BLACKBIRD: Honoring a Century of Pansy Divas June 24, 2010

BLACKBIRD: Honoring a Century of Pansy Divas
Written & Performed by Seth Eisen
June 24 – July 10, 2010 • 8:00 pm
A Three-Week Limited Engagement •10 Performances Only!
Mama Calizo’s Voice Factory in SF
Directed by Brian Freeman
www.eyezen.org

Blackbird: Honoring a Century of Pansy Divas is a full-length, musical pastiche of queer music, written and dynamically performed by solo artist Seth Eisen (from Keith Hennessy’s Circo Zero) depicting eccentric and inimitable gay performers from the 1930s to the present, who despite their outsider status, established innovative ways to be out, queer and vociferous.
The themes in Blackbird unfold through Eisen’s nimble use of puppetry and a hybrid of live performance: dance, music, video, song and storytelling.

Blackbird is an international history of 20th Century gay musical performance! Celebrated performers including Danny Kaye, Klaus Nomi, and Sylvester are brought to life by Eisen in addition to stealth performers, worthy of homage, including Issan Dorsey, Brazil’s Ney Matogroso, Bulgaria’s Azis and Jean Malin – Grandfather of the 1930’s Pansy Craze. Presented as a workshop production in Nov. 2008, Blackbird returns to Mama Calizo’s Voice Factory, this production directed by Bay Area’s Brian Freeman (Pomo Afro Homos). The musical director is Sean Feit who also starred in and wrote the score for Circo Zero’s 2007 award-winning show, Sol niger. Costumes are designed & constructed by Jack Davis.
Video is designed by Alanna Simone.

Blackbird: Honoring a Century of Pansy Divas has a three-week limited theatrical engagement – running June 24 – July 10, 2010 - 10 performances only!
June 24, 25, 26, 27, (Thurs. – Sun.) July 1, 2, 3, / 8, 9, 10 (Thurs – Sat.). All shows 8:00 pm at Mama Calizo’s Voice Factory, 1519 Mission St. (at 11th St.), in SF 94103.
Tickets are $20 - $25 sliding-scale and available at the door or at Brown Paper Tickets http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/113247

For more information please call 415/ 786-9325 or visit the web site at www.eyezen.org

To see a video clip form the show visit:
http://www.eyezen.org/blackbird_Preview.html

These musical characters include:

Jean Malin – He led the movement of gay acts in speakeasies and initiated the 1930’s cultural phenomenon called the Pansy Craze. Acting as Blackbird’s emcee, Malin, (played by Eisen), serenades his audience into a falsetto spell, stitching together songs about gender, race, economics and “gay love”.

Danny Kaye - The questionably gay stage and film star who rose from the Borscht-Belt to the silver screen of the 1940s, 50s and 60s.

Sylvester - San Francisco’s own, was becoming the dazzling, international disco diva phenomenon in the 1970s, when rising political activist Harvey Milk reigned as the Mayor of Castro Street. Eisen reenacts Sylvester’s gospel rendition of the Beatles’ “Blackbird” that Sylvester performed at his historic 1979 concert at The SF War Memorial Opera House.

Klaus Nomi - the unparalleled German, New Wave operatic siren who took NYC and the world by storm in the 1980s.

Issan Dorsey - the San Francisco drag queen phenomenon once known as Tommy Dee who became a Zen Abbot. Eisen transports the audience from the drag circuit of the 1950s to the founding of the first Buddhist AIDS hospice in San Francisco’s Castro district.

Ney Matogroso - the flamboyant 1970s Brazilian rock star, who queered the music scene while living under a repressive military regime.

Azis - the outrageous Bulgarian pop star, known for his atypical gender expression in an uproarious gender-bending act brings us to the present day.

Bios

Seth Eisen (writer/performer) is an interdisciplinary performing and visual artist who uses a hybrid of contemporary performance: Butoh, puppetry, physical theater, clowning, drag, and performance art. As a visual artist, he works with the forms of installation, video, book arts, fetish object and costume. Seth has been performing, exhibiting, curating and collaborating with various artists in the Bay Area since 1994. In 1998 he developed the company Eye Zen Art which has produced performance installations featured at The Oakland Museum, Theater Artaud, Zeum, Yerba Buena Gardens, SOMARTS, Theater of Yugen, CounterPULSE, as well as, Bimbo’s Nightclub and 111 Minna Gallery with Nina Hagen. He has performed as a member of several Butoh companies including Harupin–Ha, and Ink Boat from 1994-1999. Since 2000 he has been performing and creating visuals with Keith Hennessy’s contemporary circus company, Circo Zero in the U.S. and Europe. Seth was a collaborator/ performer in Sol niger which won two Izzies and the recent revival of How to Die/ American Tweaker, in which he appeared as the Ghost of Sylvester.

WHAT: Blackbird: Honoring a Century of Pansy Divas
A Three-Week Limited Theatrical Engagement
10 Performances Only
Written & Performed by Seth Eisen
Directed by Brian Freeman

WHEN: June 24 – July 10, 2010
June 24, 25, 26, 27, (Thurs. – Sun.)
July 1, 2, 3 (Thurs – Sat.)
July 8, 9, 10 (Thurs – Sat.)
All shows at 8:00 pm

WHERE: Mama Calizo’s Voice Factory,
1519 Mission St. (at 11th St.), in SF 94103

TICKETS: Tickets are $20 - $25 sliding scale available at the door or at Brown Paper Tickets
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/113247

INFO: 415/ 786- 9325

WEB: www.eyezen.org

To see a video clip from the show visit: http://www.eyezen.org/blackbird_Preview.html