DaPride Café 2013

(Rainbow yarn, folks. It's fun, it's warm and it's fun to play with.)

Thursday, July 25th 2013 DaPoPo Theatre will be back at Menz & Mollyz Bar for our 5th annual DaPride Café – we missed last year's! –, featuring (queer) theatre à la carte, starting at 7:30pm.

Some of the Old Guard will be back: the fabulous Kristi Anderson, the warm and wonderful Zach Faye, the powerhouse Kim Parkhill and  Garry Williams – that's me! – as well as special guest Avery Brennan.

At this outrageous event you can order queer-themed performances off a hot and saucy theatre menu. In past years, popular favourites have been St. Sebastian's Secrets, a communal purge of secrets; A Dip in the Fruit Bowl, a lucky pick of queer-authored performances; and the Bawdy Politick, a sexy blend of queer history and art.

Menz & Mollyz Bar is open, while performers strut their stuff for you at your table, bringing you an evening you will not forget. This is a perfect night out during Halifax Pride.

Café DaPoPo. Expect the unexpected. 

Café Is Back!

(Ann Doyle and Gina Thornhill at last year's MayWorks Festival.)

Coming up… MayWorks Café 2013! On May 2nd, DaPoPo Theatre brings its unique blend of ordered chaos to Halifax audiences at Bearley's, The House of Blues and Ribs.

The stellar cast features some old faces, and some new ones. Andrew Kasprzak, Terra Spencer and ACTING OUT! youth ensemble graduate Aisha Sommer join the regular DaPoPo theatre baristas Kim Parkhill, Keelin Jack, Kristi Anderson, Eric Benson and Garry Williams.

The performance boasts a menu of accessible political entertainment. Patrons can experience songs, monologues and scenes performed at their table at this popular theatrical event, which has become a staple of the MayWorks Festival.

Happy Birthday, Café DaPoPo

Café DaPoPo, Touring Cast 2011 (Potsdam): Zach Faye, Kristi Anderson,

Andrew Chandler, Garry Williams, Matthew Peach, Kim Parkhill, Ann Doyle,

Eric Benson, Amy Reitsma and Keelin Jack. Photo: Ann Noël

Five years ago, January 28, 2007, the last Thursday of the month, seven of the artists associated with DaPoPo Theatre – Eric Benson, Stephen Bourque, Sarah "Pip" Bradley, Andrea Dymond, Mike Chandler, Kim Parkhill and Garry Williams – made a bit of local theatre history when they concocted an evening of performances tailored to taste called Café DaPoPo.

Since then, Café DaPoPo has surprised and delighted audiences at over a dozen venues including Mollyz Diner, Menz Bar, Good Food Emporium, Just Us Café, Ouro Preto, the Delta Barrington Hotel, the Casino Hotel, the Ward Room, Ducky's On the Waterfront, Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, the Grad House, the TNS Living Room, Restaurant La Crepule, museum FLUXUS + and Freies Museum Berlin.

Over the years, we have teamed up with Halifax Pride, Crêperie Mobile, Queer Acts, The Diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, and the MayWorks Festivals to bring Café DaPoPo to new and larger audiences.

Scores of Nova Scotia artists have sung, acted, played instruments, danced, improvised, recited poetry and performed at Café DaPoPo over the years to hundreds of patrons. They have performed works by Canadian playwrights and songwriters, as well as excerpts from classic works of world theatre.

Most recently, we owe our gratitude to the tax-payers of Nova Scotia and the Industry Growth Program of Nova Scotia Communities, Culture & Heritage for assisting us in the promotion Café DaPoPo to European presenters, where we continue to develop a supportive and expanding audience base.

Thank you all on behalf of DaPoPo Theatre, – performers, patrons, presenters, tax-payers – for celebrating theatre, music and Café DaPoPo.

GaRRy Williams

Artistic Director

DaPoPo Theatre

Nova Scotia's DaPoPo Theatre in Berlin

Kim Parkhill (at right with blue balloon) invites the audience to pop balloons

while she declares her love for the German language

and performance art in 'Sprache und Ballons'

"Meine Freunde waren begeistert!"

– Vanessa Liman

Ann Doyle and Garry Williams perform a scene from 'Uncle Vanya'

for a table of rapt Chekhov enthusiasts

"Ihr habt tolle neue Richtungen eingenommen mit der Truppe, eine schöne Entwicklung zusammen gefunden und viele super Momente erzeugt. Es ist ein enormer Luxus. Wo bekomme ich sonst so Intimes serviert, so einen nahen Einblick in den Menschen gegenüber?"

