BEHOLD
A Queer Performance Festival

Experience a panoply of radical spiritual/spirited witnessing through song, dance and performance by fiery gospel slangers, hot homo pagans, and much more!

See below for detailed schedule.

Tickets for all performances are $20 general admission and $15 for members/students/seniors for all events unless otherwise noted.  An all-access pass is available for $75. 

Monday, July 19 @ 7-10pm
Venturing Out Movement Workshop
Facilitated by jhon r. stronks, this movement/ dialogue workshop is designed to facilitate the creation of performance work that considers the whole body as the container for what is experienced. Using sensation based improvisation and authentic movement techniques the workshop participants will be encouraged to physically experiment with stories, songs or sound. These experimental experiences will then be crafted into a performance score, and interested workshop participants will be invited to perform on Thursday evening’s program. There is no experience necessary just an interest and a willingness to engage the physical experience.
$20 suggested donation / to register email: workshop@highwaysperformance.org

Thursday, July 22 @ 8:30 pm
jhon r. stronks’ Love and incarceration Chapter 11: the bankruptcy of righteousness + wrongdoing
This collaborative work builds on a foundation of improv techniques. bell hooks’ “All about Love” meets Angela Davis’ “Prison Industrial Complex.” Asking the question “So, What do we do?” Choreographer stronks liberates his willful followers of loving action from the temples of their hearts and sends them head first into a world of filled confusion and requests they do nothing less then dance for their lives.

Friday, July 23 @ 8:30 pm
HANK HENDERSON’s Greetings from the Fugue State: Stories of a life survived
Henderson’s work is based on the gay male experience - both personal + that of thosewho have passed through + orbited around his life.

Saturday, July 24 @ 8:30pm
IAN MACKINNON’s Gay Hist-orgy
With the aid of a pair of cyber-sexual time traveling briefs, and his sexy Genie guide, performance artist Ian MacKinnon cruises Gay history for the ultimate f*ck in his brand new multi-media one-man show that covers thousands of years of homo-history and is informative, dirty, fabulous, and fun.

Featuring hot histo-graphic encounters with Gay icons such as: Plato, Rumi, Abraham Lincoln, Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, Fredrick the Great, Edward Carpenter, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, Harry Hay, Allen Ginsberg, and more!

Saturday, July 24 @ 10pm
SOUNDS OF ASTEROTH’s Into The Fluorescence: an inter-galactic love story
This rock musical comes complete with original music, saucy dancers, dark humor + a heavy sprinkling of glitter!

Sunday, July 25 @ 3pm
COREY SAUCIER’s Beautiful Abomination: From Scripture to Philosophy to Poetic Prose
Join in the Journey of the 13th Apostle. Saucier weaves a multidisciplinary performance piece of Spoken Word, Dance, Song, and Dramatic Monologue to express a personal story of Redemption, Hope, and Laughter through Brutal Addiction, Full Blown (do people still say that?) AIDS, and Graphic Sexual Shame; all from the perspective of a Fundamental African-American Queer Progressive Christian who wears Pink a lot, has a fondness for the word “Beautiful,” and the attention span of a sixteen year old Prom Queen! The ideas of Faith and Sexuality have been in opposition since the beginning of time, but this Spiritual Philosopher straddles between both worlds as if he were born to stand there.  This is the story that was never told: where God and Sex and Love are all compose of the same grey matter. Think Existentialism with a Pop Princess Twist!

Monday, July 26 @ 7:30 pm
QUEER MONDAYS
Un-Curated by Ian MacKinnon. A non-elitist LGBT experimental performance series on the last Monday of every month. It's an ever-changing grab bag of short pieces and happenings that has something for everyone and you never know what you're gonna get! QM is dedicated to providing a consistent venue for the development of new queer work, and is open to all artistic disciplines.  $5 minimum

Friday, July 30 @ 8:30pm
ALEX DAVIS’ Man of the Year
The son of acclaimed actor Brad Davis, is a transman to be reckoned with.  Directed by theater veteran Michael Kearns, Man of the Year incorporates original music and narrative to tell the story of what happens to a family when they realize that living in hiding is no longer an option, and ambitious transitions are needed to lead a revolution on more than one front. (luckyalex.com)
Featuring opening act ANGELICA ROSS.

Saturday, July 31 @ 8:30pm
CHRIS DOGGETT’s Eartha Madre Rises from the Ashes: A Ceremony / A Performance / A Fire
Eartha Madre, a drag queen shamaness, returns to Highways from Hawaii and Peru to share and lead you into the Mysteries of the Jungles and High Mountains of Peru and the wild lava fields of the Big island of Hawaii.  Come ready to release the junk not serving you and call forth your wildest dreams.

