The Thrillpeddlers Hypnodrome Presents "Lovers & Other Monsters" (events » live music) Tuesday, February 12, 2008 - 8:00 PM featuring Jill Tracy & Paul Mercer, Jello Biafra, Monte Cazazza, Mel Gordon, Harmon Leon, V. Vale, bewitchingly bleak ballads, spoken word, and Grand Guignol love stories.

With a diabolical nod to Valentine's (and Presidents) Day, Thrillpeddlers presents Lovers and Other Monsters, a week-long line-up of live music and theatre, exquisite torture and expert testimony that all dare to touch the taboos that haunt these holidays. The rotating bill of scintillating (and sinister) entertainments features V. Vale, founder and editor of Re/Search Publications conducting on stage interviews with industrial music maverick Monte Cazazza (on Friday, 2/15) and media prankster and Dead Kennedys founding front man Jello Biafra (on Saturday, 2/16), Thrillpeddlers previews new acts for 2008 and proudly debuts their latest collaboration with Creepshow Camp.

The Hypnodrome has got the perfect perch for Valentine couples our private Shock Box seats for two put a spookier spin on the old Parisian perk offering paramours a lodge-grille, the private trysting booths where you can see the show, but the show cant see you!. Our variation takes it to extremes! Each box boasts its own custom built special effects (a nod to the spooky gimmicks of director William Castle and the methods of fake spiritualists) and themed decor worthy of a haunted Madonna Inn.

Purchase tix here: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/26984

**Please note that Sunday's show will start at 7pm**

THRILLPEDDLERS present the preview of the "London Bill" beginning this Saturday, March 1st!! (events » arts) Saturday, March 1, 2008 - 7:00 PM 8 RSVPs As precursor to Thrillpeddlers' spring show, "Flaming Sin: London's Grand Guignol",
The Hypnodrome proudly presents four special nights in March when our resident
wild-man Harmon Leon revs up his new one-man show (bound later this month for
Ireland's prestigious Galway Comedy Festival).

Starting March 1 for three consecutive Saturday nights and ending with a St.
Patrick's Day bash on Monday March 17, Harmon will fine-tune his latest work live
for Hypnodrome audiences before he turns the stage (and screen) over to
Thrillpeddlers for a sneak preview of their American Premiere production of Noel
Coward's grand Guignol comedy "The Better Half" (March 1 only), "blue" bonus variety
acts as well as special guests Dead Channels' vintage film shorts and 'une petite
runion du Cockettes fabuleux!'

For those of you who don't speak French, or are too sober-minded to figger it out,
that translates to "a little reunion of the fabulous Cockettes!" Yes, original
members of San Francisco's best and brightest Ridiculous Theatre revue troupe come
together offering up clips and quips from Rumi Missabu's one-man memoir "A Cocktail
of Glamour and Anarchy" bound for it's own European tour, readings and signings by
"Sweet Pam" Tent of her gripping yarn "Midnight at The Palace: My Life as a
Fabulous Cockette", Harlo (an original "Plaster-Caster", loveable niece to Eva Braun
and the inspiration for Miss Piggie) and Fayette Hauser (sharing her personal
collection of Cockette's photos and lurid true-tales). Cockettes take to The 'drome
for one night only on Saturday, March 15.

More About Harmon Leon:

Called a cross between Michael Moore and South Park, Harmon has performed at comedy
festivals around the world, including the Montreal, Melbourne, Adelaide, Wellington,
Vancouver, and Edinburgh festivals.

He's has appeared on The Howard Stern Show, Penn &Teller's Bullshit, The Jamie
Kennedy Experiment, VH1, Court TV, Blind Date, as well as the BBC. Harmon also
costarred with the infamous OJ Simpson on a hidden camera reality show called
Juiced!

Harmon has received a cult following from his 6 award-winning humor books, the most
recent, National Lampoon's Road Trip USA. He's known by some for his
infiltrative-brand of journalism. As a filmmaker, his films have appeared at
festivals all around in the world.

