"Festivus!" - a LGBT Festival - this weekend

TAP: Traverse Arts Project presents the inaugural year of the Philadelphia Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Arts Festival with this year's theme, Festivus!. The festival is a showcase of multidisciplinary works created or presented by GLBT artists and their straight allies. It will take place May 28-June 1 across the city and will feature 20+ LGBT performers.

According to Festival website, the GLBT Artists face challenges that often prohibit them from advancing their careers and appealing to a wider audience. This festival seeks to address these challenges by promoting social change and providing support for this beautiful and unique group.

The Philadelphia GLBT Arts Festival is the brainchild of Desiree Hines. A classical organist and African-American male-to-female transsexual, Hines decided to create the festival after experiencing years of discrimination from religious and educational institutions, which ultimately left her homeless for nearly a year in Chicago. Now working as a freelance Organist, Hines wants this festival to engage the community in social change through the arts and offer career development opportunities for emerging GLBT artists.

"Traverse Arts Project is thrilled with the level of talent that will be presented at the first annual festival, says Hines, TAP Project Coordinator, GLBT Arts Festival. "All of the artists have extensive training from some of the finest schools training arts professionals, and each performer will address the issues affecting the GLBT community through artistic expression.

The Opening Night Celebration on Thursday, May 28 @ 8pm is a classical vocal recital featuring Elspeth Kincaid, Mezzo-Soprano with Laurent Phillipe, Pianist and Organist T. Desiree Hines. The program features music by Purcell, Bizet, Britten, Schubert and Aaron Copland. Mezzo-Soprano Elspeth Kincaid made her professional U.S. debut with the Cincinnati Opera as Alo?s in L'?toile in 2006. Opera News said, "Alo?s was vocally and histrionically commanding." She finished her residency with The Academy of Vocal Arts in May 2008, being one of the youngest mezzos to graduate from the prestigious institution. At First Unitarian Church. of Philadelphia, 2125 Chestnut St., Philadelphia PA, 19103.

Other events include:

Crazy: One Woman’s Search for Sanity

Gail Schwartz stars in the one-woman play Crazy, an autobiographically-based multimedia performance project dealing with issues of anxiety and depression. The project is designed to open conversations and shift paradigms about mental health and mental health challenges.

According to the play's press release, the performance is a sometimes hilarious, sometimes stark but always engaging theatrical peek into the lived stories of artist Gail Marlene Schwartz. Audiences will encounter, among other things, a nightmare, a steam cleaner, a bike ride, a bunny, a very short tune and a very long list.

In addition, Schwartz is interested in helping to develop new ways of talking about, understanding and responding to experiences like anxiety and depression-ways that are more holistic, systemic and connected. As such, the stories in the play have been deliberately included because they raise key issues associated with mental health challenges including isolation, socioeconomic status, bullying and other forms of discrimination, nutrition, violence, labeling and medication.

Friday, May 29 8 PM; May 30, 2 PM; May 30, 7 PM; 119 Arts Center, 119 South Street, Philadelphia PA. 19147

Obscene

A US Premiere. From Canada comes Ian Mozdzen, an independent theatre artist known for pushing the envelope. From the sound of things he certainly does so with Obscene, a one-man play concerning "the conflicted inner world of a man driven to mutilate his manhood by the act of self-castration." Obviously not for the faint of heart, the play features "Botched drag. Graphic imagery. Splosh. Frequent Full Frontal Nudity, and Profanity." The 60-minute piece stars Mozden, and is directed by Claire Borody, with dramaturgy by Tom Stroud.

"Ian Mozdzen takes shock and awe to new levels ... which begs the question: How far is too far...? In what could be described as pornographic performance art ... he performs a mock self-castration and a drunk drag show. He drunkenly and disturbingly applies lipstick to his backside and then rolls around in smashed eggs ... Mozdzen dedicates himself completely ..." wrote the Winnipeg Sun. And Winnipeg's Uptown Magazine said the play is "... brilliantly executed, as Mozdzen is an incredibly convincing performer ... Obscene is a masochistic nightmare .... He wears bloody underwear, wields a knife, downs copious amounts of whiskey and spends much of his time naked. So what is all of this? Is it art? Or is it just shock?"

Friday, May 29, 10pm Saturday, May 30, 9pm and 5/30 11pm, and Sunday, May 31 at 7:30pm. 119 Arts Center, 119 South Street, Philadelphia PA. 19147

Three Mothers for Zachary

Three Mothers for Zachary by Shareef Hadid Jenkins, a graduate of Philadelphia's Temple University's Theater program who currently lives in the South Bronx, concerns Zachary, a gay teenager who lives with his drug addicted mother, is passed on to his conservatively religious aunt and ends up on the door step of a state appointed foster mother. The play is a series of monologues detailing the life of this gay boy and his relationships with these three very different mother figures. The cast features Nysheva-Starr and Cherie J. Patterson.

