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$7.00 r «t t fw 7 MAGCORP 949-0590 ing Like Women! F.M.I. Female Mimics International CONTENTS The Burning Busch 4 Theatre en femme Farewell Chrysis 7 A tribute to a wonderful friend Letters to the Editor 12 Femme-mail F.M.I. News Update 18 Transsexual politics Good Boy/Bad Girl .20 Hot and sweet from Kim Christy’s latest Personal Ads 30 Let your fingers do the walking F.M.I. News Update 40 The court system Catalog . .42 Products with you in mind FEMALE MIMICS INTERNATIONAL, #57, Vol. 20, No. 1, is published bi-monthly by MAGCORP, The Magazine Corporation of America. California. Copyright ©1990 by LEORAM. All rights reserved on entire contents. Nothing may be reproduced, in whole or in part, without written permission from the publisher. The publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited materials. All manuscripts, photos and artwork must be accompanied by return postage. All photos in this publication were posed by professional models, except as otherwise noted. Neither said photos, nor words used to describe them, are meant to depict the actual conduct or personality of the models. All models are 18 years of age or older. No data on models will be released. Any similarity between real persons and characters depicted in fiction or semi-fiction herein is purely coincidental. Exclusive distribution by MAGCORP, The Magazine Corporation of America. Printed in USA. EDITORIAL Dear friends, I’m still a little out of breath just having come back from New York, where only days ago I was fortunate enough to have been able to spend Chrysis’ last few days with her. I still feel drained and saddened and I don 7 want to dwell on the more painful aspects of it here, but I do believe in a higher power and that everything in life unfolds as it should. What I have come back with is a renewed sense of the value offamily and friends and to enjoy them white we have them. Live for the moment kids, it’s all we have. In the meantime, all the folks who worked so hard and gave so much of themselves unselfishly should be saluted. If I were to try to make a list of all the folks who helped Chrysis at the end, I would most likely miss someone, so let us just give a blanket acknowledgement On to brighter stuff: We hope you enjoy the layout from “Good Boy/Bad Girl.” A wonderful little video if I do say so. Because of its unique nature we are only offering it to our mail order list, so write in if you want more information on purchasing this tape. Thanks to Mrs. Alameda, Tina’s mother, for scouring the tabloids gathering articles of interest for us. She’s a god-damned jewel. Perhaps in issues past, you’ve read mention of Charles Busch and his wonderful theatrical extravaganzas? Mr. Busch, a gentleperson and a scholar, has made it possible to have this brief coverage of his oeuvre. His work is really great and playing simultaneously in New York, L.A. and San Francisco. Everybody loves drag! Much Love, Kim A The Burning Busch ampire Lesbians of Sodom, sinister innocence, harmless depravi- the longest running play in ty — it’s all here. .and it’s conta- Off-Broadway history, will gious,”' raved the New York Times. have its West Coast pre- To date, the production has played V miere at the Coronet nearly 2,000 performances and is still Theatre on March 6. Preview perfor- going strong. mances begin February 24. A playwright-in-residence with Written by and starring the incom- Theatre-in-Limbo — a company of parable Charles Busch in the dual actors and theatre artists under the role of a sacrificial virgin and artistic direction of Kenneth Elliot — Hollywood movie queen Madeleine Charles Busch has written and per- Astarte, Vampire Lesbians of Sodom formed in such Theatre-in-Limbo (a Theatre-in-Limbo production) productions as Psycho Beach Party, pokes irreverent fun at everything Times Square Angel, Pardon My In- from sex and drugs to silent films quisition, Theodora, She-Bitch of and Las Vegas lounge acts, with ad- Byzantium and, most recently, The ditional bites aimed at the women’s Lady in Question. movement, health food, high fashion Vampire Lesbians of Sodom is and fairy tales. directed by Kenneth Elliott with The show’s companion piece, can you say about a show that refers scenic design by B.T. Whitehill, costume design by John Glaser and Sleeping Beauty or Coma , which to Sodom and Gomorrah as “the takes place in the mod fashion world twin cities”), Vampire Lesbians of lighting design by Vivien Leone. The of London in the 1960s, features Sodom opened at the Provincetown play is produced by