Tickets on sale now at - www.BrownPaperTickets.com/event/30076

More about Noel Coward's THE BETTER HALF:

www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/...ews.books

Harmon Leon and The COCKETTES at the HYPNODROME!! Tickets are going fast, get yours today!!! (events » arts) Saturday, March 15, 2008 - 8:00 PM As precursor to Thrillpeddlers' spring show, "Flaming Sin: London's Grand Guignol",
The Hypnodrome proudly presents our resident wild-man Harmon Leon as he revs up his
new one-man show (bound later this month for Ireland's prestigious Galway Comedy
Festival). Called a cross between Michael Moore and "South Park", Harmon has
performed at comedy festivals around the world, appeared on The Howard Stern Show,
Penn & Teller's "Bullshit", "The Jamie Kennedy Experiment", VH1, Court TV, "Blind
Date", as well as the BBC and is the author of six award-winning humor books, the
most recent being, National Lampoon's "Road Trip USA".

PLUS! The Hypnodrome's reunion for the fabulous Cockettes! That's right, on March
15th original members of San Francisco's best and brightest Ridiculous Theatre revue
troupe come together offering up clips and quips from Rumi Missabu's one-man memoir
"A Cocktail of Glamour and Anarchy" bound for it's own European tour, readings and
signings by "Sweet Pam" Tent of her gripping yarn "Midnight at The Palace: My Life
as a Fabulous Cockette", Harlo (an original "Plaster-Caster", loveable niece to Eva
Braun and the inspiration for Miss Piggie) and Fayette Hauser (sharing her personal
collection of Cockette's photos and lurid true-tales). Rumi and Fayette return on
March 17th to celebrate St. Patrick's Day along with Harmon, The Indra and The
Lonely Doll. We'll also be treated to Dead Channels' vintage shorts in a special
post-show program aptly named Tales from the Bottle: "A Boozer's Cathedral".

Noel Coward premiere at the HYPNODROME - part of "Flaming Sin - London's Grand Guignol" event!!! (events » arts) Friday, March 21, 2008 - 8:00 PM In an amazing coup for Bay Area theatre, a lost one-act play by the legendary Noel Coward will have its American premiere in San Francisco.

"The Better Half", scathingly funny and bitter, skewers the sexual mores of the British upper crust. The play was recently unearthed-after 85 years in limbo-by a pair of Welsh academics. Coward wrote it in 1921, at the age of 22, when he was still several years away from breaking through as the most popular playwright in the English language. His caustic wit was already fully in evidence, said University of Glamorgan professor Dr. Richard Hand, who discovered the original manuscript (with his colleague, Michael Wilson) deep in the files of the Lord Chamberlain at the British Library.

Coward wrote it for London’s Grand Guignol Company, Hand explained, which was the British version of France’s notorious Theatre du Grand Guignol, which specialized in scandalous comedies and terror plays. It was performed in May 1922, but never again. And it never has been published in any form.

It is fitting that the American premiere of "The Better Half" is being staged by Thrillpeddlers, a San Francisco theatrical institution dedicated to reviving the traditions of Grand Guignol. (The troupe was last year’s Readers’ Choice for best local theater company in the SF Weekly’s Best of San Francisco balloting, and it figures prominently in the special features of the new Sweeney Todd DVD to be released on April 1, 2008.)

Dr. Hand will be in attendance at the March 21 show to discuss the discovery of the Coward play as well as his new book, London’s Grand Guignol and the Theatre of Horror.

Said Thrillpeddlers cofounder and artistic director Russell Blackwood: "It’s incredibly exciting, and due largely to our longstanding relationship with Richard Hand and Michael Wilson, that the Coward estate granted us the rights to stage the American premiere. And what’s even better is that the play is really good! According to Richard, the manuscript shows where the British censors struggled with cutting Coward’s more controversial innuendoes. But in the end it was so well written, and so funny, that they left it alone."

