OBERON Announces
May / June 2018 Programming

Cambridge, MA—OBERON, the American Repertory Theater’s (A.R.T.) second stage and club-theater venue on the fringe of Harvard Square, announces events to be presented at OBERON during May and June 2018—including OBERON Presents, Glowberon, usual suspects, and more.

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WIG OUT
OBERON Presents
Now – May 13, 2018
Tickets from $25
Company One Theatre, in cooperation with A.R.T. and OBERON, presents the catwalk showdown of the year from the Oscar-winning writer of Moonlight. When the House of Light is challenged to a surprise ball by the rival House of Di’abolique, they’ve got to leave it all on the floor to defend their family’s Legendary status. Fueled by a sizzling R&B playlist, Wig Out! is a divine exploration of drag ball culture, chosen family, and the desire to be desired.

“The drag-laced spectacular fields as much aggressive razzle-dazzle as unblemished heart!” – WBUR The ARTery

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RESISTANCE MIC!
Wednesday, May 16 at 8PM
Tickets $5 – 25
Artists. Truth. Power. The 2016 election inspired a broad-based Resistance not seen in the United States in decades. People from all walks of life have been protesting, marching, mobilizing, and organizing in an effort to take back our country and create a more compassionate and just world. Artists are vital to this work. In collaboration with Pangyrus and other literary and arts initiatives, American Repertory Theater and Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University’s intimate performances on the theme of “Resistance” feature diverse groups of artist-activists telling powerful stories and performing politically engaged works that read, move, sing, and speak truth to power in these troubled times.

May 16 Resisters: Ethan Gilsdorf, Robert Pinsky, Stan Strickland, Shuchi Saraswat, The True Colors Troupe, and Artistic Noise. 

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FAUXNIQUE – THE F WORD
Glowberon
Thursday, May 17 at 8PM
Tickets $25
The F Word is FEMINISM! Let’s hear it from the painted mouth of Fauxnique, the lady drag queen and dancing, singing raconteuse. A frank fabulist whose Fosse-lized focus and forceful frame forge fanciful factual fictions, Fauxnique’s fashionably fierce form of feminism is filled with f***ing fantastic feats of hi-femme frippery. See why she broke through the glass ceiling of the male-dominated world of drag to become a queen among queens. A look at Feminism through the lens of Drag Cabaret and vice/versa.
Fauxnique is the drag queen alter-ego of artist/choreographer/dancer Monique Jenkinson. Lauded for her ‘campy, intellectual juxtaposition of pop culture and high art’ Fauxnique plays with artifice and authenticity and lives to question essentialist assumptions about gender, art, and culture. Informed both by Jenkinson’s classical ballet training and a tradition of radical queer performance and theory, Fauxnique sees the performance of femininity as a forceful, vulnerable, and subversive act.

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BLONDE SIDE OF THE MOON: A LIVE MUSIC AND BURLESQUE TRIBUTE TO
PINK FLOYD
Friday, May 18 at 8PM and Saturday, May 19 at 7PM
Tickets $15 – $45
We don’t need no education…. All we need is live, iconic British rock, jaw dropping aerial performances, and a bevy of burlesque beauties! At the divine and fabulous OBERON, we can’t wait to entertain and delight you with this incredible multimedia tribute to Pink Floyd! Intoxicating chanteuse and fearless comic maven, Niki Luparelli returns to pay homage to classic rock hits as only she can, as unapologetic tidal wave of platinum blonde talent! Known for her sold out tributes to Bowie, Madonna, Prince, Led Zeppelin, and Blondie, Niki accompanied by the Even Pinker Floyd band uses her classically trained and artfully abused sultry voice to honor the songs from Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall.

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A DARK KNIGHT IN THE ASYLUM
Sunday, May 20 and Friday, May 25 at 8PM
Tickets $15 – 25
The Batty Burlesque of Gotham’s most wanted is BACK by popular demand for TWO NIGHTS ONLY! Gothamites and Bostonians alike can’t get enough of this criminally sexy show! Award winning spooky burlesque and wyrd art troupe The Slaughterhouse Society are happy to prescribe you a double dose of…A DARK KNIGHT IN THE ASYLUM!

