ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: Gay Performances Sizzle this Summer at the 2010 Hot! Festival

(Dynasty Handbag @ Dixon Place)

It’s time again for the Hot! Festival, Dixon Place’s annual cornucopia of LGBT performance art, and this time there’s more than 150 playwrights, dancers, burlesquers, comedians, writers and other creative types helping to heat things up. The offerings—many of which were uniquely created for the festival—range from fractured Broadway classics and imagined episode of The Judy Garland Show to drag-queen slideshow presentations and biographical burlesque shows (and many productions have special “Queer as a Three-Dollar Bill” $3 tickets on opening night.) They’re all winners, but we picked a few we think will really melt your butter! — Juan Pawiroredjo
 

Brooklyn Book of Shadows
Thursday, July 15, at 10:00pm; $5.

Join South African performance artist Thain Torres for an evening of  storytelling and drinking in the Dixon Place lounge, featuring rising stars in the queer performance-art scene, including Dan Fishback (seen here) and Hank Starr. Next columnist John Russell will be playing with his band, Johnny Darling and the Postmodern Horror, in a chaotic interpretation of living in New York. “It’s about random drunken nights as inadvertent pathways to enlightenment. Or maybe just perceived enlightenment or further delusion—and the general absurdity of that,” he says.

The Material World                                                                                                   Thursday, July 22, at 7:00pm; $10.                                                                          

In this piece Dan Fishback explores the rollercoaster of emotions he constantly goes through—sometimes feeling like he’s on top of the world and other times feel like he just wants to lock himself in a room. “I’m a very organized, uptight, ambitious person, but most of my friends are very loose, easy-going and disorganized. I’m obsessed with this divide between people who have their shit together and people who don’t,” he says.  “Technically it’s about Madonna and Britney Spears hanging out with a family of socialist Jews in the 1920s,” but the subtext is clear. “Control freaks are Madonnas and people who just let things happen are Britneys.”
 

Tweed Fractured Classicks: Pic-Up
Wednesday, June 30, at 8pm. $20 general admission/VIP tickets $50
                                                                                                                                    This deceptively reverent spoof of Inge’s Picnic, featuring gay faves Julie Halston, Sweetie, Steve Hayes, David Ilku and Bradford Scobie, could be the hottest ticket in the entire festival. Like the original, Pic-Up looks at young love, lust, and longing in 1950s Middle America, but through its own demented lens. VIP tickets include priority seating and two cocktails.

One Man Show: The True Story of Miss World Famous Bob
Friday, July 23, at 9:30pm; $10 in advance/$15 general admission.

Self-proclaimed “female-to-female impersonator” World Famous Bob tells the story of her life through the art of theatre. “It’s about the people who influenced me and helped me survive—basically gay men and, later in my life, burlesque stars,” said the big-breasted babe. With Show, she says wants to help the audience remember what’s important in the world. She’s dedicating her performance to her gay son, Jeff, and to anyone who’s too scared to go on stage. To them she says: ”Wig on, chin up, heels high and move forward!” Bob will also be performing with Glenn Marla and Dave End in Gender Fabulous! on July 9.

 
VerTITIgo
Fridays at 7:30pm through July 24. $10 in advance/$15 general admission.

Dynasty Handbag (a.k.a. Jibz Cameron) goes on a hunt for a missing woman—or is it every woman? You’ll see her as a bear, a waitress, a nasty femme fatale and other outlandish characters in this Lynchian spin on film noir. “It is about looking for things that you think are the answer, not finding them, and not knowing that there are other ways of looking,” Cameron tells us. "I wanted to do something where I got to do more character acting,” she says. “I love detective stories and film noir—I thought the detective angle would be naturally a  good vehicle to explore searching for things.” Even If you’ve seen Dynasty Handbag before, you’re in for a surprise. "Usually [she] goes on these journeys and meets characters that are just voice-overs,” says Cameron. “But I have written this show so I can actually perform all the other characters live. But they're all kind of Handbag-y, so it's very meta!”
 
 
The Ones
Tuesday, August 3, at 9:30pm; $10 in advance/$15 general admission

The New York-based dance-music trio hosts a blowout night of disco and performance with Amanda Lepore, Colton Ford, Justin Bond, Ericatoure Aviance and Ladyfag. Expect fan favorites like “Flawless” and “Superstar,” plus some previews off their upcoming album, Blast From The Past.  A rock show in a theater festival? Well, this isn’t Bon Jovi we’re talking about. "For one, we do lots of costume changes—most of which have a major fantasy element to them,” says member Jojo Americo. “Also there are three lead singers, which makes our show really dynamic."
 

The Hot! Festival runs at Dixon Place (161A Chrystie St between Delancey and Houston Sts) through Aug 7. Visit HotFestival.org for more info.