Praise for The Gay Hist-Orgy!

But you don't have to take my word for it!
Here are some audience responses from e-mails and Facebook posts about "The Gay Hist-Orgy":

"Ian MacKinnon's Gay History Romp offered a profoundly moving celebration of gay-centered history (China; Medieval Persia; Ancient Greece; Renaissance Italy; Victorian Prussia) to show that homosexual love is eternal and beautiful and he did it while never loosing his hot eros, but maximizing it. Marriage of sensation and thinking -- brilliant, and good for the planet."
Douglas Sadownick

"Your work is astounding. You are carrying on a tradition of being queer and gifted onstage with great intelligence and stupendous theatricality. How you mesh history with frivolity is simply stunning. I hung on every word and leg kick. I am still drenched in the wonder of it. Dazzling. Angry. Sweet. Revolutionary."
Michael Kearns

"Another chime-in here: absolutely direct, totally subtle, the writing, performing at equal immense wattage: the complete skill-set, in play, funny as hell, fresh, and one surprise after another, energy to burn and total relaxation... the list goes on, and thanks to you Ian, so does the beat..."
Philip Littell

"Ian! What an amazing night! Your queer art and heart were so amazing in your performance last night! Bravo"
Tim Miller

"Please check out Ian MacKinnon's ferociously sexy solo performance where he takes you around the world recovering gay historical narratives onto the likes of Herman Melville, Abraham Lincoln, and a slew of others. He's a queer performance peer of mine that I respect immensely!"
Raquel Gutiérrez

"Please do yourself a favor and go see Ian MacKinnon's Gay Hist-Orgy! It is a brilliant, side splitting and completely hot! Ian MacKinnon spins our queer history in a way that is titillating, inspiring and easily palpable. While I found myself saddened and angered by the erasure of our queer history Ian's piece made me so grateful to have access to beautiful art that celebrates & really investigates the queerly complex stories of our queer brothers and sisters throughout history."
Ofelia Del Corazon

"The Hist-orgy last night was sheer genius. It was joyous, wacky, perverted, and informative. I love your spirit and am so proud to live in a city that has you leading the way for new queer performance."
Glenn Kessler

"Ian! Your performance tonight was so inspiring! I am very impressed at what you have pulled together. I would love to see this in a bigger venue (e.g. Broadway?). I left there feeling so empowered. I love that you were able to bring your own gay personhood to the performance, while invoking gay spirit and history. Awesome."
 Brian Stachowiak

"Impressive, entertaining, funny, sexy, and important work last night, Ian - thanks for sharing your vision and amazing self with us!"
Corbin Smith

"The sexiest show I've seen all year. Thanks for the journey Ian! ♥"
Travis Wood

"last night was amazing, funny, informative and extremely interesting. Thank you Ian for a wonderful show!"
Annie Parkhurst

"Ian, your performance was brilliant and an amazing, hot and loving honoring of our ancestral gay brothers and spirit. This was the mandatory homo history lesson that I never had--so affirming and also a painful testament to our collective trauma as gay folks. I wish I could have seen this in college. I would have felt much less isolated and crazy (in my love of men, Greek classics and gay porno...). I hope that the show has a long run including at colleges around the country (if not the world). Bravo to you and Wendell and all who conspired to dream this work into reality. Keep going! Anyone who has not seen this performance, see it while you can!!"
Matthew D. Silverstein 

"So glad I made it to your run Ian! The show was fantastic! Original, funny, touching, and educational. You were born to do this:) Thank you for sharing your talent and wisdom!"

Derek Ringold 

"Truly an awesome show Ian...I very happy I got to see it. It is a MUST SEE for allll the homosexual community. U are doing us all a great service.Thanx!" 

Maria Guerreo

"Earlier I told Robert Patrick that I thought tonight would be interesting, fun, or entertaining. It was all three plus educational on so many levels. Thank you Ian for a wonderful show, Gay Hist-orgy, love it, love it, love it. This is one of the best performences we've seen in a long time. Every homo in Los Angeles should go."