– Chris O'Connor

DaPoPo Theatre veterans Eric Benson, Andrew Chandler, Keelin Jack

and Kristi Anderson perform the 'Homosexual Fugue' for patrons

after a three-course meal at the pop-up restaurant at the Freies Museum Berlin

Stick Figures

The DaPoPo Theatre collective, and cast of Café DaPoPo. (Photo by Zach Faye)

museum FLUXUS +

Café DaPoPo

Bereits zum dritten Mal ist am 25. November 2011 ab 19 Uhrdas DaPoPo-Theatre im museum FLUXUS+ zu Gast. Das kanadische Künstlerensemble hat erneut ein abwechslungsreiches Theater-Menu zusammengestellt und verwöhnt Augen und Ohren mit klassischen oder zeitgenössischen Gedichten, Liedern, kurzen Theaterstücken, Monologen und Dialogen.

Die einzelnen Stücke werden wie im Café oder Restaurant bestellt und von den Künstlern direkt am Tisch des Gastes serviert. Mal setzen sie sich mit an den Tisch ihres Publikums und philosophieren über die Liebe, ein anderes Mal steigen sie auf Stühle und Bänke und singen aus voller Seele. Der Gast bezahlt nur das, was er auch bestellt hat, aber beim Nachbartisch gucken ist natürlich erlaubt und vielleicht wird das ein oder andere „Gericht“ sogar eine raumfüllende Performance für jedermann.

“DaPoPo Theatre” ist eine unabhängige Theatergruppe. Sie erstellt und präsentiert herausfordernd ein alternatives Theatererlebnis fürs Publikum und für die Künstler. Gearbeitet wird in allen theatralen Disziplinen.

Im museum FLUXUS+ performen an diesem Abend Kristi Anderson, Eric Benson, Andrew Chandler, Ann Doyle, Zach Faye, Keelin Jack, Kim Parkhill, Amy Reitsma, Garry Williams und als Gast: Matthew Peach.

Garry Williams, geboren in Halifax, Hauptstadt der Provinz Nova Scotia in Kanada, aufgewachsen in Berlin, wurde 2004 der “Artistic Director of DaPoPo Theatre”, als sich das Ensemble gründete. Die Idee, auf Bestellung zu spielen, wurde aus der Not heraus geboren; der kanadischen Theatergruppe wurde einst als Aufführungsort ein Restaurant angeboten.

Aufgrund des begrenzten Platzangebots ist eine rechtzeitige Tischreservierung empfohlen!

info@fluxus-plus.de oder 0331 – 60 10 890

Die Spielsprache ist englisch.

Selbstverständlich hält das museumscafé auch für das leibliche Wohl eine kleine Speisekarte bereit.

Die Dauerausstellung des Museums schließt an diesem Freitag wie gewohnt um 18 Uhr.

Freies Museum Berlin

Café DaPoPo - Performance auf Bestellung

im Pop-Up Restaurant des Freien Museum Berlin

18. – 20. November

(Generalprobe) 17. November im Restaurant La Crapule

Täglich ab 19 Uhr

Auf der Karte im Freien Museum Berlin:

Vorspeisen ab 3,- Euro

Menü 14,50 Euro

Performances ab 2 Euro

Reservierung unter: Betreff: Cafe Dapopo

+49 (0) 30 34 72 18 14

+ 49 (0) 176 625 30 722 oder

office@freies-museum.com

Im Freien Museum Berlin eröffnet vom 18. bis 20. November ein temporäres von Künstlern geführtes Restaurant, das die Kulisse für das kanadische Performance- und Theaterensemble Café DaPoPo ist.

Serviert wird jeden Abend ab 19 Uhr ein von französischen Künstlern kreiertes Vier-Gänge-Menü zu dem man a la carte Shakespeare-Sonette, Monologe, Dialoge, Arien, improvisiertes Situationstheater und Puppentheaterklassiker von der Performance-Karte an den Tisch ordern kann. Aber stets gilt: Man bezahlt nur für das, was man auch bestellt hat.

