ABOUT
Viva la Pepa generates collective and unapologetic performances that cross conventional theatrical boundaries by employing multiple forms (experimental, drag, burlesque, movement and voice). Our works are fueled by the overlapping values of Latinx and Queer cultures: melodrama, passion, decadence, and sensuality.
Viva La Pepa works with multi-generational queer (as in gender, sexuality, politics, and/or philosophies of thoughts/actions/behaviors) dancers based in the Twin Cities. The name comes from Viva la Pepa (the Hispanic colloquial term describing party, revelry, loudness, and anarchy) and plays on Pepa (Venezuelan-born performance artist and founder Pedra Pepa’s drag persona Doña Pepa).
WHAT WE DO
ARTWORKS
Viva la Pepa performs in spaces ranging from art galleries such as Public Functionary, Walker Art Center’s gallery 1 and theaters that include Fresh Oysters, Red Eye Theater, Walker Art Center’s McGuire theater, Pillsbury House, Open Eye, Patrick’s Cabaret, 20% Theatre, Lab Theater to nightclubs, Lush, Gay 90s, Kitty Kat Club and music venues, First Ave Mainroom, Moon Palace Book Store. Our shows reach communities diverse in age, abilities, genders, economic backgrounds, and ethnic identities and reflect the views of the performers through a devised creative process directed by Pedro Pablo.
DRAG STORY HOUR
Drag Story Hour was inspired by programs at other public libraries and schools that invite drag performers to read books to children. Drag Story Hour has presented several seasons supported by the Minnesota Center for Humanities (2018) and the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council (2019, 2020, 2021). And most recently premiered their musical ADVENTURAMA in partnership with the East Side Freedom Library and Heart of the Beast puppeteers.
Quimbara
DOÑA PEPA
Director of Viva la Pepa, Pedra Pepa’s drag persona. A volcanic eruption, flames flashing, Doña Pepa is ready to be alive, rejoicing in her body to destroy the gender binary.
EDUCATIONAL OFFERINGS
Viva la Pepa seeks to activate communities through direct engagement. By offering a range of curriculum for any size group, we lead and develop interdisciplinary discussions on themes that involve Art and Social Justice and Queerness and Spirituality.
ARTISTS
Pedra Pepa
Like currents in a river, our work flows with identities and experiences that converge and are pressed through the structures of our creative processes. The richness of our shared languages and performances, like a river delta, are filled with the force of embodied advocacy building a movement for justice.
THANK YOU
Viva la Pepa is continuously supported by their consultant Michèle Steinwald, their fiscal sponsor Skewed Visions
Website designed in collaboration with Laichee Yang. Welcome image and video by Zoe Cinel.
This website has been made possible through Pedro's Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship with the Jerome Foundation.