Duane Otis Boyer
 

"I HIGHLY recommend this show for everyone who's turned on by queer history-- or would like to be!!" 
Steve Dyson

"Ian, I LOVED your show! Sexy, fun AND educational. I would have learned so much more in school if my professors had worn chaps and talked dirty in class - just like you! Congrats! xoxo"

David Trudell

"Your Gay Hist-Orgy 1 and 2 is ruling gay thunder brilliance!! Everyone in the world needs to see it!!"

Jean Spinosa
 

"Ian, your show is SO GOOD. Seeing it just makes one feel that this is something that NEEDS to exist in the world, and YOU are the one that made that happen and did it SO WELL!! I hope it grows and grows and can be seen world-wide."

Rick Whitmore
 

"On Saturday night, I went to see my friend Ian MacKinnon's new show, Gay Hist-Orgy, which is a fun romp through queer history from a decidedly sex-positive point of view. I was reminded of my early days of coming out, when I was reading book after book of gay history and fiction -- all of which now live in boxes in San Francisco, untouched for more than a decade. Ian's Gay Hist-Orgy was funny, refreshing, informational and inspirational."

Jim Rudoff 

"Ian MacKinnon's "Gay-Historgy, Parts 1 & 2" should be required attending to keep your gay card...It's funny, informative and soooooooo sexy!"
Chris Williams 

The Gay Hist-Orgy! Friday nights in July!

After an amazingly successful 12 week run beginning in February, The Gay Hist-Orgy is back in Los Angeles Friday nights in July!

Dates: July: 6, 13, 20, & 27 at 8:00 PM
Location: Moving Arts Hyperion Station, 1822 Hyperion Avenue, LA, CA 90027
Price: $20 / $15 students
Tickets: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/214106
Information: www.gayhistorgy.com

Ian MacKinnon’s Gay Hist-Orgy! Performance artist and activist Ian MacKinnon brings the past to life by tracing the history of gay people in new ways never before seen on stage. With the aid of his magic time-traveling hot pants and sexy Genie guide, Ian cruises a plethora of gay historical figures in his one-man multimedia romp. Along the way he covers thousands of years of homo-history to create a hot and horny evening of laughs and lust, humor and heroism. Featuring hot histo-graphic hookups with Plato, Rumi, Lincoln, Melville, Fredrick the Great, Edward Carpenter, da Vinci, Michelangelo, Karl Ulrichs, Harry Hay, Allen Ginsberg, and more!

The Gay Hist-Orgy revives our hidden history in living color, beginning in the ancient world, and tracing the evolution of gay consciousness up to the present day. Including but also going beyond the already famous icons of gay history, Ian introduces the audience to more obscure, but equally fascinating figures who bravely pioneered gay liberation against the odds. Ian shows how these bold and affirming individuals risked persecution and even death to honor the calling of their hearts, and to create the artistic and philosophical works that inspire us all.

A tour de force of historical research and theatrical flair, The Gay Hist-Orgy draws on primary source material from many epochs, including love letters, philosophical treatises, spiritual poetry, 19th century novels, political tracts, and early scientific inquiries into the meaning of homosexuality. The show engages current controversies in queer theory while considering fundamental questions of gay meaning: Who are we as a people, and why are we here? In a radical departure from social-constructionist theory, Ian emphasizes our connections to this history through the shared bond of same-sex love. The Gay Hist-Orgy is more than a show; it is an avant-garde historical retelling, depicting not just the lives of important gays but how their love has influenced the progress of art, philosophy, culture, and politics. These pieces draw from the roots of gay liberation to reveal gayness as something unique, radical, and beautiful, with the potential to change the world for the better.