Café DaPoPo, das sind Kristi Anderson, Eric Benson, Andrew Chandler, Ann Doyle, Zach Faye, Keelin Jack, Kim Parkhill, Amy Reitsma, Garry Williams ein Schauspielensemble aus Halifax und als Gast der in Berlin lebende Kanadier Matthew Peach. Sie performen seit vielen Jahren in ihrer Heimatstadt auf persönliche Wünsche zugeschnittene Dialoge, Monologe und singen mit vollem Stimmvolumen an unkonventionellen Spielorten. Auf ihrem Menü steht beispielsweise das Max Frisch Stück “Biographie: Ein Spiel” oder das “Drinking Game”, ein Stück, das aus mehreren Fragebögen besteht, die von zwei aus dem Publikum erwählten Spielern spontan beantwortet werden.

Gegründet wurde das verspielte Ensemble in Halifax, Nova Scotia im Jahr 2004, durch den Ex-Berliner Garry Williams und ist an vier Abenden in Berlin zu Gast. Am Donnerstag in Restaurant La Crapule in Kreuzberg mit einer Generalprobe und drei Abende im Pop-Up Restaurant im zweiten Stock des Freien Museum Berlin.

Restaurant und Café DaPoPo Adressen:

Restaurant La Crapule, Skalitzer Straße 68, 10999 Berlin – Kreuzberg

Freies Museum Berlin, Potsdamer Straße 91, 10785 Berlin - Tiergarten

Café DaPoPo at the Live-In

Keelin J. and Kim P. perform an excerpt from 'The Drinking Game', created by Garry Williams.

Notice the whiskey and the amaretto. Behind them, their audience looks on,

while they literally try to grasp the meaning of faith Faith. (Photo by Zach Faye.)

Innovative Canadian Theatre Reaches Out To European Audiences

This November, DaPoPo Theatre will take its popular, innovative performance event Café DaPoPo to Germany to expand its European market. See theatre that only happens if you order it. Performances happen directly at your table.

Performances:

Berlin: Friday, Nov. 18th; Sat., Nov. 19th; and Sun., Nov. 20th, 2011, Freies Museum

Postdam: Fri., Nov. 25th, 2011, museum FLUXUS+

The immersive cabaret-style evening started in 2006 in Halifax's North End at Mollyz Diner. Since then, DaPoPo Theatre has presented Café DaPoPo at nearly a dozen Halifax venues to rave reviews, as well as internationally.

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Industry Growth Program of Nova Scotia Communities, Culture and Heritage.

DaPride Café

"I want to thank you for such a great night at DaPride yesterday. Such a solid cast and fantastic performances!"

Thursday July 21st, Halifax's lively DaPoPo Theatre breaks moulds and offers up their original theatre event Café DaPoPo, starting 7:30pm at Menz Bar. More than that: this one's for Halifax Pride 2011!

In our 5th annual DaPride Café – our first one was in July 2006 at the old Mollyz Diner –, queer specials abound! We celebrate the rich culture and creative contributions queer artists have made, living and working outside of traditional, often restrictive, social norms. We support sexual diversity and everyone's right to freedom, passion and pleasure.

At Café DaPoPo, you can order poems, songs, monologues, rants, scenes, improvisations, bed-time stories and more. We cater to your taste from the available menu selections. Ask for Canadian content, cross-dressing, comedic/or serious, contemporary/or classic or our very popular Sock Puppets.

Mouth-watering menu selections include uproarious from DaPoPo Theatre's original musical So… What About Love?; works by local songwriters and playwrights; cheeky bossa nova "Do You Take It…" (by special permission from the pleasure-positive comedy duo The Wet Spots); sensual monologues; dance; DaPoPo's improvised SexTangles; and our DaPride staples The Fruit Bowl, DaBawdy Politck and St. Sebastian's Secretz!

Guest performers Jessica Barry, John Han, Matthew Peach, Gina Thornhill and Holly Winter join DaPoPo regulars Kim Parkhill, Emily Shute and Garry Williams for a fun, sexy and unforgettable evening of at-your-table performances, tailored to your taste. Menu items range from $3.- to $17.-!

Hello, Sailor!

DaPoPo Theatre prepares for our queer, maritime-themed Café DaPoPo, offering a fabulous selection of scenes, songs, monologues, happenings, poems and more at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, scheduled for Friday, June 10th. Individually-priced performances can be ordered at your table. Cover will be $5.-. The performance accompanies the exhibition "Hello, Sailor!", the immediate focus: gay life at sea from the 1950s through the 1980s. We have started to research and create material, drawing from popular culture pre-1950s, as well as original scenes, performances and monologues.

