Mexico City-based Tareke Ortiz is a fully sequenced, horned creature, born from a crack in the imaginary wall between Mexico and the USA. His existential, Latin Noir Cabaret aims to be an ominous, defiant immigrant anthem, a carnivalesque bolero-esque lament that invokes the muted, dashed hopes of those trapped by tyrant borders as well of those imprisoned by their very own notions of romantic love.

Soprano Veronica Chapman-Smith is a classically trained singer who has performed with opera companies and orchestras across the country while keeping firm roots in her hometown of Philadelphia. Veronica has sung roles with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opera Birmingham, Opera Philadelphia, Opera Colorado, Opera Delaware, Memphis Symphony, Charlotte Symphony, and Orquestra Sinfonica Municipal de Caracas to name a few. Veronica can be heard as part of the ensemble The Crossing on the Grammy award-winning recording for Best Choral Performance, Gavin Bryars: The Fifth Century (2018) and the Grammy nominated recording of Julia Wolfe’s Fire In My Mouth (2020).

While Veronica acknowledges that it has been a privilege to singing with some amazing artists and be part of wonderful organizations, the lack of representation in the classical art forms she so dearly loves has caused her to use her voice in a different way.  Recently Ms. Chapman-Smith was part of the Barrymore award winning production Contradict This! with The Bearded Ladies Cabaret. Through her work with artists like The Beards and Cookie Diorio, Veronica uses classical music and historic speeches and quotes to create performances that speak to her experience as a black
woman in the classical opera world, and the effects on her due to the lack of diversity in classical music.

Emyne is a 20 years old singer-songwriter, rapper and all around performing artist born and raised in West Philadelphia. Starting as a street performer, busking all around downtown she has come a very long way! Performing in many venues around Philly, including The Kimmel Center, The Clef Club, The Rotunda, Voltage Lounge, World Live Cafe and more! She has also been gifted The amazing opportunity to touch the legendary Apollo Theatre stage in New York City, 3 times as a child star! Emyne has written music for films such as “We Are Black” produced by Ten0OneMedia and theatre performances such as “Black Girl Magic” a musical put together by a dance company called Dance for Nia. Always excited to do work that serves her life purpose, connecting with people around the world and making a difference through music, she is a resilient young woman with undeniable talent, hustle, passion and charm. Always asking herself “What’s Next Emyne?”.

A perpetual student and voracious lover of knowledge, Sophie Sucre attended Virginia Commonwealth University, receiving a BFA in Dance/Choreography, summa cum laude, 2009. She began working with Philadelphian dance companies DanceTheaterX– Charles O. Anderson and idiosynCrazy productions– Jumatatu Poe/Shannon Murphy, and later with choreographers Meredith Rainey/Tania Isaac, Shannon Murphy, Lela Aisha Jones, Kate Watson-Wallace, and Megan Mazarick. Most recently she performed with Gunnar Montana, 2019 Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Basement. She received a 2015 Rocky Award for her dance and admin work with organizations Dance/USA Philadelphia, Ars Nova Workshop, and Headlong. Joining Burlesque troupe, the Peek-A-Boo Revue (Burlesque Hall of Fame Best Troupe 2008 and 2012) in 2009, first as chorus member, then soloist, now performer and choreographer- she has since had the opportunity to headline the Celeste Giuliano Pinup Peep Show, Philadelphia Burlesque Festival, Munich Burlesque Festival, Toronto Burlesque Festival and most recently the Noire Pageant. IG: @sophiesucre

Clayton (he/him) is a Toronto-based performance artist. Previous performances include (◕‿◕✿) at The Performance Arcade in Wellington, New Zealand and Chapter’s EXPERIMENTICA in Cardiff, Wales; Duets for Beginners (SummerWorks); Chew, Chew, Swallow, Spit (Rhubarb Festival); and Informal Beginnings (Katzman Contemporary’s Duration & Dialogue II). His publication Brandy, the Virgin Slayer – Missed Connections appears as part of the BOOK MACHINE Project at Centre Pompidou in Paris, now part of its permanent Kandinsky Collection. Clayton is also the Rhubarb Festival Director at Buddies in Bad Times and the Managing Producer of Selfconscious Productions, which presents the annual CanadaHub at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. 

The Bearded Ladies Cabaret is an interdisciplinary troupe of artists who reinvigorate and redefine the form of cabaret in the 21st century by fusing it with theater, opera, and dance. They play with nostalgia and humor to question the embedded social messages in popular culture and tackle the politics of gender, identity, and artistic invention with sparkle and wit. Their work has been seen all over Philadelphia including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Eastern State Penitentiary, Opera Philadelphia, the Wilma Theater, and FringeArts and they have brought their cabaret revolution to Miami, New Zealand, Seattle, Paris, Maryland, Delaware and New York City (Ars Nova, La Mama, and Joe’s Pub).

John Jarboe (she/hers) is a cabaret artist, director, writer, historian, and host serving you revolution, herstory, queer community making, and a whole lot of glitter. She is the founding artistic director of The Bearded Ladies Cabaret. Going back to the interdisciplinary roots of cabaret, Jarboe is transforming opera, cabaret, and live performance from her home in Philadelphia, making work that is insistent on its liveness and interactivity, work that will make you sing, dance, clap and question. She plays host to a community of cabaret misfits from around the world, trying to stitch together the history of and practice of a much needed form.