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, and feminist Annie Sprinkle.

Saturday things get a bit darker, with performances featuring more BDSM and kinky themes such as flesh pulls, rope bondage, and poetry.  Some performers like Lee Harrington and Annie Sprinkle will be reprising appearances with a more explicit theme, and they will be joined by fetish performers such as Klawdya Rothschild, Julie Simone, Graydancer, Sacred Mark Sanctuary,  and more.

It all takes place at the Load of Fun gallery, 120 W. North Ave in Baltimore, beginning at 7pm. Admission is $15.

image used permission of Suzannah Gerber

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While the staging looks minimal, I suspect that the lighting and other designers will have made the entire theatre into a magical candyland before the night is out. I’d especially love to see how they shrink Mike Teevee on the stage. Click past the cut for a preview.

With luck I’ll get to it before it closes August 17th. If you check it out, please let me know! Here’s a preview piece from the Tribune:

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It’s only a preview, but it’s a breath of great things to come: the review of the premiere of “Another Evening: Serenade/The Proposition,” by Bill T. Jones seems to hint at a magnificent work to come. Commissioned to create a work celebrating the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth, it’s a pretty tall order for anyone but Mr. Jones.

He assembled, along with his usual fantastically talented company, an amazing creative team: Janet Wong on video, singer Lisa Komara, score by Jerome Begin and Christopher Antonio William Lancaster, Liz Prince’s amazing costume design and a set consisting of moveable columns by Bjorn G. Amelan.

The review describes some tricks not working so well – video flames on the columns, for example – but on the whole it sounds like Jones once again is exploring a subject that seems so incredibly overdone in new and amazing ways. It’s a disjointed but serious look at war, racism, and other themes of the day, and his choreography, always pushing the limits of the human form, addresses it like a hologram – in pieces, but each piece containing suggestions of the whole.

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Melissa Gilbert: Typecasting or Resource?

I find myself questioning the casting of Melissa Gilbert in the role of “Ma Ingalls” – not because I doubt her abilities as an actress, but more because there is quite a difference between acting – even on a stage – and performing in a musical. She has more than enough cred with “straight plays”: A Shayna Maidel (for which she received an Outer Critic’s Circle Award for Best Debuting Actress) and roles in The Glass Menagerie, The Miracle Worker, Bus Stop, and Love Letters.

Singing and dancing may come naturally to her – I just hope that the producers and directors don’t water down the part. She’s playing opposite Steve Blanchard, veteran of eight years as the Beast in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, and that kind of a mismatch would be almost heartbreaking to see in such a beloved American classic.

Image details: 2007 Winter TCA Press Tour – Day 1 served by picapp.com

Casting Yourself

Melissa Gilbert was an instrumental part of the casting process, and I wonder how it must have felt to see all the young hopeful Lauras – many, apparently, with dog-eared copies of “Little House on the Prairie” in their hands – and realize that you are casting an American icon that you, yourself, created.

The starring role went to Kara Lindsay, with Jenn Gambatese as older sister Mary. The ensemble includes Sara Jean Ford (touring as Christine in Phantom) as Nellie and Kevin Massey (another Disney/Broadway veteran from Tarzan) as the heartthrob Almanzo.

The opening is August 15th, and it’ll play at the Guthrie until early October. I’m hoping to get tickets and make the trek up there – if you do, drop me a line and let me know what you thought!

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Milia also directed me to the event profile on Facebook, which I have happily added to my profile (though I don’t think I’ll be able to make it, sorry). Theatre de Mazitou, the production house exclusively licensed by Disney to produce High School Musical in Lebanon, also talks more about their purpose in producing the musical.  They held the objective “to reinforce and enhance novelty in Lebanon, shake up their talents and intellect and give them a chance to express themselves in their country. The lines of work we approach are utterly in respective of the growth of children’s intellect, internal and external development as well as their output.”

