September 2011 - Billtown Burlesque
Jenn Johnson of Billtown Burlesque recently gave me an insiders look at their troupe and what brought them to where they are today and where they hope to be in the future. Burlesque is making a comeback across the nation, and Billtown Burlesque Troupe is providing a wonderful forum for entertainment, community, and creative expression for Williamsport, PA and surrounding areas.
AUM:When did Billtown Burlesque first come together? Who are the members?
Jenn: The group first came together in the beginning of 2011 when the idea of a burlesque show was presented as a fundraising idea for the soon to be on-air WXPI community radio station. We enlisted volunteers to promote the show as 1940s style “cigarette” girls who solicited donations for the radio station by selling candy or roses on First Fridays. Staging Tableaux Vivant scenes in a local downtown window attracted attention to the group and increased interest in potential performers. Many of the people now involved with the troupe were “recruited” through the fun ways the fundraising show was promoted.
Being a volunteer organization, the members fluctuate according to interest in and availability for performance. There is a “circle of captains” group of people who attend the meetings and execute organizational duties, as well as perform. Also, there are people that are included as part of the group of regular performers that independently develop their acts for the shows.
The circle of captains are:
*Mathias Lovemotor is the creative and technical director due to his experience with professional level performance from years working with a circus.
*Robyn Shanahan is the meetings organizer & workshops coordinator.
*David Whitman is promotions manager.
*Laura Knaur & Dawn Marie are the charity outreach coordinators.
*Jennifer Johnson is the media administrator and the costume/prop/set design coordinator.
*Dan Mason is content adviser.
These are not so much job titles as they are roles that volunteers were already fulfilling within the group according to their interests and abilities.
Other performers from the past or the future include; singer Antares J Barr, illusionist Steve Hyde, the hula hooping “Amazing Amanda Panda” (Eisner), Tristan “Divo” Lee, Stacie Hornberger, Jesse Houser, The Rollergirls, drag queen Scarlett Feva, Joclyn & Josh, Tiffany & Ryan, singer Mandy Ybarra, musician Caleb Banas, and singer Tai Harris.
AUM: Who is the creative force behind the skits/performances? Is it a collaborative effort or is there a main creative director?
Jenn:The creative force is mostly a collaborative effort. We meet and collectively present and develop ideas with creative direction from Mathias.
AUM: What would be your main goal as a group? As individuals?
Jenn: The main goal for the group currently is to transition our volunteer group into a professional organization. We intend to do this by: self organizing the group along egalitarian lines, honing our stage skills, developing individuals’ characters, building a repertoire of acts, recruiting of more talent and technicians, practicing a professional welcoming environment by routinely engaging in group improvisation exercises, and finding a “home” which would be a place to rehearse, to offer workshops, store equipment/props/sets/costumes, as well as perform.
AUM: How do you envision Billtown Burlesque? How do you bring your audience into that vision?
Jenn: The Billtown Burlesque troupe is envisioned as a welcoming, inspirational modern expression of a classically humorous and sexy art form, encompassing a wide range of performance styles. Beauty is more than skin deep and radiates outward from the spirits of everyone who realizes how wonderful they are. We seek to encourage the discovery of the joy of diversity and create a medley of various forms of sexiness and humor. We bring our audience into our vision by maintaining an open casting policy and offering workshops on performance skills like belly dancing to help interested participants gain confidence to be on stage. We encourage performers and participants to follow their hearts and live their dreams, helping everyone to realize and embrace their own individual brand of allure, through limitless acceptance and love toward all, no matter their outward form.
AUM: Imagine you had unlimited funds to put on the perfect production without inhibitions. Describe that idealistic production for me.
Jenn: The ideal would be to be able to have a place where Billtown Burlesque rehearses and performs regularly, in a historically appropriate location—such as an actual theatre or club that is designed for such productions with lighting and sound equipment. With unlimited funds there would be a way to pay people who specialize in set decoration and construction, design costumes specifically for numerous acts, technical people to operate lights and sound, and performers with amazing skills. The sets would include ambitiously designed things such as a giant martini glass for someone to striptease in, or a swing for a more acrobatic act. Although we always aim to produce a show that is at a level of quality found in larger markets, it would be great to have the physical assets that make it easier to implement.
AUM: What is one of your favorite skits? Why is that one feature the highlight above others for you?
Jenn: I like the variety we present in the shows, with humor being dominant in some acts, sexiness in others, and seriousness in some, or amazing skills, like Amanda Panda’s hooping act. Many people have responded favorably to “The Pussycat Song” act, because with its not so subtle double entendre it is a perfect mix of funny and naughty. The use of comedy to make a pointed statement about a serious subject in the “Texacon Employee of the Month” skit was another local favorite, in which a prone Barbie symbolically represented the public being taken advantage of by the types of companies the fictitious “Texacon” symbolizes by being drilled “right in the gashole” by an audience volunteer.
AUM: Billtown Burlesque is still quite young as a group. Where do you see the troupe a year from now? Five years?
Jenn: A year from now the troupe would be at least self-sustaining enough to be released from under the WXPI fundraising umbrella. We wouldn’t have existed without their creation, but we’d like to be able to produce and perform shows independently. Five years would see us in a permanent “home” and being profitable enough that Billtown Burlesque could be our source of income, and we could quit our “day jobs”.
AUM: What type of impact would you like to make on your community?
Jenn: The impact we would like to have on the community would be to promote awareness of social issues, using comedy to make pointed commentary on such things like the environment, homelessness, or domestic violence, and to raise money for local charities that address these things. We would establish ourselves as a promoter of sexiness and confidence building by bringing an innovative from of entertainment to an area that hardly sees the idea of unlimited artistic freedom of expression. To bring local musicians, artists, dancers and business owners of the community together under one common ideal of reinvigorating the public’s perception of burlesque would be another influence on the community. We celebrate all forms of beauty and teach that “everything is possible” and will actively help those less fortunate in the eyes of society by giving them inspiration and the confidence to live out their dreams.
AUM: What is in your immediate future performance-wise? What's next for Billtown Burlesque?
Jenn: In our immediate future performance-wise is an appearance at local establishment Barrel 135 on Friday September 2nd. Our next big production is a Zombie Burlesque themed night planned for October 22nd at Club Z to coordinate with the Halloween holiday. A New Years Eve “Funky Disco Burlesque” is also proposed.
ॐ An Underground Mainstream ॐ
Billtown Burlesque is a volunteer group of performers who are eager to realize their vision of starting a professional burlesque troupe based in Williamsport, PA
http://billtownburlesque.weebly.com/index.html
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Billtown-Burlesque/200514953317363?sk=wall
Interviewer, LeeAnn Hively-Insalaco, is a contributing writer for An Underground Mainstream and a participant and occasional host on The Collective Perspective.