My Barbarian’s Broke People’s Baroque Peoples’ Theater evokes an excess of theatrical styles, from Baroque spectacle to camp drag, to present the absurdities of the American financial crisis as performance of wastefulness, trashiness, and class warfare. It is the latest in a series of collective alter egos My Barbarian has assumed over the past decade which confront their internal conflicts over patronage, money, artistic quality, and other mythologies.

Structured as a play within a game within a play, the performance is an amalgamated decoupage of detoured theater texts, ornate musical numbers, and masked interactions. A recital of the grandeur of excess executive through impoverished means, Broke People’s Baroque Peoples’ Theater depicts an encounter between an imagined theater company and an audience.

Broke People’s Baroque Peoples’ Theater is written, designed, and directed by My Barbarian

Actors: Malik Gaines, Jade Gordon, Alexandro Segade
Music composed by Malik Gaines. Lyrics by Alexandro Segade.
Masks by Jade Gordon. Gowns by Alexandro Segade.
Scenic design by Jade Gordon and Alexandro Segade.
MC: Jade Gordon
DJ: Xandro

The Broke Baroque festival features opera company members from The Industry

Singers: Maria Elena Altany, John Lee Keenan, Mikaela Elson
Orchestra: Malik Gaines and multi-instrumentalist Mark Golamco, performing original “baroque-esque” compositions by My Barbarian
Masked Dancers: C. Bain, Mallory Fabian, and Zenaido Zamora


This is an ICA LA, My Barbarian, and The Industry co-production.