 

Queer Artist Centerfold: Xavier Axelson

Name: Xavier Axelson

Contact info:
www.xavieraxelson.com
http://www.facebook.com/xaviersaxel
http://www.twitter.com/xaviersaxel
http://www.examiner.com/la-in-los-angeles/francis-xavier

Zodiac sign: Libra

Your medium/genre: Erotica

Describe what you do:
Write Gay Erotica that falls somewhere between romance and horror.

Turn on’s:
Confidence, accents of any kind, passion, compassion, conversation, personal style, courtesy

Turn off’s:
Bad breath, apathy, cruelty, arrogance, anyone who doesn’t like to eat

Describe your perfect date:
Dinner, the beach and lots of making out

Pet peeves:
False logic, people who are always “on” and don’t when NOT to be Fantastic.

Fave sex idol: Sharon Stone

1ST crush: Jennifer Beales

Fave music: Folk

Top movies that inspire you:
Tidus, The Fall, Requiem for a Dream, The Secret Garden, Dogville, The Nightwatch

Fave quote:
Pressure Makes Diamonds

Reading List:
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, Let’s Kill Uncle by Rohan O'Grady, The Silent Land by Graham Joyce, The Blue Aspic by Edward Gorey

One of your obsessions: Rice Pudding

Influences/mentors/heroes:
Tennessee Williams, Stephen King, Elizabeth I, Peter Beagle, Carolyn See

Fave queer from history: Tennessee Williams

Most Pivotal Performance/event/etc:
My first reading at Homo-Centric

Fave performance experience:
Any chance I get to share my work and experience the work of others is my favorite.

What do you (does your art) stand for:
The belief in the male erotic sensibility

Fave prop or costume: My words

Thoughts on the LA queer art scene:
I didn’t know there was one until last year, so I think the fact it exists is truly amazing.

What is your Vision for the Queer Future:
A time when being who you are is not a novelty or a reason to be shunned, disregarded, or disrespected.

What do you see as the future for queer art:
A continued and widening sense of the queer creative sensibility. A continuing of breaking down walls, pushing boundaries and an insistence the queer voice is heard.

What are your upcoming plans/shows/events/include dates and info:
I have a new release titled The Birches out now and will be followed by a print collection of my last three novellas from Seventh Window Publications. My first two works will be released as audio books one for Christmas and the other for Valentines Day. I will also have another novella published in January titled Lily with Silver Publications.

Sample of Work
Excerpt:

the birches

He pulled into the parking lot of The Birches and sat on his bike a minute. He felt nervous, like he was about to meet a celebrity and the self-doubt that plagued him made him queasy.
“You gonna sit outside or come in?”
Leo jumped at the sound of the man’s voice. He pulled his helmet off and looked around, but didn’t see anyone.
“Over here.”
Leo looked just past his left shoulder and saw a man emerging from the nearby woods that surrounded the little restaurant.
“Oh, hey,” Leo called out, his voice cracking.
“You looking for something to eat?” the man asked, coming closer.
Leo was shocked to find himself riveted to the spot, staring at the man who came towards him.
The man offered Leo a rough, calloused hand. “I’m Dock,”
“Hey,” Leo managed weakly.
“I was out back, picking blackberries, they grow wild around here. I thought they’d make a great dessert. Don’t know what kind of dessert, but how can you go wrong when you have stuff like this?” He said as he offered up a large, wooden bucket half-full of dark, purple black berries.
There were purple smears across Dock’s white tank top that seemed barely able to contain Dock’s impressive chest. There were several brown freckles on Dock’s shoulders, next to where the strap of tank top clung to his body.
“Lucky berries,” Leo said under his breath.
“What?”
Sweat ran down Leo’s back, he felt so nervous. For a brief moment, he thought of hopping on his bike and taking off. Instead he said, “Um, nothing, sorry, I just wanted to come by and--”
“You want to come inside and have an iced tea or something?” Dock asked, “It’s hot as hell out here and I know I need to cool off.” He swiped a hand across his face and left a smudge of blackberry juice across his cheek.

