Clive Barker at Packer Schopf Gallery

This past weekend, after the Music Box Massacre 4 event, Clive Barker had a showing of his artwork at the Packer Schopf Gallery in Chicago, which included new pieces based on Midnight Meat Train. It was well attended and the new pieces are spectacular.

Photos from the Packer Schopf show.


Clive Barker and Charlie Athanas
© 2008 Anthony Kosar

Tura Satana - Tattoo Factory Gallery

© 2008 Dave Dorman

This Thursday night, October 30th, the Tattoo Factory Gallery and Pabst Blue Ribbon present Tura! Tura! Tura! A group art show happening celebrating the stunning, sexy, kickasstastic Tura Satana! Superstar of Russ Meyer's "Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

From 7-11PM at 4443 N. Broadway, Chicago.

Featuring artists like Shag, Niagara, Glenn Barr, Molly Grabapple, Lisa Petrucci, Mark Atomos Pilon, Lou Brooks, Dave Dorman, Alex Wald, Mitch O'Connell and many more. Live performances by burlesque showstoppers "The Flaming Dames", with D.J. Joe Black's Midnight Spook Show. Fire breathers! Searchlights! Valet parking!!

A portion of the proceedings benefiting the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and the Apna Ghar Domestic Violence Shelter.


© 2008 Alex Wald

Omnicircus Performance

In 1982, when I first arrived in Chicago, I answered a flyer in the Gingerman bar for a film looking for a synthesizer player. At the time I was sleeping on the floor of the Leo Lerner Theater box office, very broke, and often drunk. How could I say no? This was how I met the amazing Frank Garvey and his eternal film project - Omnicircus. In 1988, it turned into a live performance project. Think Survival Research Lab meets pre-war Munich and the birth of cabaret.

If you are in San Francisco, I urge you to check this event out. It is bound to entertain, mesmerize, and probably frighten and disturb you in ways you hadn't thought possible in our jaded universe today.



OmniCircus presents another fabulous EVENT-

A surreal anthem to the urban night
THOUSAND FACES BALL
DARK INDUSTRIAL CABARET!

Join Frank Garvey plus the MOTH NOR RUST Band for
2 BIG Saturday SHOWS!

November 1st & 8th @ 8pm

at OmniCircus

OPENING ACT: CUBAN CIGAR CRISIS

THOUSAND FACES BALL is a multimedia performance with
robots, music, projections, dance, performance and video...
Come experience our newest experimental surreal melo-drama
with the new OmniCircus band - MOTH NOR RUST

Featuring Underground Chanteuse and SUPERSTAR OmniDiva of
the Hell-blasted Streets -
JOAN LOON

The FIERY FURY of SPOKEN PREACHMENTS and Imprecations -
Reverand COSMO

The Honorable and Most Beneficial -
Colonel GEOFFREY POND
Of the Commandos of the LAST DAYS;

SARGENT-at-ARMS of the CHURCH of the 7th BARDO -
ARCHDUDE GARVEY

The Birdman of ABRACADABRA -
Dave GURSOM

The LADIES Auxiliary of the
JUNIOR DRAGONS of MYSTERY

And the Highly Sexually Sought-after CAN'T AFFORDIAN of the ACCORDIAN -
SPACE KAT THOMAS

As well as genius Multi-instrumentalist and Insta-mentalist -
COLFAX (aka Daniel BERKMAN)

and LINDEN the Lord of LOW-DOWN

And the Guru of Unholy Groundlings, the Terror and FIRST RESPONSE
PUNISHER of all Evolutionary LOTTERY LOSERS such as SMALL MAMMALS,
BIRDS, MICE and FLEAS...
SIR MONKEY!

PARTY AFTER THE SHOWS!!

$10 suggested donation
http://www.omnicircus.com
Please call 415-701-0686 for more information.

The OmniCircus is located at 550 Natoma Street,
between Mission and Howard and 6th and 7th Streets,
in San Francisco's South of Market (SoMa) district.
The door is on Russ Street.

Chicago Trib Video Interview - SUPERDOGunderdog Artists

The Chicago Tribune video interviews artists in the Diane Tanios Gallery art show, including Deathscribe jury member, Tony Akins.

Don't forget, WildClaw Theatre's Deathscribe Festival is this coming Monday, October 6th! Get your tickets online or at the Music Box Theater.

Dorian Gray Portrait Reviews

This is why I love theater and don't take bad reviews* to heart. My job is to make the director I am working for happy and if I can achieve that, my job is done. That said, I recently did a project for Kevin Theis and Lifeline Theater, The Picture of Dorian Gray. Great project, great director, great design crew, great theater company.


Detail from Dorian Gray Portrait for Lifeline Theater

I was hired to create the portrait of Dorian Gray. A fun, but daunting project as Kevin wanted the painting to change in front of the audience in realtime during the show. He also had a different take on the final portrait than the norm. (See Ivan Albright's painting in the Art Institute of Chicago.)

The production itself has gotten rave reviews. These excerpts that refer to the work I did. Keep in mind that they are all looking at the same paintings and the same play.

“The conceit in Wilde's tale is that Dorian never grows visibly older. Instead, the scars on his soul pile up on the surface of the grand portrait (a sensational canvas by Charlie Athanas) painted in his most golden young manhood.”
Hedy Weiss – Chicago Sun-Times

“The picture itself is often done up as a boring portrait that rarely reflects Wilde’s own description of its beauty, so it is refreshing to see not only how much that the picture looks like an idealized version of the lead character, but that it is done up in a neo-Impressionistic style reflective of its era. And though the transformations themselves happen through sound effects while the painting is usually not visible, the climax and final portrait will not disappoint.”
Dennis Polkow - New City

“This is a tough work to stage theatrically—for one thing, you need a kind of magic portrait that ages every few minutes—and Kevin Theis’ production laudably keeps things deft and simple. And the trick portrait, which was designed by Charlie Athanas, is a wild-looking affair even if it doesn’t change as Wilde intended.”
Chris Jones – Chicago Tribune

“Technically this production is superior to most… The special effects are particularly well-done, conjuring up eerie environments, and ghostly images and causing the portrait's--and Dorian's--deterioration right before our eyes… As an adaptation and as a unique work of art, this is a must-see event.”
Colin Douglas – Centerstage

“Kevin Theis’ fast paced staging on Tom Burch’s two level set with terrific lighting from Kevin D. Gawley (including some amazing effects on the Gray portrait) produced work filled with mounting tension that builds into a scary gothic horror tale.”
Tom Williams - ChicagoCritic.com

“… its only major flaw is Charlie Athanas’s titular portrait (deformed in the story by Dorian’s sins). It’s an unintentionally hilarious dead ringer for the Crypt Keeper.”
Zac Thompson – Time Out Chicago

“The one off note in the whole production is the portrait itself, which is way-too-ugly pop art cartoon than fits the Victorian-era drama of which it is the centerpiece. When the fully "uglified" picture is revealed at the end, I found it a struggle not to laugh aloud. It is a lot more Mad magazine than Oscar Wilde. It is most definitely not inspired by the famous Ivan Albright 1943 vision of Dorian Gray one can see at the Art Institute.”
Jack Hafferkamp – Edge Chicago

*I came to Chicago in 1981 to act in a play. The Reader review for that production ended with the sentence - "Stay away in droves." I was prepared for Chicago theater reviews from then on.