Gordon Crowe Busch as Fauna Alexander, a woman Playhouse in New York’s Greenwich with Manny Kladitis, John Kenley, who may be uncomely, but never Village in June 1985, and became an Abbie M. Strassler, Turk May and forgotten. instant hit: “Costumes flashier than Hillsman Wright. Perversely sophisticated (what else pinball machines, outrageous lines, another from ancient y the time he was 10 years Sodom old, Charles Busch had seen through Hollywood of the 1920s to modern-day Las Vegas, has become the entire catalog of MGM Q& B and Warner Bros, movies the longest-running (non-musical) play in Off-Broadway history. of the 1930s and ’40s. After with graduating from New York’s High Vampire Lesbians of Sodom and School of Music and Art, Busch CHARLES BUSCH its companion piece, Sleeping Beauty entered Northwestern University as a or Coma (which takes place in the drama major. There he wrote his mod fashion world of London in the 1960s), made its West Coast premiere first play, Outtakes of a B-Movie, which had five readings at Joseph offering was Theodora, She-Bitch oj at Los Angeles’ Coronet Theatre on March 6. Papp’s Public Theatre (though it was Byzantium (a spoof of Cecil B. never produced). DeMille epics), followed by Times After a short-lived association Square Angel, a “sleighbells-in-the- Q : Whatever possessed you to with a Chicago theatre company, slush” melodrama. Then came Vam- write a piece called Vampire PHOTOGRAPHY Lesbians Busch spent the next six years touring pire Lesbians of Sodom, which prov- of Sodom? the country with his one-man show, ed to be such an enormous hit, that it A : First of all, I was out of work Charles Busch Alone With a Cast of outgrew the cabaret and moved to at the time and Ken Elliott was SCHWARTZ Thousands. the legendary Provincetown Play- about to give up the theatre In 1984, Busch was invited to write house in June, 1985. and go to law school. So to for a tiny Greenwich Village cabaret Vampire Lesbians, the irreverent cheer myself up I decided to CRAIG called the Limbo Lounge. His first saga of two ladies who chase one put on a little play for friends 5 F M I and dashed off an early version Gertrude Garnet, a selfish, of Vampire Lesbians between foolish woman on tour in taking calls as an office recep- Bavaria. tionist. I was always fascinated Q: What happened after your one- by vampires as a kid, especially man show folded? the fact that they never got any A : For years I made my living as a older. I thought it would be fun quick sketch portrait artist — to have these two bitchy wom- at art fairs, tent shows, parties. en come together after centur- I was a psychic portrait artist. I ies of fighting, primarily out of showed you what you looked their loneliness. like in a previous life. You Q : Where did you and director know, I’d draw you as Cleo- Ken Elliott first meet? patra, with a wig on. : At college. were both in the A We Q : Are your plays more than just chorus of Romeo and Juliet. I parodies? was the second Italian to the A : On one level, most of my work left. When we began doing is a parody of movie genres, things at the Limbo Lounge, but I always find that a bit lim- we formed a theatre company, ited. So I find myself satirizing Theatre-in-Limbo, with Ken as a certain point of view. The Artistic Director. Lady in Question is a satire Q : Tell us about Theatre-in-Limbo. against New Age thinking. A : We’ve been together over five Vampire Lesbians runs the years. It’s basically a group of gamut; we poke fun at every- eight people, with others who thing from sex, drugs and keep coming and going. Some health foods to silent films and people think we’re this strange, Las Vegas lounge acts, with ad- undisciplined, avant garde ditional barbs aimed at the group, but we’re actually like women’s movement, high fash- Katherine Cornell and her ion and fairy tales. first read- troupe. At our Q : How different were your au- through we all sit in a circle on diences at the Provincetown stage and we refer to each ether Playhouse as compared to the as Mr. and Mrs. So-and-So and Limbo Lounge? it’s all very grand. It’s a very A : Quite different. We went from special group of people; we punkettes in pink Mohawk worked for a year without any haircuts to mainstream subur- money and under terrible cir- banites who just loved seeing cumstances. We sort of rose men in drag. Remember, one from the gutter together and of Broadway’s biggest hits was that’s why there is such a La Cage Aux Folles and Dustin strong sense of family with our Hoffman’s Tootsie was a huge company — and it shows in the box office success.