Queer Artist Centerfold: Jamie Benson

photo by: Stacey Adams

Name: Jamie Benson

Contact info: info@jamiebenson.com

Come Find Me:
Website: http://jamiebenson.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jamiejbenson
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jamiejbenson
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/jamiebenson?feature=mhee
The Twitters: http://twitter.com/#!/jamiebenson

Zodiac sign:
Sun in Gemini
Leo Ascendant
Moon in Aries

Your medium/genre: Dance (for the most part)

Describe what you do:
Mash up:
1 part classic dance (ballet, jazz, ballroom, modern)
1 part barbaric forms (noise, gesture, bodily fluids)
1 part vaudevillian shtick

Result: A Sort of Bastardized Broadway Experience

My aim, hell maybe my purpose in this life, is to develop a bridge brand between different performance forms in order to affirm their merit to a massive audience.

Turn on’s:
-Insatiable Curiosity
-An Inclusive Spirit
-Lithe, Strong, Active Bodies & Minds
-A Surly Sense of Humor

Turn off’s: Snobbery, Excessive Self-Involvement

Describe your perfect date:
Comedy Club, Vegan Cuisine, Light Drinking, Heavy Sexing
OR anything surprising, unexpected. (monster trucks?)

Pet peeves:
People who only talk about themselves! Being rushed

Fave music:
Quirky Electronic, Soulful 60’s & 70’s R&B, anything you’d have an itch to sing at a piano bar.

Top movies that inspire you:
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind! I love you Phillip Morris, Girl Trouble

Reading List:
Howard Gardner’s “Intelligence Reframed”
Bill Bryson’s “A Short History of Nearly Everything”
Dave Praeger’s “Poop Culture”
Jeffrey Sachs’ “Common Wealth”
Suze Orman’s “The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous & Broke”

One of your obsessions: Prosthetic Limbs

Influences/mentors/heroes:
Tiny Fey, Louis C.K., Pina Bausch- any smart, successful, self-generating funny/creative type.

(1 of) Fave queer Artist(s): John Waters

Most Pivotal Performance/event/etc:
1st Performance at Highways Performance Space- I was hired for pennies by choreographers w/ legitimate backgrounds to pretend to dance as if I was water (in a very literal sense). While feeling a little silly dancing to 80's acid jazz & waving my arms around, I realized, if these hot shots are choreographing then I damn well could be too.

Places performed:
Los Angeles Theater Center (LATC) Luckman Fine-Arts Complex, Pasadena Armory, Bootleg Theater, Electric Lodge & Highways Performance Space

Education:
Dance Department, Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle, WA (self-proclaimed “Juilliard of the West”)

What do you (does your art) stand for:
Demystification:
I rummage through the humor & profundity in everyday rituals & landscapes to discover ways to demystify the enigmatic, sometimes annoyingly cryptic, art form of dance.

Integration:
Creating an alliance between the ethereal realm of dance & tangible, everyday experience creates an accessible forum for integration, not only for the dance community but the general public too.

Fucking Fun:
I make damn sure that my shows are fun.

(1 of) Fave performance experience / Fave prop or costume:
Portraying “The Shit” in our Satirical Ballet “Bowel Movement” (http://jamiebenson.com/repertory.html#bathroom.follies).
I deeply loved the costume that corresponded - complete w/ kernels of corn & designed by the undeniably talented Andrae Gonzalo (http://andraegonzalo.com/)

photo by: Jeannette Vidalia

For more images of the work see here (http://jamiebenson.com/photo_gallery.php#bathroom.follies.photos).

What is your Vision for the Queer Future:
When the collective unconscious gets to a point where a dude or dudette doesn’t have to experience damage to be their own queer self. When religion is no longer used as a crutch for blatant bigotry & people realize that by encouraging others to be themselves fully, they achieve “god’s” plan. When we can let the unknown be unknown so we are free to follow the trail of human decency (etc., etc.).

