Philadelphia is getting a generous helping of New York’s queer performance-arts scene with “Round Up Holler Girl,” a three-person performance at the Kelly Writer’s House Feb. 20.
Dan Fishback, an ArtsEdge resident and a well-known performer in the East Village’s anti-folk movement, organized the show, which will feature performances by himself and fellow performance artists Max Steele and Erin Markley.
Fishback said he set up the show to expose Philadelphia to some of the performers popular in New York City’s queer performance-art arena.
“I wanted to bring two of my favorite performance artists from New York City so people can get a sense of what kind of work is being made,” he said. “I’ve invited them to come and read work. Erin, Max and I are all performance artists and theater-makers and usually do things that are in between genres. It’s an opportunity to focus on ourselves as writers and for us all to investigate each others’ work on a literary level and not on a performance level.”
Fishback said that so far he hasn’t seen anything like New York’s queer performance-art scene in Philadelphia, but he’s been a little too busy to do any substantial searching.
“I’m living in Philadelphia while on the residency but I’m not really ‘living’ here in a way. I haven’t really investigated the Philly scene as much as I want to. My very uneducated sense of the Philly queer performance scene is that it’s a lot of traditional drag. In New York, it is very theater-based. But I’m reconsidering my definition of these things. The queer performance scene in New York is more lively than it has been in a long time. Erin and Max and I have sort of come up in the scene in our 20s over the past decade from a time where there wasn’t a lot of stuff going on. Now it feels like there’s a thriving performance culture.”
All three performers agreed they take their performances seriously, but have elements of dark humor in them.
“I’m on the obscure comedy side, but it’s also a little dark,” Markley said about her styles.
“We all consider our work serious but also incorporating elements of tragic comedy,” Steele added. “There’s a certain amount of gravity in terms of content.”
“The great thing about Max and Erin is they are both hilarious but they also both deal with serious stuff,” Fishback said. “Max’s stuff is often really erotic, but he always uses sexuality as a way to deal with larger issues about what human beings are and how our identity functions. Erin is one of the funniest performers you will encounter, but a lot of her work also deals with really heavy issues. I think all three of us straddle all those things. I think all three of us find it difficult to discuss anything without injecting some humor.”
Another element the three have in common is rich backgrounds in the world of music and theater.
Fishback is the creator of major works including “You Will Experience Silence” and “thirtynothing” and has also toured North America and Europe with his band, Cheese of Bread. Markley has taken her conceptual musical performances around the world. Steele is known for his go-go dancing gigs and his porno poetry zine, “Scorcher.”
Fishback said all three artists draw upon their various artistic pursuits for their performance art.
Added Matkley,“We all sort of mush it together. All of my theater shows have had music in them. I think we’re all attracted to the art forms we are attracted to because there are no rules. We can do all of the things we like to do all at the same time. Music is a huge part of all of our lives and so is writing and so is theater. All three of us are finding ways to do all the things we like to do and all of us have healthy disregard for the limits of genre.”
“We’re all singers but I have a belt-y approach to it. It’s kind of classic. I will probably be doing some singing [in the show]. We’re all a very different kind of 21st-century diva. I’m not exactly sure of how to put my finger on exactly what that is.”
Said Steele, “We’ve definitely done shows on the same bill a great number of times in the past. We’ve collaborated on projects together. We all tend to work in the same mix of venues in New York. Dan has worked for a long time as a musician in rock clubs. Erin and I performed in more disco or cabaret venues as well. We have a similar mix of references.”
Fishback said he hopes the Kelly Writer’s House will spark something artistically — either here or in New York.
“I think we’re at a really exciting moment in queer performance and a lot of great stuff is going on all the time,” he said. “If that inspires anyone to take the cheap bus up and see some stuff, that would be great. I get the sense that there’s a lot of great stuff happening here as well that has a different flavor to it. It would be great for the two things to inform each other.”
Steele said while New York is a hotbed for the kind of performance scene they all are a part of, it isn’t wholly unique to that area.
“I think the big benefit of living in New York is having access to the people here,” he said. “You get to connect with artists and their work at a more developmental stage than you might be able to in other cities. But that being said, New York is an insane place to live. It’s often said that moving to New York isn’t what it used to be and that there are many other cities artists can go to and have a much more livable life. I don’t think New York is the only possible place you can do this kind of work. My reasons for living in New York are so that I can be around other artists whose work I admire. But it’s always a tradeoff. Living here is so expensive that you have to make some real concessions in order to stay here.”
Markley echoes that sentiment that New York City is equal-parts hotbed and cruel mistress to the arts scene.
“Nurture is a strong word but it definitely tolerates us,” she said about the city. “The underlying vibe of New York is like pulsating ambition, and I think it really runs through every industry. It doesn‘t matter if you‘re working on Wall Street or writing really ridiculous songs for an audience of 10. The ambitiousness is really present and I think we keep each other honest and on top of things in that way, because the more work you make, the more you learn about who you are and what you want.”
Catch “Round Up Holler Girl” 6 p.m. Feb. 20 at Kelly Writer’s House, 3805 Locust Walk. For more information, visit www.sas.upenn.edu/gsws/content/round-holler-girl.