Thanks to our brave and talented performers Kristi Anderson, Andrew Chandler, John Han, Keelin Jack, Matt Peach – his first Café DaPoPo! – and Ali Richardson, as well as our volunteer bar tenders Ryan Brown and Terry Joyce, and our dolly mistress-of-ceremonies Kim Parkhill. Thanks, also, to Sarah Schwarz and the Crêperie Mobile, as well as the Museum staff.

Follow this hyper-link to see some more of Timothy Richard's photos from the event.

Preparing for MayWorks

An hour rehearsing with Kim Parkhill, reprising Brutus' "Give me your hands, all o'er, one by one…" speech from Julius Caesar, and rehearsing the Brecht/Eisler Einheitsfrontlied, performed with dominoes. Positioning: under a table for Shakespeare, the other actors conspiratorially huddled as stand-in audience; on a table-top for the Song of the United Front. Lighting by flashlights. In the former, Brutus pleads in favour of political action against an oppressive leader; in the latter, workers are rallied to action to change an oppressive class system. (Photos by Zach Faye.)

For one patron's impressions, follow this link.

Some Shakespeare With Your Carrot Cake?

DaPoPo Theatre began a new 5-month series of its signature event Café DaPoPo on Tuesday, March 29 at 7:30pm at the Grad House. We played to a full house, and were excited to present Café DaPoPo in a new venue.

Originally conceived as a fundraiser in 2007, Café DaPoPo has become a performance event in its own right. Performing in diners, restaurants and bars, the cast take orders from the patrons, and practice their craft at individual tables. This month's cast included many of the core collective members: Kristi Anderson, Andrew Chandler, Zach Faye, Keelin Jack, Kim Parkhill, Garry Williams and our fantastic accompanist Emily Shute. We also welcomed Griffin McInnis and Liz Johnstone as guest performers from the KTS. Scenes, songs, monologues, conversation pieces, rants, puppets, poetry – all of these staple ingredients are on the theatrical menu.

(Depicted here at right are Kristi Anderson, Zach Faye and the carrot cake.)

2011 - Transformations

On Sunday Jan 23, most of the 2011 DaPoPo Collective met at the new Casa DaPoPo on Kaye Street to discuss the immediate future of Café DaPoPo.

How can we write the inherently unpredictable performance elements of Café DaPoPo more profoundly into the event? Unlike a traditional performance, there is no illusion of a repeatable Café performance. Every time a certain scene or song is ordered, the set necessarily changes. Often the costumes change. Props reveal themselves in performance: a beer glass; a patron's hat; a butter knife. Often the parameters shift: add a sock puppet; make it 'saucy', make it 'queer'; sing your Hamlet. By donning a pair of sun-glasses last-minute, the performer experiences a total transformation.

How can we devise more original material for Café performances without the monthly task becoming an overwhelming one? Each performer becomes a writer, a director and a dramaturge, if they choose. How do you use a picture frame, a shower cap and a rubber duckie effectively, in what is essentially an open rehearsal, performing a two-person song? In fact, the audience, who is at times almost indistinguishable from the actors, influences the performance, unknowingly. They laugh. They turn their heads away. The lean forward in their chair. These immediate cues bring about another total transformation in the performer. The entire theatrical moment disrobes and becomes naked, intimate dialogue.

What do you do with a theatrical form like Café DaPoPo, which relies heavily on audience interaction, non-traditional locations and an ever-changing cast (and therefore available performances); a form that doesn't fit into the conventional theatre model in terms of finding audiences, choosing venues and generating revenue? Again, the performer can find Café transformative. The reason for performing in Café DaPoPo is not the pay check. In fact, there usually in no pay check. It is to experience the performance, the audience and the impulse for art with an immediacy that is too often lost in the big theatres.

Our plans to perform once monthly from March through July (including performances at the MayWorks Festival, the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic's Flagship Fridays series, as well as Halifax Pride) gave us an excuse to refocus our interests, and possibly effect a few transformations.

Café DaPoPo Bounces Back

We moved into the comfortable back seating area at Menz Bar – including the new Music Room – for this November Café. This was a change from the main bar space: more private and more like Mollyz Diner, our original Café venue in 2007.