Saturday, July 31 @ 11pm - 11am
Templum Somnium: a sleepover / a dream temple
An experiential journey for healing in the ancient Greek tradition.  Bring your sleeping bags or Gucci comforter to stay the night at Highways and we will tell and create stories and call forth dreams from the Goddesses, the Gods, and our departed Brothers and Sisters for healing, inspiration and transformation.  In the morning we will share our dreams and visions and a scrumptious breakfast!

Hosted and lead by Chris Doggett AKA Eartha Madre, a dreamworker and shaman in the New Mexican, Jungian and Peruvian traditions and Jason Thatcher, an energy/bodyworker and Devi extraordinaire!

Sunday, August 1 @ Noon – 4pm
Two-Spirited Spa Day - A Day of Healing, Play, Insights, Unraveling, and Fullness!

An afternoon of self-care and healing featuring treatments with Two-Spirit/LGBT healers and practitioners in the Arts of:

Reflexology
Clay Facial Masques
Intuitive Guidance
Chakra balancing ~ Crystal Healing
Soul Retrieval
Reconnective Healing
Aura Fluffing!
Soul Card Readings
Laser Coaching
Yogic Balancing
Psychic Readings & Wiccan Counseling
Soul Retrieval
And more!!!

...all targeted at reconnecting you with your own twin spirits, owning and integrating your wholeness.

Since ancient times, traditional societies all over the world highly respected, valued, and nurtured people who were born and lived with integrated masculine and feminine energies. Prior to the construction of modern terms such as “gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender”, these people were called by different names in many tribal languages—the winkte of the Lakota, the nadle of the Dine, and so forth—and held crucial roles in their societies. Endowed with the gifts of seeing into the future and communicating intimately with the forces of nature, these people were revered as healers and spiritual leaders.

Curated by Jason Thatcher and Chris Doggett both gifted healers and embodiments of those such as Bette Davis, Liz Trailer and Hindu Goddesses!

15 minute Sessions/Treatments  $10
or three for $25  

Sunday, August 1 @ 7:30pm
Blessed is the Blood: Queer Communion
Curated by RAQUEL GUTIERREZ.  Song, dance + performance by fiery gospel slangers + hot homo pagans, w/ JASPER JAMES, TRE VASQUEZ, SHAKINA NAYFACK, RAFA ESPARZA, DANIEL EDUJIYES CARRERA, MARCUS KUILAND-NAZARIO, QUEEN HOLLINS + more!

Monday, August 2 @ 7–10pm
TIM MILLER GAY MEN'S PERFORMANCE WORKSHOP
For gay men & queer boys to gather together and create community through performance. $20 Benefits Highways.  Registration required. Email: millerworkshop@highwaysperformance.org

In the gallery:
THE FAIROAKS PROJECT:
Photos by Frank Melleno
Opening Reception: Saturday, July 24 @ 7–8.30pm (featuring a musical performance by The Boyfriend)
An exhibition of Polaroid photographs taken by  Melleno during the spring and summer of 1978 at the Fairoaks Hotel, a San Francisco bathhouse.  Melleno’s snapshot aesthetic allows the viewer to wander the halls of bathhouse over 30 years ago and begin to understand the playful, buoyant mood that was shared by the partygoers.

Creative Provocateurs Vol. 3
J.M. Morris, Dennis Greene, and Nancy De Los Santos

Features J.M. MORRIS’ “I’m Just Sayin’:  Parts 3 & 4” with pieces ranging from satirical to serious, directed by renowned filmmaker, Charles Burnett; “The Forgotten” a new one act by writer-director, DENNIS GREENE featuring a riveting link to literary legend Zora Neale Hurston; and the debut of “The Jewelry Box” by NANCY DE LOS SANTOS, who writes and directs a collection of comedic and dramatic pieces that are theatrical takes on the trinkets we hold dear, or disdain. 

Fri + Sat 8:30pm $20/$15

Chaos Confounded:
A Benefit for Highways

Pioneering performance artist BARBARA T. SMITH and CHRISTEN SPERRY-GARCIA create a massive and bountiful benefit event, featuring an action-oriented installation coupled with a grand feast to honor the 21st Anniversary of Highways.  The proceeds from this event will help fund Highways’ 2010-11 programming.