The play is an unconventional comedy of manners depicting the sexual intrigues of an unhappily married couple, Alice and David, and the suggestion of David’s possible dalliance with Alice’s best friend, Marion. Alice Louise (Alice), Jonathan Ingbretson (David) and Alison Sacha Ross (Marion) portray the well-heeled but duplicitous Troika.

Given that it was written in 1921, it’s still remarkably relevant to a contemporary audience, said San Francisco writer-director and "Czar of Noir" Eddie Muller, who is directing the production. This isn’t something the young Noel Coward hid away in a drawer. It’s a wickedly structured and snarling piece of work. I’m really excited to be resurrecting it. It’s an honor, and the cast is absolutely stellar.

The Thrillpeddlers are presenting the Coward play as part of "Flaming Sin: London’s Grand Guignol". Also on the bill is "The Old Women, or A Crime in a Madhouse", Andre de Lorde and Alfred Binet’s quintessential Grand Guignol shocker, which will comprise the terror portion of the evening. Set in a French insane asylum for women, the play was notorious for its unsettling mixture of suspense, gruesomeness, and farce. The latest version of this Thrillpeddlers staple is directed by Russell Blackwood, whose other Hypnodrome excursions into the bizarre have included Blood Bucket Ballyhoo, Hypnodrome Head Trips, and Thrillpeddlers’ annual Halloween spectacular, Shocktoberfest!!

With Flaming Sin, veteran patrons of the Hypnodrome as well as newcomers can expect some lively additions to the Thrillpeddlers’ always-surprising and reliably sensational show. Following the program proper, each evening’s performance will be followed by a third-act after-glow floorshow, "The Blue Hour", a bill of bawdy variety acts presented, Blackwood says, as a complimentary aperitif to your evening of Grand Guignol terror and titillation.

The Hypnodrome has also added two new Turkish Corner Shock Boxes, in which couples may bask in decadent languor while enjoying the show. Other Shock Boxes include Heaven and Hell, the Pharaoh’s Tomb, and the Padded Cell. The theater’s popular private Shock Box seats offer the same opportunity for illicit trysting that was once a feature of the Parisian Thtre du Grand Guignol-with added special effects as a nod to the 1950s horror movie gimmicks of William Castle. "We like to think of the Hypnodrome’s Shock Box seats as our haunted Madonna Inn", says Blackwood.

THRILLPEDDLER'S "FLAMING SIN" extended through May 31st!!! (events » arts) Friday, May 9, 2008 - 8:00 PM 8 RSVPs Flaming Sin: London’s Grand Guignol
Held Over through May 31!

The Hypnodrome is all a twitter this weekend as Thrillpeddlers launch a four-week extended run for Flaming Sin: London’s Grand Guignol. What a thrill (even for a Thrillpeddler) to see last week’s “closing night” pass on and still be playing this extraordinarily bill through the end of the month! If you've missed catching "Flaming Sin" till now, you've only got eight more chances starting tonight at 8 pm. Performances continue every Friday and Saturday night through May 31. Tickets are now on-sale.

No matter if you've seen it yet our not, I'm sending on some of the many kudos and accolades we've snagged from the press:

SF Weekly's theatre critic Chloe Veltman writes in her review of Flaming Sin: London’s Grand Guignol:

“A trip to the Hypnodrome to experience Thrillpeddlers’ latest — and perhaps greatest — foray into the genre, FLAMING SIN: London’s Grand Guignol, will fricassee your emotions and play tricks with your mind… Blending compact writing, fast-paced direction, and nuanced performances, Thrillpeddlers’ salacious evening of out-there entertainment does nothing if not dispel the common belief that Grand Guignol theater is an outmoded form, of marginal interest to anyone but horror history enthusiasts and academics. To borrow Dr. Frankenstein’s famous assertion: “It’s alive.”

