Performance Art for Social Change i Copyright © 2020 by Madison Lindgren All rights reserved. No part of this journal may be reproduced or used in any manner without written permission of the copyright owner except for the use of quotations in a review. For more information, address: madlindgren@gmail.com FIRST EDITION www.madazoncancan.com Performance Art for Social Change ii Abstract The state of Utah provides perhaps one of the most unique environments to be a performance artist, particularly if the work includes nudity. Through historical analysis, active performance experience and radical adherence to the platform of burlesque, my research strives to create a case for burlesque in Utah to exist not just in the underground, but in the halls of history and academia as well. Burlesque must be taught about and analyzed as a critical and ever evolving piece of American history. Ignoring the effects that burlesque has had on current artistry, politics, other performance art genres and society is to deny an enormous artistic influence spearheaded by self-expression and fearless questioning that are hallmarks of many revolutionary art practices today. It is burlesque’s turn to be not only taught about and learned about, but also recognized for its contributions to contemporary American entertainment and history. Performance Art for Social Change iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am in immense gratitude to Melina Alexander for not only taking on a project that I myself deemed impossible, but being supportive in all of the evolutions of the project and always asking if I was, “happy.” Yes, I am most certainly happy. Thank you for your contributions, your extreme patience, your guidance and your support. It means the world. I want to also thank Louise Moulding for her support throughout the program. You acknowledged my artist; my strange way of navigating truth and I could always count on you to be on the side of discovery when I myself felt like I couldn’t ask or pursue the questions I truly wanted to. Thank you for believing in a burlesquer. To my mother, thank you for sweeping at the gallery for too many Sundays so I could read my proposal just one more time. Thank you for the food, for the support and for always telling me I was smart. Your belief in me made me believe in me too. To Martian, perhaps the best lesson you ever gave me was to teach me the importance of solitude. Thank you for that. And to the muse…thank you for not abandoning me. Thank you for teaching me how to be brave beyond reason, bold beyond reason, strange and weird beyond reason and unabashedly myself. Performance Art for Social Change iv Table of Contents Copyright Page…………………………………………………………………………………..........i Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………………….ii Acknowledgments……………………………………………………………………………………iii Nature of the Problem Revealing the Naked Truth Behind America’s History of Performance Art…………….1 Literature Review Burlesque: Defining an Art that Defies Definition…………………………………………3 His-tory, Her-story, My-story, Your-story…………………………………………………..……...4 Neo-Burlesque and the New Age of Performance…………………………………………...……..4 Burlesque, Stripping and the Feminist Agenda…………………………………………………….8 Drag and Burlesque: The Perfect Performance Art Pairing……………………………………..10 Drag and Burlesque and the Politics of Gender……………………………………….….12 Let’s get down and dirty and talk about the nitty gritty…………………………………13 The fatale confinement of being female..…………………………………………………...14 The price of political theatre.………………..……………………………………….……...16 Clowning and Comedy on the Fringe of Theatre…………………………………………..……..17 The Political Platform for Performers in Pasties………………………………………………….18 Purpose………………………………………………………………………………………………21 Project Proposal………………………………………………………………………………..........24 Methods……………………………………………………………………………………………...26 Setting………………………………………………………………………………………..26 Measures…………………………………………………………………………………….27 Procedures…………………………………………………………………………………..28 Data Analysis………………………………………………………………………………..28 Curtain Call………………………………………………………………………………….………30 Setting the Stage for my Research: Genit-HELL YEAH!..................................................31 Act I: The End of an Era…of Ignorance Scene 1: Re-evaluating the Reason Through Trans-Mission…………………………….40 Scene 2: #Freethenipple! Just Not Utah Nipples!................................................................46 Scene 3: Generosity, “Booby Traps” and an Almost Mistake…………………………...52 Performance Art for Social Change v Act II: The Social Strata of Salt Lake City Scene 1: Post Theatre Space Depression (A Thespian’s P.T.S.D.)………………………57 Scene 2: Code of Conduct and the Clarion Call of “Contemporary”…………………...60 Act III: Advocacy for Awareness in Artistic Practice Scene 1: History, Context and Intention (Awareness)……………………………….…...64 Scene 2: Reflection, Education, Change (Process)………………………………………..68 Act IV: Education through Entertainment: Edutainment: The New Frontier! Scene 1: Leggo My Ego-Moving Forward in Nudity, Art and Life……………………...71 Scene 2: Prostitution vs. Personalization………………….………………………………74 Scene 3: Anger, Artivism, Action and Advocacy…………………………………………75 Act V: Encore The Finale Scene 1: Context……………….……………………………………………………………79 Scene 2: History………………………….………………………………………………….80 Scene 3: Intention………………………………….………………………………………..82 Scene 4: Reflection………………………………………………………………………….84 Scene 5: Education .………………………………………………………………….……..86 Scene 6: Change……………………………………………………………………………..87 References…………………………………………………………………………………….……...90 Appendix A…………………………………………………………………………………………..92 Appendix B…………………………………………………………………………………...……...94 Appendix C…………………………………………………………………………………...……...96 Appendix D………………………………………………………………………………….……….99 Appendix E………………………………………………………………………………….……...100 Appendix F…………………………………………………………………………………………108 Performance Art for Social Change 1 NATURE OF THE PROBLEM Revealing the Naked Truth Behind America’s History of Performance Art Performance art has always lent itself to re-enacting history and provoking current events across generations and cultures through necessity and accidental genius. (Butler, 2014). Our narratives are not only captured in the words we write across pages, but also in the performances, dances, and songs, we decide to dedicate ourselves to, whether on stage or within our own homes. Performance art can take many forms, and some of these will be familiar to historians, artists, teachers, and theatre fanatics such as mask performance, spoken word, puppetry, ritualistic dance, and theatre. These particular forms of performance art are open to being researched and explored publicly as parts of cultural history. Other forms of performance art are newer in style, but also call upon and incorporate old traditions of capturing narrative and history, sometimes in a manner that stirs, bothers and is enticingly insubordinate (Waddell, 2013). One of these forms of performance art is burlesque. Burlesque has been lost and found throughout the last century, but in its earliest forms, burlesque rested on creating a commentary on the society of the time in a method to critique the status quo and force audiences and performers alike to question the very nature of stage, performance and reality. This questioning on the nature of our current reality also relies on concepts of identity and how identities intersect with the realities in which they find themselves in. “The stage becomes a reflection of the postmodern premise that we are all composites of various identities which we perform based on the specific reality of that moment.” (Nally, 2009, p. 635). The reality is that as humans we create alternate realities in relationship to our particular context, experiences and desires. No place pushes the boundaries of reality further than that of the theatre, wherein burlesque not only Performance Art for Social Change 2 merged itself, but also broke all the conventional rules that were deemed immutable. With the recognition of the historical implications for burlesque also comes the mantle of creating work with a defined and relevant purpose currently, which is why burlesque as an art form must begin creating conversations between audience and performer and providing a platform for reflection between both worlds of the performative experience. In Embodied Transformations in Neo-Burlesque Striptease, Sherril Dodds writes, “Notably, performers also envision the neo-burlesque stage as a site of change.” (Dodds, 2013, p. 82). It is in the act itself that change begins to occur and inspiration starts to strike. If we can incite change on stage, then we can begin to incite change in the realities off of the stage as well. (Dodds, 2013). The messaging within burlesque narratives can and should be recognized as essential in political and social movements both past and present and must finally be given a place in our American history books and in our academic and theatrical venues without question. However, in order to secure that we are enacting burlesque as a platform for political and social change, we must evaluate our work for effectiveness which involves both performer, producer, audience and community in the open process of burlesque performance and critique. (Butler, 2014). Performance Art for Social Change 3 LITERATURE REVIEW Burlesque: Defining an Art that Defies Definition Burlesque is an art form that at its core highlights cultural issues through caricature, mockery, and exaggeration. 'Burlesque consists,' [Richmond P. Bond] writes, 'in the use or imitation of serious matter or manner, made amusing by the creation of an incongruity between style and subject' (English Burlesque Poetry, 2700-1750, p. 3). Burlesque therefore takes many forms, including (but not limited to) dancing, stripping, drag, acting, puppetry and clowning. French burlesque legend and performer Miss Botero spoke about the origins of burlesque. She references the word “burlesque” as being derived from the Italian world, “burla” meaning to mock, joke or ridicule using commentary, comedy and slapstick. (M.Botero, personal communication, August 2018). This also indicates what the true intentions of this art form were based on in its original incarnations. Humor and critique are an essential part of the play of burlesque and elicit an audience reaction that is both responsive and challenging to what is often deemed appropriate or decent behavior in public spheres. (Dodds, 2013). Burlesque as an art form relies on subverting the cultural norms of any society and focuses the attention on the unseen, the unsaid and the taboo. (Nally, 2009). Though current ideologies of burlesque imagine the mostly nude Dita von Teese in regalia as the mainstay for modern day visualizations of ‘classic’ burlesque, strip tease only became an integral component in this performance art genre in the 1930’s (Nally, 2009). This is partially due to the loss of live theatre shows to the booming motion picture industry. These sudden technological developments caused the vaudevillian performance artists to come to terms with how to get bodies in the seats, by stripping bodies on the stage. Performance Art for Social Change 4 His-tory, Her-story, My-story, Your-story During the 1920’s and 1930’s, motion pictures became more commonplace as cinemas or movie houses were built in small towns; the film industry caused vaudevillian troupes to diminish in popularity and many died out. The demise of vaudeville marked a transitional moment for burlesque. After vaudeville days, burlesque performances evolved into sophisticated strip shows with glamorous gowns, gloves, hats and furbelows. Burlesque was largely confined to clubs in larger cities with a few stars continuing their art form throughout the early part of the twentieth century (Siebler, 2015). Due to burlesque’s inherent nature of posing questions, challenging social norms and creating comedy as commentary, when stripping became part of the performance expectations, politics and feminism collided in a splash of feathers, glamour and nudity. American performance art could never attempt to be the same, as stripping bodies quickly became a staple in burlesque theatre houses across the United States and abroad (Siebler, 2015). Neo-Burlesque and the New Age of Performance There are still debates as to what qualifies as a burlesque performance and what determines the boundaries between stripping and burlesque. In fact many burlesque performers began as strippers and still consider themselves strippers who do burlesque as opposed to burlesquers who used to strip. Kaitlyn Regehr quotes Broadway historian John Kenrick in her article, The Rise of Recreational Burlesque: Bumping and Grinding Towards Empowerment, by stating, “Although scholars have continuously fought for burlesque to be viewed as respectable by depicting the dancers as artists and asserting that the comedy has influenced our modern day sitcoms, the issue remains that “men went to watch women get undressed.” (Tracey, 2003) (K. Regehr, 2011, p.142). The defining separation between burlesque and striptease seems to rest in Performance Art for Social Change 5 the nature of the power dynamic in which the dancers find themselves. However, history and contemporary interpretations of burlesque have created new dialogues around this separation that continue to defy clear definition and therefore muddle the distinction even further. Regehr continues: Many scholars who have done work with exotic dancers suggest that burlesque and striptease are in fact inversions of the everyday world. These scholars contend that, at times, the performers are placed in a position of power by becoming sexually assertive and taking control of the offer, thereby reducing the audience to the passive state of voyeurism. The burlesque artist is thus a challenge to the dominant order. (Regehr, 2011, p.143) The dominant order mentioned here is referring to the power dynamic of males in control of the female body, which was true of many vaudeville and burlesque dynamics in the early twentieth century. However, the definitions of burlesque performance and stripping remain painfully unclear as many of the qualifications in which burlesque currently lie depend on strict definitions to the age of classic burlesque that weren’t present in the early days of burlesque and stripping. The classic age of burlesque, the 1930’s-1960’s, is the burlesque age of the male gaze. Many of the “legends” in burlesque (a legend is considered a pioneer of the industry, usually 65+ in age) started in strip clubs and developed personas due to talent, luck, fortuitous circumstances, benefactors or sadly abuse by a manager (Wilde, 2015). These women were told what to wear, where to go, how to dance and had costumes or personas designed for them. The classic era of burlesque is therefore full of heteronormative restrictions on the ideal female including body size, wardrobe and content, which is what society now deems the general qualifier for what a burlesque performer and therefore performance is. Performance Art for Social Change 6 The manager dependence and creative control of a legend is completely different than the industry of up and coming burlesque stars who have access to Amazon Prime and the internet. The new world of burlesque is full of performers who more often than not are self-represented and in total control of what they design, create and put on stage. It is this autonomy that distinguishes the old and new worlds of burlesque and creates a performance art genre of self-empowerment, creative license, independent thought and full access to unimpeded social or political messaging ferociously present in modern burlesque productions. Which, ironically, is more closely tied to historical