Veiled Messages in Salome

The dance of the seven veils that comes near the end of the story of Salome is a familiar scene to all who have seen Oscar Wilde's play or the opera by Richard Strauss, but this tale is about so much more than the seductive dance itself. When Salome opens this Friday as part of the Naked July Festival at National Pastime Theater, audience members will be treated to a powerful interpretation of the Oscar Wilde play that will challenge them to consider the nature and the motives of the title character in many new ways.

This new production directed by Laurence Bryan and produced by Keely Haddad-Null is staged on a simple and functional set and provides an intensely honest and straightforward interpretation of Wilde’s famous story. One interesting and effective element in Bryan’s staging is the introduction of three chorus characters who help to reveal some of the thoughts and motivations of the three main characters—Herod, Herodias, and Salome. NPT ensemble members Arch Harmon and Don Claudin perform the chorus roles for Herodias and Herod respectively, and they are joined by a new face at NPT this summer—Kaitlen Osburn who serves as the Salome chorus character.


Becca Wolfe turns in a powerful and courageous performance as Salome, and as she agrees to assuage Herod’s lust by dancing for his entertainment, we are challenged to decide for ourselves whether she is a naïve young woman who is a helpless victim powerless to disobey Herod’s command or instead a calculating and cold-hearted woman whose bold actions are motivated by her own ambitions. Wolfe moves gracefully around the stage stripping away the colorful veils during her iconic dance near the end of the performance, and finally stands nude and defiant before Herod as she demonstrates that she is the one in charge, ready to claim her shocking reward.

Salome opens at 8:00 pm on Friday, July 1, and the performance will be followed by the opening of the amazing new show by Pete Guither and his creative team titled Living Canvas: Rain. These two shows will be staged on Friday and Saturday nights all through July, and the rousing performers known collectively as the Beast Women will grace the NPT stage on Thursdays and Sundays. Individual tickets and full festival passes can be purchased online at the secure NPT ticket site. Don’t miss the fun this summer—be sure to see all of these great shows.

The Beast Women are Coming!

In addition to Oscar Wilde’s Salome and The Living Canvas: Rain, there is a fresh and exciting new addition to the Naked July lineup this summer—a talented and multi-dimensional performance group called the Beast Women that will light up the stage at the National Pastime Theater on Thursdays and Sundays. The Beast Women ensemble includes beautiful burlesque dancers with tantalizing names like Red Hot Annie (shown here in a photo by Hunter Mathews), Abigail Ala Mode, Anita Lilmore, and Booty Garland, but the list of other performance genres includes poets, performance artists, musicians, monologists, and comedians.

The co-producers and co-directors of the Beast Women are Jillian Erickson and Michelle Power, and they see their shows at the Naked July Festival this summer as an exciting extension of the performances that have staged over the past few years. In their words, “Beast Women celebrates womens' strength through performance via different genres including, singing, burlesque, comedy, poetry, and belly dancing, just to name a few. The purity of strength is highlighted as virtuous through their expressions of freedom, sexuality, and life oddities. Beast Women celebrates all women and will feature 30 femme fatales in a rotating lineup for this one of a kind showcase, offering a new and stimulating experience each night.”

Photo by Hunter Mathews

To get a sense of the range and diversity of the performers and their performing styles, here is the line-up for just the first three shows:

Thursday, June 3: 8:00pm


Abigail Ala Mode - Burlesque Performer

Sandra La Pixie - Performance Poet

Sarah Heston - Dance Artist

JoBeth Harrison- Songstress

Virginia Marie- Performance Artist

Robin Fine- Poetess



Sunday, July 3: 6:00pm


Anita Lilmore - Burlesque Performer

Jessica Bonomo- Hoop Artist

Jen St. Stjarna - Piano Songstress

Gillian Holoroyd- Erotic Poetess

Brittny Congleton -Comedic Songstress

Kamani Raqs- Belly Dancer

Jillian Erickson- Performance Artist



Thursday, July 7: 8:00pm


Mia D. Vine - Burlesque Performer

Sarah Lowry - Performance Artist

Sonia - Drum/Dance Songstress

Arin Mulvaney- Comedic Monologist

Sarra Jahedi - Stand-up Comedian

Annah London- Folk Songstress

To view a complete listing of the Beast Women performances that are scheduled for the Naked July Festival this summer, click here to go to the event page on their web site. As you will see, it is a different lineup each night, so you will want to come back several times during the summer to see what new and provocative performance pieces they have devised for this special event. The producers have promised some bold new acts to embrace the “nakedness” of Naked July—they are shows you will not want to miss.

