Waxie Moon: a screening for a cause

•07/16/2010 • Leave a Comment

Waxie the movie!

If you missed Wes Hurley’s voyeuristic/anthropological documentary on the singularity that is Waxie Moon, this weekend you can catch an early show for a very noble cause. The Washington Ensemble Theatre (WET) hosts a screening of Waxie Moon on Saturday at Broadway Performance Hall, topped with a reception and silent auction. The fundraiser will benefit WET’s Queer Teen Ensemble Theatre (Q-TET, a program Waxie founded prior to becoming- well, Waxie). Now led by co-artistic director Jessica Hatlo, QTET fosters creativity by providing an outlet for queer teens to workshop collaboratively, creating pieces based on their own identity and experiences and culminating in performances at the end of the summer intensive.

Wes Hurley’s next project is already in the works- this time it will be a feature length art film. Details are elusive but a summer casting call is in place:

“Those of you who live in Seattle, or who are planning on visiting Seattle this summer, have an opportunity to be a part of something truly unique and special – a crazy genre-bending feature-length art film starring Waxie Moon, Marya Sea Kaminski, Sarah Rudinoff, John Osebold, Polly Wood and many many many surprise guest stars. We need tons and tons of extras, and will be shooting all summer.

Email wesnau@hotmail.com with a snapshot of yourself, your height/weight, and contact information, if you’re interested in being part of this film. Tell us something about yourself – can you juggle, two-step or sing? Any special skills? Are you comfortable with nudity? Do you have any amazing outfits the world should see you in?”

Everyone involved will be credited in the titles and will get an imdb.com credit as well- please email for information”.

Here’s the details on the Waxie Moon screening- and you can read about the film in my review, conveniently located HERE

WHEN: Saturday, July 17th, 2010 @ 6:00 PM
WHERE: Broadway Performance Hall: 1625 Broadway, Seattle, WA 98122-2498
FEATURES: Waxie Moon, Indigo Blue, Lily Verlaine, Dirty Martini; soundtrack by The Little Penguins, Jerry Peerson

TICKET INFORMATION:
Tickets are $15 through Brown Paper Tickets in advance or at the door.
Order by phone @ 800-838-3006 or online @ http://www.brownpapertickets.com

Waxie recently posed for artists at Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School. Hugely talented local painter Randy Phillips was the evening’s top winner. As a special bonus, here’s one of his sketches from that night:

Waxie Moon- sketch by Seattle painter Randy Phillips

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A Touch of Crass

•07/13/2010 • 4 Comments

Cass King as Shine Mionne

The mere mention of a musical is often met with a groan; mentioning a burlesque musical- a groan followed by either a snicker or a squeal, depending on who you’re asking. Rent was enough to scare most off the plight of the starving artist set to music. Fortunately for writers The Wet Spots (John Woods and Cass King), Seattle has an open mind coupled with a notoriously rabid preoccupation with burlesque. SHINE: A Burlesque Musical features a host of local luminaries as the chorus and dancing ensemble, as well as choreography developed by Inga Ingénue and assistant choreographer Ruby Mimosa. Billed as an “adult-oriented show which contains nudity and themes of healthy sexuality”, SHINE’s imaginative writers and director Roger Benington make it permissible to see a musical again, even if you’re “not a musical type”.

For starters, the cast is engaging- no small feat considering the singing is pitted against relatively low volume, slightly muddled canned instrumentation. The cheeky references and sexual content dip into the same gene pool as Cabaret– it felt like a young Liza might pop up and duet with Cass King (Shine Mionne). The story of a failing theatre and its tattered diamonds-in-the-rough cast was brought to life by Canadian actress Gemma Isaac (Grace) – who nailed tassel twirling as well as the very amusing role of a naïve gender studies student looking for a feminist epiphany via burlesque. Bodacious real-life blues belter Adraboo Green played bad-girl seductress Lulu Von Doozy, whose vocals sound best off the chain and at top volume. Anna Allen- aka Ernie and Elsa Von Schmaltz- led the chorus as Violet; both Allen and dancer Polly Wood demonstrated some killer comic timing and were ultra-comfortable in their roles, their stage backgrounds very apparent. Roxie Moxie (Feral) played her “hissing only” role like the sexy, post-apocalyptic stage monkey her Stripped Screw fans know and love.

Although I get a little antsy during musicals, songs like “The Nasty” (by Mark Growden), “Rocky Horror”, “Perversions of Yesteryear”, and “Stars” were clever, a little bit crass, and yes, catchy. When SHINE returns someday with a live band, things will really get interesting. For the moment, I’m actually kicking around the idea of seeing this *gasp* burlesque musical again.