burlesque performances and Vaudeville than the era of the 1930’s- 1960’s or classic burlesque era claims to be. The broadly accepted and socially current, narrow definition of burlesque rests more on access to money and classes as well as adhering to what society now deems burlesque to be. (Siebler, 2015). This societal definition usually involves corsets, rhinestones and the overwhelming extravagance of act and outfit. Not to mention the performer’s adherence to traditional patriarchal beauty standards still present today. This socially accepted definition is in direct contradiction to the history of burlesque as defined by its origins which still reside in comedy, social commentary and subverting the status quo. This is not to say that glamour isn’t wonderful and perhaps a much-needed evolution in burlesque moving forward, but to simplify the art of burlesque to corsets and garters on classy women as outlined above is doing a disservice to the origins of this art form, which lie heavily in satire and reworking conventional paradigms around both female and male sexuality. It is a recurring irony that the work of neo-burlesque artists fits the mold of the original intentions of burlesque more strongly than that of classic burlesque artists. Sherril Dodds writes: Performance Art for Social Change 7 Thus, although neo-burlesque artists operate within the codes and conventions of female sexual display, the performance of this is highly self-conscious. Humor acts as a means to parody, satirize or ridicule traditions of female representation, while tease enables a self-reflexive mode of performance. (Dodds, 2013, pg. 79-80) Perhaps, it is purely the Americanization of this art form that has led to the severing of its satirical and political roots or maybe neo-burlesque is trying to capture a hybrid of old world burlesque and new world burlesque in a combo of satire and sequins, pasties and politics, stripping and status quo. Stripping is not only a cornerstone of the development of burlesque, but where the roots of American burlesque reside. To separate stripping and burlesque is difficult if not impossible to do in today’s modern social context (Dodds, 2013). In What’s so feminist about garters and bustiers? Neo-Burlesque as post-feminist sexual liberation, Kay Siebler notes: Some scholars attribute the post-vaudeville version of burlesque (one that moved from narrative-based female-dominated performance to one that was titillating striptease with glamorous costuming) to French influence, specifically Parisian music club culture, where La Moulin Rouge drove the narrative out of burlesque and put the stripping performance as center stage. (Siebler, 2015, p.563) Once again, it is in the age of neo-burlesque, the past twenty years to the present day, where burlesque harkens back to its earliest origins that started in New York City in 1868 (Butler, 2014). Neo-burlesque aligns itself heavily with one of America’s earliest burlesque troupes, the British Blondes. The British Blondes were a European burlesque company comprised of robust, loud, bawdy women from Britain led by Lydia Thompson who inspired the pursuit of parody, politics and the perversion of social norms in neo-burlesque practices today (Butler, 2014). These neo practices are aligned with modern social commentary, comedy and subversion as well Performance Art for Social Change 8 as stripping. The middle ages of burlesque, the 1930’s-1960’s, confined femaleness in quite possibly the narrowest sense of sexy (Dodds, 2013). Narrow as the waist restrictions in corsetry or society’s ideas of beauty, the thin, tan, hetero-normative caricature of femaleness was not only something to critique, but something to create endless material in resistance to. Thus, feminism became tied to the neo-burlesque movement early on. Burlesque performances slowed to a painful halt during the late 1960’s-1980’s. It wasn’t until the 1990’s that neo-burlesque was born in performance houses in New York City and a new crowd of burlesque artists began to surface from coast to coast. Neo burlesque artists developed acts that harkened back to the origins of the art form developed in 1868 with the British Blondes and vaudevillian practices and brought in a whole new world of comedy, social and political discourse and of course critiques on gender norms. While other burlesque artists followed in Von Teese’s footsteps and adhered to historical reenactments of the burlesque occurring from the 1930’s to the 1960’s. Siebler continues: During the 1990’s resurgence of burlesque, competing philosophies manifested in these re-vamped versions of burlesque. On one end of the continuum, there was a performance that called back to an affection or nostalgia for the original burlesque, a dance form of glamour and coy femininity, generally void of feminist politics. At the other end of the continuum was a decidedly feminist queering of the original art form, making feminist politics and gender/sexuality commentaries central to the performance. (Siebler, 2015, p. 564) Burlesque, Stripping and the Feminist Agenda Feminism became further tied to neo-burlesque performance during the 1990’s as the nature of the show rested on old constructions within vaudeville that forced the audience to Performance Art for Social Change 9 interact with the current political climate (Nally, 2009). The audience wasn’t simply there to observe, but encouraged to be part of the show. The fourth wall (a theatrical term describing the invisible “wall” that actors put between themselves and the audience in order to create a convincing storyline, often used in traditional theatre) was removed, as the performer was keenly aware that she or he was being watched. Nally states in her article, “Grrly, Hurly, Burly: Neo- Burlesque and the Performance of Gender”: In short, it was a form of self-assertion and self-possession, a woman confident in her body and in her sexuality, collapsing the distinctions between the public and the private spheres. Such a return or answer to the gaze also contravened the idea of ownership (and thus the commodification of the female body), as the woman on display, the woman who invites glances and returns them is ultimately escaping patriarchal governance. (Nally, 2009, p. 639) It is this assertion of self that still captivates audiences today. It stirs some feminists to condemn it as too sexually exploitative to actually constitute female empowerment because of the historical influence of the patriarchy on stripping (Siebler, 2014). While other feminists herald it for aligning female autonomy with provocative, shocking, and intensely intelligent performance art (Siebler, 2014). It is often the case that Neo-burlesque is consumed as a product as opposed to witnessed as a feminist act (Regehr, 2012). This is due to what is easily digestible by the majority of modern audiences, which ironically is female sexuality in the still present constraints of “sexy” dominated and dictated by the patriarchal view of the female body (Hankins, 2015). This also has to do with the nature of entertainment being seen as an escape as opposed to education and a vehicle for social change. The majority of audiences don’t go to a burlesque bar to be moved to action, but instead to get moved into getting some action after the show is over Performance Art for Social Change 10 (Hankins, 2015). Kay Siebler notes this paradox within Neo-Burlesque practices as well by addressing the nature of “exploitation” and “context”: Neo-burlesque that is not feminist is the one celebrated and marketed in the dominant culture; the primary way this version of neo-burlesque is marketed is one of empowering females to reclaim their sexuality by performing striptease for mainstream audiences, taking the sexual performance out of the venues of sex clubs and strip bars to venues that are more comfortable and allegedly -void of exploitation- for both performer and the audience. (Siebler, 2015, p. 564) The question surrounding the practice of this performance art, especially within burlesque houses is the nature of awareness for both performer and audience. Burlesque puts the question of control directly into the hands of the performer who then hands it off to the audience in a pass off of public displays of assertion unseen in other forms of performance such as ballet or musical theatre (Butler, 2014). It continually balks at what modern society accepts as normal and indisputable and creates a space for endless questions and critique that expands into taboo territory frequently and shamelessly, creating a consensual challenge to unconscious conformity (Nally, 2009). The questioning that presents itself in these spaces is one of the main areas that could be studied as society moves forward in experiencing and enjoying this kind of theatre (Dodds, 2013). That is if the audience can identify and accept what they are looking at as more than just entertainment for entertainment’s sake and if performer’s are actually interested in educating as well as entertaining. Drag and Burlesque: The Perfect Performance Art Pairing In 1868, Lydia Thompson of the British Blondes paved a lampoonish extolation of the female form and parodied sexuality by bridging the gaps of gender and female autonomy. Claire Performance Art for Social Change 11 Nally quotes William Dean Howells, “[T]hough they were not like men, [they] were in most things as unlike women, and seemed creatures of a kind of alien sex, parodying both. It was certainly a shocking thing to look at them, with their horrible prettiness, their archness in which was no charm (Nally, 2009 p.624). Neo burlesque was birthed from a sudden resurgence of parody, humor, ugliness and an explosive rebuttal to the constraints of femininity as outlined by the classic age of burlesque, which dominated the culture from the 1930’s-1960’s. The humor and self-awareness of the female body on stage in neo-burlesque performance reaches back to the roots of the art form. Alexis Butler uses the neo-burlesque troupe The Scandelles as an example to illustrate that while neo-burlesque performance can be associated with Dita Von Teese, The Scandelles are “…often described as pushing, or even exceeding, the bounds of neo-burlesque because of their emphatic deployment of camp and irony to socially critical ends.” Butler continues: “…while The Scandelles’ dalliance with pornography and social criticism has, at times, caused them to be referred to as avant-garde performance artists, the traits that are said to tie to them to the avant-garde are also those that hearken most directly to the spirt and form of some of the earliest, and least contemporarily familiar, years of North American burlesque: the rowdy, subversive, and gender bending burlesque of the mid to late nineteenth century. (Butler, 2014, p.44-45) The limited scope of burlesque by general society/audiences currently aligns itself more with the classic style and the high glamour of mid-century woman. The “alien sex” that Howells mentions as a staple of the earliest American burlesque shows is what keeps drag and burlesque coming back together throughout the centuries. As neo-burlesquers harken back to the origins of the art form, the necessity for drag to come alongside as a partner in crime, art and politics is Performance Art for Social Change 12 undeniable. Socially charged and continually subversive performance art is still the long standing lovechild of this obviously destined union. Alex Butler in, “Re-Vamping History: Neo-Burlesque and Historical Tradition” defines burlesque as: Comical grotesquery, defined by its disruptions of class and gender hierarchies, embodied as it was in an aesthetic of pleasure and diversity, called into question all that constituted the stability of the culturally elitist identity-in particular the nineteenth-century construct of the “True Woman.” (Butler, 2014, p. 45) This definition should also include the ideas of the “True Man” as many of the more successful skits in early burlesque incorporated cross-dressing as a means to scrutinize gender and pose questions on socially accepted gender roles as immutable (Dodds, 2013). Drag found an early home within vaudeville alongside burlesque and the glamour, over-exaggeration and humor within drag shows is mirrored in neo-burlesque shows as well. Drag and Burlesque and the Politics of Gender Historically, burlesque and drag have been in the same wheel house for centuries, forcing the audience to come to terms with the dichotomy of male and female identities in sometimes comedic, sometimes tragic, but always entertaining ways (Nally, 2009). It is no wonder that these two performance art genres have found increasing attention brought to them throughout the last decade as societal norms, particularly around politics and gender, are crumbling within our modern culture (Hankins, 2015). The interplay of gender and sexuality find no better home than in the context of drag and burlesque performance. Currently, the ideas of gender and sexuality are more forwardly questioned through the presence of social media conversations, scientific advancements, medical Performance Art for Social Change 13 procedures and campaigns for human rights than ever before. It is this broad social questioning that has allowed for all new ideas and all new forms of artistic expression to blossom from the underground scenes, not only abroad, but in the United States as well (Butler, 2014). The ideas and rights of not only transsexual individuals, but individuals that identify as “Genderqueer,” “Genderfluid” or “Nonbinary” are continually at the forefront of discussion amongst those concerned with human rights (Hankins, 2015). This has caused the ideas of a gender binary system to be turned on its head and continue to encourage the idea that gender is a spectrum (Nally, 2009). The performance arts of drag and burlesque highlight this and place the accepted binary construct in direct relation to the ideas of sexuality as a spectrum as well (Butler, 2015). The heavy political presence of gender rights as well as human rights allows them to be confronted together and therefore questioned and analyzed together as well. Judith Butler writes in her book, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, “There is no reason to assume that gender also ought to remain as two. The presumption of a binary gender system implicitly retains the belief in a mimetic relation of gender to sex whereby gender mirrors sex or is otherwise restricted by it.” (Butler, 2015. p.8). Let’s get down and dirty and talk about the nitty gritty. Restrictions on one’s identity refer to not just the binary, but to societal norms in general. This is not a new idea as burlesque and drag have always been at the forefront of discourse in regards to satirizing the status quo. Alexis Butler writes: Sexually aggressive and excessively corpulent female bodies, cross-dressing, parodies of both “high” culture and of gender, the use of improvisation, the blurring of the ontologies of actor and role, and an impudent, ironic self-consciousness on behalf of the performers Performance Art for Social Change 14 are some of the most frequently cited examples of burlesque’s inversion of so-called normal and acceptable female behavior in public space (Butler, 2014, p. 45) The interplay of gender and sexuality allow for not only the connections to be researched, but also the differences. Similar to the interwoven histories of drag and burlesque, the interplay of gender and sexuality can be constructed and deconstructed in a performative context and help the audience and performer gain insight on not only gender and sexuality but the nature of being human. The ideas of heteronormativity and the agenda of ‘straight’ ideologies allow drag