Paul Sinasohn writes in the San Francisco Bay Times:
Flaming Sin makes for grand theatrical fun for fans of Coward and horror alike; this show is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Well, I'm off to the theatre. Hope to see you again soon!

Russell Blackwood
Producer
Thrillpeddlers Hypnodrome

"The Bittersweet Constrain" - JILL TRACY CD Release Celebration, DNA Lounge, June 11, 2008 8:30pm (events » live music) Wednesday, June 11, 2008 - 8:30 PM 8 RSVPs PARADOX Media, creators of The Edwardian Ball, present

"The Bittersweet Constrain"
JILL TRACY CD release celebration

featuring Jill Tracy and The Malcontent Orchestra:
Randy Odell (percussion); Paul Mercer (violin); Daniel Fabricant (contrabass); Alex Nahas (Chapman Stick);
Erica Mulkey/Unwoman (cello); Kenny Annis (sarod); Ralph Carney (horns); Michael McIntosh (piano)

and a star-studded cast of circus, variety and musical performers including:
Matty Rue (The Holy Kiss), Bright Brown, Twilight Vixen Revue, master sitar player Josh Brown, DJ Miz Margo,
Magician Paul Nathan, Fauxnique, The Indra, Odessa Lil, and SURPRISE guests!

Also featuring special guests Le Tourment Vert absinthe

June 11, 2008 at DNA Lounge
door: 8pm/show: 8:30pm—take note: the show starts early!
375 Eleventh Street, San Francisco, California 94103
Cost: Sliding scale donations of $15- $25 supports the evening’s performers.

Advance tix and info at: www.dnalounge.com/
www.myspace.com/jilltracymusic

Noir chanteuse Jill Tracy has good reason to celebrate these days— she was just written up in the New York Times, Anne Rice personally invited her to perform at this year’s New Orleans Halloween Masquerade Ball, her song “Evil Night Together” is prominently featured in the new film remake of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. (And let’s not forget her now-legendary performance as guest on Dee Snider’s Sirius Satellite radio show.) But most of all-- her long-awaited fourth CD The Bittersweet Constrain is finally out-—from her own “elegant netherworld” to the real one.

Miss Tracy is honoring the city’s artistic spirit by assembling a CD release celebration June 11 at DNA Lounge, featuring many music, variety and circus performers she’s collaborated with over the years-—as well as her fearsome back-up ensemble The Malcontent Orchestra.

“This is a celebration for all of us--the triumph and travails of the independent artist.” Tracy explains. “I’ve concocted the evening to be unveiled as a cabinet of curiosities...from classical Indian music, to magic, to vampire waltzes---eccentric and diverse acts rarely seen on one stage together. Come early, stay late-—the entertainment will cast a spell all through the night.”

Atlanta cult violinist Paul Mercer (the newest member of The Malcontent Orchestra) will be performing the lavish “Coronation of the Witch Queen,” an original waltz that both he and Jill Tracy were commissioned to compose for the 2008 International Vampire’s Masquerade Ball. Tracy and Mercer are becoming widely known for their astonishing duets on piano and violin, mostly improvised or channeled...eerily transporting the room and its audience into a “musical séance.”

Tracy’s dark classical-cum-parlour piano remains her signature-- her throaty whisper beckoning atop the arrangements, revealing a talent for making rather unsettling subjects remarkably alluring. Tales of medieval torture devices, suicides, and lusty murderous obsessions mingle with exquisite songs of lost loves and tarnished passions. Her music induces a wave of unsettling sensuality, leading the listener into places they know they should not go, but do so willingly. SF Bay Guardian wrote “You know it’s not safe here, but with Jill Tracy as your guide, you’ll be in no hurry to leave.” NPR’s All Things Considered called Jill Tracy “utterly intriguing...luring you into a magical kingdom solely of her creation.”