Our Berlin cast (Kristi Anderson, Zach Faye, Keelin Jack, Andrew "Droodles" Chandler, Amy Reitsma, Kim Parkhill and Garry Williams) was reunited, and reprised performances from the past three months, adding some new ones, and rediscovering some old ones.

A highlight for me was declaiming Shakespeare's "Let me not to the marriage of true minds/Admit impediments…" for a rapt table of six, dressed in my Pride '08 T-shirt, a pink tie and a rainbow triangle pin. The words had such weight, as well they should, in this unexpected new context. "Love is not love/That alters when it alteration finds,/Or bends with the remover to remove…"

That is why I love Café: the joy of play, the constantly unfolding possibilities.

Café DaPoPo Returns to Potsdam

Café DaPoPo at Potsdam's museum FLUXUS+, Friday Nov. 12, 2010, was a beautiful evening. The museum extended a warm welcome to us again, and our audience was incredibly responsive, moving about the room to catch all of the performances. We saw several returning audience members, as well as some first-timers.

The 10 DaPoPo performers (Kristi Anderson, Clara Bullock, Andrew Chandler, Zach Faye, Jackie Hanlin, Keelin Jack*, Kim Parkhill*, Matthew Power, Amy Reitsma* and Garry Williams) sang, improvised, and performed scenes and monologues at patrons' tables.

(Photos will follow.)

* Courtesy of the Canadian Actors' Equity

From Our Ducky's Café Menu

Prologues

Prologues are available for the table, shared, or intimate.

Shakespeare's Sonnets $3

Ye olde verse, performed with your choice of Duck Puppets, pretentious or plain.

Delicious Ditty $3

A monthly variety of simple unaccompanied songs, performed right at your table.

Duck of the Draw $3

A surprise pick performed by our talented Duck Puppets!

One free Prologue per table! Choose from a variety of sonnets, ducks and ditties.

Songs

Suitable for sharing, comes with accompaniment available with Duck Puppetz.

Chanson du Jour $4

Ask your server about this month's featured song.

Pretentious Song $5

Heady, songs in exotic tongues, accompanied with a generous touch of passion, melodrama and Sturm & Drang.

For Translations add $1

Broadway Belter $5

Catchy tunes, sharp lyrics and a wide range of emotions, your choice of comedy or torch song.

DaBIG Ensemble Number

A generous performance of melody with enjoyable lyrics, performed with pizazz by the ensemble for the entire room. No extra cost!

Speeches

Ye Olde Monologue $4

Seasoned prose or verse with hints of character, situation & emotion.

Modern/Contemporary Monologue $4

Strong, modern characters with mixed intentions, rich subtexts & a hint of urbane and universal themes.

Canuck's Corner $5

Teary or cheery Canadian Content with worlds of meaning, a variety of local flavours and hints of maple.

DaPoPo Rant $3

Home-made rants and local beefs, performed with outrage and genuine disbelief, and a side of social commentary.

Enjoy any three menu items at a special table rate for only $12! Extra charges may apply for groups of five or more patrons.

Entr'actes

Conversation Piece $4

Outrageous characters, improvisation and fresh humour, shtick & moxie.

Happening $4

Performance art stylings with more than a hint of the avant-garde.

Sextangle $5

Improvised musical fun with a harmonious blend of melody, counterpoint, theme & variation.

DaPoetry $4

Carefully crafted text, declaimed with finesse.

Scenes

Selections will be performed for the entire table.

Ye Olde Scene $6

A medley of emotions, conflict, aged language, poetic inflection and a monthly variety of humours. Ask about our world-famous Shakespeare selections.

Slice of Life $5

Modern or contemporary scene with fresh, relatable themes and subjects, your choice of comedic or dramatic.

DaBIG Ensemble Scene

A blend of characters in juicy conflict, for the room, varies monthly – this one's on the house!

Epilogues

Bed-Time Story $4

Variety of tuck-me-in fare read at your table with pictures, narrative and loveable, huggable friends!

Please pay for your performances with cash. Remember to tip your food server separately.

DaPoPo Descends On Dartmouth!

Starting this September, DaPoPo Theatre will be bringing their signature performance event to Ducky's On the Waterfront on the second last Thursday of the month! We'll be serving up our unique blend of high and low brow fun right at your table: songs, sonnets, scenes, soliloquies, rants, lectures, bed-time stories… you name it! Look out for Duck Puppets and the singing actors' dulcet tones, as the popular troupe descends on Dartmouth, singing and acting their way into your hearts.