and burlesque to have infinite material to play with and juxtapose. It is in the subversion of expectation and the unveiling of surprise that these performance arts continue to delight and yes, sometimes offend audiences. However, considering the subversive nature of these art forms, there can still be surprisingly confined spaces for gender display and conventional conformity to gender norms disturbingly apparent in the displays of sexuality often aligned with these performance arts (Siebler, 2015). The fatale confinement of being female. Throughout history women are often encouraged to be seen and not heard (the majority of emcees for burlesque shows have been men, this is also the case for T.V. programs as well). The nature of being woman throughout history (even burlesque and Vaudevillian history) is to be an object of observation or an object of admiration. (A. Butler, 2014). A woman is human, but not in a complete sense, she is there to be consumed for the things that are deemed appropriate. The performance arts of both burlesque and drag question this heavily through creating dialogues on stage that provoke the very nature of gender and sexual identity. Performance Art for Social Change 15 Journalist Sarah Henkins quotes Boston based queer performance artist and musician Johnny Blazes in her article, “I’m a Cross between a Clown, a Stripper, and a Streetwalker: Drag Tipping, Sex Work, and a Queer Sociosexual Economy”: I could get up and do a number in a double-breasted suit, do hyper masculine realness. Then I’d do the same number in over-the-top hyper feminine drag. Both of them being sexualized, I’d make more money in female drag. I think it’s because we as a culture understand how to pay for femininity, how to consume it as a product. (Hankins, 2015, p. 441) Traits such as beauty, sexuality, grace, kindness, etc. are literally put on a pedestal as characteristics of being feminine in both burlesque and drag (Hankins, 2015). Drag highlights the over feminization of human bodies as well as encourages entertainers to construct stereotypical feminine attributes that are often interpreted as humorous, but can be damaging to female bodied individuals who don’t have the same privileges without being interpreted as bitchy. The online presence of drag kings (female bodied individuals who “play” men) is also quite limited when compared to the presence of drag queens (Hankins, 2015). The act of being a man who can also “play” a woman versus a woman who can “play” a man provides a context into the nature of identity privilege and how even in the most subversive of art forms, the nature of one’s physical body and the playfulness of gender collide. (Hankins, 2015). This then begs the questions, does burlesque belong to female-bodied individuals and does drag belong to male-bodied individuals? In a narrow scope of history, it seems that would be the case, but there have always been individuals who play in both worlds and refuse to be limited by either the physical body or the supposed gender identity connected to that body as well (Butler, 2014). Performance Art for Social Change 16 The questions posed by the rights of each individual to “play” a gender separate from or in many cases more honest to the gender identity they themselves desire to display during a performance is what brings politics into the theatre (Hankins, 2015). This interplay of gender identity, human rights, radical self-expression and art create an opportunity completely unique in that societal control is utterly absent in the face of freedom of expression (Nally, 2009). Freedom is a privilege that the two worlds of burlesque and drag performance provide unequivocally more often than the traditional theatre world. It is the undeniable freedom of artistic expression and the boundary pushing nature of drag and burlesque (particularly in the realms of gender) that have caused both performance art styles to stay within the counterculture scenes for the majority of modern history until being commercialized by television shows such as Ru-Paul’s Drag Race as well as the burlesque superstar Dita Von-Teese (Butler, 2014). With the sudden popularity of both burlesque and drag growing at an alarming rate, the time for the underground to be invited out of the shadows has arrived. Drag and burlesque have only just resurfaced as the powerful places for political discourse that they are (Regehr, 2012). The price of political theatre. Somebody’s human right to display or not display certain gender qualities on stage or for payment create the nature of gender as a business opportunity, but also an opportunity to highlight the troubled nature of gender within modern society (Hankins, 2015). Who has access and who has the right and who can and who can’t are all questions posed by both burlesque and drag (Hankins, 2015). This is also where opportunities for learning and growth are presented as the art worlds on the fringe of society are often the art worlds where the rules are most often broken and new thought is radically as well as unapologetically represented (Nally, 2009). Performance Art for Social Change 17 Entertainment can and must be educational, especially in the brave old and now new worlds of burlesque and drag (Hankins, 2015). How modern entertainers must navigate being both subversive and connected to unquestionable freedoms and the political correctness in today’s modern entertainment age are all struggles that must be navigated (Whitehead, 2014). This navigation requires intense analytical thinking as well as a conscious awareness of the world and the relationships within it that including culture, race, gender, access, privilege and education (Disman, 2014). It certainly is a Brave New Burly/Drag World. Clowning and Comedy on the Fringe of Theatre The inclusion of comedy in the definition of burlesque includes a conversation on the presence of clowns not only in circuses, but in Vaudevillian theatres throughout American History. The conceptual definition of “clown” is highlighted here, not the narrow definition of clown defined by white faces, red noses and baggy pants. What is referred to is the human body and joking definitions that female and male bodied individuals were subject to as physical presences on a stage built for ridicule and social critique (Hankins, 2015). In “Failure as Success: On Clowns and Laughing Bodies, Eric Weitz states: It should be noted that mainstream clown performance can admit to further inscriptive influence regarding class-related, gendered and other subcultural bodied style and gesture, not to mention instruction upon approved models for comportment and respectability. The clown or clown-like figure of Western performance tradition thus serves as a cultural instructor, possibly buttressing establishment projects by inviting pleasurable reactions to emphasize deviations from the approved centers of socio-cultural practice. (Weitz, 2012, p. 84) Performance Art for Social Change 18 Comedy continues to give permission for scrutinizing the accepted social norms imposed by the society wherein performance artists find themselves existing. Drag and Burlesque as well as clowning create contexts wherein brutal scrutiny can exist as well as be protected. The prison of the body can be examined and broken down in order for conversations to occur between and for both audience and performer, especially in our expectations of what is and isn’t acceptable in not only burlesque houses, but traditional theatres as well. Weitz furthers the conversation on comedy in saying, “Lest there be any doubt, funniness is not a quality that resides in people, things or ideas; it is in the eye (which is to say, the body) of the beholder and owes in no small measure to socio-cultural formatting” (Weitz, 2012, p. 84). His inclusion of the body in his discussion on comedy brings in the nature of gender and sexuality as well in conjunction to how we interpret a body, especially a nude body on stage. This addition to the definition of comedy relies on the reflective interpretation of the viewer. We cannot create comedy without context and we cannot have context without communities of people wherein the context is developed. The burlesque community context is one that is unique and subversive as well as ever changing. The inclusiveness and accessibility of burlesque cause the artform to inherently include various perspectives, voices and opinions. This is what makes it both socially and politically relevant (Dodds, 2013). The Political Platform for Performers in Pasties Burlesque performances continue to be known for their radically inclusive nature. All bodies, all ethnicities, all types, and all genders are hallmarks of burlesque shows historically and currently (Disman, 2014). Though commercialism and its arbitrary standards of beauty have tapped into the commodity of the strange and the weird that is certainly a common staple of vaudeville and burlesque shows, burlesque continues to show that anybody deserves a space to Performance Art for Social Change 19 be seen. Professor and dancer Sherril Dodds states in her article, “Embodied Transformations in Neo-Burlesque Striptease, “Whereas modern capitalism promotes a figure that is slim, taught and youthful, neo burlesque is noted for “the polymorphous perversity of the human body” (Dodds, 2013, p. 78). The body not only serves as a vehicle for self-transformation, but also as a lesson for the audience in spectacle, self-efficacy, empowerment and prescribed notions of societal promotion. Equality and gimmicks are part of the dialogue of burlesque that continues to advocate for finding that something special in whatever you’re doing and sharing it with the audience despite cultural standards of performance (Whitehead, 2014). In this way, burlesque creates an accessibility that is also unseen in the majority of performance art forms which require you to reach a certain standard before given the opportunity to perform (Dodds, 2013). This also allows burlesque to have an unimpeded access to thoughts, ideas, and personalities that would otherwise be denied a place to showcase their perspective. Unapologetic Burlesque, a POC (people of color) centered Burlesque troupe stationed out of Toronto Canada stated the following in, “The Politics of Burlesque: A Dialogue Among Dancers”: After having conversations in an arts-based community program about burlesques radical and often forgotten history of commenting and poking fun at the status quo, we decided to see what the possibilities were to create a space for alternate, subversive, and radical narratives and representations of burlesque to be celebrated. Thus, was born Unapologetic Burlesque: a queer, consensual, anti-racist show where the performers can tell their own stories, not ones that are dictated by what audiences and larger society want to hear. (Disman, 2014, p. 15) Performance Art for Social Change 20 This statement illustrates how, in numerous ways, the neo-burlesque movement has found alliances with people and politics in a direct coalition of arts based resistance performance that continues to subvert the status quo in comedic, emotional, and strikingly jarring ways (Dodds, 2013). There is an inherent need to be seen and recognized in both the struggle and the beauty of life. Burlesque provides a space for humans to be seen in raw states of emotion as well as divine ethereal beauty. Jo “Boobs” Weldon writes in her book, The Burlesque Handbook, “Communicating inspiration is the most powerful, generous and entertaining thing you can do as a performer” (Weldon, 2010, p.16) Society says there’s a standard, burlesque says there’s a stage…get on it and act well your part. Oh, and by the way, you’re the one writing the script. Burlesque provides a gift to the lost souls seeking recognition and the ability to be seen. The underside of society deserves to rise to the surface and be studied as a necessary and indispensable part of our cultural history (Butler, 2014). The revival is already here, it’s happening, but the challenge has been and continues to be filling the seats with those willing to explore the other side of our humanity. Burlesque asks you to let go and come in and laugh at what we accept, expect and perceive as normal (Dodds, 2013). The invitation has arrived, but will you go to the show? “Come one, come all! Welcome to the world's greatest entertainment since the fall of Rome. Life, death, victims, voyeurs. The best of society, the lowest of plebeians. And to keep it all extremely interesting, today's patrons could very easily be tomorrow's entertainment. All compliments of the ultimate showman - Fate. All that's missing is the coliseum.” -TSO Performance Art for Social Change 21 PURPOSE Using Burlesque as a platform for social change wasn’t intentional for me at first, but became thoroughly integrated in my performance as I realized everything I created was imbued with a sense of symbolism, intention and tongue in cheek comedy pedagogy. The basics of deep meaning become clear to me as I move through my art and allow the message to be reflected back to me by my audiences. The context also informs the interpretation as bars, academic institutions and other avenues for performance opportunities present different environments for the consumption of arts and arts’ effects. It’s almost as if the message itself becomes alive once it is in my body and then gains it’s potential for powerful transmission as others communicate the effects of it post production. The experiences of my art being accepted or not accepted depending on the venue and the patrons that attend that venue have revealed the importance of clarity and context in my work moving forward. This then informs the intention as creating work continues to put me up against structures, particularly political, social and educational structures that encourage me to define what exactly it is I’m doing. In order to understand the effectiveness of a performance I take note of audience reaction. The struggle in this lies in access to an audience post production. Often theatre patrons move out of the venue so quickly and feel as if they don’t have access to the artist on the stage. The Fringe Festival is one of those unique and different spaces in that the control is put into the hands of the actors and the actors can create moments of connection post production if they so desire. The benefit of burlesque is that the fourth wall is removed during the performance so you are hyper aware of the audience’s interpretation as well as how connected they are to what you are doing. This can be both exciting and devastating to the traditional modes of performer/audience interaction as you have no safety net to fall into. The concept of the fourth wall isn’t there, so the Performance Art for Social Change 22 protection isn’t either. Nontraditional forms of theater make for a brave and powerful entrance into your effectiveness as a performance artist that is unparalleled in more traditional stage productions of straight plays or musicals. What I created in my one-person show was a distinct environment of teaching and learning as the context of the show was set up in my pre-recorded opening monologue. Following the run of the show, I stand and break my vow of silence as a silent clown by delivering the final monologue myself. I speak to the necessity of regular people in performance, of the reactions and conversations between patrons and artists and the connections that are necessary for us to move forward as a human race. I encourage them to follow me moving forward as a means to further stimulate the evolution of my work. The nature of the work becomes reliant on developing a relationship of performer and audience member. Of constructing a community if