Final Early Show and Closing Weekend, plus the Whole Article!
The DVDs of Episodes 1 and 2 of Capitol Hill High are now available as free rentals at On 15th Video, in the New Indie/Foreign section!
http://on15thvideo.com/
To get tickets for our last early show, 7:30 on Wednesday, or our closing weekend nights at 10:30, go to: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/6567
And here's the complete article that appeared in last week's Seattle Gay News:
BLOOD AND GUTS IN HIGH SCHOOL - Bad Actor Productions rulz!
by Maggie Bloodstone - SGN A&E Writer
If you're reading this paper, chances are excellent you're a Big Fag. If you're a Big Fag, it's a safe bet you were a Freak in high school. If you were a Freak in high school, no doubt you were in theater. Bad Actor Productions of Seattle, Washington, is comprised of those very fags, freaks, and theater students, and Capitol Hill High is a homage/satire/bloody revenge on the cliques, creeps, and (insert your favorite derogatory adjective beginning with 'C' here) that made your faggy, freaky adolescence unrelenting hell for four long years-except with more drag queens.
Starting with the mini-production of Girls Just Want To Have Fun: The Movie!, one night only in the gallery space at Seattle's GLBT Center in '04, Bad Actor has struggled and persevered all the way to&two blocks away, at the Capitol Hill Arts Center, where Capitol Hill High is currently in session. 'Shaniquala Sleeps Tonight' is the third installment of six in what promises to be a late-night fixture at the eclectic performance space (also home to the legendary Annex Theatre, the fledgling Balagan Theater, Infinite Connections and a monthly art exhibition, to name only a fistful). I saw C.H.H's Freshman episode, 'The Queen Isn't Dead Yet' last Spring, and the current offering includes the same crop of gleefully stereotyped, yet oddly sympathetic (except for head 'Heather' Shaniquala-we hate her) high school personalities: the good-natured schlub, the pregnant cheerleader, the rocker guy, the brainiac, and, of course, the Big Fag (more than one, counting the 'Art Fag Mafia'). The source of the humor is a choice mix of every TV show & film about high school since the '70's, that special brand of unapologetic bad taste you get with a production that doesn't have advertisers to offend, and queasily accurate regional references from 15th Ave to about where Bauhaus Books & Coffee is. (Even though I'm a longtime resident, I never noticed the ubiquity of those stupid squarish caps favored by Gay boys and post-grunge hipsters both til I saw this show.)
Bad Actor's website states: "We don't let little things like gender, race, or talent dictate our productions"- I would beg to differ on the talent part, but I'd include "lack of $" in that assessment. While it's clear their productions run on a gossamer-thin shoestring, the crew definitely has a flair for grassroots promotion. From the 'Capitol Hill High' stickers that pop up like dandelions every few months on everything from dumpsters to skateboards, to Pride parade appearances in character, to entertaining fundraisers at local watering holes, Bad Actor knows how to target their primary audience: Capitol Hill residents who have managed to shed their Seattle passive-aggression long enough to take a fuckin' joke. More importantly, Bad Actor has a flair for invoking the same joy of creation/lack of pretension that gave voice to flashy, obscenely creative nihilists like the Cockettes (another bunch that never let race, genitalia, ability, or bad wigs get in the way of a good time).
While Bad Actor is very much an ensemble in every way, every group has to start somewhere, and in this case, it started with Director/Writer/Actor Dan Dembiczak and Actors/Producers Craig Trolli and Josh Hartvigson. Dan n' Craig were already a team, having met in Seattle in the late '90's, forming Outcast Theater Productions, and collaborating on fringe productions such as Putting Away James and Pine Nuts (the latter being a revue of hoot-worthy Seattle-based silliness that even a certain local weekly had to admit laughing its ass off over). The formation of Bad Actor Productions spawned the popular Desperate Liaisons (intrigues on a Gay cruise ship), and my personal fave, The Exorcist: The Musical!, the best example of trashy, tawdry bar theater since the glory days of Greek Active Theater. In fact, T.E:T.M! reached even greater heights-or deeper depths- of Shock and Awww-No-She-Didn't, than the late lamented G.A.T. ever dreamed of some 15 years ago. A new version, with actual original music (as opposed to lip-syncs of 'Faith' and 'Like A Prayer') and elements of the subpar sequel, The Exorcist: The Heretic, is planned for Halloween of '07. Before that, the company will be flexing its comedic muscle in a super hero-themed extravaganza (Imagine the possibilities: Mighty Isis On Ice? X-Men: the Opera? The Adventures Of Sodomy Man and Baby Butch?) slated for Feb. '07 at the Northwest Actor's Studio. Craig, in particular, is well suited for this type of enterprise, being the creator of the comic The Adventures Of Anna Rexia & Emma Gawd (which appeared semi-regularly in the SGN a couple years back), two badass bitches able to leap tall platform shoes at a single bound and flip attitude at 900 paces.
Me, I feel this is the perfect group to realize a long-held artistic vision I have had percolating in my cerebrum ever since I fell asleep watching the DVD's of Faster, Pussycat, Kill! Kill! and Beneath the Valley Of The Ultra-Vixens (after mixing some Wild Turkey with that nasty Coca-Cola Black): a classical ballet based on the oeuvre of Russ Meyer! Picture a chorus line of 7-foot drag queens in stiletto go-go boots and honeydew melons super-glued to their chests, doing the Frug and delivering Grand Jetes to the ballsacks of leering impotent Nazis&well, I can see it.
