Brava is proud to present Bitch! Dyke! Faghag! Whore! (B!D!F!W!) as its first main stage production of its 2008-2009 season. After touring 22 cities around the world, Brava is excited to bring this groundbreaking work to San Francisco audiences.
"In a town that is so progressive, I was surprised that this show still hadn't made it to San Francisco so when I was creating my first season as the Artistic Director at Brava, I made sure that it was scheduled in this season," says Raelle Myrick-Hodges, the Artistic Director at Brava.
In 1990, during the Senator Helms' National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Censorship Crisis, performance artist Penny Arcade submitted her Sex and Censorship Show, B!D!F!W! as her NEA Fellowship audit. Although B!D!F!W!, which is a blend of political humanism and erotic dancing, was not awarded a fellowship, it did go on to play for an unprecedented year Off-Broadway in New York as an underground hit and then went on the road and became a commercial mainstream hit play in 22 cities around the world, turning the political correctness of the theatre world upside down, and heralding the zeitgeist as B!D!F!W! proved that content and sensationalism cannot co-exist. Irish grandmothers, to people of all ages, from all walks of life joined Penny Arcade and her cast of erotic dancers on stage for the audience dance break at the center of the performance.
B!D!F!W! went on to establish erotic dance as a feminist art form and the comedic cultural criticism broke down the separation and isolation between people of diverse racial, ethnic, sexual and economic groups and left an international Neo Burlesque Movement in its wake.
Sixteen years later, after the highly successful remounting of B!D!F!W! in Los Angeles in 2006 as Outfest Film Festival's Platinum Presentation and again in 2007 at NY's Speigeltent , B!D!F!W! proved that it was light years before it's time, and remains as relevant today as it was in 1990-1995.
For the first time ever Bitch! Dyke! Faghag! Whore! is being presented in San Francisco at Brava Theatre Center for nine performance. Over 20,000 people have seen this show world wide and it's style and effects have entered the mainstream through nightclubs, MTV, and popular entertainment everywhere. It's style has effected and influenced several generations of artists and theatre makers the world over but very few have been able to successfully insert content and meaning while creating adult entertainment. Penny Arcade's message of unity and tolerance for others is more necessary today than ever.
You will laugh till you cry and yes, you will weep at the moving humanity of the work. Come experience the wit and wisdom of Penny Arcade and the magnetic stage presence that has made her an international performance icon.
Penny Arcade hires local erotic dancers in every city she presents B!D!F!W! redeeming these dancers and their art form in the eyes of their own communities. The public auditions for the show February 7, 2009 are open to the press as Penny Arcade orients the chosen dancers to her theatrical philosophy.
AUDITIONS:
Sat, Feb 7, 2009 1pm
Brava Theater Center
2781 24TH Street @ York
San Francisco, CA 94110
