PERFORMANCES AND VIDEOS BY SHAWNA DEMPSEY AND LORRI MILLAN

     Performances THE LESBIAN LOVE STORY OF THE LONE RANGER AND TONTO is a testament to our collective North American history, the myths that this history has spawned, and the pointed ways some of us are, and are not, represented.  It is also a metaphorical tale about the oppressive nature of conformity, and the creative, heroic ways that people have circumvented it. Out of a male-dominant and racist Ranger/Tonto legend, the performance creates an alternative picture of other, less-often-heard realities. The piece uses the convention of storytelling to question the role of stories in creating the dominant culture's vision of North America, and the veracity of the stories themselves. Performed with a live musical score by Diane Kooch, Calgary.

AND A NEW performance piece IN PROGRESS!

 West End
Cultural Centre
Saturday, October 6

Doors open 7 pm
Performances begin 8 pm
pizza and cash bar

TICKETS AVAILABLE THROUGH MAWA OR THE WEST END CULTURAL CENTRE:

$5/mawa members
$10/non-members


Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan create smart and funny feminist performances, films, videos, artists' books and public art projects. Each year they tour to an average of ten Canadian cities, and have performed throughout Japan, England, Germany, Austria, Portugal, Australia, and the US. They are infamous for pieces such as We're Talking Vulva, A Day in The Life of A Bull-Dyke, and Lesbian National Parks and Services. All of their work explores transgression, monstrosity, and the forbidden. Winnipeg is their chosen home.
 

 
LOOKING BACKWARD 3000 is the first piece of Science Fiction performance from Dempsey and Millan. The last remaining speaker of Old English (not to be confused with Older English, the language of Chaucer) itemizes the reasons for the demise of global communication. In short: Where did language go? The professor gives an illustrated slide lecture, which no one else can hear, in an archaic tongue she has taught herself from videos of Dynasty and The Kathy and Regis Show. However, in the tradition of utopic novels Looking Back and Looking Back 2000 (from which the performance takes its name) not all is as bleak as it seems. Nostalgia is replacing cynicism, and people are learning to say, "I'm sorry."

VIDEOS

CALAMITY follows the Wild West heroine Calamity Jane through time. Using a variety of formats (Super 8 B&W, Super 8 colour, 16mm B&W, 16mm colour, and digital video), the cowgirl roams an ever-expanding universe. Excluded from history, Jane revels in lore. "I dreamed it better. I dreamed it big." The tape uses and subverts North American Western mythology, celebrating an alternative outsider position. Performed by Roma Konyk-Pastuck and Lorri Millan. Featuring a scratched and mixed score by contemporary audio artist Michelle Irving.

PERILL charts the dangerous territory of women's everyday lives. The tightrope walker vacuums across Niagara Falls while pondering employment; the bearded lady waits by the phone while holding up the world; the human cannon ball hurtles through space, unsure if she will ever land, but making the best of things. Using video imagery from Dempsey and Millan's performance, The Headless Woman (the Western Front, January 1998), this video features acts of dare-deviltry by Sharon Bajer, Lorri Millan, and Debbie Patterson. Full-sized backdrops by Eleanor Bond. Music by Marilyn Lerner. Note: this video was made using stagecraft, not keyed effects.

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