It Happened

Who would have believed that 70 people would get out of bed by noon to join the audience at San Francisco's premier showcase of performing oddballs and misfits?

We did.

Here are some photos from Sunday, May 23, by D. Rita Alfonso.

We reached artistic director Sara Moore by satellite phone at her secure bunker in Barbados. We asked her if she had been pleased with the show. Her response:

"Thrilled is an understatement. SUNDAY AT SOMArts, Barbary Coast Amusements' first event, was a smash hit and the non-stop mash-up of crazy-brilliant performers blew the lid off the joint! The entire show had the feel of a midnight happy hour--only at High Noon. Every single performer was at the top of their game and all were greeted by the most vivacious audience whose energy nearly exceeded theirs, which was not easy! Even The Clownteuse overcame her chronic timidity and managed to emcee as well as sing! And in homage to The Pickles and Make-A-Circus, there was a huge audience dance-a-thon at the end and a ridiculous time was had by all! BCA is off to an auspicious, relentlessly hysterical start and we are stoked beyond words for the Sunday, June 20th show!"

The Little Finch of Picatinny, New Jersey

Henrietta Wind, affectionately referred to for years as "The Little Finch of Picatinny" by the town street sweeper, wooed her way into the hearts of dozens in this small Jersey hamlet before reinventing herself in the breakthrough 1967 album CLOWNTEUSE.

Clownteuse stops by Sunday At SOMArts to give us a preview of "Popera," her forthcoming commission from The Dogpatch Opera Company.

Or perhaps she'll treat us to a number from her musical "Cyclones," slated to debut at Barbary Coast Amusements in Winter, 2010.

Or perhaps she'll attempt an inspired improvisation from her repertoire of questionable balloon sculptures.

Directions: Tear Open Packet, Remove and Use

The May 23rd showcase of Sunday At SOMArts kicks of with half an hour of the styling music -- or perhaps even the musical stylings -- of Johannes Mager and the Moist Towelettes.



Johannes takes the stage with Brunn Monteith, Violin:


Bob Todd, bass:



GiGi Amos, guitar:


and Randy Odell, drums




























Thanks to the foil wrapping, JMATMT stay fresh and refreshing until opened. And they will be opened for the first time on May 23rd, at noon. Johannes Mager and the Moist Towelettes are now the official house band of Barbary Coast Amusements and will remain under our dicatorship forever (or until they become dried out and soiled).

Here Wampus, Wampus

MADAME KITTY WAMPUS is a universally, effusively received Coloratura who has performed with The Santa Fe Heavy Opera Company, The Possum Trot Professional Society of Glee Club Aficionados, The Haircut Ensemble, Deliberate Symphony Of Lower Saddle River, The Womens Lavatorium of The Pennylvania Station, and as Featured Diva of The Stinkpanandrom Festival Of Eastern Mahwah. Awards: The Paxil Prize, Prague, 1982; Palm Cluster of Lithium, Brussels Sprouts, 1990 and The Poopay Pantsay Award for Meritorious Hoopla, Danville, 1997. She resides currently on her yacht, The New Estrogenia, Manly Beach, Sydney, Berth 7, Slip 1401.

Madame Kitty will descend feet first onto the stage at the May 23rd edition of Sunday At SOMArts. She is not exactly feral, but patrons in the first row are nevertheless cautioned not to rest their hands and noses on the edge of the stage (for insurance purposes).

Texas, Holly

Holly, Texas is at the intersection of Farm roads 1280 and 2781, seventeen miles southeast of Crockett in southern Houston County. In the late 1800s it had three churches, a school, a steam saw, and a gristmill. A Holly post office operated from 1886 to 1914 with T. H. Phipps as postmaster. In 1890 the community reported 250 residents, but the population had decreased to 100 by 1892. That year Holly had a cooperative association, two general stores, a saw and grist mill, and a doctor. By 1896 the community's population had decreased to fifty, and no businesses were reported there. Holly's population was twenty-five in 1914, when the community had a general store and one cotton and grist mill. In 1948, the last year that population figures were available for Holly, its population was twenty-five, and the town comprised numerous scattered dwellings, a business, a church, and a school.

Texas Holly has made the trip to bountiful San Francisco, and will wield her handtool onstage at SOMArts.

Not Your Mother's FouFouHa!

The crowd at our first Sunday At Somarts spectacle will rub elbows (and knees and shoulderblades) with Fou Fou Ha!

