The Darlings are a multidisciplinary, non-binary drag performance collective based in Vancouver, BC. Their work challenges the boundaries of conventional drag, and explores genderqueer, non-binary, and trans experience through the use of movement, poetry, performance art, theatre, digital media, and immersive/interactive installation. The Darlings are Continental Breakfast (Chris Reed), PM (Desi Rekrut), Rose Butch (Rae Takei) and Maiden China (Kendell Yan).
They have mounted three full-length independently produced installations in September 2018, October 2018, and March 2019, and have been featured at Here For Now Volume 2 dance showcase (December 2018), and the PuSH International Performing Arts Festival (January 2019). In October 2019, the Darlings made their theatrical debut with a full length show in the Transform Cabaret Festival, as well as short vignettes featured throughout the length of the festival. Their last theatre show saw a sold out house in February of 2020 for the OutStages Festival produced by Intrepid Theatre in Victoria, BC.
During the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, The Darlings pivoted their work to an online format in order to continue creating art during a period of social distancing and lockdowns. They produced three independent full-length digital shows, Quarantine, Quarantine II, and Quarantine III in March 2020, April 2020, and February 2021, respectively. In addition to self-producing shows, they also produced The Darlings: Uncensored in July 2020 with Queer Based Media for the Vancouver Queer Arts Festival, and The Darlings III with Queer Based Media for the Transform Cabaret Festival in September 2020.
The Darlings have been featured in multiple publications including, CBC Arts Queeries, with a short companion documentary titled The Darlings Live From Quarantine; Inside Vancouver; The Vancouver Sun; as panelists for the Vancouver Queer Film Festival, the Queer Arts Festival, and Intrepid Theatre's "In Conversation with The Darlings".
In 2023 they produced ARCHIVE in collaboration with Chimerik collective, along with many other collaborations. ARCHIVE featured an original score by Stefan Seslija, promotional styling by Marchel Eang, costumes by Roderick Sloboda, and was filmed by Queer Based Media.
they/them
Chris Reed, also known as Continental Breakfast, is a non-binary multidisciplinary artist, event curator, and Director of media production company, Queer Based Media. They are Beardy’s and Okemasis Cree and are a settler on the stolen lands of the Txʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
Reed is self taught within the mediums of film, photography, drag performance art, design, and production. Their artistic practice looks at untold queer stories and histories along with complicating intersections of identity through moments of relatability and creating spaces of refuge.
she/they
甄念菻 / Kendell Yan is a second generation Chinese, trans-femme, non-binary artist living on the stolen lands of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaʔ (Tsleil-Waututh) nations.
She is a multidisciplinary artist, event producer, and artistic director at Queer Based Media. Her artistic practice includes performance, visual art, sculpture, digital media, makeup, writing, and costuming, and is primarily centred around her drag identity, Maiden China. Through this lens she explores themes of vulnerability, queer ritual, the concept of the “hyphen”, and liminal experience, by incorporating elements of classical Chinese opera, glamour, punk, and intimate contact performance art.
Performing since 2016 in so-called “Vancouver, BC”, Maiden holds the pageant titles of Cobalt All Star, and the Dogwood Monarchist Society’s Entertainer of the Year 2018. They perform regularly as a member of the House of Rice, “Canada’s” premiere all-Asian drag family.
Kendell’s work has been featured by the Aesthetica Short Film Festival, Upintheair Theatre, rEvolver festival, The Array Festival, the PuSH International Performing Arts Festival, the Vancouver Queer Arts Festival, The Transform Cabaret Festival, and Outstages.
they/them
PM is Vancouver’s premier, gender-fluid drag bimbo. Blending their background in contemporary ballet with their off-beat style, PM’s goal is to continually bend gender and sexuality.
PM is the alter ego of Desi Rekrut: a non-binary performance artist based in Vancouver, B.C. Rekrut trained in Arts Umbrellas' 2-year, postgraduate diploma program. There, Rekrut danced in new works by: Crystal Pite, Cayetano Soto, Fernando Hernando Magaden, Emanuel Gat and Tom Weinberger. They also had the pleasure of being part of restaged works by: Crystal Pite (Emergence & Parade), Sharon Eyal (Sarah & Killer Pig), Marie Chouinard (bODY_rEMIX/gOLDBERG_vARIATIONS) and Azure Barton (Busk). In the summer of 2017 they toured Europe with AU, participating in workshops in the Netherlands, and performing in shows such as Shortcuts, XL (hosted by NDT (Netherlands Dans Theatre), and also at the IT'S Festival. Upon their return from Europe, Rekrut apprenticed at Telford's company Inverso, and performed in her work “Spooky Action at a Distance”.
In 2019, as PM, Desi competed in, and won, Vancouver’s Next Drag Superstar. They are now a full-time entertainer, host, and showrunner in Vancouver.
they/them
Rose Butch (they/them) is not a queen or a king, but the Premier Non-Binary Drag Thing. With a style and sensibility that follows the pursuit of gender euphoria, Rose has been a staple of Vancouver's performance art scene since their debut in 2014. Their playful and theatrically-informed drag has brought non-binary visibility to stages across Vancouver and beyond - winning crowns in bar pageants, gracing the pages of art magazines, and as the subject of an episode of CBC Gem's docuseries Canada's A Drag.
Offstage, Rose is queer and trans Nisei theatre artist Rae Takei (they/he). A 2013 graduate of Studio 58, Rae is a Jessie award-nominated actor, creative consultant, Pisces sun (with a Capricorn stellium), and ice cream enthusiast.
