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HOT Festival 2026

Mixed Fruit 🍇 Queer Variety 2026

About This Show

Mixed Fruit! is a juicy, joyful sampler of queer performance. It’s giving dance, comedy and music. A little wild, a little tender, five servings of fruit is just what the doctor ordered. Hosted by the hilarious Jonah Nigh, Mixed Fruit! brings together a vibrant mix of artists, voices, and styles for a night that is as playful as it is powerful. Come for the gay, stay for the fun. Cocktails afterwards in the lounge.

Featuring:
Jonah Nigh, comedian


Photo Credit: Hatnim Lee

Comedian Jonah Nigh is armed with razor-sharp wit, an infectious stage presence, and a fearless approach to storytelling. He has appeared in a variety of roles for NBC, Peacock, CBS, Don’t Tell Comedy, WNYC, and NYC Pride March He has opened for Robby Hoffman, Natasha Leggero, and Lady Bushra, and was recently filmed for the comedy series “Behind the Comedian” which will air on Amazon Prime.

Portales by Pamela Honey, singer/songwriter


Photo Credit: Rotem Blat, Pamela’s wife took this photo on a beach in Zipolite, Oaxaca in Mexico

Each song is a world with its own rules, colors, and messages—a reflective and emotional journey through places filled with magic, love, and sincerity. Her music explores introspective voyages into infinity, love in all its forms, and the violence
that runs through the human experience, addressing these themes with a unique sensitivity.

Her sound, framed within fusion pop, blends multiple rhythms and atmospheres, crafted so each message can fully inhabit its space. Transforming emptiness into mystical places—sonic portals where reality is processed through music—turning listening into a sensory and spiritual experience.

Pamela Honey:
2022 Semi-finalist – International Songwriting Competition
Member of the Sociedad de Autores y Compositores de México


jay giffin, director

Photo Credit: Pierce Stephan 

In 2004, two gay-ass clowns were born: Big and Flat 😀
In 2026, queers are still sad about the AIDS epidemic.
That makes Big and Flat sad 🙁
So, they’ve made a show out of the silliest documents from 1987 to cure your trauma!
Enjoy!

jay giffin is a multidisciplinary artist who creates social experiences through collaborative developmental processes. currently, jay is working on several identity-based performance pieces, all investigating how to disrupt the social reality of audiences by blurring the line between truth and artifice. jay is also the general manager and co-founder of TOWNN, a non-profit production company dedicated to presenting new, innovative performances as community-centered events.

Kris Jai (They/Them/Hers) is a multi-hyphenate artist from Alabama who recently graduated with a BFA in Acting from Pace’s Sands College of Performing Arts. Recently, they’ve been God in ‘The Divine Dating Game’ (The Players Theatre), Canewell in ‘Seven Guitars’ (Schaeberle Theatre), Procne in ‘The Birds’ (Schaeberle Theatre), and Star in ‘Bootz’ (Short Film).

Lucian Sheldon-Wesley (Any) is a Brooklyn-based performer and producer. They are known for their whimsical, evocative, and deeply unsettling work. Credits include ‘A Midsummer Nights Dream’ (TOWNN), ‘The King’ (Schaeberle Theatre), and ‘Eat em Up Jones and the Pyramid of Food.’

SARAH HASSON (She/Her) is a multi-disciplinary theater artist and stage manager, originally from the Washington, D.C. area. Sarah recently stage-managed Interstate at Dixon Place, Dryland at University Settlement House, Iranian Girlfriend at MITU580, Seaglass at the WP Theater. 24 Hour Plays Nationals 2025 cohort. Many thanks to Jay, Lucian, Jai, and the entire team.

Jaccoa Stills (They/Them) is a bi-coastal collaborative artist specializing in lighting design. Recent works include ‘Dirt’ (dir. Tyler Christie) and ‘Suspiria’ (dir. Emma McAninch).

Catherine Messina, Choreographer of rogue wave


Photo Credit: Leighann Kowalsky

Loves me Not looks at the idea of limerence and how it affects the brain; it investigates the emotional and neurological pathways involved in decision-making, and why does it sometimes feel impossible to change your mind. In that, I look at my own experience with limerence, and specifically how it intersects with my sexuality.

Catherine Messina has danced throughout New York and Atlanta for Yoshito Sakuraba, Emmy Wildermuth, One Day Dance, and more. Her company, rogue wave, has performed across the country. Commissions include Nazareth University, Sacred Heart University, Suttle Dance, One Day Dance, and Open Dance Ensemble. Grant support includes Puffin Foundation, the City of Atlanta, Metuchen Arts, Indie Space and residencies include Everwood Artist Retreat, Hambidge Cross Pollination Lab, Dragon’s Egg. Messina has experience in arts administration, university teaching, and technical production. Community work is important to her and seen through her creation of multiple dance festivals and running affordable class series.

Who’s Your Daddy by GagĂĄrin, trans rebirth and masculine haunting


Photo credit to Geve Penn

The blood has soaked into the floorboards, the air is thick with dirt, Daddy’s boots echo on the stone floor. A psycho sexual nightmare of the Elektra myth buried in trans rebirth and masculine haunting. Through dance, puppetry, & magic the private experience of transition is brought into public space to be witnessed and confronted. A blood ritual for the Daddies who haunt us all.

Gagarin is a performer whose artistry lives at the intersection of dance, theatre, and kink. As an artist they believe theatre is a sacred practice and they are driven to make art that brings audience and performer to a ritualistic space from which we can re-encounter ourselves and our world. Gagarin has presented work with Blessed Unrest, SITI Company, Bated Breath, and other companies at spaces around NYC such as The Tank, Brick AUX, Maker’s Ensemble, PHYSFEST, Judson Church, etc. They also work with Expand the Canon as a Curator where they work to establish gender equity in the classical canon.

July 7 2026 at 7:30 PM

Tickets:

$30 in advance
$35 at the door
$10 All-Skate Tickets available! First come, first served. (Two per person)

Performed on the Mainstage

Credits

Featuring:
Jonah Nigh, comedian
Pamela Honey, singer/songwriter
jay giffin, director
Catherine Messina, Choreographer of
rogue wave
Gagårin, trans rebirth and masculine haunting