Fame or Famine

Two nights of erotically themed performance art will be accompanying the Art Space festival in Baltimore this Friday and Saturday. The Baltimore Erotic Arts Festival, the brainchild of Suzannah Gerber (aka Klawdya Rothschild in the burlesque world) takes place on Friday the 18th and Saturday the 19th.
All Around the Edge
Friday night’s theme is “Before the Edge”,  with art and performances with sexual themes that are playful and teasing, such as a Atomic Cheesecake Pinup Pageant and performers such as

Eliza Charming
ShortStaxx
Lee Luscious/Lee Harrington
Coco Mource
Dix Washington

and other art and performances on the site. The headliner is the famous sex educator, performance artist, …read more

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This smoking ban thing becomes more and more interesting…Chicago seems pretty much set in its ways, with no hope in the near future of th Jersey Boys getting to light up again.
The problem lies in the fact that there is both a state law in Illinois and a city of Chicago law, and the latter is forbidden from making the former any weaker. This means that an exemption for theater can be tricky – lest Chicago fall to the thespian hedonism currently infesting Minneapolis.
Before the Ban, With a Cast of Thousands
Thanks to a comment by Karl, I learned that in …read more

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From the same city that banned foie gras recently (and then suddenly repealed it) comes the news that even in theatrical productions where cigarettes and other smoking is an “integral part” of the play – it’s not allowed.
That’s right. Jersey Boys, currently playing in Chicago, had portrayed the doo-wop singers accurately – that is, singing on the street corners with cigarettes hanging out of the their mouths. But since Chicago has a city-wide smoking ban, an “irate theatre goer” complained to…well, to someone, but no one seems to know who, or where the complaint originated. However, the play has removed …read more

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Milia comments: I’m 18 turning 19 and I feel so behind in dancing. I do know I’m not up to date in movements nor technique. But you will see me again – from today on I will practice, practice, and practice.
I feel that – it warms my heart, actually. At age 18 I started on what I thought was going to be a career in musical theatre, but got a bit sidetracked, and didn’t end up getting my degree in dance until the venerable age of 29. Ten years later, I have taught ballet to three year olds and the …read more

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As I was going through the slurry of fine arts news that Google sends my way each day, I came across an interesting connecting thread between two very different types of theatre: Spanish.
The Bard for Our Time
As the Spanish speaking segment of the U.S. (as well as the rest of the world) continues to grow, it’s no surprise that the great playwrights such as William Shakespeare would be translated into that language. Indeed, it has been for ages; other languages, as well (I saw Othello in Japanese once, and got chills).
But here’s a twist on it: Romeo y Julieta is …read more

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Here’s the last donated blog from Steve Eley, creator of the Escape Pod Podcast (among others). I asked him to contribute not because of his expertise in the arts, but because I know he can tell a story. As you will see here…

Being asked by Gray to write a guest post on this blog was a bit surprising. This subject matter is a bit off my track; I’m not talented at the stuff Gray talks about. I’m a mediocre actor, a dangerously bad dancer, and there are laws prohibiting me from singing in six states. The one thing …read more

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By Blog-Off Guest Blogger Michael J. Wallach
© 2008 Michael J. Wallach – Used by Permission of the Author
It used to be simple. You met an agency that you liked and you were presented with an agency contract that you could comfortably sign.  But, it doesn’t work like that anymore. What do I mean by that?  In the old days (not more than approximately five years ago) there was basically just one contract that an actor was given to sign. You were presented with a SAG Franchised Theatrical Motion Pictures and Television Contract. No problem. Signing it was easy because there …read more

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If I owe my career choices to anyone, I owe it to authors Spider & Jeanne Robinson and their novel Stardance. In fact, one of the most life-changing events in my life was spending a weekend with them on Gambier Island in Vancouver. Jeanne, who is both a dancer, a choreographer, and a zen roshi, was a vibrant and dynamic woman. And the idea of blending dance with technology, put forth in their novel, is literally what caused me to decide to major, in college, in Dance/Interarts Technology.
Making the Dream Real
Much to my joy, I find that Jeanne is making …read more

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As we come back to following the progress of July 20th, the GREAT BLOG OFF around the globe, we come to Newfoundland, home of Artistic Fraud. Specializing in “chorus based work,” the group is directed by Jillian Keiley and Robert Chafe.
All About Numbers
As the video on their site will tell you, in the past 9 years Artistic Fraud has called for:

81 school desks
 32 flourescent semaphore flags
790 maps
36 vibraphone keys
2400 square feet of polyester wedding dress lining
Over 300 performers.

You can see a short film about the relatively small production Fear of Flight on YouTube now, and hear the ensemble as they …read more

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Guest blogger Karl here again…one of the more fascinating aspects of the Internet to me is the
ability to explore areas of my past to see how they’ve changed and grown over the years. I moved out to the state of Wisconsin when I was 12, but I’m originally from the twin cities of Lewiston/Auburn, Maine. Recently, I spent a fair amount of time on a lazy afternoon retracing my childhood haunts using the closest Satellite view in Google Maps I could get away with (I anticipate a lot of time wasted when they get around to implementing Street View in …read more

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