Ep. 31: MERENDIANDO with Heath V. Salazar
May 19, 2020
“My currency right now is my joy.” – this week’s guest, Latinx drag king and triple threat Heath V. Salazar!
Heath is a singer, actor, dancer, and writer, and is currently an Artist in Residence at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. Their drag king persona Gay Jesus has blessed stages all across the city and was recently featured on CBC Art’s Canada’s A Drag.
We talked about Latinx visiblity, performing from their closet to a global audience, creating a personal portrayal of their culture on stage, and what it’s like to be a queer public figure.
This week’s Merienda de Pandemia or Pandemic Snack are some of Heath’s favourite Colombian dishes – torta con cafe / cake and coffee and pollo sudado. Yum.
Show Notes:
- Boiband the Boyband, a Latinx drag king troupe
- An article Heath wrote for CBC Arts, titled “In this time of isolation, we must push ourselves to love braver than ever before”
- Club Quarentine, a queer online dance party
- Ricky Rosé, Puerto Rican Drag King based in DC
- Pretty Ricky, Toronto based producer of East King Productions.
- Sunny Drake, previous director of the Emerging Creator’s Unit at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre
- Suavamente by Elvis Crespo and Safari by J. Balvin, two classic hits from Heath’s original Latinx playlist.
All Merendiando episodes are in Spanglish. New episodes of Radio Aluna Theatre are released every Wednesday. Subscribe to this show wherever you get your podcasts.
Radio Aluna Teatro is produced by Aluna Theatre with support from the Metcalf Foundation, The Laidlaw Foundation, The Canada Council for the Arts, and The Ontario Arts Council.
Aluna Theatre is Beatriz Pizano & Trevor Schwellnus, with Sue Balint & Gia Nahmens; Radio Aluna Theatre is produced by Camila Diaz-Varela and Monica Garrido.
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