only for an hour dedicated to the pursuit of exploration. Especially in the context of Art and Education. Without a reflection…I am looking only at myself and that limits my perspective immensely. In order to reach further and create the kind of theatre I desire; I must have access to an audience and be able to digest their responses and adjust my performances moving forward to reflect back to them the kind of societal constructs and the breaking down of those constructs that are necessary for politically relevant work. Burlesque’s delivery of potent and often difficult to digest information often relies on comedy or the subversion of the normative interpretations of body and sexuality to relay a message. Comedy and tragedy are constantly playing with one another in a burlesque context as the environment of consumption dictates how much a performer can truly succeed. Politics and society influence how we as performance artists are interpreted. Therefore the purpose of this project is educating an audience on how and why Performance Art for Social Change 23 burlesque is necessary, deviant, funny, political, potent and unwaveringly bold and also on why it must become a staple in performance art venues in Utah, across the United States and the world. Performance Art for Social Change 24 PROJECT PROPOSAL In light of these current events I have analyzed the necessity of nudity within the context of my one person show, “Genit-HELL YEAH!” through a qualitative analysis of audience reflection and my personal notes taken during the initial run of the performance. In addition, I have linked this analysis to social reaction and of course the context of Utah nudity and liquor laws. The analysis of my work happened through evaluating audience responses; both within the first run at the 2019 Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival and the continuation of the run at the SOLO: One Actor, One Hour festival. I reviewed articles written about my show and any that were written about my show post production. Finally, I reviewed my personal reflections taken during the time of the original production. With these reviews, I found themes that spoke to whether or not my show could be changed to fit Utah’s current laws regarding performance art and nudity. Following the analysis of my personal reflections as well as published reflections, I wrote a self-reflection in relation to my current practices to help further define burlesque as a theatrical genre and what features of performance must be included to constitute a burlesque performance as defined by this analysis. As an artist I want to remain true to all of my artforms, particularly burlesque, where pushing boundaries has always been an integral component. In addition, on a more grandiose scale than this project, with the written, non-verbal and public responses I intend to make a case moving forward for the state of Utah wherein liquor and nude bodies (in an artistic atmosphere with clear intention and context) can coexist simultaneously without threats from the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (DABC) towards artistic spaces intended to push the envelope of social norms. The notion to restructure laws and the interpretation of those laws takes a whole team and I feel that Utah’s turn to amend Performance Art for Social Change 25 the law prohibiting nudity and alcohol to exist in the same space is closer at hand than we quite recognize. The numerous cases of burlesque and alcohol coexisting out of state as well the “Brewvies vs. the DABC” case and the equally surprising law amendments done in our sister state Idaho suggest that we are fast approaching a social revolution spearheaded by an actual adherence to what the people want and what they vote for as opposed to unquestioningly sticking with historical statutes that are both antiquated and unconstitutional. The battle has just begun for freedom of the nipple in the state of Utah. And I hope that the case for “Genit-HELL YEAH” can be at the forefront of that revolution. Performance Art for Social Change 26 METHODS Following both runs of my one-person show, “Genit-HELL YEAH!” during the 2019 Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival and SOLO: One Actor, One Hour festival a self-reflective analysis of my burlesque performance practices based off my historical and current analysis of what a burlesque act entails was conducted. This included a careful analysis of the interpretation of nudity in a theatrical context in the state of Utah and how this affects the laws controlling sexually oriented business performers, theatre artists, performance artists (in particular burlesque and drag artists). Setting “Genit-HELL YEAH” was performed a total of six times in the Summer and Fall of 2019 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The first four performances were during the Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival at the Gateway in downtown Salt Lake City. The final two performances were held at Salt Lake Community College, only after Wasatch Theatre Company (in the Gateway) determined the content of my show was unsuitable for the venue. The state of Utah holds statutes around nudity and performance, specifically outside of a licensed bar context. The theatrical venue in question (Wasatch Theatre Company) had held full-nude performances in the past, but due to the Gateway’s insistence signed a no-nudity contract for their venue following the 2019 Fringe Festival. The majority of the Wasatch Theatre Company’s board was unaware of this secret signing by the director. This caused the second run of my show to be forced out of the Wasatch Theatre Company’s space and into Salt Lake Community College’s Black Box Theatre for the final two performances as part of the SOLO festival. Performance Art for Social Change 27 Measures Following each show, I would take a brief account of the various interpretations of each section of the show. This included notes on how my fully nude body was interpreted at the initial opening of the show as well as how the “clown drag” performances were not only delivered but received. This also accounted for the amount of freedom the audience performers felt they had while on stage and the audience reactions to the poems being read as well as their help or unwillingness to help in the final strip tease. I also analyzed various aspects of the crowd interaction in my analysis including audience feedback in the form of standing ovations vs. seated applause, volume, intensity and attention span. I considered the context and placement of my work as well due to having multiple perspectives from travelling extensively to perform burlesque. This included an awareness of the context of Utah vs. a national context vs. a global context. I then took into consideration the awards, recognition, invitations, and acclaim that I received following both runs of my show to analyze my success as well as the determination of success for myself versus my audience and the broader context of Utah. This included an analysis on multiple theatre reviews, news articles and frequent instances of media/press coverage and how they affected the interpretation of burlesque in Utah for a broader audience as well as my one-person show. Following my acknowledgment of invitations to perform my show more, I then started to analyze moving forward with nude performance art in Utah. This included how bookings and theatre venues are continuing the practice of censoring nudity and why. This also included an understanding of the prevalence of no-nudity clauses for venues that have traditionally accepted nudity. This was paired with a general consensus from theatre goers, theatre actors and activists Performance Art for Social Change 28 on the damage of antiquated laws to burlesque and theatrical nude performance as well as how to create safety for patrons, performers and venues. In order to gain a deeper perspective, I hired a videographer to film one night of the performance as well as hired two photographers to come in and document one show from the Fringe Festival and one show from the SOLO festival. The Fringe Festival photographer documented the performance from the audience’s viewpoint and the SOLO: One Actor, One Hour festival photographer took images from a documentary standpoint that also included an interview post show. Procedures Using these resources I looked for recurring themes within the audience responses. I observed my own journals for moments of synchronicity between what I experienced as a facilitator and what the audience experienced as well. I also drew on my knowledge of the historical implications of burlesque and how this effected burlesque nationwide and how this interpretation of burlesque on a national scale is different or similar to how burlesque survives, thrives or suffers in the context of Utah. Using these resources I will create an argument for nudity in the context of theatre as well as a place for burlesque in the evolution of nude theatre for Utah. I will also be self-reflective to determine how to create burlesque acts for Utah audiences moving forward and define (in broad terms) what burlesque has been, what it is currently and what I predict moving forward. Data Analysis An analysis of audience feedback in regards to the content within Genit-HELL YEAH! was conducted. These findings were compared with the body of burlesque research outlined in my literature review. Performance Art for Social Change 29 The findings were analyzed to assess the need for furthering opportunities for burlesque and drag performance art as vehicles for social change and community building. This relied on analyzing burlesque and drag’s relationship throughout history and in its current context. The ultimate analysis is to define what burlesque and drag are and why they are important to the social network of any state locally, nationally, and globally. Burlesque and drag have critical implications for the censorship of human bodies both physically as well as figuratively. My research strives to determine the validity of nudity within the context of my work in Salt Lake City, Utah and why drag and burlesque are deemed threatening to the status quo of society. Performance Art for Social Change 30 CURTAIN CALL Reflection and Analysis The Beginning of a Burlesque Booking…. As a burlesque artist, it has become clear to me that I am often misinterpreted on multiple levels within the context of the society in which I perform. The context in question here is the land behind the Zion curtain, none other than Salt Lake City, Utah. If I as a performance artist don’t define what burlesque is, not only for myself, but for any audience observing me or the shows I’m connected to, then my art could be actively threatened and perceived as lewd. This interpretation could put me and the art form of burlesque into question and be extenuated to the point of being considered a criminal offense (See Appendix A and B). My performances must be evaluated for structure, relevance, and enjoyment as well as effectiveness for social and political critique. This is especially necessary considering the contextual constraints of being a burlesque artist in one of the most regulated cities in the United States. In addition, as I have stated in my literature review, burlesque mocks and ridicules accepted social structures, so comedy is an essential element for evaluation as well due to humor being a tool wherein what we can and can’t say is directly subverted to get to deeper truth (Butler, 2014). Not only do I consider myself a burlesque performer, but I am a burlesque performer in a very conservative context; the nature of my art (burlesque, drag, clowning, etc.) is to push the boundaries of the context (Dodds, 2013). It is therefore necessary that I document and evaluate my performances to determine if, within the expectations of Utah constraints defined by laws, social context, audience and current political and social climate, I do in fact stay true to the intent of burlesque as a performance art. As not only a burlesquer, but a clown and drag thing, the intersections of these interrelating performance art genres have encouraged me to evaluate the Performance Art for Social Change 31 effectiveness of my messaging through evaluating the historical as well as current political and social construct wherein my art exists. Specifically the contemporary context of Salt Lake City as it is now. This evaluation must be completed in contrast to how my art is not only interpreted, but also received in my travels outside of Utah as well. The comparison from inside and outside of Utah will help me further understand the power and potential effectiveness of my messaging moving forward in my career as an educator and as a performance artist. Setting the Stage for my Research: Genit-HELL YEAH! My one-person show entitled “Genit-HELL YEAH” that I developed to analyze gender, sexuality and this business of being human was performed for the 2019 Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival held at The Gateway. “Genit-HELL YEAH!” was performed a total of six times in the Summer and Fall of 2019 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The first four performances were during the Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival at the Gateway in downtown Salt Lake City. The final two performances were held at Salt Lake Community College. I had the highest numbers for both runs of my show in not only the Fringe Festival, but during the SOLO: One Actor, One Hour festival held at Salt Lake Community College. Following the run of my show, I won the award for, “Outstanding One-Person Show.” This show was not only my first induction into the Great Salt Lake Fringe, but included all of my performance art styles including but not limited to burlesque, clowning, puppetry, drag and spoken word. This also included full nude performance art as part of the inherent unspoken dialogue within the show and it is the inclusion of full nude performance that caused the majority of the backlash following the closing of my show for the 2019 Great Salt Lake Fringe season. As detrimental as the backlash could have been, it wasn’t without a counterpart of resistance from local art collectives, writers and bloggers who backed my show and came flocking to my aid. Performance Art for Social Change 32 Catalyst Magazine reached out, the Utah Review and the Utah Theatre Bloggers had written about my show on their online platforms and the local Utah radio station, KRCL had agreed to pick up the story moving forward. It was about a week following the closing of the 2019 Fringe season that I was invited to participate in the first annual, SOLO: One Actor, One Hour short play festival, a festival run by Wasatch Theatre Company comprising solely of one act productions with run times under one hour. Following this invitation, another local newspaper, City Weekly agreed to help promote my show as a means to get more bodies in the seats and gave me a featured story in their annual “Arts Issue” at the end of September 2019. History, especially Utah history disagrees on what does and doesn’t constitute art. Are Burlesque performers sexually oriented entertainers and therefore have restrictions placed on them in venues which serve alcohol, or are we theatrical performers? If we use striptease are we no longer considered artists? Does the intersectionality of burlesque, theatre, and stripping constitute the removal of first amendment rights in order to protect the laws of the state wherein burlesque is performed? This illustrates the gray area for burlesque performers; we are considered entertainers, but the nature of burlesque could be, and often is considered “lewd” in