Boston’s ravenous, well-feared and revered, horror queer performance art crew is downright BATTY over the infamous Batman rogue gallery. How about you, are you brave enough to be locked in with the inmates of Arkham? Custom Gotham Siren cocktails will be available at the bar! COSTUMES ARE ENCOURAGED.
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THE MOTH
Usual Suspect
Tuesday, May 22 at 8PM (tickets available May 15 at 2PM)
Tuesday, June 19 at 8PM (tickets available June 12 at 3PM)
Tickets $10
The Moth StorySLAMs are steadily spreading all over the map, gathering people and stories from all over the country. New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Boston have multiple shows each month. The Moth is open to anyone with a five-minute story to share on the night’s posted theme. The brave of heart, or those with stories they’re aching to tell, prepare personal, true tales. When the doors open, storyteller hopefuls put their names in The Moth Hat. A half-hour later, names are picked, and one by one, storytellers take the stage. Each person has just five minutes! The ten featured stories are scored by teams of judges selected from the audience. Each StorySLAM generates a StorySLAM winner. After ten SLAMs, the winners face off in our GrandSLAM Championships. Come sign up to tell a story, or just enjoy the show!

May theme: Hair. Prepare a five-minute story about curls, bangs, and mop tops. Relaxing it, pulling it out, or trading out the pigtails for a mohawk. Proving you’re more than just “that kid with the blue hair.” Loving what you were born with or reinventing yourself. Beauty standards and difficult tangles. Regale us with tales of roots, furs, and locks.

June theme: Imposter. Prepare a five-minute story about the masks we wear. Disguising the true person with a fake mustache or phony Ph.D.  Fabricated credentials or a cloak and girdle! The banjo-strumming, sensitive-guy persona you put on to get with the ladies.  Undercover cops and chameleons.  Pranks and parent-traps. Wolves gussied up like lambs and lambs dressed up to pass as mutton. The Trojan Horse, The Mighty Oz and now you!
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RAINBOW CONNECTION: PRIDE
Thursday, May 31 at 8PM
Tickets $25
Boston Choral Ensemble opens Pride week with a concert that celebrates our LGBTQAI colleagues. Come and hear music and texts by LGBTQAI writers and composers and on relevant themes. We connect back to our other concerts with music by openly gay composers including Poulenc and Britten and premiere a piece by the winner of our annual commission competition for an evening of drinks, beautiful music, and celebration.

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HOT BITS QUEER XXX FILM FESTIVAL
Friday, June 1 at 9PM
$15 advance, $20 at the door
After two sold-out weekends in Philadelphia and Baltimore, Hot Bits Queer XXX Film Festival is coming to Boston for one night only! Hot Bits is a space to celebrate Queer/Trans and PoC pleasure, empowerment and self-love. We want to re-write the alienating categories defined by the mainstream commercial porn and sex industries of who/what is desirable + what desire can look like. We believe that erotic art holds the potential for uncovering the sexual self-determination necessary for fully liberated connection and healing. This festival will showcase a range of erotic indie video works from soft to hardcore, as well as live performance. This event is strictly 18+. For more information, please visit: hotbitsfilmfest.com.

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STRIPSONIAN: BURLESQUE AT THE MUSEUM
Sunday, June 3 and Thursday, June 7 at 8PM
Tickets $15-25
The museum comes alive at night, and all those nudes are just as naughty as you think! Rogue Burlesque transforms OBERON into the Stripsonian for an evening of burlesque at the museum! A duo of docents leads a “guided tour” of the wings – natural history, fine art, history, modern art. Every exhibit is full of exhibitionists, ready to show you a thing or two you weren’t expecting. Explore scandalous sagas from history, lose yourself in the magnificent beauty of impressionist paintings, and gain a truly deep appreciation for natural selection.

Your curated cast includes: Alice Azul, Brandy Wine, Cheeky DeVine, Clara Blows, Dahlia Strack, Dewie Decimator, Morning Glory, andTuesday Addams

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EN-ER-GY 9
Friday, June 8 at 9PM
Tickets $15 – 25
EN-ER-GY 9 is an exploration of Boston talent. It is an evening in which the Audience and the Artists will give each other as much love, life, experience, and Energy as they possibly can. An eclectic cast of artists and a diverse audience under one roof to celebrate the excitement of art. It is more than a talent show; it is a contribution to Boston’s music, poetry, dance, and art scenes. It is a collection of artists who own the ability to entertain, showcase, engage and inspire. It is one of the best shows you will ever have the pleasure of participating in!

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THE SEXTACULAR SHOW
Sunday, June 10 at 8PM
Tickets $10 – 25
Showcasing bawdy storytellers, burlesque beauties, side-splitting comedy, and newly discovered acts, The Sextacular Show is a celebration of all things sensual—and doesn’t stop there! The Sextacular Show is turn-on entertainment coupled with audience engagement to raise sexual consciousness and positive awareness in the community!

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EZEKIEL’S WHEELS & NIGHT TREE
Thursday, June 14 at 8PM
Tickets $20
Ezekiel’s Wheels and Night Tree, two of Boston’s most virtuosic and progressive folk ensembles, join forces for one epic night of music. Spanning the roots and branches of both Klezmer and Celtic music, Ezekiel’s Wheels and Night Tree share their innovative arrangements from traditional folk through their original songs and compositions.