The troupe had to overcome a situation not commonly faced by theatrical groups – on May 8th, the country fell into “chaos” as a general strike was called – and by strike, we’re not talking about people holding placards and marching in a line. “You could hear gunfire crackling across Beirut all morning” reports Robert Fisk. In spite of this, they carried on with the premiere a week later, and I’m incredibly impressed and hope they have a fantastic run. Kudos to them for the bravery in the face of very difficult times, and holding to the theatrical tradition of “the show must go on.”

“If the same Lebanese theater group were to put on something by Sondheim, would it bother you less?” asks Milia. I understand the question – the idea that some plays are “classics” and that something of a higher perceived quality, it somehow stops being cultural assimilation and becomes common human experience.

I don’t know if my objection is so much to the author of the show or even the quality as much as the language. I believe that there are probably excellent Lebanese playwrights and stories that, if U.S. theatre goers were more open, would add to the cultural richness of Broadway (not to mention TV and movies). But international cinema remains the purview of upper-class liberal hippy types (yes, I’m generalizing and stereotyping here) and the international theatre scene remains the purview of the Ivory Tower of academia. I think, in the end, we all lose out in the one-way spread of cultures.

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Image details: Opening Of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “The Woman in White” – After Party served by picapp.com

Trevor Nunn (director of Les Mis, among others) has set his sights on the American Civil War and a musical adaptation of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind. With an ensemble cast including veterans of Chicago and Guys & Dolls and a slew of other Broadway hits, it really seems destined for a fantastic opening tonight at the New London Theatre. No word yet as to when it will travel across the waves, but my girlfriend is going to the UK for a wedding next month; I wonder if she might be able to sneak in and give us a review?

The music, of course, is the question, and the fact that Garth Valentine, the same musical director as Wicked is at the helm here gives us some hope that this will be another shining jewel in the theatrical sky.

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Incidentally, for those So You Think You Can Dance fans: number one on the evening’s ticket was a piece called “Le Grand Futur is Here!” choreographed by our favorite judge Mia Michaels. It was described as “enormously tricky and difficult”; why am I not surprised?

This is the promotional video they put out for this particular performance; not sure if parts of it are showing Mia’s work or not, but it certainly gets the blood moving anyway:

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When: 03/07/08
Cost: $15/$10
Call: 661-9696
Email: pulp@stageq.com

More Information:
Singing Lesbians to set up Camp in March
Musical satire of 1950s Pulp Romance Novels opens March 7th

StageQ, Inc, the local not-for-profit LGBTQ Theater Company announces the musical comedy “Pulp” to run March 7 – March 29, 2008 at the Bartell Theater, 113 E. Mifflin Street in Madison.

“Pulp,” is a “comedy with music” spoofing the lurid 1950s novels of over-the-top stereotypes of lesbian romance. Everything from the classic butch and femme images to Barbara Stanwyck gets set up and knocked over in song on the Drury stage of the Bartell.

“March is a long cold month, so we wanted to heat up the theater with a sexy production,” says Tara Ayres, Artistic Director for StageQ. “Even though this is a lesbian-themed show, the satire is so broad that all audiences will be able to laugh along with the jokes and leave the theater humming some new songs.”

“Pulp” features book and lyrics by Patricia Kane and music by Amy Warren and Andre Pluess. Chicago’s About Face Theater company originally produced the show. StageQ’s production is directed by Tara Ayres and features the talented cast of Susan Carnell, Dana Pellebon, Laura Spring, Mary-Elizabeth Pasquesi, Jennifer Jenkins and Louise Stout, with accompaniment provided by keyboard virtuoso Harris Lemberg.

“Pulp” runs March 7 – March 29, 2008 at the Bartell Theatre, 113 E. Mifflin Street in Madison, WI. Performances are Thursdays ($10) at 7:30pm and Fridays & Saturdays ($15) at 8pm. Tickets and reservations are available at www.StageQ.com or by calling 608-661-9696, x3.

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