What are your upcoming plans/shows/events/include dates and info:
MIXED MARRIAGES!!!!

photo by: Maggie West

October 21 & 22 2011, Highways Performance Space

In Mixed Marriages (http://jamiebenson.com/repertory.html#mixed.marriages), an evening of tragic, dance comedy, Andrae Gonzalo & I will be slamming opposing attitudes, objects & concepts together from our past & present to reveal universal themes of love & loneliness.

Due to the size of the venue & my, what seems imminent move N.Y., this event WILL sell out - may be my last show in L.A. for awhile. GET TICKETS at highwaysperformance.org or RESERVE at 310-315-1459.

Note: We’re sharing the night with the remarkable Carmela Hermann & Terrence Luke Johnson & their work HOMESTRETCH. All the more reason to come!

Sample of Work:

photo by: Petra Rajnicova

Dance Reel :

Mass Transit Performance Slide Show :

Queer Artist Centerfold: Catherine Burriss

Name:
Catherine Scott Burriss

Stage Name:
None; the world’s a stage!

Contact info:
http://www.wiseacreswest.com/index.html

Birthplace: Northern California

Zodiac sign: cuspy Virgo

Your medium/genre:
Performance art, academic writing and professing

Describe what you do:
I am an artist, scholar, and teacher.

Turn on’s:
Open minds
Creativity
Enthusiasm
Commitment
Passion
Deconstruction that creates something new Selflessness in the name of justice
Satire of the power-hungry
Accurate citation of well-designed research

Turn off’s:
Closed minds
Dull imaginations
Ennui
Hypocrisy
Reluctance
Gratuitousness
Injustice
Satire of the power-starved
Willful ignorance

Pet peeves: People with pet peeves

Fave sex idol:
It’s a toss up between Pele (the Hawaiian goddess of fire), Janeane Garofalo, Angelina Jolie, and David Bowie.

1ST crush: I’m going to plead the fifth on this one.

Fave music:
Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, David Bowie, Prince, ani difranco, Jack Johnson

Top movies that inspire you:
The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Dessert, Strictly Ballroom, Delicatessen, Celestial Clockwork (Mécaniques célestes), and… Ugh. I don’t think I’ve been inspired by any recent movies!

Fave quote:
“There is a vitality, a life force, and an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, or how valuable, or how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly. . . .To keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open.”
–Martha Graham

Reading List:
Anything and everything by Judith Butler, David Román, Caryl Churchill, Paula Vogel, Tony Kushner, Aphra Behn, and William Shakespeare

One of your obsessions:
Figuring out new recipes using the amazing organic dried cherries from the local Farmer’s Market.

Influences/mentors/heroes:
Tim Miller, Denise Uyehara, Danny Scheie, Split Britches (Lois Weaver and Peggy Shaw), Norma Bowles, Paula Vogel, Anne Bogart

Fave queer Artist(s):
See influences/mentors/heroes above.

Fave queer from history:
Christopher Marlowe

Fave performance experience:
All the female college students gasping in disbelief when I cut my (then very long) hair off during a performance of Preventative Measures at CSU Channel Islands.

Places performed:
UC Santa Cruz, New Langton Arts in San Francisco, UC Berkeley, CSU Channel Islands, Queer Mondays at Highways Performance Space

Education:
UC Santa Cruz:
BA in Theatre Arts with a minor in Italian Comparative Literature
Graduate Certificate in Drama

UC Berkeley:
Ph.D. in Performance Studies with a designated emphasis in Women, Gender, and Sexuality

What do you (does your art) stand for:
I think art, especially performance, is a vital way to keep questioning society and keep society questioning. Asking tough questions of ourselves and each other keeps us moving forward as individuals and as societies.

Fave prop or costume:
Probably a big black and white golf umbrella, although I’m really getting into the red satin rope I’m working with right now…

Thoughts on the LA queer art scene:
I’m so gay for Queer Mondays at Highways! Ian MacKinnon has created a beautiful and welcoming and necessary place to foment new queer performance. It feels like family to me.