Sat 7:30pm
$100 - Reservations Required

Oracle & Enigma
Katsura Kan

Master Butoh artist Katsura Kan returns to Los Angeles with new work exploring the body as a vehicle for spirit, psyche and history. Butoh, a surrealism of the body, aims to merge with the secrets of the self. Flesh as a vehicle for private and collective manifestations of spirit carries history through through space - the space we inhabit as mortal individual bodies and waves of collective endeavor stretching through time. As a dance Oracle & Enigma seeks to tease our individual and collective mythologies out of shared flesh. Audience and dancer collaborate in revealing that which is forgotten. The Oracular and the Enigmatic.

KATSURA KAN has made an indelible mark upon the history of contemporary dance. Kan, a master Butoh artist from the ranks of Japan’s first generation of Butoh Pioneers, has choreographed and performed across the globe employing Butoh as a gateway to the exploration of other performing arts and cultures. His March of 2007 performance at Highways Performance Space was listed by Los Angeles Times dance critic Lewis Segal as one of the top ten dance performances of the year. In 2009 Kan’s “Beckett Butoh Notation” work, based on a fusion of the work of Irish Nobel Prize winning writer Samuel Beckett and Tatsumi Hijikata (one of Butoh’s founding choreographers) was presented in Los Angeles, Colorado & New York.

Joining Kan will be a group of select dancers from Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Boulder Colorado, including HEYWARD BRACEY, ALLISON WYPER, SHARON STERN, ERIC LOSOYA, AZUMI OE, JOYCE LU, and MICHELLE LAI.

Fri + Sat 8:30pm $20/$15

The Emmett Till Project

KEVIN SPICER curates a group of artists presenting all-new work that explores the murder of a young African-American pre-teen in Mississippi on August 28, 1955.  Performances by MARY BROYARD, MERI NANA-AMA DANQUAH, BRIAN FREEMAN, LEVAN D. HAWKINS, JASON LUCKETT, JM MORRIS, PAUL OUTLAW, KEVIN SPICER, and PAT TAYLOR.

Check back for scheduling updates.

Accompanying the performance will be an installation of visual art themed around Civil Rights, including work by GEORGE EVANS, CANDACE HUNTER, ROBERT LOWDEN, and TONI SCOTT.

Fri + Sat 8:30pm $20/$15

Blondeniumiddlenowhere 
Vanessa Anspaugh & MGM

Santa Monica born, NYC based choreographer Anspaugh and San Francisco born, NYC trained and Los Angeles-Detroit-New York based danz group MGM present an evening of synthesized proscenium work. Work made in relation to the other, in relation to making work, in relation to being born 1979. Both create work from occurring interpersonal dynamics and unknown future archetypes.

vanessaanspaugh.com
www.moderngaragemovement.com

"We Are Weather" by Vanessa Anspaugh
A theatrical dance work that explores the ways we resist and simultaneously desire the dynamics of power and surrender that lie at the heart of intimacy. A trio, the piece subtly shifts the roles in this struggle between its three performers. By never declaring a single narrative center, the work underscores the plurality of meaning and experience at the heart of all human interactions. Through a continual wrestling with the temporal and spatial moment, the piece speaks of our attempts to manipulate and control the present in the face of an unamendable past and an unknowable future. At times wry and heartbreaking, We Are Weather exposes the terror and the pleasure of transcending our own subjectivity as we look to each other to find ourselves.
Performed by Aretha Aoki, Jmy Leary, and Lindsay Clark
Brooklyn Rail review


"Oneness: Making It with Love" by MGM
Alexander McQueen meets Isabella Blow and then they both kill themselves. H meets Q, they make out and have a baby. What happened in the 90's? The decade that hip hop and alternative rock became mainstream. 1992 was "Year of the Woman" and Paul Schimmel's "Helter Skelter: LA Art in the 1990s," Jan. 26-Apr. 26, at L.A. Museum of Contemporary Art.

Fri + Sat 8:30pm $20/$15

TONIGHT (dec 2008, NYC) by MGM Grand from Pieter on Vimeo.

Happy Ending
(Who Will Live, Will See)
John Sinner's Theatre Revelation

L.A. surrealist Sinner and his Theatre Revelation premiere this dark and disturbingly funny cocktail mix (equal measures Buñuel, Balzac and Lucille Ball) about an apocalypse-fearing family and their metaphysical histrionics, bathed in Sinner's lyrical language, highly stylized choreography and hallucinatory visual/sonic landscapes. Home as fall-out shelter.

Fri + Sat 8:30pm $20/$15

Dismantling Self
Collective Movement

A provocative expedition into intellect, instinct, intuition, and the unknown, inspired by the writings of Osho. This intrinsic fusion of interactive media, theatre and dance comes to life through collaboration to actualize a Collective Movement with artistic navigation by ALEXANDRIA YALJ.

