venmo @ruafza
show, girl is a multimedia theatrical work that merges drag, live performance, video projection, and film to interrogate the contemporary figure of the showgirl. Once a working-class theatrical laborer, the showgirl has increasingly been appropriated by elite and corporate cultures for her glamour, while the labor, precarity, and bodily cost of performance are rendered invisible. As an immigrant trans drag performer, I approach the showgirl not as fantasy but as work: a body that is watched, consumed, and celebrated onstage while remaining disposable off it.
At a time when trans and immigrant lives are hyper-legislated and hyper-visible, performance is often expected to either “represent” marginalization or to triumph over it. I am uninterested in either mode. show, girl stages the messiness in between: the contradictions of survival, the exhaustion of endless performance, and the absurdity of navigating bureaucratic systems in bodies that are never meant to belong.
The work confronts themes of immigration, gender, healthcare insecurity, fatness, and commodification, but insists on absurdity, humor, and excess rather than didactic solemnity. It is a project about beauty, transness, and labor in the United States, but it refuses respectability. It insists on spectacle, pleasure, and collapse.
RuAfza (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist and drag performer born in India and based in Lenapehoking/Brooklyn. Her work explores the figure of the showgirl as a site of spectacle, labor, and survival under capitalism, drawing on her trans, desi, and immigrant identity and her collaborative worldmaking in nightlife spaces. Working across live performance, photography, sound, and installation, she uses glamour, humor, and camp excess to examine how bodies are marketed, disciplined, and desired.
She is a graduate of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, where she received two Bachelor’s degrees in New Media and Studio Art. Her work has been presented at La MaMa, The Flea Theater, and The New York Historical, and she was featured in PAPER’s NYC Theater Portfolio in 2024.
LaWhore Vagistan is everyone’s favorite overdressed, overeducated, overopinionated South Asian drag aunty. She has performed at the Wilbur Theatre and La Mama with Sasha Velour, as well as at the Austin International Drag Festival, Asia Society, AS220, Queens Museum, Jack Theater, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, Not Festival, Links Hall, and ART Oberon. Her music videos have screened at the Mississauga South Asian Film Festival, Austin OUTsider multi-arts festival, Hyderabad Queer Film Festival, and San Francisco 3rd i film festival. You can find her on YouTube delivering a TEDx Talk titled “How to be an Aunty” and on Instagram at @lawhorevagistan. LaWhore is the founder of the annual all-South Asian drag showcase DRAGISTAN, and her new book Lessons in Drag A Queer Manual for Academics, Artists, and Aunties is now available from Brandeis Press..
Isaiah Miguel is 4 awards away from EGOT. Off-Broadway: The Found Project. Regional: HAIR (Woof), Into the Woods (Rapunzel’s Prince)., Carrie: The Musical (George u/s Tommy), CATS (Mungojerrie), Spring Awakening (Moritz). Workshops: Saint Sebastian (Jamie). New York Comedy Fest Original Cast of The Woke Woke West: A Gay and Straight Musical Comedy (Non-Binary Proctor). Muchas gracias a mis amigos y familia for always pushing me to chase mis sueños! This is for Chenté. Xoxo IG: @_iiissaiah
Makinrola Orafidiya or Mak Charade is an avid vocalist, songwriter, producer, and performer. Rooted in rich vocal training and a deep love for storytelling, my artistry blends musicality, sensuality, emotion, and intention. With experimentation across sonic and visual mediums, I aim to create unique and immersive experiences through my expression. August 2025 saw the release of my debut single ‘Banana’ and I’m currently developing new material for my forthcoming debut EP. These projects mark an exciting step in my creative journey as I continue expanding into theater and dramatic performance. Find me wherever you listen to music and join the parade! @makcharade
Kalani Perez (they/them) is an NYC based actor, singer and musician who graduated from NYCDA. They have presented at the New York Comedy Festival, Cmon Everybody and now, La MaMa. The partner of Ru Afza, Kalani has seen this show grow from single scenes into a fully fledged production. They couldn’t be more proud of Ru for putting together an incredible performance and is so proud and honored to be apart of it. Love you so much baby! Don’t slip on the blood ;)
Laura Marina Ulerio is stoked to be in RUAFZA’s “Show, Girl” - All thanks to their sunny disposition and unforgettable head of hair. They’ve played roles such as Mimi in “Rent”, and Mopsa in “Head Over Heels”. One can often find them with their big headphones on, focusing on their latest piece of art, don’t be afraid to say hi!
JAAN-E-HASEENA/j3h is an anti-doll from Lahore, Pakistan who uses sound to ground neuroplasticity in chic, indic-shia, psychoanalytics. In this episode she curates a set of unreleased production-experiments and tracks from Middle-World counter-cultures that characterize her current artistic-moment influenced by fugitivity, scotomas and dolls who weld metals.