The Healing Powers of Water

Picture a world where only the oldest citizens have any memories of lakes or rivers or even rain. A land so hot and desolate that desperate people filled with despair writhe in suffering under an unrelenting scorching sun. This is the opening scene of the new Living Canvas show titled Rain that opens on July 1 at National Pastime Theater, a multimedia performance piece that explores the fundamental qualities of water as an essential element of life itself.

In one of the first scenes, an elderly shaman looks over the writhing sea of desperate souls and recalls a time when water was plentiful before greed and waste caused the waters to recede and the rains to stop. As the story unfolds, we are introduced to a variety of characters such as Hard Pan, Tin Mug, the Boatwright, and Cracked Pot, and through their narratives we learn about the plight of these people and their prayers for rain to refresh their bodies and restore their spirits. The journey is filled with a menagerie of new and exotic creatures that evolve and take shape before our eyes as we travel to a magical world beneath the seas. Eventually we hear rumbles of thunder in the distance and at long last the inhabitants of this desolate land experience the restorative qualities of water as rain begins to fall from the skies.


The final scenes of Rain are filled with joyous celebration as the characters laugh and play like children as rain pours from the heavens and forms luxurious puddles where previously there had only been parched earth. And by the way, the rain is real in this performance as a curtain of water cascades down on the nude performers as they cavort on stage bathed only in the glow of colorful projections. It is a primal exploration of the interrelationship between flesh and water and the experiences of the characters remind us of the things that are the very essence of life.

The Living Canvas: Rain is perhaps the most ambitious show this talented and creative group has done to date, and you will not want to miss this amazing combination of dance, music, projected images, and water. And remember that all Living Canvas performances include an audience participation segment, so if you remember carefree childhood days of playing naked in the rain or perhaps just want to experience the refreshing sensation of water on your naked skin while moving through a kaleidoscope of colorful images, be sure to see the show and join the cast for this simple yet liberating celebration of the human experience.

Tickets Are On Sale for Naked July 2011

Even though the 2011 Naked July Festival at National Pastime Theater does not officially begin for nearly a month, the festival organizers have announced that tickets are already on sale for the performances that run from June 24^th through August 6^th. As in previous years, you can purchase tickets for individual performances, but if you plan to see all of the shows, you may prefer to purchase a festival pass. Click here to go directly to the secure online ticket page.

If you have not experienced the Naked July experience in past years, be sure to make your way to the historic National Pastime Theater on North Broadway this summer to be a part of this unique and artistic celebration of the beauty of the human body. Unlike many other theater ensembles that purport to stage daring and edgy performance pieces, the intrepid artistic directors and performers at NPT have the courage to explore themes of sexuality, nudity, and body acceptance in a frank and uncensored manner. It is an experience for theatergoers who want to be stimulated and enlightened.

In addition to this year’s version of The Living Canvas titled Rain that was discussed in the previous post, Naked July 2011 will also feature Oscar Wilde’s Salome with some new and provocative takes on the classic tale of sexual desire and the hypnotic beauty of the naked human form. Salome’s iconic “dance of the seven veils” ushers in an unforgettable and riveting climax to the tale, but the entire performance will draw the audience into a world of lust, desire, and seduction. You may think that you know the classic tale of the young woman who dances to please King Herod, but be prepared for a bold new take on this familiar story.

Adding a new and entertaining twist to this year’s Naked July Festival is a cabaret variety show known as the Beast Women, a cavalcade of music, poetry, dance, and burlesque. The cast is diverse and talented, and because of this, you can expect that the performances will change during the festival with new and different acts. A post in the Chicago Theater Blog sums up the tantalizing experience of the Beast Women: “Expect the laughs to be full figured, the songs to dip into deep seriousness, and the belly dancing to round out the evening with more sensual joie de vivre than the usual bump and grind.”

Like last year, the lobby of the National Pastime Theater will be transformed into an art gallery, and special events like figure painting and weekly auctions of the art pieces will take place at this historic venue. New this year is a film festival to complement the live performances in the “old speakeasy”.

In the weeks ahead, we will provide some behind-the-scenes coverage of the shows, post some production photos to help you to learn more about the performers, and provide updates of special events. Be sure to get your tickets and become a part of Naked July 2011.