Sun 7:30pm $20/$15

4X4: Latino New Works

Building on the tradition of socially progressive alternative performance, these emerging Latina/o artists present new, individually original works.

Fri + Sat 8:30pm $20/$15

Conversation Piece
Simone Forti & The Sleeves

Forti, Terrence Luke Johnson, Sarah Swenson and Douglas Wadle, with Kristen Smiarowski as dramaturg, interweave structured conversation, circles, furniture, dance and calligraphic deconstruction in a whimsical, thoughtful, theater piece.  With over 150 years of combined experience with improvisation, this premier Los Angeles dance/theater ensemble returns to Highways for two consecutive Sundays.

Sundays 7:30pm $20/$15

Meditations: Eva Hesse

Written + Directed by Marcie Begleiter
Directed by David W. Watkins

This new work, set on the last day of the life of essential mid-twentieth century artist Eva Hesse, journeys from her birth in Nazi Germany through a childhood and adult life wrought with personal challenges and artistic success. Blending performance, visual art, and theater, Meditations explores how Hesse's life and work were engaged with core cultural issues, while reflecting on how early terminal illness may affect our insights and desires.

Fri + Sat 8:30pm
Sat Matinee 3:00pm
$20/$15

4th Annual SOMA Fest:
Conscious Embodiment in Performance

Curated by
Teri Carter & Intention Dance Theatre

Artists from USA, UK and Mexico weave dance, multi-media and somatic movement in this kinesthetically charged evening of subtlety, fluid power and refined articulation.  Catch the somatic workshops during the week!

Friday 8:00pm $20/$15

Chimera
The Mrs. Hobbs Experiment

These new fairy-tales set on the farm, in the woods, and at sea, are of love, heartache, sorrow, and the absurdity of human nature. Woven together by the accordian-driven music of MRS. HOBBS (aka Diana Hobstetter), the dance of NAKED WITH SHOES (Anne & Jeff Grimaldo), the video/performance of AMY KAPS, the clowning of EVERYBODY NOSE, and the puppetry of POLI MARICHAL.

Fri + Sat 8:30pm $20/$15

An nth of an Inch
Christy Funsch, Julie Mayo, and Sue Roginski

Funsch, Mayo, and Roginski move An nth of an Inch to the stage for two evenings of both emotionally raw and refined performance works. An nth of an Inch explores the intersection of the imagination and the everyday highlighting distinctly personal perspectives, which combine on-the-spot creation, dramatic landscape, and fluid consciousness. Funsch, Mayo and Roginski will each share new work and together will present their ongoing improvisational trio exploration.

Fri + Sat 8:30pm $20/$15

6 Degrees
Dandelion Dancetheater

A dynamic representation of the interwoven dance community in California, 6 Degrees brings together performers and choreographers of various disciplines and aesthetics, showcasing the broad range among the state's divergent dance culture. As Dandelion Dancetheater tours this project up and down the California coast, they will be joined in each city by six local companies -- three invited by Dandelion, and three invited by Dandelion's invites.  The groups will rehearse together for one day, producing an evening length performance that, while maintaining threads of movement and arch, is specific to each location.  Directed by Eric Kupers, 6 Degrees will feature a dance/theater work performed by all ensembles as well as short pieces made by each.

Sunday 7:30pm $20/$15

SEXORCISM: Eyelashes of The Damned
The Discount Cruise to Hell

Join us for low morals on the high seas aboard The Discount Cruise to Hell, a living musical art manifesto in action and a fabulous freak fest for all! Embark on our brand new glitter glam sex-blast voyage to the other side and dance onto the poop deck for debauchery, mayhem, savage transcendence, hot pant hallucinations, lively libations, show stopping musical numbers, and a flesh eating zombie chorus of attractive unscrupulous performers. Come get juiced up for Halloween and steal our costume/make-up ideas! All Aboard for sweaty satisfaction and the pungent thrill of blazing art! This show is Mild to Wild and Versatile. Costumes Encouraged!

Thur + Fri 8:30pm $20/$15

Annie Sprinkle & Elizabeth Stephens'
ECOSEX SYMPOSIUM HoneyMOON

Moderator: Veronica Hart
Panel: Ecosex Community Leaders and Artists
 
Ecosexuals unite! What’s an ecosexual?  Find out with a panel of esteemed sex-ecologists; the movers and shakers of this satisfying new sexual identity and cutting edge pollen-amourous community. Find your e-spot. On the occasion of the honeyMOON day after Stephens & Stephens’ wedding to the Moon (loveartlab.org).