" 'Three Mothers of Zachary' was inspired by a thirteen year old boy I met when I was fourteen," wrote Jenkins. "Scott Rowan and I met at The Attic, an LGBT support group for youth in Philadelphia during the summer of 1993. He shined over the group with such excitement about where his life would take him. Scott, Like so many young confused gay teens had no support from his biological family and ended up in more than three foster homes in one year. In 1995, Scott killed himself. ... I believe this story will always be appropriate, will always need a voice."

Friday, May 29, 8pm; Saturday, May 30, 2pm, 119 Arts Center, 119 South Street, Philadelphia PA. 19147.

Starlight Supply

Starlight Supply is the story of two men - a young insurance executive on the brink of disaster and a free-spirited entrepreneur who sees the good in every situation he faces - whose worlds collide during a seemingly normal encounter. Over the play's 30-minute running time the men will have see their lives inalterably changed. While not a gay-themed story, the play, according to its website, "has a message for people of all ages and backgrounds that says, "if you can just look past what you think things should be and simply accept those things for how they are, life can be much more enjoyable!" The play by local playwright Shawn O'Shea, was first seen in the 2007 Philly Fringe. It stars Ryan Walter as Melvin and Munir Kreidie as William, and marks O'Shea's debut as a director.

Saturday, May 30 at 4pm and 7pm; Sunday, May 31 at 5pm. 119 Arts Center, 119 South Street, Philadelphia PA. 19147.

Theater Showcase

Three pieces comprise this program: first is "Welcome to the Freak Show," an original work by Robert Woods that uses poetry and song that look at a number of serious subjects with ironic humor and thought. Second is "Pina's Playhouse," a solo piece that, according to its website is "a THEATRICAL attempt to FREE oneself from the societal defined requirements of sex and gender. The piece plays with the relationship between masculine and feminine: SLICES of "GENDER as PERFORMATIVE" - as well as character which identifies with: Pulsing, Pounding, GIRL Body/BOY Body. REESTABLISHING the MEANING of Gender." The third piece is "Pussies Pens & Politics" by Denise Frohman. The piece is "a verbal explosion and rallying cry exploring the context of love in life and politics for today's gay community, while leaving you laughing out loud and empowered-all at the same time." This "no holds barred" world presents the work of 2008 Philadelphia Grand Slam Winner, Ms. Wise and Scheme Magazine's 2009 "Voice of The Year" Ms. Misconception-with both fiery verbal exchanges and individual pieces. Both artists, as proud lesbian spoken word performers, have joined forces to use their voices to raise awareness about social injustices in the gay community and beyond, while inspiring the world one word at a time. From raunchy poems about temptation to the ever more relevant Prop 8 legislation --"Pussies, Pens and Politics" is a verbal explosion and rallying cry exploring the context of love in life and politics for today's gay community, while leaving you laughing out loud and empowered-all at the same time.

The Women by Claire Booth Luce : A Reading of the Classic Play

There will be a reading of Claire Booth Luce's classic comedy "The Women." Set in Depression era Manhattan, Luce's scabrous comedy follows the gossipy going-ons of a group of Park Avenue women and those who service them. What makes it unique is that it is cast entirely by women. It is well-known largely through its 1939 film version (which also retained its all-female concept.)

The Philadelphia reading will take place on Friday, May 29, 2009 at 8:30 pm at the Crown Plaza Hotel, 1800 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA. Phone: (800) 595-4849.

Dance Showcase

Dance Showcase will feature two programs. The first called "Wellspring" created and performed by the Philly Contact Collective. In this structured improvisational performance the Philly Contact Collective uses Contact Improvisation dance to play with the concept and practice of support. The second called "Sonso and Pierrot Meet" asks the question, What is it exactly that happens when two lovers meet for the first time? Like any other first encounter, they typically discuss trivial topics. But the knots in the stomach, palpitating hearts and sweat beads attest that this first encounter is anything but trivial. Particularly when the lovers happen to be Sonso, a Tanzanian primatologist, and Pierrot -- a Franco-American clown. The program takes place on Saturday, May 30, 2009 at 1:00 pm at the119 Arts Center, 119 South Street, Philadelphia PA.

A second dance event is of little value: map dance collective in which three individual artists' thoughts, creative approaches and aesthetic designs will be assembled in an evening-length performance that questions assumptions of value(s). The evening will include the emergence of each artist's premier work woven together with humorous, mundane, and bizarre moments. map dance collective is specific in its process and performance in that they work from a place of multiple perspectives, embracing individualism within community. Saturday, May 30, 2009 at 8:30 pm at the119 Arts Center, 119 South Street, Philadelphia PA

Musical events