All entries by this author

Creepshow Camp: Summer 2010

Feb 27th, 2010 | By Daniel Zilber | Category: Camp

Young devotees of Horror, Sci-Fi and Suspense have a summer camp to call their own! Creepshow Camps face “fright” with curiosity and creativity, revealing the secret techniques behind scary entertainments’ vitality and power. Workshops led by our dedicated staff of teaching artists engage participants, hands-on, in activities that teach and reinforce the fundamental skills in monster make-up, special effects, sleight of hand and stage combat. In our theatre venue, campers rehearse on-stage for a farewell performance given for family and friends at the end of every Creepshow Camp session. Four 2-week sessions: June 14, July 5, July 19, and August 2. Ages 8 – 15.



A Musical Seance with Jill Tracy and Paul Mercer

Feb 27th, 2010 | By Daniel Zilber | Category: Coming Soon

Channeling spirits, science, and seduction… A Musical Seance returns to The Hypnodrome! TWO NIGHTS ONLY!

March 7 & 8, 2010 at 8:00 PM

Hailed by LA Weekly as “the cult darling of the underworld,” our favorite chanteuse fatale Jill Tracy returns to Thrillpeddlers’ Hypnodrome to resurrect her wildly popular “Musical Seance”, a collaboration with Atlanta cult composer/violinist Paul Mercer, and featuring master percussionist Randy Odell, and special guests.



Drag delight in ‘Pearls Over Shanghai’

Jan 22nd, 2010 | By Daniel Zilber | Category: Recent Press, Reviews, Uncategorized

By Leslie Katz for the SF Examiner ::
Not only has “Pearls Over Shanghai” survived a flash flood that closed it down for several weeks, the good-humored, gender-bending show is hosting guests of national prominence and questionable tastes — such as John Waters.
The director of the 1972 cult classic “Pink Flamingos” (as well as the original [...]



Thrillpeddlers’ smash run of Pearls over Shanghai just keeps going

Jan 22nd, 2010 | By Daniel Zilber | Category: Recent Press, Reviews

Chris Jensen for the SF Weekly ::
In November 1971, a San Francisco theater troupe became the laughingstock of New York. The Cockettes were a ragtag bunch of acid-tripping Bay Area misfits who had started performing less than two years earlier at the Palace Theater in North Beach. Rex Reed happened to catch a local performance [...]



“Do not miss this marvelous confection of fun and outrage.”

Dec 11th, 2009 | By Daniel Zilber | Category: Recent Press, Reviews

By Lynn Ruth Miller for For All Events ::
In her wonderful and fascinating description of her life as a Cockette, MIDNIGHT AT THE PALACE, Pam Tent says, “Although PEARLS OVER SHANGHAI had long been germinating in the fertile mind of Link Martin, it was extremely fortuitous when the real Peking Opera played the stage [...]



“San Francisco’s Halloween treats:” LA Times Recommends Shocktoberfest!! 2009

Oct 24th, 2009 | By Daniel Zilber | Category: Recent Press, Reviews

By Mariella Krause for the LA Times ::
In San Francisco, you need not worry about which horror movies the video store has in stock when there are half a dozen Halloween-themed plays you can see. “Shocktoberfest,” for instance, has become a Halloween tradition.
This annual blood-fest, put on by the Thrillpeddlers, is inspired by the [...]



“A Shockingly Filthy Good Time” Violet Blue Reviews Pearls Over Shanghai and Shocktoberfest!! 2009

Oct 23rd, 2009 | By Daniel Zilber | Category: Recent Press, Reviews

Violet Blue from SFGate.com ::
How can I best describe the adults-only, non-PC, musical extravaganza “Pearls Over Shanghai?” Take our local, super-talented Grand Guignol theater company The Thrillpeddlers and mate them with the legendary drag troupe The Cockettes — it’s as if Heklina birthed Rosemary’s Baby. It’s also the most entertaining live performance you may ever [...]



“No pain, no gain” Bay Guardian Reviews Shocktoberfest!! 2009

Oct 14th, 2009 | By Daniel Zilber | Category: Recent Press, Reviews

By Robert Avila for the SF Bay Guardian ::
Thrillpeddlers, the Bay Area’s Grand Guignol maestros, is having a very good year. Amid an ever-extending run of the gloriously notorious Cockettes’ musical Pearls over Shanghai — the hit revival now shimmying its way to New Year’s Day — opened its 10th anniversary pageant of Halloween-season [...]



Shocktoberfest!! 2009: The Torture Garden

Sep 3rd, 2009 | By Daniel Zilber | Category: Coming Soon

October 1 – November 20, 2009

Thrillpeddlers are proud to announce our signature Halloween show “Shocktoberfest!! 2009: The Torture Garden,” our tenth annual pageant of titillating Grand Guignol terror plays and stimulating sex farces. “Shocktoberfest!! 2009” will consist of two plays, the Grand Guignol classic “The Torture Garden” (1922) by Pierre Chaine and Andre de Lorde, and “The Phantom Limb,” an original play in the Grand Guignol tradition commissioned by the Thrillpeddlers from New York playwright Rob Keefe.



“A Genuine, Drag-Out Joy To Behold:” Pearls Over Shanghai Review

Jun 16th, 2009 | By Daniel Zilber | Category: Recent Press, Reviews

From Kimberly Chun of 7×7 ::
For kids who were born too late to experience the fabulous freaks and drag delights of San Francisco’s world-famous underground troupe the Cockettes, your moment has come to truly sample the, ahem, wares of the groundbreaking psychedelic tranny troupe. The Cockettes may be gone, but it hasn’t been forgotten – [...]