Dear Constant Reader,
A little treat for you from The Wrathskellar!
Photo by Hans Wendland
Report from New York
Dear Constant Reader,
Remember when I said I couldn’t remember much of Thursday night’s show at the New York Burlesque Festival? Fortunately J.D. Oxblood of Burlesque Beat wrote it all down.
Of your humble correspondent, he writes: “Boston’s Miss Mina Murray doing a straight-up traditional stocking peel, lying on a bench, legs up, the whole bit”
And there are great photographs from Melody Mudd. I love this one of my end pose.
The New York Burlesque Festival
Dear Constant Readers,
A couple of weeks ago I headed to Brooklyn for the 10th Annual New York Burlesque Festival and my first solo festival appearance.
Your humble correspondent hates to drive and will do almost anything to avoid it. However, I was performing my tribute to April March and that requires a large set piece (aka The Prop). There was no way around it — I had to drive. So, I rented a car and hit the road with The Prop in the back seat. Those of you who were following my adventures on Twitter now understand why I gleefully tweeted every time I found parking.
I was performing in the Thursday Tease Party at The Bell House. I’ll be honest with you; I don’t recall a lot of the show. I was either thinking about my upcoming appearance, getting ready for it, or giddy after it was done. I did hear Dot Mitzvah singing her operatic heart out with her award-winning “Glitter and Be Gay” number while I was backstage putting on my wig.
And then it was time for me to go on. I was nervous, of course, but strangely calm as well. The MC didn’t mention anything about the tribute, so I hoped the audience would appreciate the act on its own merits as a recreation of early 1960’s striptease without the backstory. The whole front row was photographers, it seemed. One of whom (John Paul Bichard) caught me unclipping a garter, as you can see. The audience was fantastic — engaged, cheering, easy to flirt with.
After my act, I headed back out to watch the remainder of the show, still wearing my wig. This was partly so people could recognize me and partly because I knew my hair was a disaster under there. I got a lot of compliments on the act from fellow performers (someone called it a “beautiful leg show”) and audience members.
And then it was time to pack it all up and head out. It had started to rain at this point and I am eternally grateful to the gal whose name I have forgotten who helped me schlepp my prop back to the car. It breaks down and none of the 3 component parts are particularly heavy, but it’s not easy for one petite burlesque dancer to carry all three at once. And as I said, it was raining.
I think my adventures on Friday will wait for another missive.
Recent and Upcoming
Dear Constant Reader,
It’s a busy summer for the Boston Babydolls and it’s not even summer yet!
In the past couple of weeks, we performed at:
* The City Lights Gala — I wore my Catherine D’Lish costume for my G rated fan dance and there are some amazing pictures, but they’re not up yet.
* The Watch City Festival — Steampunk burlesque! We had some much fun, even if I was incredibly sick. Again, there are some good pictures, but we haven’t put them up yet.
* Our Victory Party — of which I have written previously, but now there are pictures!
Upcoming, we have our summer tour, A (Re)Movable Feast:
June 8 & 9: Davis Square Theatre, Somerville, MA
June 15 & 16: Universal Preservation Hall, Saratoga Springs, NY
June 23 & 24: The Griffen Theatre, Salem, MA
July 13 & 14: The Lucid Stage, Portland, ME
July 27 & 28: The Music Hall Annex, Portsmouth, NH
Then there’s The Dollhouse, our monthly showcase, on the 3rd Thursday of every month at The Estate. The next one is June 21!
Can’t forget Naked Girls Reading! The next salon is called Memory Lane and we’ll be reading selection from our childhood, plus a “Choose Your Own Adventure” with audience participation! It will be on July 1st at B.A.B.E.
See you this summer!
Hanging on the Wall
Dear Constant Reader,
Back in February photographer Chris McIntosh came to Unlucky in Love. He took some photos of us on stage and off.
Friday night most of the Babydolls attended his gallery show and the first thing you saw when you walked in was this:
I was so sick during most of Unlucky in Love, but trying gamely to pose in lovely and creative ways. I was just setting up a pose when Chris said something I didn’t quite hear. I turned, raised eyebrows to say “yes?” and he snapped the shutter. I assumed it would be one of the dud shots, but it was one of the best. Someone thought it looked rather Gypsy Rose Lee, but I’m not sure I would go that far.
Chris is really good at capturing split-second moments like my inquiring gaze. There’s one picture of *something* that happened at the Expo. I don’t know what, but there’s clearly a good story there. That’s not to say he doesn’t take good portraits. There’s one of Serendipity Galore that makes her look like a Renaissance burlesque saint.
And this portrait:
This was the true center piece of the gallery show: Evie Sphinx as Columbine from the act “A Harlequin Romance”.
There is also a nice one of Evie and Devora together from that act, looking a bit like superheroes, but it wasn’t in this show.
By the way, Chris was working with actual film for the portrait shoots with us, so I got to see genuine contact sheets as a preview. Does my old fashioned soul good.
More Glittering
Dear Constant Reader,
Brian Janes asked if I would post a picture of myself holding his book, It’s All That Glitters, on Facebook. So I did.
It’s a somewhat stripped-down portrait — I’m not wearing any makeup, I didn’t do my hair, and that’s just the outfit I happened to be wearing that day. Then I got the idea for a really stripped down picture…
Happy Birthday, Sally!
Dear Constant Reader,
Today is the birthday of one of my inspirations!
The woman most associated with the fan dance: Sally Rand!
New Companion
Dear Constant Reader,
Vote for the Boston Babydolls!
For my birthday, Scratch got me a brand-new dress form, which you can see here, graced with my latest creation (a 1914 blouse, just lacking the buttons and buttonholes).
For a long time I had been working with an old clunky mannequin that was very hard to adjust. It was only really good for keeping costumes in progress off the ground and for displaying them at the Expo. The new one is set to my measurements and height, so I can actually do fittings and hemming with easy.
Expect a lot more to be coming out of my sewing room!
Oh, The Glamourous Life! 