Thrillpeddler directs "Cabaret"

Thrillpeddlers founder and director Russell Blackwood opened his new production of the Kander/Ebb musical "Cabaret" on December 2nd. Produced by the Shotgun Players at the Ashby Stage in Berkeley, CA, this dark and decadent antidote to the holiday season's sugary excesses runs through January 8th.

Rave reviews are already rolling in:

"Director Russell Blackwood was an inspired choice for this sprawling story of decadence and decay. A tireless advocate of the violent, shocking Grand Guignol style of theater, he knows how to make an audience respond." - East Bay Express

"Berkeley's Shotgun Players are celebrating the holidays with bare bottoms and breasts, simulated sex and a veritable buffet of delicious decadence. The company's production of "Cabaret" that opened last weekend at the Ashby Stage is, in a word, wild." -- Oakland Tribune

"Shotgun's production, directed by Russell Blackwood, captures this offbeat style beautifully, especially in its refusal to sanitize the sexual atmosphere. -- Marin Independent Journal

Tickets are sure to sell fast, so hop over to the Shotgun Players Website ASAP if you don't want to miss the chance to see this twisted holiday hit.

About Russell Blackwood

“A fiendish terror is loose in the city, courtesy of Russell Blackwood...”
-- The S.F. Bay Guardian

Russell Blackwood usually directs Thrillpeddlers’ plays, but giddily hits the boards when the right role comes along. He also enjoys fostering the company’s collaborations with such notables as playwrights Clive Barker and Eric Bentley, Grand Guignol historians Mel Gordon and Agnes Pierron as well as pop culture icons like topless pioneer Carol Doda, Warhol Superstar Holly Woodlawn, and queer Marlboro Man Christian Herron. As a freelance director of theatre and opera, his productions have played South Africa, Taiwan, London and throughout the U.S. from New York City to Alaska. West Coast credits include the premières of Scott O’Hara’s Ex-Lovers and Kate Bornstein’s Strangers in Paradox for Theatre Rhinoceros, The Two Gentlemen of Verona and The Taming of the Shrew for the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival, Medea for Shotgun Players, and Starship Shakespeare for Shakespeare Festival/L.A.

In addition to directing, during his decade-long affiliation with San Francisco Shakespeare Festival he also produced Free Shakespeare in the Park, the Gershwins’ Oh, Kay! (winner of 6 Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards) and the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival. As a visiting guest artist for academic theatre and opera programs, he directed productions at University of San Francisco, American Conservatory Theatre, U.C. Berkeley, Avila College, and Technikon Pretoria in South Africa. From 1996 2000 he was a resident stage director for both San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the Bay Area Summer Opera Theatre Institute. Russell is a graduate of Boston University School for the Arts BFA Acting program.

About Daniel Zilber

Daniel Zilber (co-founder) has worked throughout the country as a theatrical business manager and producer. He served as Operations Manager for the 1996 Olympic Arts Festival in Atlanta and Entertainment Director for Station Casino, Kansas City. He has also worked with The Shakespeare Theatre (Washington, D.C.), The Big Apple Circus, The Roundabout Theatre, and the National Tour of Annie Get Your Gun. As a composer and lyricist, he has created musical scores for the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, The Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival, and the Boston Children's Theatre. Daniel is currently the Company Manager of Teatro ZinZanni, San Francisco's long-running circus/cabaret/dinner show. He lives with his wife Adrien in the East Bay island-town of Alameda.

Reviews

If you thought Sweeney Todd was creepy, wait until you see the work of Thrillpeddlers."
-- Robert Viagas, PLAYBILL

"Never mind the Castro -- the best Halloween experience this year is at the Exit. There, the Thrillpeddlers celebrate the holiday in gruesome style with three scintillating adaptations from the Grand Guignol."
-- Joe Mader, SF WEEKLY

"Shocktoberfest!! has become one of my favorite events of the Halloween season, which is saying a lot in this October-loving town."
-- Silke Tudor, SF WEEKLY

"There are times, we admit, when, weary of the virtuous boredom of the serious theater, and oppressed by the shrillness of new voices on the fringe – which, like all newly born voices, seem capable only of screaming – we want to see a play that is hilarious without apology, and appeals to our other, more animal instincts. In such cases, nothing could be better than the two short plays in Thrillpeddlers' Shocktoberfest."
-- Amir Shadi, THEATREWORLD

"The most remarkable feat of the production was the way it was able to move fairly swiftly between laughter-producing and horror-producing moments in a way that would have seemed impractical to this reviewer if he had not witnessed it himself. The humorous moments were all created by the resonance of the action on stage with the well-known and well-loved clichés of horror fiction, whereas the moments of genuine horror were brought about by the penetration of the audience’s defenses against the unthinkable."
-- John Harvey, SOMA Magazine

Past Productions

Shocktoberfest!!
2001: Carnival of Hallucinations (2001)

The third edition of our annual "Pageant of Terror and Titillation."  This time around we offered two new adaptations of classic Grand Guignol plays never before performed in English (Maker of Monsters and Kiss of Blood), and an original play based on Puccini's opera Tosca (The Torture of Cavaradossi).  And back by popular demand, Thrillpeddlers' lovely, leggy, foot-fixated playmates, The Barefoot Beauties, were on hand (and knees) performing two new fantasy vignettes.