What is your Vision for the Queer Future:
A Queer majority takes over all major societies. Even straight people take pride in being Queer in some way, and it is considered uncivilized and destructive to society to expect individuals to meet some group standard just for the sake of conformity. Intellectual agility becomes such a hot new trend that it sticks for good and becomes woven into the fabric of society.

What do you see as the future for queer art:
Pomo performance brings the “real” back to reality TV as audiences simultaneously begin to crave live human interaction and having their assumptions questioned en masse.

What are your upcoming events:
I’m thrilled to be debuting my new piece, WHAT COMES NATURALLY, this Saturday, August 6 as part of Highways Behold!: a Queer Performance Festival!

One show only: 8:30pm August 6, 2011
at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica
Featuring opening act
TIM MILLER (with a short performance)
Conceived, written, and performed by
CATHERINE SCOTT BURRISS
Video created by
ELIZABETH LEISTER
Directed by
TRACY HUDAK
What Comes Naturally negotiates the fraught intersection of the personal and the political, grappling with queer marriage and queer birth when majority rule is tyrannizing one and malpractice rules are traumatizing the other. Drawing from her own experiences and focusing on moments of finding—or failing to find—the fierceness needed to stand up to bigotry and ignorance, Catherine Scott Burriss explores the humor and heartbreak that emerge when our tender private loves and lives collide with the inertial weight of public institutions and get swept up in the current of national debate.

What Comes Naturally debuts as part of
BEHOLD! - A Queer Performance Festival
2 months of new LGBTQ performance, dance, spoken word, theater, multi-media, and ritual!
For complete info, scheduling updates, and festival additions, visit www.highwaysperformance.org
All performances $20 general admission ($15 members/students/seniors), unless otherwise indicated. A festival pass, which admits you to all events, is $75.

Sample of Work:
Lots of pics of my new and old performances at http://www.wiseacreswest.com/index.html

Queer Artist Centerfold: Kalil Cohen

Name: Kalil Cohen

Stage Name: Metahuman

Contact info:
www.metahumanmusic.com
www.facebook.com/Metahuman

Birthplace: Fontana, California

Zodiac sign: Pisces

Your medium/genre: Film and Music

Describe what you do:
As Metahuman I perform politically conscious hip hop. As a filmmaker I write, produce, and direct both documentary and narrative shorts that usually have some social message mixed with a lot of comedy. In general my work is darkly humorous. I also usually start with the words and message I want to get across, then add images and music to help make it come to life.

Turn on’s:
People in therapy, Emma Goldman tattoos

Turn off’s:
Flaming Hot Cheetos, Cable Television

Describe your perfect date:
A three day desert rave!

Pet peeves:
People who don’t prepare before going on stage.

Fave sex idol:
David Bowie

1ST crush:
Will Smith

Fave music:
Political hip hop like Dead Prez, Deep Dickollective, and Feloni

Top movies that inspire you:
By Hook or By Crook by Silas Howard & Harry Dodge, She’s A Boy I Knew by Gwen Haworth

Fave quote:
“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” - Rumi

Reading List:
Everything by Kurt Vonnegut, bell hooks, Gloria Anzaldúa, Pat Califia and Kate Bornstein.

One of your obsessions:
Good hair.

Influences/mentors/heroes:
My ultimate hero is Emma Goldman, a 19th century anarchist and labor organizer who paved the way for women’s rights, queer rights, workers rights and more. In my own life, performance artist Ryka Aoki has been an amazing mentor to me, and my hip hop is heavily influenced by Dead Prez.

Fave queer Artist(s):
Hip hop artist Juba Kalamka of Deep Dickollective, performance artists Genesis Breyer P-Orridge and D’Lo, and writer Julia Serrano.

Fave queer from history:
It’s so hard to choose just one! I love William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg for paving the way as out queer artists in the 1950s.