conservative contexts, which calls into question our first amendment rights as any person could determine, via their own personal biases the fate of our lives if they interpret our work as socially unacceptable. Burlesque as an art form is designed to grab freedom of speech by the short hairs and air grievances for all to see through gathering many to peaceably assemble in the name of art! (Disman, 2014). It shamelessly merges politics, society and status quo into an extravaganza of discourse and thought through shameless body display. The validity and legitimacy of the burlesque world in Utah resides solely in the burlesque community’s determination to prove that we are performance artists that deserve platforms to Performance Art for Social Change 33 perform without restriction of our bodies, purpose and message. This can and will happen. Challenges to Utah’s lewdness statutes are already occurring. In a recent Utah case, “Brewvies” vs. the DABC”. The lines between the Utah statute on lewdness or public nudity and a venue’s first amendment rights were challenged. Brewvies, a movie theater where alcohol is sold, showed the film Deadpool. This movie caused a citation for the venue due to the simulated sex scenes that included oral sex and ejaculation. Brewvies won their case as well as $500,000 to cover attorney fees on first amendment grounds. The court ruled that as long as these movies were not considered obscene or pornographic, they could continue to be shown (Ramseth and Stephenson, 2017). If movies are afforded first amendment protection then shouldn’t this be applied to live theatrical performances as well? The understanding of the connection of the first amendment rights (particularly freedom of speech) of the movie industry and of the performing arts industry and how they are interpreted in the context of Utah will provide ground moving forward to change the laws on public decency. Influencing the way that burlesque is interpreted is one the main statutes of my process during act development and delivery. The social interpretation of burlesque determines not only performer safety, but the survival of this art form for Salt Lake City in the future. Seeing burlesque performances as theatrical performance is of particular importance for my work. The work referred to specifically for this project is the work of developing, performing and reflecting on my one-person show, “Genit-HELL YEAH!” My show was developed through an exploration of self that I took subconsciously and consciously over the course of my burlesque career. I started performing what I thought burlesque was, which is similar to the classic era of corsets, garters and fishnets, but found my heart and home in the worlds of comedy and social critique which aligned me irreversibly with the neo-burlesque movement. I took Performance Art for Social Change 34 moments of my break down and confusion with the nature of burlesque performance and incorporated them into a string of acts dealing with the body. These acts around the body began to involve sexuality and gender and morphed into scenes that eventually comprised the totality of my one-person show. Below I have listed the various pieces of my show with a brief explanation of how it incorporated aspects of burlesque, drag, clowning and puppetry. 1. Fringe Festival Pre-Show Announcement This was the required piece from the Fringe Festival that explained the nature of the Fringe as well as thanked each patron for attending the Festival. The fringe message is one of inclusion, freedom and unadjudicated artmaking for better or for worse. Fringe Festivals happen all over the world and are specifically built for the theatre that is subversive or not often represented in the mainstream media or platforms wherein the majority of theatre goers patron. Unjuried is the key word here as well as an awareness of the lack of status-keeping that allowed my show to prosper. I didn’t have to be approved, I had no prior accolades, I’m considered a professional in my sphere, but not in the sphere of “traditional theatre” so being an amateur doesn’t matter. It is literally the only place (especially in Utah) that I could have put on my show in its integrity. Therefore, this is where it came to be. 2. Genit-HELL YEAH! Intro Track From the Script: “Dearest They-Dies and Gentle-Thems… Welcome to Genit-HELL YEAH! A fully immersive and interactive clown, burlesque and drag show that gives you, yes YOU a chance to play with everything you thought you knew about Gender, Sex and Being Human. Performance Art for Social Change 35 In this short 45-minute period of your life, I ask you to trust the process of sex-ploration. I ask you to give into more innocent sensibilities and allow yourself the opportunity to really play as an adult person in this environment built for questioning and learning. You may experience moments of awe, fuckery, nudity, regret, sorrow, confusion, joy and even fear…but I assure you Madazon Can-Can is a hostess with experience in all the realms of consent and you are MOST assuredly safe. Now without further ado, I welcome you to… Genit-HELL YEAH!” Right from the beginning, (including the physical posters and online advertising) I made sure to raise awareness that this show was about bodies. About bodies and what happens to and within our body which includes what society places upon our bodies in an attempt to yet again control how we move in the world. (Butler, 2014). My poster’s theme was, “An immersive, Interactive chance to PLAY with everything you thought you knew about Gender, Sex and Being Human.” In my intro, I strove to make sure the audience knew that not only was I entrusting them to be a respectful and open audience, but that I was practicing respect and openness as well. The exchange was what was most important to me as well as the practice of consent and sensitivity for those who would be participating. I didn’t want any force, but I did want bravery and that is what I asked for. 3. Viva la Vulva This is probably the crowning achievement of this show (every pun intended). Many pieces of this show have travelled with me across the United States to various festivals, carnivals, indoor and outdoor venues as well as private shows. Performance Art for Social Change 36 This piece includes my entrance into the show behind two giant labia fans. When the fans open in a playful turn on burlesque fans in more traditional shows, I am in a giant vulva. The vulva then becomes impregnated when I find a penis inside a flower, which then shoots sperm into the vaginal canal. I birth a string of babies to my horror and then birth myself nude on the stage. This scene plays on the ideas of purpose for the female bodied individuals in the room. Are we just meant to be observed and to be vehicles for birth or do we have minds inside the capacity to be seen just as walking, talking vulvas? (Butler, 2014). After I birth myself, I play on what society has done by yelling “Penis” and “Vagina” at various male bodied and female bodied individuals in the room. However, they were the ones who taught me what these words meant by nodding ,“Yes” or shaking their heads, “No” when I approached them screaming the qualifying genitals to what I assumed matched their bodies. Once I understood which was which due to their generous teachings. I brought up a male bodied individual and a female bodied individual and put them on stage in either the pink zone for the female or the blue zone for the male. It was here that I decided to play and switched the male and female into the opposite color zones and made them dress in what I affectionately call, clown drag. These were oversized, ridiculous costumes that hyper-accentuated the gender aspects of clothing and asked the audience to giggle and laugh at what male bodied individuals as well as female bodied individuals assume in society as right or wrong or acceptable or not acceptable according to their assigned gender identity at birth. 4. “Man, I Feel Like a Woman” and “Dude Looks Like a Lady” (Audience Clown Drag Performances) Performance Art for Social Change 37 I chose these songs and had the female bodied individual in male clown drag perform to “Dude Looks Like a Lady” and had the male bodied individual in female clown drag perform to “Man I Feel Like a Woman.” How they chose to perform was completely unscripted. They could perform in whatever way they felt suited their body. The responses were varied. Some people took the opportunity to let loose and play with me as well as the audience. They grabbed the props lying around the room or simply removed the clown drag in an impromptu burlesque style that was both unexpected and hilarious. The songs weren’t cut and played all the way through which provided a challenge for the audience participants in that they had to feel into a full performance and have reflected back to them the responses from the audience that they themselves were just a part of. Sometimes it was painful to see them reflect back their discomfort at being on stage. That was when I taught them by dancing or being silly or simply sitting and resting on the stage for just a moment or even coaxing the audience to applause. The utter silliness as well as the willingness or lack of willingness to assume the opposite gender in even the most spectacular way (I say spectacular in the sense of spectacle here) cued me and the audience in to what society does with gender and how performative our adherence to gender stereotypes actually is (Dodds, 2013). 5. Madame Glitoris is the INspiration Listening to your intuition takes an intense amount of bravery and that is exactly what this vulva fortune teller asked of the audience. Madame Glitoris asked the audience to look “deep within” and acknowledge the things that they were afraid of. Once they acknowledged their deepest fears, they realize that these are the things we need to talk about the most. This portion of the show was reflective and touched on fear as well as humor around what we are afraid of. I illustrated how inspiration can come through acknowledging our human Performance Art for Social Change 38 nature and how once we can see it, we can talk to it and talk ourselves through it. I did this through lip syncing “You’re the Inspiration” by Chicago to Madam Glitoris herself as well as her counterpart in crime, the Flying Purple Penis. The end message was one on social change, but only through and by acknowledging our fears, learning to be truly teachable and creating change in ourselves to create change across our communities locally, nationally and globally. Change is scary, but we can’t grow if we aren’t willing to face our fears and not only face them, but maybe even give them a literal face and talk about, through and to them. 6. Purple Rain This segment of the show is the most vulnerable for me as I am dressed in classic burlesque regalia. This is for multiple reasons. Classic burlesque costuming is incredibly tight, uncomfortable and created for the male gaze (Siebler, 2015). This is the most female presenting I am throughout the entire show. I have a small waist, an emphasized chest, I’m in heels and sparkling from head to toe. I am not comfortable in this, but I pretend to be. This act requires me to illicit help from the audience. I do not take any of my own clothing off. The audience takes everything off of my body, from my top hat, to my ascot, my heels, my tights and even my bra. The audience releases me from the binds of classic burlesque. And when I am standing in just my underwear and pasties (my pasties are mini uteruses bleeding down my chest), I hold up a rug that says, “Love” in front of my body. Behind everything, the performance, the gender, the sexuality there is the reason we’ve gotten here…love and I hope to leave this behind. The knowledge that we can help set each other free and see one another through discussion, being vulnerable and learning to see each other beyond the body and beyond the boundaries of the body prescribed by the society we all inherited and can actively create change in. Performance Art for Social Change 39 7. Closing Ceremony This is where I thank the audience for coming. It is the first time during the show that I use my voice. The rest of the show is either fully pantomimed or extremely limited in verbiage as in the first act where my vocabulary was limited to either, “Penis” or “Vagina.” Here is where I discuss the nature of my work as pushing the boundaries of not only my body, but the context in which I exist. I explain my purpose in working is to not only entertain, but to educate and that creating this kind of work is seen as a direct threat to the status quo and is therefore radical and inherently political (Dodds, 2013). I then ask the audience to follow me on my social media to further the conversations to be had or invite them to privately message me with questions or grab my business card if they need to have access to me or my work moving forward. *The second run of my show required me to add an even more relevant political message. The “Free the Nipple” ruling had just passed in the 10th District Court and I administered every audience member to exercise extreme caution as it doesn’t affect Utah due to the antiquated laws I myself have to adhere to as a burlesque performer in this state. ACT I: THE END OF AN ERA…OF IGNORANCE Salt Lake City, UT-Present Day INT. Madazon’s brain. I was nude on stage in the Gateway in Salt Lake City, Utah. I had done it! The world didn’t explode and my tits were still intact and no worse for the wear I might add. I had proven that the presence of nudity within theatre, specifically fringe theatre wasn’t such a big deal while paradoxically being a HUGE, enormous, politically relevant and VERY big deal. Performance Art for Social Change 40 SCENE 1: RE-EVALUATING THE REASON THROUGH TRANS-MISSION EXT. End of Run #1 of Genit-HELL YEAH! at the 2019 Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival at The Gateway. Standing outside Venue 10 North. I had crowds of audience members after my show waiting to give me hugs, reach out to collaborate and throw money at my merchandise. I was happy to see numerous influential people throughout the theatre world show up to my show after I invited them and sometimes without any invitation at all. These included: • The puppeteer and set designer for Sackerson whose company mantra is “New works, unconventional spaces, bold audiences.” Check www.sackerson.org for more information. • The original founders of The Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival • Brian Higgins local director and fringe film festival organizer • Queer Theatre artists, designers, stage hands and performers • Pussycat Productions (a female led production team) from Westminster College • Writers for Catalyst Magazine This was particularly astounding because my posters weren’t present on the Fringe venues throughout the festival as they were torn down the day I put them up (see figure 1). My posters themselves were deemed “too lewd” to be hanging on the approved sites within the Gateway for advertising for the 2019 Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival by The Gateway itself. I suppose stuffed labia, smiling vulva puppets and some sun tanned cleavage are just a bit too much for a passing Gateway patron. I’ve included my original poster to illustrate the frightening “lewdness” that The Gateway deemed so censorable. The producers of the festival were astounded, angered and offered to put them inside each venue if I could print them again, which Performance Art for Social Change 41 would not only cost me more money, but time as well. I opted to focus on the only advertising I had available to me which was social media advertising, the Great Salt Lake Fringe calendar online as well as word of mouth and left mini posters all over the city. The nature of my posters content is particularly important to address. As a producer, performance artist and art teacher, I am well aware of the social ramifications that come with artistic messaging as well as the hyper sensitivity to sexual content within artistic messaging that could be misconstrued in contexts such as public advertising. My posters were not only incredibly tame, but poignant and funny. In order to make sure my audiences were eighteen and older, there was a mock film rating bubbled that stated, “Rated X (Pressive): High amounts of nudity and crass puppets. Viewer discretion is advised. 