A follow-up to Jill Tracy’s cult classic Diabolical Streak, The Bittersweet Constrain has a heavier, cinematic sonic edge with the addition of exotic instruments such as the sarod (Kenny Annis); harmonium (Tony Cross); and seldom-seen Chapman Stick (Alex Nahas). The Malcontent Orchestra includes Bay Area heavyweights: Randy Odell (percussion); Paul Mercer (violin); Tony Cross (violin); Daniel Fabricant (contrabass); Erica Mulkey/Unwoman (cello); Ralph Carney (horns); Michael McIntosh (piano).

The evening also includes master sitar player Josh Brown (who will open the show), along with the gloomy blues of Matty Rue (The Holy Kiss), Bright Brown (featuring Chapman Stick player Alex Nahas), magician Paul Nathan, Twilight Vixen Revue, Fauxnique, The Indra, Odessa Lil, DJ Miz Margo, and surprise guests.

Cost: Sliding scale donations of $15- $25 supports the evening’s performers.

***To schedule an interview with Jill Tracy or request a review copy of The Bittersweet Constrain,
email: suspect@jilltracy.com or call (415) 564-5512

“It’s nice to have discovered another artist of depth and substance, especially in an age where it's easy to feel that almost none still exist... Jill Tracy: "the elegant side of the netherworld" -- maybe "netherworld" has replaced "underground" now. No wonder (Jello) Biafra had raved to me about her. The new music of the future will give us history lessons, and restore to us our lost authentic emotionality, in an age which J.G. Ballard has described as "the death of affect." The death of authentic emotionality and emotional response, indeed... NOT YET-- not as long as a handful of people like Jill Tracy, Jello Biafra, Nick Cave, Henry Rollins, and Lydia Lunch keep "kicking against the pri-cks" (to paraphrase Shakespeare). And handing us reasons to still keep living and deciphering what we really feel..."
V.Vale, RE/Search Publications

JILL TRACY-bio:

Jill Tracy is both villainess and heroine of her own musical netherworld. The San Francisco-based artist has garnered multiple awards and a devoted following for her evocative cinematic music, sophisticated lyrics, old-world glamour, and curious passion for strange tales.

Hailed by countless critics as a “femme fatale for the thinking man,” Jill Tracy was described by NPR's All Things Considered as "utterly intriguing... luring you into a magical kingdom solely of her creation." LA Weekly calls her "very distinctive and exciting."

As a youngster, Jill Tracy was drawn to classic suspense, film noir, and horror movie scores, which she cites today as some of her strongest influences. These passions are evident in her unusually cinematic performance style. Virtually self taught, her singular blend of dark, dreamy flourishes, hypnotic grooves and classical-cum-parlour piano conjures up shades of another era, but at the same time, the sound is shockingly new. She is as much Nick Cave as she is Erik Satie. As much David Bowie as she is Mata Hari. As much Bernard Herrmann as she is Robert Smith of The Cure.

"There's something otherworldly about Jill Tracy," writes the Santa Cruz Metro. "She has a poise, finesse and enigmatic quality rarely seen in live performance--she effortlessly floats above the fray."

Jill Tracy combines elegance and intellect with a mesmerizing flair. And with her trademark voice of cut-velvet smoke, she reveals a talent for making rather unsettling subjects remarkably alluring.

Tales of medieval torture devices, safety coffins, suicides, and lusty murderous obsessions mingle with exquisite songs of lost loves and tarnished passions. Tracy's affinity for macabre history and science, has included resurrecting classic Grand Guignol stage plays from the 1920's-- collaborating with San Francisco's theatre troupe Thrillpeddlers, and well-known historians like UC Berkeley's Mel Gordon (Voluptuous Panic.)

Backed by an alluring panoply of strings, woodwinds, drums and percussion, (Tracy affectionately refers to them as The Malcontent Orchestra) songs from her album Diabolical Streak have appeared in movies and compilations, in addition to winning the SIBL international grand prize for songwriting, and two California Music Award nominations. The track "Evil Night Together" has not only been adopted as theme song for nouveau burlesque and bellydance troupes around the globe, but also is featured on Projekt's A Dark Cabaret, and recently on the CBS hit TV show NAVY NCIS, the BBC series Jekyll, LifeTime television, Ion Network’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and numerous independent films.