Most Pivotal Performance/event/etc:
Performing at the U.S. Social Forum last summer in Detroit. It was an amazing venue at a political conference with over 20,000 attendees in a city that is known for hip hop, so it was a really incredible experience. I also received a very warm reception from this largely non-queer audience, which felt especially gratifying since my work is so explicitly queer.

Fave performance experience:
I loved performing at Cut & Past Rock & Roll in Long Beach last year because the crowd was so enthusiastic and rambunctious. I perform a lot at conferences or events where art is sort of an afterthought, so it was fun to perform for hardcore music fans just looking to have a good time.

Most frightening performance experience:
My first time performing in front of family members was incredibly nerve wracking, although they ended up being really supportive.

Places performed:
I’ve performed at Pride in LA and Long Beach, at lots of colleges such as UCLA, UC Irvine, Southern Illinois University, University of Texas at Austin, at conferences like the Allied Media Conference, and clubs like The Roxy on the Sunset Strip.

Education:
BA in Latin American Studies from Pomona College, Master’s in Education from UCLA

Awards/Grants/Honors:
Jeremiah Fellowship, Progressive Jewish Alliance
Vera Strayer Fellowship, UCLA

What do you (does your art) stand for:
I stand for community building through art and cultural events, and my art is about creating entertainment and love out of pain, anger, shame, and repression.

Fave prop or costume:
I love anything that sparkles and am known for wearing a lot of sequins on stage.

Thoughts on the LA queer art scene:
LA is a particularly hard place to connect with other artists. I feel lucky to know so many queer performance artists and filmmakers through organizing shows and film screenings, but you definitely have to be proactive to find people here. Also, audiences can be particularly passive or judgmental in LA. Places with smaller queer communities tend to give a lot more energy back while I’m performing instead of waiting until after the show to say that they liked it.

What is your Vision for the Queer Future:
I can’t wait until everyone on Earth has realized the queer parts of themselves, and we can all just play and enjoy the good things in life without taking everything so seriously.

What do you see as the future for queer art:
I see there being less marginalization for queer art, where an artist can be explicitly queer and still have the chance to reach mainstream audiences.

What are your upcoming events:
I am shooting my first music video for my song So Pomo on August 6-7, so right now I’m just focused on that. In the fall I will be performing at Oberlin, Sarah Lawrence and other East Coast schools.

Sample of Work:
Video:
QUEERER THAN THOU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_F3iev3Nlc

KICKSTARTER VIDEO TEASER FOR SO POMO:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1690619144/so-pomo-queer-music-video?ref=live

Queer Artist Centerfold: Rick Pulos

Name: Rick Pulos

Contact info:
www.decadesapart.org
http://www.facebook.com/rickpulos

Birthplace:
Alameda, CA

Zodiac sign:
I’m all Taurus!

Your medium/genre:
Theatre, multimedia performance, videography

Describe what you do:
Writer, Artist, Media Designer, Performer, Producer, Educator

Turn on’s:
Sense of humor, style, and inclusive aptitude. Creativity without arrogance.

Turn off’s:
Negative energy and overt attitude, haters

Describe your perfect date:
Being with someone that pays attention that is carefree and goes with the flow, and leaves life’s stresses at the door!

Pet peeves:
I hate it when people touch my TV or computer screens – it’s like putting you’re finger on my Mona Lisa while the paint is drying!

Fave sex idol:
Right now it is Enrique Iglesias but Madonna is forever for me.

1ST crush:
I was working running crew on My Fair Lady in the 10th grade and I was so in to this 11th grader, Brandon, another stage hand, and I remember after the show that I would make sure to walk by him all over campus just to see him – hoping he’d say hi. I wonder what he’s like today…

Fave music:
The Queen, Madonna.

Top movies that inspire you:
I’m going to mention a TV show here that is current: Shameless. Film examples include A Nightmare Before Christmas, Silverlake Life: A View From Here, The Grifters, Ruthless People, The Bicycle Thief, and Fight Club.