"Mama Fou"--a secretive spokesbeing for the group--has promised to treat us to a stage spectacular featuring "Three Top Fous." We don't know what a "Top Fou" is, or if it is better than a "Bottom Fou" or a "Middle Fou." But the prospect of an onstage Foumage A Tois should be enough to get you out of church and into the SOMArts Theater by the break of noon.

Mama Fou has also promised a "walk around" from Noon to 12:30. A "walk around" is a highly-technical performance term that may not be familiar to lay-theatre-goers. The simplest way to approximate the arcane theater jargon of "walk around" might be thusly: A group of "performers" in "character" engage to "walk" "around" among audience members before the show officially begins. While the "performers" "walk" "around" they "perform" impromptu "skits" involving audience members. This often results in bemusement, sometimes even in merriment.

Of course, if we were hard-bitten skeptics, we might suspect that the Fous were engaging in the "walk-around" to facilitate their own access to all of the champagne that will be on-hand (and which will NOT be available backstage in the dressing rooms).

Their appearance at Sunday At SOMArts will give you a taste of what to expect at FouFouHa's forthcoming HUGE endeavor: the Fous will give seven performances of The Dynamite Show at Brava Theatre from June 17 through June 26. This is a “wildly unique” (NBC) song and dance review best described as Fame meets the Muppets. This up-beat musical spectacle features live neo-vaudevillian Dixie brass band tunes with “jaw-dropping dance numbers” and slapstick antics. It follows the colorful characters of Fou Fou Ha! to Hollywood, as they are invited to audition for a reality-TV talent competition. They go through many dance numbers ranging from tangos to rock-opera tunes and finally audition in front of a panel of judges (cameos played by REAL local celebrity performers TBA) only to realize that their “foolishness” may not have a place in the status quo.

http://www.foufouha.com/

Tickets bought for The Dynamite Show prior to May 15 cost $15 and are available here:

Dynamite Tickets Link

B.O.O.B.S. for B.R.U.N.C.H.

Fall into the musical cleavage of laughter, sex, love and femme power.

B.O.O.B.S. acronymically develops into BUSTY-OUTRAGEOUS-OVER THE TOP- BRAWDS SINGIN'!

And they'll be bouncing all over the SOMArts stage at our May 23rd showcase.

Leanne Borghesi (this year's Bay Area Critics' Circle Award winner for best Supporting Actress in "Dames At Sea" at NCTC) broke out of the MINT Karoake scene back in '99 when she was cast in the world premiere of Valerie Solanas's lost play UP YOUR ASS (you remember--it's the play Andy Warhol "stole" from Valerie and she tried to get back using some friendly persuasion). Paired up with Jessica Coker and Soila Hughes, B.O.O.B.S. blows the roof off any hut and pops out of any restraint devised by man!

Peddlers of Thrills bring GREEKS HOT to SOMArts!!!!

South of Market's resident Thrillpeddlers will leave the cozy confines of their saturnine Hypnodrome to bring two full-production musical numbers to SOMArts on Sunday, May 23rd.

Their revival of Hot Greeks --a musical originally written and performed by The Cockettes at The Palace in 1972--runs every Thursday at 8pm and Sunday at 7pm before it must close on June 27. More info may be found at www.thrillpeddlers.com

Come to Sunday At Somarts to immerse yourself in the full Thrillpeddler/Cockettes brouhaha as it has never before been experienced: at High Noon while sipping champagne.

WARNING: Hot Greeks contains Non-Simulated Glitter. Persons with glitter-sensitivity issues may request to be seated in an isolated remote viewing area and provided with an OSHA-approved glitter filtration breathing apparatus.

Here's the Postcard for our First Show!!!!!

All right gang, here it is.

We printed up an actual post card, so that must mean that we're going to have an actual show with actual entertainers on an actual stage.
We are seriously thrilled to have such fantastic people, acts, music, sound and mayhem on this maiden outing that promises to be nothing short of mad fun. The basic idea for SUNDAY AT SOMARTS is to create an ongoing "eccentric brunch" that we'd love to see become a staple of our thriving performance and food scene. AND it's insanely affordable at $10 in advance on brownpapertickets.com
Plus, we've got our likker license, so everyone can drink champagne at noon without hiding the bottles in brown paper bags. That's right, our wine will be sparkling, just like our theater. SOMArts has just recently been painted and polished and looks fantastic! So be prepared for one glittering, spacious and lovely afternoon!

SOMArts Theater is located at 934 Brannan Street, between 8th and 9th Streets in San Francisco's South of Market district.

If you can't quite make out the small print, double click on the card to see it in full, high resolution.