Capitol Hill High, Episode Three runs Fridays and Saturdays, 10 pm, through Oct. 21, at the Capitol Hill Arts Center, Lower Level, 1621 12th Ave. Tickets: $10 advance, $12 at the door, www.brownpapertickets.com, 1-800-838-3006.
http://on15thvideo.com/
To get tickets for our last early show, 7:30 on Wednesday, or our closing weekend nights at 10:30, go to: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/6567
And here's the complete article that appeared in last week's Seattle Gay News:
BLOOD AND GUTS IN HIGH SCHOOL - Bad Actor Productions rulz!
by Maggie Bloodstone - SGN A&E Writer
If you're reading this paper, chances are excellent you're a Big Fag. If you're a Big Fag, it's a safe bet you were a Freak in high school. If you were a Freak in high school, no doubt you were in theater. Bad Actor Productions of Seattle, Washington, is comprised of those very fags, freaks, and theater students, and Capitol Hill High is a homage/satire/bloody revenge on the cliques, creeps, and (insert your favorite derogatory adjective beginning with 'C' here) that made your faggy, freaky adolescence unrelenting hell for four long years-except with more drag queens.
Starting with the mini-production of Girls Just Want To Have Fun: The Movie!, one night only in the gallery space at Seattle's GLBT Center in '04, Bad Actor has struggled and persevered all the way to&two blocks away, at the Capitol Hill Arts Center, where Capitol Hill High is currently in session. 'Shaniquala Sleeps Tonight' is the third installment of six in what promises to be a late-night fixture at the eclectic performance space (also home to the legendary Annex Theatre, the fledgling Balagan Theater, Infinite Connections and a monthly art exhibition, to name only a fistful). I saw C.H.H's Freshman episode, 'The Queen Isn't Dead Yet' last Spring, and the current offering includes the same crop of gleefully stereotyped, yet oddly sympathetic (except for head 'Heather' Shaniquala-we hate her) high school personalities: the good-natured schlub, the pregnant cheerleader, the rocker guy, the brainiac, and, of course, the Big Fag (more than one, counting the 'Art Fag Mafia'). The source of the humor is a choice mix of every TV show & film about high school since the '70's, that special brand of unapologetic bad taste you get with a production that doesn't have advertisers to offend, and queasily accurate regional references from 15th Ave to about where Bauhaus Books & Coffee is. (Even though I'm a longtime resident, I never noticed the ubiquity of those stupid squarish caps favored by Gay boys and post-grunge hipsters both til I saw this show.)
Bad Actor's website states: "We don't let little things like gender, race, or talent dictate our productions"- I would beg to differ on the talent part, but I'd include "lack of $" in that assessment. While it's clear their productions run on a gossamer-thin shoestring, the crew definitely has a flair for grassroots promotion. From the 'Capitol Hill High' stickers that pop up like dandelions every few months on everything from dumpsters to skateboards, to Pride parade appearances in character, to entertaining fundraisers at local watering holes, Bad Actor knows how to target their primary audience: Capitol Hill residents who have managed to shed their Seattle passive-aggression long enough to take a fuckin' joke. More importantly, Bad Actor has a flair for invoking the same joy of creation/lack of pretension that gave voice to flashy, obscenely creative nihilists like the Cockettes (another bunch that never let race, genitalia, ability, or bad wigs get in the way of a good time).
While Bad Actor is very much an ensemble in every way, every group has to start somewhere, and in this case, it started with Director/Writer/Actor Dan Dembiczak and Actors/Producers Craig Trolli and Josh Hartvigson. Dan n' Craig were already a team, having met in Seattle in the late '90's, forming Outcast Theater Productions, and collaborating on fringe productions such as Putting Away James and Pine Nuts (the latter being a revue of hoot-worthy Seattle-based silliness that even a certain local weekly had to admit laughing its ass off over). The formation of Bad Actor Productions spawned the popular Desperate Liaisons (intrigues on a Gay cruise ship), and my personal fave, The Exorcist: The Musical!, the best example of trashy, tawdry bar theater since the glory days of Greek Active Theater. In fact, T.E:T.M! reached even greater heights-or deeper depths- of Shock and Awww-No-She-Didn't, than the late lamented G.A.T. ever dreamed of some 15 years ago. A new version, with actual original music (as opposed to lip-syncs of 'Faith' and 'Like A Prayer') and elements of the subpar sequel, The Exorcist: The Heretic, is planned for Halloween of '07. Before that, the company will be flexing its comedic muscle in a super hero-themed extravaganza (Imagine the possibilities: Mighty Isis On Ice? X-Men: the Opera? The Adventures Of Sodomy Man and Baby Butch?) slated for Feb. '07 at the Northwest Actor's Studio. Craig, in particular, is well suited for this type of enterprise, being the creator of the comic The Adventures Of Anna Rexia & Emma Gawd (which appeared semi-regularly in the SGN a couple years back), two badass bitches able to leap tall platform shoes at a single bound and flip attitude at 900 paces.
Me, I feel this is the perfect group to realize a long-held artistic vision I have had percolating in my cerebrum ever since I fell asleep watching the DVD's of Faster, Pussycat, Kill! Kill! and Beneath the Valley Of The Ultra-Vixens (after mixing some Wild Turkey with that nasty Coca-Cola Black): a classical ballet based on the oeuvre of Russ Meyer! Picture a chorus line of 7-foot drag queens in stiletto go-go boots and honeydew melons super-glued to their chests, doing the Frug and delivering Grand Jetes to the ballsacks of leering impotent Nazis&well, I can see it.
Capitol Hill High, Episode Three runs Fridays and Saturdays, 10 pm, through Oct. 21, at the Capitol Hill Arts Center, Lower Level, 1621 12th Ave. Tickets: $10 advance, $12 at the door, www.brownpapertickets.com, 1-800-838-3006.