18+ only ‘cause Boobs.” “Boobs” was written in extremely small print. The rest included me covered from head to toe, with the puppets surrounding me. In order to understand that the puppets were in fact modeled after human genitalia, you would have to be thinking quite hard. No pun intended. Following the mass take down of all my posters, I decided to try and adjust to fit the Gateway’s model of advertising decency. I created a poster wherein I limited the humor, only the title of my show, the most basic and pertinent information such as date and time were given and the one image I included was a circular cut out of my clown face. The Gateway denied the posters yet again and refused to let me hang them. This wasn’t about my posters any more, this was about the nature of my show. The Gateway was determined to make sure my show wasn’t seen at all. The inclusion of humor in my posters as well as including common phrases and the mock film rating all harken back to pulp burlesque show posters and imagery wherein the status quo was recognized, subverted and used to mock what was socially accepted. Humor linked what the potential audience already knew to what they didn’t yet know and what they longed to find Performance Art for Social Change 42 out (Weitz, 2012). Humor in advertising is not only a staple in the Fringe world (including burlesque, clown and drag), but in radio, print and business models as well. You make ‘em laugh…you make ‘em stay in their seats. I never hung a poster without approval from the businesses I sought out for advertising. From coffee shops to art galleries to locally owned boutiques and thrift stores, I was never turned down from advertising with my flyers. Not once. Contemporary Salt Lake City seemed to be okay with my posters, so why wasn’t the Gateway? It is a conundrum I am still analyzing. However, this experience further incited by dedication to the political nature of burlesque performance. It taught me grit and the ability to thrive in incredibly difficult circumstances. I was determined to have an audience and I certainly wasn’t giving up on my show. Like burlesquers of old, I simply had to make a mess where they wanted it the least. I wasn’t going to break any laws, I can’t afford jail, but I was going to break their version of normal. (Disman, 2014). It further showed a need for radical theater spaces and for inclusion within my city and I was not giving up. The outpouring of support post show was phenomenal and I began to feel the entry into a new world of performance art begin to open. Yes, I was a burlesque performer, but the way that my audiences responded showed me that I was so much more. I felt like an actor, I felt like a comedian, I felt like I was actually teaching them something they could then take with them into their everyday worlds and continue to influence the conversation around performance art, nudity and humanity. Performance Art for Social Change 43 I had created content that was true to the original intentions of burlesque in a state that hardly recognizes the burlesque scene’s existence. In the state of Utah, creating this kind of content is incredibly subversive. As a performance artist, I directly mocked the status quo through the use of nudity as a vehicle for audience transformation. Opening the show with nudity essentially rid the context of the “elephant in the room.” Wherein scholars mention that the issue with seeing burlesque as an academic artform lies in its roots of objectification, I created an environment where the messaging of burlesque isn’t the nudity, but is directly related to the choice and the right to be nude or not be nude as not only an artist’s right, but a human right as well. (Regehr, 2011.) Figure 1: Original poster for the 2019 Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival. Imagery by Jake Penrose. Used with Permission. Performance Art for Social Change 44 The Utah Review covered the show stating, “There is a lot of symbolism in the show and it’s the clarion call to set aside the restrictive conceptions of sexuality and identity that puritanism has imposed upon us” (Roka, Utah Theatre Review, 2019). It is these impositions that cause my work to be socially relevant as well as current. Utah is one of the most conservative states in the United states and for me, the context of Utah is the most fertile ground for continuing to create work that not only comments on the nature of the society we exist in, but builds in resistance, politics, comedy and commentary into the nature of the work itself. This review was one that was read and repeated to me from audience members who had come to my show or who wanted to come to my show. I shared this article online and it spurred praise from many sources including confirmation by previous audiences that what was written was not only accurate, but beautiful as well. The review gave me strength and allowed me to reference some of the sentences in my post-show monologue through the rest of the Fringe run. The most humorous aspect of this review is that the writer edited out the word vulva for my first act and instead coined it as a “butterfly act.” I’m wondering if this was intentional or accidental as not one other human interpreted my giant genitalia opener as a “butterfly act.” The show had finally officially closed, I was packing up my car. It was Sunday, the last day of the festival and the last run of the show, I had to clear out of the venue before they locked up for good. It was while I was head first in a giant vulva puppet that a human came up to me and politely asked if they could discuss some, “problematic content” within my show. The individual had numerous pins including pronoun pins that indicated, “they” and sported a vest, flannel, jeans, a shaved head and sneakers. I had just shoved my giant vulva puppet into the trunk and my clown paint was melting off, but I stopped and listened briefly (time was not helpful in this instance) to what they had to say. They asked me how long I had been studying “trans theory.” I responded by telling them my specialty isn’t trans theory and that this show is more about playing in the realms of gender and learning how to ask questions and be open to the Performance Art for Social Change 45 conversations presented by the questioning. I explained that I’m an educator as well and had been developing the show in response to my own gender journey while completing school. They indicated that they were offended because they felt invalidated by the poetry in the show, particularly the poem entitled, “So, This Human Thing.” (See Appendix D). They then proceeded to tell me that their body was a “valid trans body” and that even with a vulva, vagina and breasts they were still a man. A MAN! I could tell they were upset, but they did address me respectfully and this interaction taught me so much more than praise, gratitude and admiration could have. I learned that I still have so much more to learn. It reminded me yet again that I am both educator and student, always. They are not separate from each other, but always aligned and I took the hit. It hurt, I felt like a fool, but I moved forward. I had to. This time I moved forward with a lot more caution as awareness had finally started to settle in for the Winter. Following the shock of a “bad review” one in which the audience member felt dehumanized caused me to feel the impact of my work and the necessity for me to create even more conscious messaging moving forward. I then began to analyze what I could do to adjust this specific show if it were to run again and if (as I had always dreamed), it were to travel. I realized this meant I had to then reanalyze, reinvent and create content for more bookings not just locally, but nationally. I realized that I had always been in an active process of questioning and learning, which is what I wanted to instill in my audience and if I were to practice what I preach, I had to go back to the drawing board and revision what I had created. My original vision had blind spots and I couldn’t risk turning a blind eye to someone’s pain. I came back to the reason. And didn’t have an answer. At least not yet. I ended up reading the poem, “This Human Performance Art for Social Change 46 Thing” over and over and over again trying to determine the issue with it and why it offended this individual so much. Nothing came up. I got together with my trans friends and discussed in open dialogue and full detail the surprise and sadness I was feeling after this conversation. Each conversation with members of the trans community ended in the same message of not understanding how this one person became so traumatized from a poem that resonated with one part, but certainly not all of the trans experience. I was stumped. In the end, I kept the poem and adapted my introduction to the show with a brief message stating that the content addresses “some, but not all of the human experience.” I feel like there is still more I need to adapt in the introduction, but the poem feels right as it is. SCENE 2: #FREETHENIPPLE! JUST NOT UTAH NIPPLES! The Months of August-September 2019 EXT. A trampled newspaper rests on the ground outside Bar X. An escort has just been arrested for nipple exposure in Salt Lake City and a court case was pending. Between the first and second run of my production there was a ruling passed by the 10th District Court in Colorado that favored a “free the nipple” ruling and deemed the state’s anti-topless laws unconstitutional based on the concepts of the oversexualization of female, but not male bodies. Andy McNulty, the attorney on the case stated, “The idea that women’s bodies are purely sexual is something that was perpetuated by this law. By getting rid of this law, we are saying women are more than just a sexual object and their bodies are more than just a sexual object. They’re human beings just like men.” (Evans, 2019). When I was invited to perform my show, Genit-HELL YEAH! for a second run as part of the SOLO: One Actor, One Hour festival, the uproar around my performance at the Fringe festival caused the DABC to take notice of this invitation. This invitation incited an investigation Performance Art for Social Change 47 of Wasatch Theatre (the sponsors of the SOLO festival) that resulted in a last-minute venue move. The DABC made direct threats to shut down the SOLO festival if they allowed my show to proceed due to the nudity content, without considering the gray area in how this relates to nudity in the context of theatrical, educational and political discourse. In addition, this threat was given without consideration to whether or not there will be alcohol in the venue during my performance. The DABC insisted that the presence of a liquor license (not actual liquor) in the venue was enough to come into conflict with the Utah statutes on nudity and what they deemed “lewdness.” Wasatch Theatre Company eventually denied my show access in their venue. This last minute venue move for the “SOLO: One Actor, One Hour” festival was due to Utah Blue Laws and their disagreement with the presence of full female nudity in my show in a venue (in this case, Wasatch Theatre Company) that serves alcohol (For full law, please refer to Appendix A and B). According to Utah Code Title 76 Utah Criminal Code, Chapter 9 Offenses Against Public Order and Decency, Section 702 (76 UCC, 9.702 (2018) (See Appendix A) lewdness is defined as “a person will be guilty of lewdness if they expose their genitals, the female breast below the top of the areola, the buttocks, the anus, or the pubic area.” How this plays out in terms of performance art varies. If a business is considered to be sexually-oriented they must adhere to Title 32B Chapter 1 Part 5, Section 505 of the Attire, Conduct and Entertainment Act (32B ABCA, 1.5.505 (2017) subsections 3 and 10 (CITE). According to this Utah Code, strip clubs require a SOB (Sexually Oriented Business) license wherein alcohol can be served with strict regulations on the proximity and access to the performers on stage. This mention of alcohol now brings in the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (DABC). Nudity and alcohol are Performance Art for Social Change 48 not allowed to share space according to how the law on public “lewdness” is currently written. This means that performers are required to wear “legals” (thongs with a certain amount of coverage) as well as pasties in order to keep within the legal limitations of alcohol and nudity. This code also determines what is considered “obscene” in the context of current community standards and applicable literary, artistic, educational or political applications. (32B ABCA, 1.5.504 (2017)) (See appendix B). These laws are of particular concern to those engaged in artistic performance, particularly in venues where alcohol is served or in conservative arenas such as traditional theatre spaces, academic institutions and the Gateway, where, depending on the viewer, one’s performance art could be considered “sexually oriented,” “lewd,” or “indecent.” The inclusion of the word “current” within the verbiage of the law makes it critical to analyze the contemporary interpretations of burlesque by the general public within the context of Salt Lake City. The public that views burlesque should be the primary audience of concern when interpreting the law, however Utah law could interpret the public as being the majority of the people who could potentially indulge in burlesque as opposed to the public that does. This makes the performance art world in Salt Lake City that much more dangerous as any offense could become a criminal offense. Especially if the wrong audience member decides that their moral opinion deems it necessary to not only be personally offended by the content, but sue the venue, producer or performer in question for the content being delivered in their city of residence. The hardest part throughout these whole dealings was knowing that I had successfully performed my show only a few weeks earlier in a venue that still had the potential for a liquor license, but no liquor was being served and nobody asked any questions. My first Gateway performance was interpreted as not only a valid expression of the human body, but deemed a Performance Art for Social Change 49 good enough show to gain recognition and an award. I honestly didn’t know whether or not I would ever be able to find another chance to perform my show in its integrity (full nudity included) in the state of Utah ever again. The idea of editing the show for nude content crossed my mind numerous times, but wouldn’t stick because if I got rid of the nudity, the message that nudity isn’t inherently sexual would be debunked. It would be like going back into the closet again or succumbing to the ideas of shame that Utah deems valid, the shame of the naked human figure. All of which are invalidated within the context of my show. Therefore, the nudity had to stay and the venue…well the venue made me go. I am a burlesque performer; I am an artist. My work should remain true to the