SHINE: A Burlesque Musical runs through July 18 at Theatre Off Jackson.

www.brownpapertickets.com/event/111305

Adraboo Green. Photography by Amber Clark. Copyright 2010, Stopped Motion Photography

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French Kissing in the USA

•07/11/2010 • Leave a Comment

Bastille Day has become an adopted holiday not unlike Mardi Gras or St. Patrick’s Day- only bad manners are replaced with sophisticated sensory stimulation. Who better to cross-pollinate French style and sensualism than the incomparable Lily Verlaine, whose brand new installment of “Nightcap” hits The Triple Door this Wednesday (July 14) with “L’Edition Francaise”.

Joined by Kitten La Rue (The Atomic Bombshells) and Olivier Wevers (Whim W’him) the trio will present three new works inspired by their inner Francophiles. Lily Verlaine, one of Seattle’s most cerebral and cultivated performers, brings ballet/burlesque to her portion of the evening- a treatment of Serge Gainsbourg’s 1971 concept album Histoire de Melody Nelson. Pulling substance from Gainsbourg’s heavy-handed Lolita-esque tragic seduction is a departure for Verlaine, whose work shies away from the infantile. Verlaine draws on her own girlish coming of age flirtations and puts a personal spin on an oft-told erotic fantasy.

Kitten La Rue, fresh from last week’s steamy “Nightfall in New Orleans” performances, channels the deceptively naïve leading ladies of the 60’s French pop phenomenon known as “yé-yé”. Brigitte Bardot, France Gall, and Francoise Hardy were sex kittens in their own right; La Rue will undoubtedly do them justice. Olivier Wevers brings his flair for choreography to the music of Hugues Le Bars and features Paris Original (always a show stealer, even when en pointe doing pick-up for Stripped Screw) and Kylie Shea, both skilled dancers new to the burlesque stage.

Adverts for the show feature a different take on Gainsbourg’s original cover photo, reimagined by Christopher Nelson, Verlaine, and La Rue:

Lily Verlaine (Birkin) and Kitten La Rue (Bardot) photo by Christopher Nelson

Jane Birkin as original Histoire de Melody Nelson cover star

Nightcap at The Triple Door: L’Edition Francaise
July 14, 2010: 7pm (17+) and 10pm (21+)
$20
For tickets, go here

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Cheating the Eye with Ben De La Creme

•07/08/2010 • 2 Comments

Ben De La Crème transformed into a “terminally delightful” performer gradually, imaginatively, and across several states. A pre-De La Crème Ben figured out as a youngster that normally unsavory behavior is better received the more makeup ones wears, and that artistic satisfaction doing something people hate can be a liberating payoff. Ben refined this unusual skill in various acts of guerilla performance art, creating a cast of characters she could conjure at will. Snooty art critic alter-ego Mi Mi Mit (long “i” silent “t”) started out crashing art openings with unsolicited reviews, modernista glasses, and a severe angled bob.

Today Ben’s talents go beyond the scope of angled brushes and lash adhesive. She’s made the rounds in Seattle’s burlesque community- starting out at Can Can, Sonya’s, and appearing with The Atomic Bombshells in Seattle and Provincetown. These days De La Crème approaches her work with an eye towards longevity, citing the weird and winding careers of Dina Martina and Joey Arias as mentors. What that work consists of is hard to pinpoint- a ladylike character with a curt, masculine name is part of the conundrum. Artfully smudging the lines between attraction and repulsion, hyper-feminine and monstrous- Ben’s performances are part comedy, part dress-up, part lipsynch throwdown, and part terrifyingly glamorous host(ess).

Ben De La Crème will perform her first evening length solo show three nights in July at The Jewelbox.

Get tickets HERE

Posted in Written by Jessica
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Hot in the City

•07/06/2010 • Leave a Comment

Since Pride weekend there’s been a cavalcade of carnality running rampant through Seattle- back to back parades and burlesque with no end in sight until the beginning of August.

Here’s a little of what went down just in the last week or so (special thanks to Roxy Ruby, and to BSP’s favorite seeing eye dog, Chris Blakely, for the live performance shots):

Bitsy Rini of Tempting Tarts @ Fremont Solstice Parade (shutterbug unknown)

Jezebel Vandersnatch of Tempting Tarts @ Pride (photo: Dan'l Linehan)

Jesse Belle-Jones @ Sinner Saint- Vaudeville

Whiskey Bliss @ Sinner Saint- Vaudeville

Group number @ Sinner Saint- Vaudeville

Wiggy Stardust @ Stripped Screw- Paradise Glossed

Faustian Roxie Moxie @ Stripped Screw- Paradise Glossed

Barbie Girls @ Stripped Screw- Paradise Glossed

Kitten La Rue @ Atomic Bombshells- Nightfall in New Orleans (photo: Michael Doucett)

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