About us

The team <3

Buba Sababa

Project Leader

The original creator of König dragshow and current Project Leader. Since 2019 Buba has been teaching, encouraging, inspiring and offering stage to newcomers in the Drag King and Quing community.

Ruco laPesto

Workshop Manager

As the Workshop Manager, Ruco takes care of the education of the beginner performers. From designing the workshops to suuporting them in the day of the show.

Papi takes part in the production, and is the head of media and online presence. As H.Pérez, he takes the analog pictures in our shows, building an archive of the part that König takes in the Drag King Revolution.

König: A brief history

The project König developed from our longstanding community work. Our goal is to build a strong and growing space for drag kings, trans people, and nonbinary drag performers in Berlin. We want to create a safe and creative environment where people can meet, share, and grow together. We create a space to celebrate diversity on stage.

König started in 2019 with a drag king, quing and creature workshop, that offered a stage for the fresh drag stars in the drag prince show “Königchen” in Tipsy Bear. Since then, every month 2 new performers claim the stage of the queer performance space Tipsy Bear.

First ever poster of König show: König Camp.In the picture Buba Sababa, Camp Dad and VNCNT 2.0Poster made by Edith Hyman

First Poster for the 1st Venus Boys workshopIn the picture Camp Dad, Buba Sababa, Daddy Sparkles, Very Confused, VNCNT 2.0

Before the show, participants get free workshops to be able to bring their own vision to the stage. An experienced performer can try themself out as a co-host on the mic alongside the experienced host Buba Sababa. It’s the hosts job to connect all the performances in a theater storyline.

In 2021 the drag collective Venus Boys started the project Gender Bender Academy in cooperation with Schwules Museum and funded by Durchstarten. In a weekly workshop series a group of young performers got together. After three months they developed a fulminant group show and put it to the stage.

Pictures by O.Baldwin form Gender Bender Academy workshops in 2021

Since 2022 we connected the two projects and developed a half year program for König. This program offers five free workshops and a first time performance in the show König. The co-hosts learn not only to produce and build a show, but also to organize and build community.

The final challenge of the program is to create a theater piece that brings together the visions of the whole group.

Pictures by H.Pérez of the last graduation show at SO36 - March 2023

In March 2024 König arrived officially to the Theater!

With 2 sold out shows at Theater im Delphi so far, König open the doors of the Theater to a queer audience, transforming historical places into queer with pride! Don't miss our next edition at the end of August 2025!

Pictures by Beyond Binary

Our experience with shows show us that young queers not only need the knowledge passed on in drag workshops, but most of all the community. While many young people come to Berlin to be able to live according to their identity, networks, structures and friendships are missing especially for young migrants. We keep growing an environment, in which the participants network with each other and the community around them, build supportive friendships and give their own knowledge to each other. Many former participants are active in the queer community of Berlin, form new collectives, give workshops and organize their own events. And some return to König as co-hosts…

October 2024: DRAG KING FESTIVAL House of König

From the 1st to the 5th of October, König in Collaboration with House of Queers, created a Drag King Festival. The festival took place in the historial Theater of ufaFabrik and had 2 cabaret shows, 2 theater shows, 2 workshops and 1 picture exhibition.

One special day of the festival was designed for underage audiences, creating a space where drag becomes a way to build connections between different queer generations.

Over 20 queer artists from our community came together to create this five-day celebration of performance, gender expression, and community building.