Dance, The Knockdown Center, BAM Fisher, Chelsea Music Hall, BAX, Upright Citizens Brigade, Barnard College, Siren Arts among others. They are the founder of the “Drag Performance” Program at BAX and were recently profiled by The NY Times for this work. Dubbed “MAGA Right’s Worst Nightmare” by their Queer|Art mentor Kate Bornstein in an article for THEM, Kelindah brings the blessings of drag to people of all genders and generations.