Interactive Theater Festivals 1989 - 2000

The Giant Anus/Secrets of Uranus (2000)

The Feast of Fools (1997)

St. Valentine's Midnight Masquerade Debauch (1997)

Magica Sexualis (1992)

The Circus of Mysteries (1989)

Every show was special. Each one was a wild party as well as a theatrical experiment unified through the theme of the event.
The goal of these productions was to enable participants to achieve a collective catharsis through fantasy. Within this psychologically charged cultural emulsion the division between audience and performer generally disintegrated, and so things always became daringly improvisational. In the fever pitch of such wanton charades, the border between reality and fantasy also grew thin, and so it was that many people went hurtling beyond their known limits to achieve memorable feats of self transcendence. These cathrses, these liberations from the constraints of everyday reality have, for some, proven to be of lasting integrity.

To promulgate this experience required the semblance of careful planning. There was never so much directing in the traditional sense of rehearsing actors and so forth, rather it was a matter of extensively briefing the various performers involved so that there would be an understanding that fostered a collaborative improvisational spirit throughout the group. The director was ever compelled to put on absurd airs, and associate himself with obscure works by lesser authors in an effort to convince others of the validity of his latest contrivance. Performers were chosen for their distinct personalities, and empathy for the role they would play, and better yet mere willingness to be involved with affairs contrary to good advice. Talent was never a pre-requisite, and so frequently the most gifted of our lot did little more than portray exaggerated caricatures of themselves.



Another important aspect of these theater festivals was the creation of a total environment to support the theme. Every effort was made to provide people with a manifest fantasy-land, and the performances were generally partitioned into different areas through which the audience would wander and cavort. The main idea being not more complex than a Halloween "Haunted House".

Initially the inspiration for doing these things was derived from the Happenings" of '60's artists like Alan Kaprow and Claes Oldenberg, but was also feuled by frustration with the dull social atmosphere that was available (to me at any rate) in the counterculture atmosphere of the late '80's and early '90's. I admired the total conceptuality of the happenings and the confluence of differing media into one live multi-media production. I also found the altered position of the audience in relation to the performance intriguing. I felt, however, that the happenings frequently possessed a degree of rigidity, of art gallery formality, which I wished to eschew and so it was that I endeavored to structure the "happening" around the "party". In so doing I developed the idea that the modern social rite known as a "party" is a form of theater in and of itself.



In a sense these productions could be very correctly called "art parties", however this style of event hearkens back to earlier and more religiously oriented forms of dramatic art. Carnival and its pagan antecedents, were (and are) rituals of transgression, catharsis, and transcendence. The active ingredient in these rites is metaphor and fantasy. Both the challenge and the inspiration in my work as a director laid in building an overarching metaphor - a theme - through which people could achieve spiritual experience.

The Feast of Fools (1997)


Many people came together to collaborate on these projects. Many have become my good friends. Scarcely can I take credit for the success of these events, nor can I be held (wholly) responsible for any perceived shortcomings. Truly these shows have been predicated on the ideal of group collaboration as an end in itself. It has been the social adventure of producing this brand of theater which has been most fascinating. Always it has been challenging, and often it has seemed to be a passage through uncharted waters . . .


Magica Sexualis (1992)


Here in the "Theater" you will find the essential relics of these adventures in this most transitory of ephemeral art forms. There are handbills, stories from the shows, press reviews, and video. Enjoy!