Sunday $15/$10
3-5pm: Panel, presentations + discussion
5-6pm: Schmooze with the Ecosexuals; Moon Pies + ecosexy treats will be served

Dia De Los Muertos
Ritual Celebration & Performance
Paulina Sahagun & Monica Sahagun

Join us in Ritual and Celebration for the Traditional Mexican Dia De Los Muertos. Come honor our ancestors and recently departed with altars, ofrendas and performance.

Wednesday, Nov. 3
Community Altar Construction
Please bring photos, flowers, candles and personal offerings for your “muertos”  to be placed on the altar.
4pm-6pm Free!

Friday - Sunday, Nov. 5 - 7
Dia de Los Muertos Ritual & PerformanceCeremony to honor all ancestors and recently departed. Performance of “Calavereando”, a physical theater mask theater piece by Paulina Sahagun, inspired by the work of the Great Mexican Artist Jose Guadalupe Posada.  Witness satirical Calaveras dance and sing, while commenting on the latest local and global political events. Community Altar Ritual Celebration and “Spiritual Party” in Highways Gallery immediately following performance. Celebrate with the living and the dead, “vivos y muertos juntos.” Enjoy the traditional pan de muerto , tamales and music.
Fri + Sat - 8:30pm
Sun - Family Matinee 3:30pm
$15/$10/$5

SWEETS d'Onan
Sonia Oleniak w/Onan Himself

“Family values” as a tempest of nymphomania--thwarted desire--self-annihilation--and the fatal contagion of sexual guilt. The most secret expressions of one’s private sphere revealed in 13 Tableaux reframing the drama of Polish writer Tadeusz Rózewicz’s Mariage Blanc.

Fri + Sat 8:30pm $20/$10

Billy, The Kid, and What He Did.
Libby Larsen + Philip Littell

A cool take on some bad breaks: dead guys, guns, guitars, and no girls.  Aided and abetted by Jesse James Rice and Glen Martin, Littell and Larsen patrol the lawless border between this mean ol’ world and the next.

Fri + Sat 8:30pm $20/$15

Bahu-Beti-Biwi
(Daughter-in-law, Daughter, Wife)
Sheetal Gandhi

With powerful dance, stirring vocalization and percussive text, Sheetal Gandhi’s magnetically rhythmic Bahu-Beti-Biwi (Daughter-in-law, Daughter, Wife) wraps North Indian music traditions and family characters into a contemporary tour de force that glides between humorous portraiture and active resistance. Gandhi mines the texts and subtexts of centuries-old women’s songs to create an arresting vision of generational shifts that are reshaping our definitions of freedom and compromise, desire and longing, duty and love.

Fri + Sat 8:30pm $20/$15

Our Word is Our Weapon:
Critical and Conscious Expression by Youth Artists
One Imagination

From the youth of One Imagination, Our Word is Our Weapon: Critical and Conscious Expression by Youth Artists is a raw and deeply moving show that interweaves spoken word, slam poetry, storytelling, and music to explore the lives of youth living in the Los Angeles area. It is One Imagination’s belief that everyone has a story to tell, and every story is worth telling--stories of struggle, stories of lived experience, stories of the imagination, stories of pain, stories of love, stories of resistance, stories of war and violence, stories of hope, stories of today and now, of our generation. As artists of different backgrounds, experiences, and identities, these youth come together in Our Word is Our Weapon to share their stories with each other and with the community of greater Los Angeles, and to embrace and cultivate their weapon of choice: words.

Sun 7:30pm $15/$10

Red Shoes Anatomy (Chapter 2)
Degenerate Art Ensemble

The Red Shoe Project is a butoh dance, physical theater, vocal and live cutting edge experimental music project with both made-for-stage and site specific elements that takes its inspiration from and re-imagines the Hans Christian Andersen tale of the Red Shoes, the tale of a girl who is cursed to dance endlessly through every corner of her village as a punishment for following her desires. Taking inspiration from the Red Shoes character’s endless dance, the Red Shoes Project will begin with a series of site specific performances – with dances in public places - culminating in a fully staged work. DAE’s work has always strived to find new ways to connect with audiences. In their most recent work Sonic Tales, performers conducted the audience to make sound-scapes to accompany the dance on stage. In their 2007 piece Cuckoo Crow, a scene consisted of a dancer gently dancing over the bodies of the 1,500 member audience of Seattle’s Moore Theatre. This project will continue this exploration of the audience performer connection, expanding outside of the theater to public places for inspiration, and then ultimately bringing the piece back into the theater.

www.degenerateartensemble.com
www.myspace.com/degeneratespace

Fri + Sat 8:30pm $20/$15