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GET YOU A GIRL WHO CAN DO BOTH
Friday, June 15 at 8PM
Tickets $20 – 30
Showcasing the dynamic nature of burlesque performers by combining TEDx style presentations and live burlesque – by the same people – #DoBothBOS sets out to prove that you can be both a sexual object and a competent adult. After repeated, monumental success in Philadelphia, burlesque powerhouse Honeytree Evileye is teaming up with local producer Elsa Riot to present an educational, raucous night celebrating women who #DoBoth.

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THE TARBOX RAMBLERS
Saturday, June 16 at 7PM
Tickets $14 in advance, $16 at the door
Taking listeners to a place where Appalachian music and backwoods blues meet in powerful, unexpected combinations, The Tarbox Ramblers have drawn raves from Rolling Stone, All Things Considered and more. The Washington Post calls The Tarbox Ramblers “a force of nature”; The New Yorker says “Between the fiddle, string bass, drums and slide guitar, you won’t know what hit you.” tarboxramblers.com 
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POTTER PROM: A HARRY POTTER BURLESQUE
Sunday, June 17 and Thursday, June 21 at 8PM
Tickets $20 – $30
We are pleased to inform you that you have been invited by Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to attend the return of Potter Prom! Bust out your best dress robes, flaunt your house pride, and join us for a night of circus, nerdlesque, and fan service! Feel free to dress to impress and Slither in to our costume contest! The best dressed of the evening will be crowned King, Queen or Queer of Wizard Prom, and win some incredible prizes! Are you more of a studious wizard? Then test your knowledge in our Harry Potter Trivia Contest! Come prepared… Our Defense Against the Dark Arts Pop Quiz is no joke!
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SALT: RUBY ROSE FOX ALBUM RELEASE
Friday, June 22 at 8PM
Tickets $19 – $100
Boston based artist Ruby Rose Fox is a cultural messenger of our turbulent modern times. Her music is as sonically compelling as it is subversive, packed with lyrics that reflect and challenge our current political state, from #metoo, to the mass-shooting crisis. Part actress, director, and writer, Fox has never shied away from inventive ways to approach her art.

Fox’s sophomore album Salt is an utterly cinematic piece of experimental pop that features dense soundscapes built to accompany Fox’s wall-shattering vocals. The sonically-rich record is enhanced via ASMR microphones that were used during the recording, resulting in an ASMR-sensitive body of emotional, political, and personal songs—which when listened to with headphones—produces a next-level experience for the listener. Salt is the follow-up to Ruby Rose Fox‘s debut album Domestic which reached number 8 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart. Featured guests include Josh Knowles and The Gifted Program.

Front row VIP tickets include a CD/Vinyl package.rubyrosefox.com.

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MORTIFIED
Usual Suspect
Saturday, June 23 at 7PM
Tickets $15
Hailed as a “cultural phenomenon” by Newsweek and celebrated for years by the likes of This American Life, The Today Show, The AV Club,and Entertainment Weekly, Mortified is a comic excavation of teen angst artifacts (journals, poems, letters, lyrics, home movies, schoolwork) as shared by their original authors—In front of total strangers. Let’s get emotionally and literally naked together!
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THE DONKEY SHOW
The Long-Running Hit
Presented by A.R.T.
Every Saturday night
Tickets from $25
Tony Award-winner Diane Paulus’ celebrated smash hit continues its ninth Season at OBERON every Saturday night, bringing you the ultimate disco experience—a crazy circus of mirror balls and feathered divas, of roller skaters and hustle queens inspired by Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night��s Dream. The party rages on the dance floor to all the best ’70s hits as the show unfolds around the audience. After the show, the party continues into the night so you can live out your own disco fever fantasy!

In honor of The Donkey Show’s 800^th performance on June 2 at 10:30PM, A.R.T. will make 80 tickets available at $10 each to performances throughout the month of June, subject to availability. Discounted tickets will be available beginning May 14.

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OBERON is located at 2 Arrow Street at the corner of Mass Ave. in Harvard Square, Cambridge. For more info and tickets visit cluboberon.com.

 

OBERON is the American Repertory Theater’s club space for cutting-edge performance, a thriving incubator for local and emerging artists pushing the theatrical form and host to some of A.R.T.’s most boundary-breaking productions. It has attracted national attention for its innovative programming and business models. Thousands of artists and performance groups bring work to the space each year. OBERON regularly features a wide variety of local performers including aerialists, beat poets, musicians, tap dancers, gender-bending sketch troupes, comedians, burlesque performers, and aerialists.

 

@clubOBERON | #clubOBERON