Jill Tracy and The Malcontent Orchestra's beloved original score to F.W. Murnau's 1922 silent vampire classic Nosferatu found the band touring Northern California theatres during Halloween season for five consecutive years to manic sell-out crowds. The 2002 live CD Into the Land of Phantoms contains selections from the Nosferatu score.

"The Fine Art of Poisoning" was developed into an animated short in 2003, a collaboration with Bay Area visual artist Bill Domonkos. The film has garnered well over 30 film festival awards internationally, including Best Experimental Film in the New Orleans Film Festival as well as Best Music Video in both the Chicago and Seattle International Film Festivals.

With her forays into film scoring, filmmaking, writing, acting and theatre, Jill Tracy is redefining the image of modern day renaissance artist. But beneath her trademark sound and style lurks cold steel. No corporate-contrived cookie cutter blandness here. She is refreshing proof that smart... is sexy.

www.myspace.com/jilltracymusic

Jill Tracy Photo by: Michael Garlington

High-Camp Returns with Theatre of the Ridiculous Revival at the HYPNODROME!! (events » arts) Friday, June 13, 2008 - 8:00 PM 8 RSVPs Thrillpeddlers Stage Charles Busch's Revised Theodora, She-Bitch of Byzantium and reunite with the fabulous Cockettes for First Annual Ridiculous Theatre Festival

San Francisco, Calif., May 30, 2008-In a bi-coastal whirl between San Francisco and New York City, Thrillpeddlers launch the first-ever Theatre of the Ridiculous Revival. Debuting new acts with original members of The Cockettes on both coasts and presenting revivals of plays by Charles Busch, Charles Ludlam and outrageous vintage films and performers from high-camp's heyday. Starting in June, with the San Francisco opening on Friday the 13th, and running through July 30 at Thrillpeddlers' Hypnodrome, 575 10th Street, San Francisco.
Internationally recognized purveyors of classic Grand Guignol terror plays and sex farces, Thrillpeddlers foray into the equally notorious theatrical niche of The Theatre of the Ridiculous, is a perfect fit. "To the same extent that the Grand Guignol challenges cultural taboos and one's own fragile safety and sanity," explained Thrillpeddlers producer Russell Blackwood, "The Ridiculous dares to hold what's considered sacred up to ridicule and prize things society deems to be worthless and outmoded."

Defining The Ridiculous may be as elusive as defining "camp" itself. The Ridiculous arts movement began in the mid-sixties and was born out of the queer and psychedelic counterculture(s). Pioneers of The Ridiculous include playwrights Charles Ludlam, Ronald Taval, Harvey Fierstein and Tom Eyen, even Tennessee Williams and Langford Wilson wrote Ridiculous tragi-comedies. Filmmakers John Waters, Jack Smith and Andy Warhol projected it on screen while Alice Cooper, The New York Dolls and Bette Midler revved it up on home stereos and concert stages. In San Francisco, The Cockettes and The Angels of Light were bringing all of the Ridiculous art forms together with lavish drag spectacle on screens, stages and in the streets.

Thrillpeddlers start the Ridiculous Revival's festivities in New York City when Blackwood and co-producer James Toczyl accompany The Cockettes on their first visit to The Big Apple en mass since their fabled 1971 tour. They'll attend a week-long series of special events honoring the troupe (along with the donation of a sizeable Cockettes archive to be housed at the Lincoln Center Performing Arts Library). On Wednesday, June 4 at Monkeytown they'll join Cockettes Fayette Hauser, "Sweet Pam" Tent and Rumi Missabu for performances and presentations that were developed at Thrillpeddlers Hypnodrome and will return to S.F. as part of Missabu's and Dead Channels' White-Hot 'n Warped Wednesdays, the weekly multimedia series of the Ridiculous Revival that opens June 18 with screenings of Sean Abley's darkly sexual sci-fi/horror film, Socket at 7 and 9:15 pm.