The menu will include delectable sonnets, monologues, scenes, rants, sextangles, bed-time stories and songs, but also excerpts from our up-coming play The Halifax Hearings, as well as DaPoPo Theatre Oldies from Julius Caesar, R.U.R., our original musical revue So… What About Love? and Amanada Jernigan's Drinking Song.

DaPride 2010

"WOW! Last night was amazing. Congratulations to you and the entire cast. The pieces I ordered/had the fortune of enjoying last night were superb."

– Aaron Andreino

"What an exceptionally good time we had last night at Café DaPoPo – you guys are really dynamic and original and you continue to blow me away."

– Holly Arsenault

"My large table of friends had a great great time! I am sure that many more will be attending the next Café DaPoPo."

– Brendan Sangster

"The crêpes [courtesy of Crêperie Mobile]… yum!"

– Anonymous

"Café allowed me to play in a way that I never had before. I did all that I could, maybe more than I should, and now oh, how I want to do more."

– Ira Henderson

"I really enjoyed being able to share an incredibly personal performance with friends and enthusiastic strangers. It was the most energetic audience I've ever had. And I loved the ensemble numbers!"

– Zach Faye

"The performances I cherish are the unpredictable ones. Filling an order for a 'song by Cole Porter with vocal harmonies', unrehearsed, I found myself improvising a sextangular homage to Cole Porter with Keelin and Eric."

– GaRRy Williams

"As someone who has been involved with Cafe for three years, it was amazing for me to see a house jam-packed with so many new patrons… I enjoyed experiencing the Cafe through them and re-appreciating it's novelty, quirkiness and fundamental awesomeness. Also great were the decidedly communal moments in the otherwise buzz of individual table talk and performance - the shared laughter over the surprise reveal of Ira in drag or the princes in Faux Disney, the implicit agreement in the room to be quiet during singing performances and the erupting and enthusiastic applause after the ensemble pieces. My favorite performances of my own were a boisterous Miss Congeniality improv with a crowd of eight and, in stark contrast, a quiet recitation of Pam Calabrese McLean's poem 'Dragons' for Hugo at the bar."

– Kim Parkhill

The Sex Play: Actor and Politician scene. Ira and I were able to perform the double seduction of the actor and the politician at the small bar at the back of Menz. The audience all stood behind, almost like bartenders, while we performed the scene. It was very intimate – quiet flirtation for the audience/voyeurs. A very strange experience, and an interesting one for all.

– Eric Benson

Queer Actz/DaPride Café

In preparation for DaPride Café on July 19th, 2010, I luxuriated in the pages of Orton's celebrated, irreverent farce Loot again last night ("I'd like to get married. It's the one thing I haven't tried.") immensely, and dipped into Bryden MacDonald's deliciously stark While Riding Weather for the first time with the great joy of discovery, like finding a hundred dollar note in the pocket of your old jeans (which has never happened to me). Letting my lips and tongue once again roll over the Bard's words: "A woman's face, with Nature's own hand painted/Hast thou, the master-mistress of my soul…". Letting them heat up in the mental slow cooker.

As always, we are seeking ingredients for an eclectic menu of scenes, songs, speeches, monologues, poetry and improvisation to be plated and delivered to culture-hungry patrons at Halifax's Menz Bar. This will be the first time we will be included in the official Halifax Pride events line-up as part of Queer Acts. Replete with song & dance, strip-tease and whipped cream and excerpts from the classics, DaPride Café menu has been one of our most outrageous, quirky and exuberant ones, seasoned with wit, camp, titillation and served with great abandon.

Canada supports a rich and integrated queer arts culture – where would theatre be without the innumerable homosexual men and women who spend their lives creating, designing and presenting plays? –, including staples of the thespian diet such as Daniel McIvor, Michel Tremblay and Timothy Findlay, but also such stark sides as Marie-Claire Blais, Tomson Highway, Brad Fraser, Sky Gilbert, Don Hannah and Ronnie Burkett. As Lana puts it so eloquently in Sky Gilbert's play Drag Queens on Trial: "Why do you think so many homosexuals have become famous writers, artists, crusaders–because a passion to dare to be different, to live dangerously is the most enthralling disease in the world. And it's catching."