Shocktoberfest!! 2000 (2000)

Thrillpeddlers return for a second year with three world premiere adaptations of classic Grand Guignol plays: Andre de Lorde's bizarre mystery Brush With Death; the outrageous Grand Guignol sex farce A Wedding of the Member; and finally, Orgy in the Lighthouse, one of the most popular pieces from the Grand Guignol's later repertoire. This year also marked the debut of Thrillpeddlers' foot fetish femmes fatales, The Barefoot Beauties (and the untimely end for some unfortunate earthworms)

Shocktoberfest!! (1999) 

Thrillpeddlers begin what is to become a San Francisco Halloween tradition. Three incredibly strange plays in one unforgettable evening. From the porno-centric morality play The Celibate, to the Victorian girls-school spanking adventure A Visit To Mrs. Birch, to one of the Grand Guignol's most popular dramas A Crime In A Madhouse, this show stunned unsuspecting audiences night after night.  Like the Stones' concert at Altamont or The Talking Heads' first show at CBGB's, it seems that just about everybody tries to claim "I was there."

Mondo Andronicus (1997)

For the 1997 San Francisco Fringe Festival, Thrillpeddlers turned to Shakespeare's revenge powerhouse Titus Andronicus. Deconstructing the play with a Mondo-film/Faces of Death aesthetic, we sliced the script down to a lean 60 minutes and turned up the blood and gore to 11. Adding fuel to the fire was a live-mixed Drum-n-Bass soundtrack. The entire run was sold-out, and the production was voted "Best of the Fringe."

Clive Barker's Frankenstein In Love(1996)

The U.S. premiere of horror/fantasy writer Clive Barker's necro-political thriller. Barker personally selected Thrillpeddlers as the theatre company best suited to tackle his dark and complex work. Our production featured several of our favorite Bay Area actors and choreography by legendary nude dancer Carol Doda.

Laboratory of Hallucinations (1991)

Thrillpeddlers original adaptation of the quintessential Grand Guignol drama. Our production was based on the play by France's "Prince of Terror," Andre de Lorde, which thrilled audiences in Paris for over forty years! SOMA magazine wrote, "San Francisco has recently been treated to a play which dares to give the audience the horror and melodrama they crave rather than the stultifying naturalism they are too often told they want."

Shocktoberfest!! 2001

"Shocktoberfest!! has become one of my favorite events of the Halloween season." - Silke Tudor, SF Weekly

"All but the faint at heart should check out the blood-slinging." - SF Bay Guardian

"Don't go alone!" - San Francisco Chronicle

SIX WEEKS ONLY!

Every Thursday - Friday - Saturday 8:00pm
October 4 - November 10, 2001

EXIT Theatre
156 Eddy Street, San Francisco

All Seats Only $18 General Admission

Due to the graphic nature of the performance,
no one under 18 will be admitted.

---

THRILLPEDDLERS REVIVE TERRORS
OF THE GRAND GUIGNOL

Third annual Shocktoberfest!! features new translations of classic
French horror plays never before seen in the United States.

Shocktoberfest!! 2001: Carnival of Hallucinations, Thrillpeddlers latest pageant of terror and titillation, will feature two newly translated one-act plays from the repertoire of the infamous Grand Guignol Theatre of Paris never before produced in the United States. Also on the program, the world premiere of a new one-act comedy based on Puccini’s opera Tosca, and Thrillpeddlers’ own foot fetish femmes fatales, “The Barefoot Beauties.”

Thrillpeddlers are currently the only theatre company in the U.S. actively translating and producing the repertoire of one-act horror plays and sex farces that made The Grand Guignol Theatre one of Paris’ most popular tourist attractions for over 60 years. Of the hundreds of plays produced by the Grand Guignol Theatre between 1897 and 1962, only a handful have ever been seen on the American stage.

The evening’s program for Shocktoberfest!! 2001: Carnival of Hallucinations includes:

Maker of Monsters
A drama by Max Maury.
English adaptation by Daniel Zilber.
Originally produced at the Grand Guignol in 1929.

Backstage at the carnival sideshow, strange experiments produce wildly popular attractions. But the maker of monsters has bigger plans. Just how far will he go in the name of art, beauty, and love? Directed by Russell Blackwood.


The Torture of Cavaradossi
By Daniel Zilber.
World Premiere

This original Thrillpeddlers piece dares to show you what the San Francisco Opera will not: The famous off-stage torture from Puccini’s Tosca -- ON STAGE! Add escaped lunatics, prostitutes, and Maria Callas to the mix, and you’ve got all the ingredients for a fun-filled musical romp through the world of Grand (Guignol) Opera. Directed by Gregory Hoffman.

Kiss of Blood
A drama by Jean Aragny and Frances Neilson.
English Adaptation by Daniel Zilber.
Originally produced at the Grand Guignol in 1929.

Doctors attempt to unravel the mystery of a man driven by pain to commit desperate and unspeakable acts. What demons could be haunting him? And what is the cure? Directed by Russell Blackwood.

PLUS: The return of Thrillpeddlers’ own foot fetish femmes fatales, “The Barefoot Beauties,” who take the art of foot worship to dizzying heights in two new fantasy vignettes.

The Shocktoberfest!! 2001 cast features: Paula Arciniega, Guy Balontine, Kimberly Davis Basso, Gwynne Flanagan, Jonathan Gonzalez, Lisa Jenai Hernandez, Emily Jordan, Kim Larsen, Anna Laveria May, Russell Blackwood, and Daniel Zilber.