artform and also be protected by the first amendment. Genit-HELL YEAH! is highlighting issues of definition and context as well as basic education on the history and nature of burlesque throughout American history. I am in direct violation of Utah’s codes if in fact the law determines that my work and my performance doesn’t constitute “serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.” Act 32B ABCA, 1.5.504.3 (2017). The presence of alcohol near a nude body seems to rely solely on protecting the performer in question from violation of safety and space, both of which are highly regulated in a theatrical context, especially in the presence of audience members who not only pay to patron the arts, but support with their dollar as well as their time. It is of the utmost importance now, more than ever before that I take the self-reflective journey of evaluating my work and create a context for Salt Lake City wherein I am not only interpreted as an artist, but that burlesque is interpreted as an art form worthy of recognition and value not only monetarily, but socially as well. When the ruling passed, six other states were affected by the suddenly emancipated tatas, including Utah. This ruling passed on September 17th, 2019 and occurred a month and six days Performance Art for Social Change 50 after the closing of my first run of Genit-HELL YEAH! and nine days before my second run at the SOLO Festival. The timeliness of my show and the messaging within my show couldn’t have been more perfect. Burlesque encourages the performers to involve themselves in “self-assertion and self-possession” (Nally, 2009, p. 639), the changes needing to be made in regards to the #freethenipple campaign had incredibly similar sentiments. Women should be allowed the same exposure rights as men. Anything else is simply unconstitutional. The literal control of female bodies via the society or in this case, the law is what was satire in every burlesque house throughout history. Burlesque and history were colliding in the West and I was ready to help lead a movement for emancipated mammories. I was so elated that everything was aligning. My purpose, free the nipple, burlesque, nude performance art, and activism were all coming into my immediate field of action. I decided to organize a march, a march on the Utah State Capitol entitled, “We’ve Graduate-Tit.” I even made flyers that I was planning on delivering to all my usual spots to get the word spread even further. It would be the chance for us to let Utah know women are no longer willing to be seen as sexual objects and that nudity deserves a place in the arts! It was a chance to condemn censorship as the plague against Utah artists that we fight at every turn. It was a chance to let every venue know we are ready to move into a new chapter for nude performance and alcohol to coexist simultaneously. This would mean a whole new set of options for not only my show Genit-HELL YEAH!, but would allow my burlesque career to have unimpeded access to spaces and audiences. I would finally be able to justify why nudity should be allowed in more spaces in Salt Lake City, especially with my one person show that kept selling out. I was prepared to ride the wave and pave the way for nude-based performance art in Salt Lake City! If not now, then when? There was no better time than the present…right? So what happened and why did my Performance Art for Social Change 51 winning streak take a speedy downward spiral into hopelessness, self-loathing and a much needed realigning of purpose and why, oh WHY…aren’t there more free nipples roaming the streets in Salt Lake City, Utah? The short answer…Utah’s refusal to recognize overarching federal jurisdictions and it’s addiction to “public decency” and the censorship of “lewdness.” When the United States says one thing, Utah hinges on *cue Fiddler on the Roof music* “TRADITION” and says, “Not yet and maybe not ever.” Then there are performers like me who can’t possibly pass up the opportunity to use their art to create real change in the spaces that need it the most, in this case my home, my city and the place I’m attempting to work…Salt Lake City. I was ready to get jail time, just not a lifetime position on the sex offender registry (which is exactly the extent of the law they would enforce if in fact I did go topless in public.) The history of prosecuting law breakers in Utah isn’t particularly kind, especially in offenses of lewdness or public indecency. Then there were the other factors to consider if I were to rage a topless inquisition on the state capitol only a day after the ruling passed. This included the people at risk, especially the marginalized populations. I would be inciting a dangerous march too early, too soon and without enough information to adequately assess the outcomes of my decisions. These decisions could adversely affect sex workers, women of color, sexually oriented business workers and the homeless in more ways than I could adequately comprehend. I wanted to be an activist, but I didn’t want to hurt anyone or put anyone at risk, so the march was cancelled, I was devastated and the state of affairs appeared to be continue in the same way it always has. Censorship is law and nudity (especially female nudity) is threatening and there’s nothing some naked academic clown can do about it. At least not immediately. I was still going to go through my show regardless of whether or not the laws would have the chance to change in alignment with my Performance Art for Social Change 52 performances. I had the ability to perform my show in an academic institution in its integrity (full nudity included) and I wasn’t going to stop for anything or anybody. The laws were adhered to, the liquor was kept far away and it was time to get back to business, show business. SCENE 3: GENEROSITY, “BOOBY TRAPS” AND AN ALMOST MISTAKE Run #2 of Genit-HELL YEAH! at the SOLO: One Actor, One Hour Festival INT. Black Box Theatre on State Street’s campus of Salt Lake Community College. This leads into the second run of Genit-HELL YEAH! Once the DABC (Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control) determined that my show was violating the alcohol laws in regards to public theatrical spaces, Salt Lake Community College graciously opened its doors. The new “free the nipple” ruling was fresh in everyone’s minds as evidenced by the countless private messages, shared articles, curious inquiries and wildfire spreading of the newscasts about the ruling in my feed and blowing up my phone. With the outpouring of questioning coming directly to me from countless sources, I did my best to plan and strategize alongside a team of trusted individuals (who prefer not to be named) on how to best deliver the information to the public. This included a public cancelling of the aforementioned march (entitled, “We’ve Graduate-Tit”) here and a written clarification on the importance of cancelling during this critical time. This written public statement included a strong advisory for any human wanting to take the law into their own hands and a conscious reminder of the populations most at risk for perpetuating tata-freeing behavior in a state where it’s not yet recognized as constitutional. This became inseparable from my show due to a sudden broad public awareness that what I was doing was not only getting naked because my show demanded it, but getting naked to assert my right as an American female bodied performance artist to make a choice. That choice was to not give up on nudity as a statement. It was also to assert that nudity is not inherently sexual, but incredibly Performance Art for Social Change 53 powerful. This statement combined with the sudden surge in nipple freeing behavior caused me to become front and center for so many in Salt Lake City. It also demanded clarification and answers to keep people safe and to keep my performance community aware that we are certainly not anywhere near done with the fight for pasties and G-strings, let alone nipples in the state of Utah. Following the added drama of an almost detrimental march, I decided that I must make the appropriate changes to my show in order to raise awareness of what was actually going on with the new free the nipple jurisdiction. If burlesque as an art form rested on being socially relevant, politically poignant and radically educational, then by my bustier I better buckle down and figure out how to incorporate something as relevant as #freethenipple into my work (Siebler, 2015). I took this unforeseen opportunity to add yet another interactive piece to the performance art puzzle of Genit-HELL YEAH! and created a pile of “booby traps” at the door of the show. A “booby trap” was a modified bra that had pom-pom nipples and felt areolas glued to the outside of the cups. Every single bra that was modified came from a donation directly to me after I put out a clarion call on social media asking for help with “a super-secret sex project.” Bras started to roll in from unexpected places. I had bra sizes ranging from A-H and boxes arrived from Las Vegas, Arizona, California and all over Utah to support the cause, which was still a total secret! I didn’t want to spoil the surprise I was including for the second run of Genit-HELL YEAH! and wanted to let prior audience members know that even if they had come to the first run, the show is indeed different every time and featured a whole new interactive aspect to be not only politically relevant, but socially safeguarding for the misinformation and overexcitement of a ruling that occurred in a different place, but had implications for our state. Just…NOT YET. Performance Art for Social Change 54 Each person (male or female bodied) was asked to pick and don a “booby trap” throughout the run of the show with no explanation other than a hypnotic pink and blue spiral sign that stated, “Take ONE Booby Trap, Put it On.” After my sound and lighting technician ensured that each “booby trap” was on and utilized in the “appropriate” fashion. We started the show. The audience was fully equipped with pom-pom nips and ready to rock and roll. We were going to get real relevant, real soon. The nature of burlesque’s need to be relevant kept coming to the forefront of my decision to include a new interactive piece in my work. The #freethenipple drama brought in conversations around feminism, the body and access to freedoms that one portion of the population takes for granted while the other part of the population blindly accepts. It is the blind acceptance and the lack of questioning that burlesque creates opposition to. Burlesque for me began to be as it was in the early days, a way to say the things we can’t normally say and a form of art that is subversive enough to point the finger back at the law and unabashedly reveal what is wrong with the current state of affairs. The provoking of current events couldn’t have been more perfectly timed. My show’s political relevance was felt as many of the audiences were keen on asking questions regarding the new tata policy and revealing their shock to me after I was finished being on stage. I felt like Lydia Thompson stepping into her role of political provocateur and was ready to begin the second run of my show. I performed two shows in the Black Box Theatre space of Salt Lake Community College. The seating was raked and the space fit the theatrical standard more than the seating during my first run in the Gateway where we filled an empty restaurant full of audience members and all my props were stored unceremoniously in the ghostly remains of a full-service kitchen. The inclusion of the “booby traps” was utilized by some audience members as part of their interactive Performance Art for Social Change 55 choices while others fought with their bra straps and ended up holding them in their laps throughout the duration of the show. Once the show ended I included a new piece of the monologue which spoke to the “free the nipple” ruling’s limitations and reiterated the importance of social consciousness at this time including the awareness that the show they just witnessed broke every law on the books and only occurred because the team at Wasatch Theatre Company worked to protect the delivery of my art by putting it into the academic context of a community college instead of a Utah controlled traditional theatrical space. Burlesque was alive and well, I was bothering the status quo, I was provoking current events and the audience was along for the ride (Butler, A., 2014). I then asked the audience if they would consent to taking a selfie in their “booby traps” with me that I would then share on social media following the production as a thank you to the donators and generous contributors of the “booby traps.” The selfie fueled practice of notorious actors, actresses, musicians and superstars is a common occurrence for patrons of the arts in this new digital age. This particular selfie displayed a visual symbol of solidarity for the presence of political activism in art and the social lens of Salt Lake City. The images taken directly after each show posed a direct question in regards to the concept of “lewdness” and “public decency” standards wherein real people in real time were donning their stance on nipples visually in an artistic and academic space in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Blue Laws were in the forefront of my mind as were the numerous inquiries on how and why I was able to “get away with nudity.” I laughed and stated, “I’m not getting away with anything, I’m just playing the game better by their own rules.” This usually incited lots of laughter, but it is true. I was breaking every law on the books according to “lewdness” (except for the inclusion of alcohol in the space) because I was protected under the umbrella of art. I wanted my audiences to see and understand this, so Performance Art for Social Change 56 that the conversations could keep being had around the nature of burlesque as art and why more burlesque shows aren’t happening with pasties and G-strings and why this choice is allowed in the majority of the United States, yet still not in Utah. My burlesque is here to raise awareness on choice and voice and the political relevance of this ruling couldn’t be ignored or passed up. The audiences thanked me profusely, they insisted on the importance of my work, they loved being included in a call to action and awareness on the part of “free the nipple” for their home city and SLCC (Salt Lake Community College) fully supported the project. It was this response to the work I was doing that continued to spur me forward in reflecting on how the nature of my work was currently being interpreted. I continued to analyze how my work fit into the umbrella of burlesque (currently as well as historically) as I adapted it to fit the current political situation at hand.. In my research, I realized that my particular attraction to burlesque coincided more with the work being done in neo-burlesque circles (Siebler, 2015). This included calls to social and contemporary injustices as well as the nature of the work to speak to things that aren’t spoken about. I had reflected on both the enormous outpouring of support during the first run and worked in current events during the second run as a way to connect burlesque, drag and clown work to politics and prove that these arts are indeed socially relevant to not only Salt Lake City, but to our combined world experience. It was time to continue asserting burlesque as a means of contemporary education for audiences that were hungry for work with a message. Success? Right? Not quite. I realized in my attempts to push my personal political agenda forward that I was blindly ignorant to numerous factors affecting the broader