Thrillpeddlers' dazzling new production of Charles Busch's Theodora, She-Bitch of Byzantium is quite a jewel in the Ridiculous Revival's crown. With the gracious guidance of award-winning playwright Charles Busch, the company eagerly mounts an enhanced (and unpublished) version of Theodora, She-Bitch of Byzantium. A "trip" on Sarah Bernhardt's epic warhorse Theodora and Busch's follow up to his long-running Off-B'way record holder Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, the play claims more kills per capita than Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus - and does it five times faster! Thrillpeddlers welcome Jef Valentine as Theodora and R.J. Owens as the perverted Emperor Justinian. Also on the bill, new acts for "The Blue Hour", Hypnodrome's after-glow floor show. Directed by Russell Blackwood. Playing Friday and Saturday at 8 pm, June 13 - July 26.

Theodora's glittering and grandiose costumes were designed by Fayette Hauser, an original Cockette who's first-hand experience in The Ridiculous literally began at the beginning of the movement. Ms. Hauser appeared in Ronald Taval and Andy Warhol's 1965 film The Life of Juanita Castro. When Taval later brought Juanita Castro and his other one-act play, Shower, to the New York stage, he dubbed the bill "The Theatre of The Ridiculous" and effectively started the genre. Hauser's memories of costuming Bette Midler for her Las Vegas debut, waiting in the wings with Divine (dressed as a 300 pound crab) and being coaxed as a teenager, alone, to Jack Smith's New York loft only to find the space filled with a maze of dead Christmas trees (leading Hauser to a silent "mummified" Smith at the maze's deadend), prove that this lady was a Trillpeddler long before she joined our troupe.

Charles Ludlam has been hailed as The Master of the Ridiculous and perhaps no festival dedicated to the genre would be complete without a piece penned by Ludlam for his Ridiculous Theatrical Company. We're proud to present a real rarity in the Ludlam repertoire, Jack and the Beanstalk, played by a cast of Thrillpeddlers and young people from our Creepshow Camps. Lanny Baugniet, founder of Theatre Rhinoceros the world's longest running gay and lesbian theatre company, directs. Performances are followed by a live guillotine demonstration, puppet plays and a drag-dress up booth with photo ops for the whole family! Performing Sundays at 3 and 6 pm, June 15 - 29.

Patrons can opt for added thrills by purchasing private Shock Box seats for two. These themed booths (which include padded cell, pharaoh's tomb and Heaven and Hell) were just lauded with SF Weekly's "Best of San Francisco 2008" as The City's "Best Bonus Theater Experience".

Russell Blackwood (blackwood@thrillpeddlers.com), Fayette Hauser (lafayetta@msn.com), and Rumi Missabu (camaraderieartsalon@yahoo.com) are available for interviews. Photos can be downloaded at www.thrillpeddlers.com

At Thrillpeddlers Hypnodrome, 575 10th Street (between Bryant and Division), San Francisco

Theodora, She-Bitch of Byzantium by Charles Busch
Fridays and Saturdays June 13 - July 26, 8 PM

Tickets available at www.brownpapertickets.com (800.838.3006)
$25 general admission
$69 for “Shock Box” seats (admits two)

Jack and the Beanstalk by Charles Ludlam
Sundays June 15, 22, 29 at 3 and 6 PM

Tickets available at www.brownpapertickets.com (800.838.3006)
$10 general admission
$30 for “Shock Box” seats (admits two)

White-Hot 'n Warped Wednesdays presented by Dead Channels and Rumi Missabu
Wednesdays, June 18 - July 30, showtimes vary

Tickets available at www.brownpapertickets.com (800.838.3006)
$10 general admission