Updated: November 6, 2021, 7:20 P.M.
Vancouver, B.C.
Davey Samuel Calderon performs online adaptation of the BQFKN!
Mildred German
On November 1, 2021, Davey Samuel Calderon performed an online adaptation of the Big Queer Filipino Karaoke Night! (BQFKN!).
“The BQFKN! Online team and I would greatly appreciate having an audience to test some interactive features and give us some feedback via our survey form,” Calderon posted on the BQFKN! Facebook event page.
The 60-minute, one-night-only show was a live streamed performance combined with digital art technology. Presented on the online platform ohyay.co, the BQFKN! 60-minute online presentation was live-streamed from KW Studios in Downtown Vancouver.
Written and performed by Davey Samuel Calderon, Digital Production Coordinator & Lighting Designer by Anthony Kit Lee, Projection Designer by June Hsu, Isadora Designer by Andie Lloyd, and Workshop Director and Dramaturg by Chris Lam, the BQFKN! Online is a bigger and leveled-up rendition of the BQFKN!
BQFKN! not only forefronts queerness and karaoke, it screams diversity in Vancouver’s performance and art scene. It is proudly Filipino, queer, and fabulous.
AN INTERACTIVE CELEBRATION OF THE INTERSECTIONS
The Big Queer Filipino Karaoke Night! (BQFKN!) premiered at the 2018 Vancouver Fringe Festival with an all-LGBTQ creative team and majority of the artists are Persons of Color.
BQFKN! is described as a “Clown-Drag-Karaoke Extravaganza serving up Filipino-Canadian identity shenanigans, queer insights, family epiphanies, and soul gratifying karaoke.”
Visit to Philippines
An interactive celebration inspired by Calderon’s visit to the Philippines, his family’s ancestral land, not only is the storyline speaks about being in an unfamiliar land, but also the awe and celebrations of “the intersections found in oneself.”
Themes surrounding the BQFKN! are plenty. Touching not only the fun of karaoke but also on the many realities of the Philippine diaspora. In the face of the loss of cultural identities, loss of languages, and loss of connections to the ancestral land, stories such as BQFKN! speaks too as a testimonial.
In addition, BQFKN! speaks politically too- touching on critical topics such as the Philippine extrajudicial killings, and how the “gay radar” knows no border. BQFKN! resonates to the stories of many Filipinos in foreign faraway lands, or being born in different places. That inasmuch being unfamiliar to the Philippines after many years of living abroad, or being born and raised outside the country, Filipinos everywhere still can appreciate lots of laughter, singing, and fashion. A must see.
“Special thanks to Gateway Theatre as hosts of the BQFKN! residency, Playwrights Theatre Centre, New(to)Town Collective and rice & beans theatre for their additional support. Funding support by the BC Arts Council.” -Davey Calderon, The Big Queer Filipino Karaoke Night!