populations of Utah. Social change, education, activism, art, passion and determination fueled me in such beautiful ways, but my ignorance crushed me. I recalled my conversation with the trans individual at the end of my first Performance Art for Social Change 57 run and reflected on my personal need to be more cognizant of the various interlocking communities at play including sex workers, strippers, marginalized communities and other artists. The worst part about realizing my blind foray into politics and pushing my personal agenda…I thought I was smarter than this. I thought I was more aware of the implications of art and calls to action. The activist in me pounded her fists on the floor of the theatre screaming to the muse, “Why didn’t you tell me before? I feel like an idiot!” Yes, I had success. Yes I had the biggest audiences within the “SOLO: One Actor, One Hour” festival run, but I felt defeated by my own lack of awareness and forethought. The things I considered my biggest assets and strengths (the brain, the heart and their connection) had turned against me and I had to do damage control to not accidentally put anyone else in danger for my platform of pastie-clad performance art. The dangers of art, the resistance to art and freedom of speech reared their ugly heads again like the hydra that just won’t die, but this time it was self-inflicted. I had done this to myself for not paying close enough attention to all the pieces on the metaphorical chess board. The queen had been captured and it felt like the state of Utah was just one step away from a “Check Mate” and all I could do was sit amongst my props and try to strategize my next move. ACT II: THE SOCIAL STRATA OF SALT LAKE CITY SCENE 1: POST THEATRE SPACE DEPRESSION (A THESPIAN’S P.T.S.D.) INT. A dimly lit bar in Murray, Utah. A velvet red curtain with gold trim encloses a stage. A burlesque performer sits staring at a karaoke list with only one name…Madazon Can-Can. Back to the Prohibition, back to the bars, back to “reality.” Sure I had just performed my show in an academic institution, sure I had just moved a room full of audience members to a standing ovation (again), I had made well over a thousand dollars (the most I’d ever made in any performance context) but why did it feel so empty. Why did the moment I’d been waiting for Performance Art for Social Change 58 feel, for lack of a better word, anticlimactic. One word kept coming to the surface for me…awareness. AH-HA! Yes, I get it now, but not really. I can’t truly get it without reflecting on not only my interpretations of what occurred throughout both runs of my show, but also the reflections of audience members who came to my show and the public responses from theatre bloggers, the press, other students, colleagues and potential future venues. I sat staring at my screen night after night. Writing and writing and writing and then writing some more. There were so many moving parts to this. The work, the politics, the activism, the audiences, the interpretations, the implications, the future, specifically my future. And the cursor kept blinking like a spontaneous heartbeat begging me to put down my findings on a page to keep the experience alive for just a bit longer. I kept thinking. The benefit to being a fool is you don’t register immediately when you’re behaving foolishly. The negative side to this coin is that it takes a minute for that critical word mentioned earlier to catch up…awareness. What did I want to bring awareness to and how could I do it? The audiences were moved, but the specifics of the kind of moving were what my primary concern were. The questions flooded my head and crowded any sense of reason as I was still reeling from realizing the implications of my own ignorance. What exactly was I trying to bring awareness to and why. I began to recall specific conversations surrounding my work after the shows. Most responses were incredibly supportive. There was an outpouring of gratitude at the end of each show, which moved me deeply as an artist. The words of gratitude included phrases like, “Thank you!” “This is so needed here.” “I wish my children could have seen this.” The words, “pioneer” and “trailblazer” were attributed to my work by numerous individuals. The original founders of the Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival stated, “We need more of this work here.” Each positive Performance Art for Social Change 59 response rested in some way in the realms of gratitude or the recognition of lack or comments on my personal courage and bravery for creating this kind of theatre in Utah. The concept of bravery kept being brought up not only after the shows, but in the other inquiries from students and the press. Kara Rhodes, a writer for City Weekly stated: Madazon Can-Can has a clear mission: To push the envelope and challenge Utah's stodgy laws—one pasties-clad performance at a time. Case in point: Genit-HELL YEAH!, their one-person show birthed from a master's thesis. After being shooed away from The Gateway (the DABC and even hinted nudity don't mix, kids), it has found a home at Salt Lake Community College—along with the rest of Wasatch Theatre Co.'s Solo Series. "When the going gets tough, apparently academia gets going," Can-Can jokes. In a frank chat with City Weekly, Can-Can talked about walking the line between censorship and artistic expression, the need for community and their unwavering mission to "change things with tits." (Rhodes, 2019) The subtext to the written statement above was the writer’s interest in how my work even came to be, how I as a Salt Lake City resident for my entire life became brave enough to create a world that simply wasn’t there and still isn’t accepted. I keep saying, “It’s tough” and that is an incredible understatement. It’s nearly impossible. There are barriers to absolutely everything I’ve done and continue to do. I create art in resistance and I create art for change using the medium of my nude body. The generalized fear of naked bodies perpetuates the state of nudity as being a “brave act” where I believe it’s simply a social structure designed to control freedom of expression. I say concept of bravery here because the general notion of this word indicates that there must be a distinct act of courage that incites my desire for nude performance. Performance Art for Social Change 60 My desire to be nude has less to do with bravery and more to do with choice and control. I’m not brave because I decide to perform nude, I’m consciously enacting my right to do and say or not say whatever I want with the body that I’ve been given. The knowledge that my choice to be nude or to engage in what is deemed ‘sexual performance’ is constantly seen as a threat in my city of residence is exactly why burlesque has and continues to see a resurgence. Within my work as a burlesque artist in this city for the past five years there has been exponential interest in the shows that are occurring. More performers are wanting to engage in burlesque all the time and more venues are coming to the forefront showing interest than ever before. The thing that keeps getting in the way is the law. The demand from the contemporary Salt Lake City context supports burlesque as an art form and a vehicle for social change, the law just needs to finally catch up. Burlesque can be sexual or not, it can empower or disempower, but the resounding reflection from patrons, performers and critics alike is that the choice involved in every aspect of burlesque performance, production and art is what keeps it relevant (Butler, 2014). SCENE 2: CODE OF CONDUCT AND THE CLARION CALL OF “CONTEMPORARY” INT. A “Pleasers” box sits beside a suit and tie that was just taken off of an off-duty mortgage consultant. A male exotic dancer checks his shorts one more time and struts his way to the pole in the middle of a bar in Murray, Utah. The wording of the Utah Code around conduct (see appendix B) fluttered its way back to my brain. The code states: (1) As used in this section, "obscene" means that: (a) the average individual, applying contemporary community standards, would find the conduct or material, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest; Performance Art for Social Change 61 (b) the conduct or material depicts or describes sexual conduct in a patently offensive way; and (c) the conduct or material, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. I held onto the idea of the “average individual” applying “contemporary” community standards and just couldn’t wrap my mind around why we as a city are still locked into the antiquated standards around performance and nudity, including in spaces where this should not only be accepted, but celebrated as the case was with the Wasatch Theatre Company. This combined with the presence of alcohol laws makes thriving as a naked performance artist in Utah statistically difficult (unlikely) if not impossible. Unless of course you are a sexually oriented business entertainer, which has its own set of challenges related to control and choice as well. The confusion around this code and the responses to my show as well as to the other burlesque shows I had been performing in for the past few years proved that there were other factors at play here. Especially if obscenity as defined by this section of the Utah code relies on the average individual and current community standards. Current means occurring or belonging to the present. The majority of conversations I’ve had, not just in performance venues, but with fellow colleagues, educators, academics, scientists and audiences in the present context have indicated anything but contentment with the standards as outlined above. The majority of audience members exhibit frustration or downright shock that we can’t do pasties and G-strings as burlesque performers in the state of Utah. At least without some incredible restrictions that satisfy the parameters of the Blue Laws, which the majority of patrons have no idea even exist. Blue Laws is the colloquial term for the “lewdness” and “public decency” laws addressed earlier in this paper and in Appendices A and B. This audience reaction of disappointment is related to Performance Art for Social Change 62 me as an emcee after I’m off the mic through countless questions as to why we don’t do burlesque “like other states.” The response to a lack of pasties and G-strings is associated with “Boos” or “Awwws” or yelling obscenities during a show. Every time I bring the Blue Laws up to an audience, the reaction is the same…they don’t like it. This then brought about that word again…awareness. The trick to change, real and permanent social change for the current performance art community as well as the up and coming performance artists is to create the awareness necessary to change the conversations around art and the codes that conduct and control it. This brings in a bigger conversation around the nature of burlesque as well. Burlesque doesn’t have to include nudity at all, but what is at the crux of my particular frustration is the choice around whether or not I choose (as a performance artist) to incorporate nudity because I have the freedom to do so (Siebler, 2015). I want the choice and I want that choice to be protected whether I’m naked or covered head to toe in fleece. Burlesque’s inclusion of stripping to nudity didn’t come about until after the collapse of Vaudeville. Ironically, I remain more true to the origins of burlesque (Vaudeville to the 1930’s) if I don’t take my clothes off. This knowledge combined with the Utah state code provides me with the fuel for my frustration that I’ve felt since deciding I needed to dedicate my work to change and to art. The conversations must occur in order to raise awareness in order to create change. I sat down, I continued to write, I made more costumes and I certainly wasn’t done yet. As the second run of Genit-HELL YEAH! came to a close in the academic theatre venue of a community college, three students reached out to me with various inquiries regarding burlesque performance, activism and projects they were completing for school. The first was a man in a documentary photography and film class at SLCC who reached out specifically to Performance Art for Social Change 63 document the final run of my show. He also interviewed me as part of a collaborative film project with a partner of his to discuss the evolution of performance art in SLC. It turned out that his film partner had done quite a bit of work around sex education and was fascinated by the proposition of asking my political opinions in connection to burlesque specifically. The second student was a fellow performer colleague of mine who needed to do a personality profile for her videography final and decided to feature me in my home space as well as my work regarding clowning specifically. This then led to questions about my show and how it connected to my work as an educator as well. The last inquiry was from a student in the University of Utah’s Modern Dance Program who decided to write her final paper on burlesque. She had already interviewed another dancer working in the burlesque world in Utah, but reached out to me specifically for my knowledge surrounding the general history as well as Utah history and dynamics specifically. The interest from students working in the academic system and the thoughtful way they approached my work including recognizing it’s importance and its validity to the context of Utah and the fact that they were even interested in featuring myself and my work as a topic of study further solidified that not only was my work necessary, it was actually interesting. I’d never considered myself particularly interesting, but the inquiries just kept coming in and they haven’t stopped. At least once a week, I am stopped and asked if I will be running my show again. I just wrapped up on an interview with a film producer and film professor covering “Genit-HELL YEAH!” and its implications for my career moving forward. I have begun researching even more venues that are open to full nudity in attempts to book my show here in Salt Lake City because as I’m writing this paper, I’ve had three people at social events ask if there was going to be another run and two of them had already seen it. Performance Art for Social Change 64 ACT III: ADVOCACY FOR AWARENESS IN ARTISTIC PRACTICE SCENE 1: HISTORY, CONTEXT AND INTENTION (AWARENESS) EXT. The Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center where Utah-based burlesque legend Dee Milo and Dirty Martini performed in 2007. Madazon stands outside scheming of a way to bring burlesque back to theatre venues… pasties and G-strings required. It is critical at this point to revisit the history. I am working in a field that has been controlled by men for the majority of recent history. Vaudeville was directed by men and when stripping became a mainstay for Vaudeville, the shows were created for the male gaze (Siebler, 2015). Though female bodies are primarily the ones on stage, men are often the ones pulling the strings either through production, management, bookings, etc. Neo burlesque has changed this conversation immensely, but only started gaining momentum in the nineties when competing philosophies surfaced from New York and abroad (Siebler, 2015). When the neo-burlesque movement hit New York City, humor and social critique were the main sources of inspiration. No longer did corsets and garter belts dominate stages, angry bodies and ugly faces, president acts and pop culture stripteases ruled supreme in the underground burlesque circles. I have realized the amount of ground I have broken for myself and also for Salt Lake City after I found my home in neo-burlesque, but none of it exists in a vacuum. Realizing this