Fave quote:
“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” - Dr. Seuss

Reading List:
Harry Potter series, Beloved, Burried Child and other Sam Shepard plays, Jurassic Park and other Michael Crichton novels.

One of your obsessions:
Helping others have fun!

Fave queer from history:
Harvey Milk, Survivors from the dark day of AIDS

Most Pivotal Performance/event/etc:
Watching Phylicia Rashad’s dazzling performance on Broadway in Osage County. I never thought anyone could perform so brilliantly.

Fave performance experience:
Any Madonna concert – a true “assault on the senses.”

Most frightening performance experience:
I recently attended a performance of How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying with Daniel Radcliffe. Unfortunately, a stagehand passed away and I saw the EMTs remove the purple-faced man from the backstage door. The show did not go on since Radcliffe and John Larroquette and the rest of cast’s “hearts…not in it.”

Places performed:
Harry Warren Theatre of the Ryan Repertory Company (Brooklyn, NY), Nuyorican Poets Café (Manhattan), and the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts (Long Island, NY); among others.

Education:
Yale, University of Southern California, City University of New York, and Long Island University.

What do you (does your art) stand for:
Compassion and navigating the surprises of life while trying to survive.

Thoughts on the LA queer art scene:
From what I am experiencing, artists here seem to care about each other in a real way. That is very inspiring.

What is your Vision for the Queer Future:
I think a lot of art will eventually retreat from media and return to traditional forms.

What are your upcoming events:

Highways Performance Space
+
the Ryan Repertory Company
as part of
BEHOLD! A Queer Performance Festival

present the multimedia theatrical performance
Decades Apart: Reflections of Three Gay Man by Rick Pulos

Fri + Sat, July 22 + 23 @ 8.30pm


This multimedia work from New York-based artist, performer and writer Pulos captures significant moments in the lives of three gay American men living and surviving in 1970s San Francisco, 1980s 
New York City, and 1990s Los Angeles.

Chicago Stage Style raves that Decades Apart demonstrates “real innovation[s] in gay theatre” and that the text is “…a provocative and thought provoking picture of same-sex proclivities and issues. If the response to Pulos' World Premiere was any indication, this is a work that can really get blood boiling out there, and isn't that one of the benchmarks of great theatre?”

New York Theatre Wire writes “Pulos [uses] videos to great effect, creating time, place and mood with tapes of actual events as well as fanciful imagery.”

Tickets: $20/$15
Purchase tickets online @ www.highwaysperformance.org

1651 18th Street, @ 18th Street Arts Center, (½ block north of Olympic Blvd.),
Santa Monica, CA 90404

Sample of Work:
Patrick
(1985, New York City)

Media: Imagery that recalls 1980s New York City with music that defines the coke sniffing, AIDS fearing, greediness of the time and place. Useful images might include Nancy Reagan, subway trains overrun with graffiti, and executives in suits crowding NYC streets.

I voted for Reagan. Twice! (Media: Ronald Regan with an American flag proudly in the background) I’m not ashamed to say it. Why should I be? It feels like every single fag in New York City hates me for my political views but they have no problem fucking each other to death. I’m protecting myself and this body. This is all I have. It’s gotten to a point where all I see are sick faces. Even the healthy ones look like death to me. Too much decadence and overindulgence has run amuck in the city.

I used to see sexy bodies and transcending smiles, but now the bodies seem emaciated and teeth are falling to the floor everywhere. (Media: Rock Hudson turning from gorgeous to a skeleton).

Well I’m not bending down to pick those teeth up. I’m not getting my hands dirty for people that take unforgivable risks. I’m not waking up one morning and looking in the mirror to see the back of my mouth when I smile---it’s not happening to me!

I spend a lot of nights at home. (Media: a map of America engulfed in flames). I spend a lot of days at funerals. Men I loved and men I’ve made love to. So I can’t put myself out there and maybe that’s made me cold and maybe that’s made me smart.

Maybe being cold and smart is the only defense against all this suffering.