Funny Uncle Cabaret’s first act is a retelling of the Nutcracker story through the lens of LGBTQ+ lives and families of choice- including the adoption of Peter DiMuro’s niece. Having played a funny uncle as Drosselmeier in the Nutcracker, and now one in real life, Peter shares excerpts of these stories in Funny Uncle Cabaret, alongside other odd, queer and gay stories through song, dance and narrative.
Guests sharing their stories include members of the Boston drag community including Mizery and Linda Marie Possa; singer Robert McFletcher Jones; members of Public Displays of Motion’s core collaborators including Irene Lutts, Ann Fonte, and Kristin Wagner Guglietti and Tony Guglietti (and possibly their son, 11 month old Nico!).
Special guest, choreographer/performer Christal Brown joins us as well.
For the first time, Funny Uncle will include a preview of “Our Queer Family Storybook”. This new PDM project helps queer families create translations of their unique story into multi-media performances. (A related story telling and making workshop will be held for anyone hailing from a queer family- a family of choice or even just odd! – at The Dance Complex on December Info here
The second act of Funny Uncle Cabaret is just that- a cabaret! Our musical directors, both lauded cabaret artists, Andy Lantz on 12/14; Brian Patton on 12/15), will lead the audience in some sing-alongs that will include special pop up performances by cast and surprise guests from the Boston cabaret and dance scenes. You may even get to sing a song solo- especially if it has a queer twist to it: I saw Daddy kissing Santa Claus, maybe?
Funny Uncle is supported in part by Cambridge Arts.
Related events:
December 15: Drag Brunch at Viale, more info soon at vialecambridge.com
December 1: Our Queer Family: A Story Making and Telling Workshop at The DC, info here
Boston-based Peter DiMuro/Public Displays of Motion (PDM) creates dance and dance/theatre, translating the humane within everyday lives into extraordinary studies of the human condition. Driven by collaborative models, the company brings together a sum of ages, races, queer and disabilities communities to create diverse subject matter and metaphor for their works on site, on stage, on screens. Through creative practice and products, the company is an agent of advocacy and creativity literacy.
The company of dancer/collaborators is adept in multiple movement and performance techniques and spans an age-range of six decades. Guest collaborators are often engaged in the processes and performances of the work, and have included those from the LGBTQ+ and immigrant communities, seniors and youth, disabilities communities, and intersections of civic entities and citizenry, staffs of business organizations and family groups. The engagement process of culling personal histories and movement through inquiry and guided movement development creates a rare communicative power that translates into performances. Performances can be grand spectacles on-site, or miniature, intimate dances on tabletops, or dynamic explorations of words and images made for video and screen…or more traditional performances on stages.
PDM has been supported in residencies at the The Yard/Martha’s Vineyard, Vermont Performance Lab, Boston Dance Alliance, Villa Victoria Cultural Center/Boston (through support from New England Foundation for the Arts’ Creative City grant), The Rose Kennedy Greenway, The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and The Dance Complex, Cambridge, MA, where Peter is the Executive Artistic Director. Recent performances have included debut performances at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival and at Gibney Dance in NYC in 2018; at Boston’s famed Hatch Shell in several commissions from Landmarks Orchestra; and at Boston’s Museum of Science, virtually, in a collaboration with Masary Studios.
Cost: $15 Access Level | $25 General Admission | $35 Supporter Level | $50 Front Row Seating
Studio 7 is an ADA compliant street-level studio and reception space. There are 2 single stall restrooms with 1 handicap accessible.
If you or a guest in your party has accessibility needs for this event, please contact Joe Juknievich at joe@dancecomplex.org or 617-547-9363.
