TRAGIC MAGIC at Milagro Theatre Friday Aug 7

On Friday, Aug. 7, Miracle Theatre Group is pleased to host “Tragic Magic”, an evening with three different solo performance artists from New York City — Heather Ács, Glenn Marla and Silas Howard — sharing three separate, but complementary excerpts of new works. The performance begins at 8 p.m. at the Milagro Theatre (525 SE Stark St., Portland). Tickets are $12 from 503-236-7253 or www.pdxtix.net/milagro or the PDX Ticket Network box office at the Hollywood Theatre daily 1-9 p.m.

ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE Notorious New York City downtown performance artists Heather Ács, Glenn Marla, and Silas Howard of Tribe 8 present an evening of new solo works, traversing through a multi-media world of string theory, face masturbation and loopholes in the American dream. Through ruminations on desire, shame and loss, this motley crew invites audiences into a non-linear landscape scattered with fragmented mothers, MILF-y therapists and the mysterious figure of Mr. Hollywood, asking What is the price of letting go, selling out, or breaking up with your own body?

“Tragic Magic was so good it hurt ….Thank goodness I brought moist towelettes!” — Justin Bond

Heather Ács’ piece what the brain forgets and the heart denies, the body remembers… explores illness, death, grieving and loss refracted through working class Appalachian and Mexican cultural imagery, creating a nonlinear world layered with movement, soundscape, video and storytelling. In this multi-media solo performance piece, time and testimonies loop and break apart, sparrows descend, tortillas and tears sizzle on the comal, a river flows with dirt and glitter, and 60s girl groups croon cotton candy lyrics while dust gathers in an empty house.

What has your mother’s fear of death done to you? Have you ever wanted to %^$& your therapist at age 14 because she loved you more than you ever could? How many years have you spent trying to break up with your body? Performance artist Glenn Marla is excited to premiere Tragic Magic, one tranny’s dark, hilarious exploration of how we interact with our bodies and our past.

Silas Howard’s Thank you for Being Urgent is a tale of a queer punk spilling into the cruddy and exalted glitter of Hollywood’s desire and shame. He searches for true tales of fierce outsiders and re-imagines the mainstream, ruminating on loopholes in the American Dream, burlesque dancers with dementia, and tranny jazzmen.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS Heather Ács is a multi-media theatre performance artist, activist, educator and high-femme troublemaker. Her gritty, glittery work has been featured at the Culture Project, HERE Arts Center, the Kitchen, the Public Theater, Theater for the New City and the New York City International Fringe Festival. She performs and facilitates workshops at community spaces, colleges and conferences from coast to coast. Heather has worked with Nao Bustamante, Karen Finley, Claude Michelle-Wampler, J. Ed Araiza of the SITI Company, and Steven Soderbergh. Heather is also a dedicated teaching artist. She uses theatre as a tool for social change with low-income youth in cities across the country and has studied with Cornerstone Theatre Company, Sojourn Theatre, and Augusto Boal.

The Portland [Maine] Phoenix calls Glenn Marla's work "performance art that pushes the envelope without pushing the audience away,” Time Out New York Calls Glenn a “downtown prophet,” and The New York Times calls Glenn "an obese transvestite in tights." Glenn Marla is a firm believer that if you don’t fit in anywhere you can fit in everywhere; this mindset has stretched his own concept of performance and the minds of his audiences and brought him places he never thought he'd go. In 2008 Glenn was featured in Justin Bond’s in Lustre: A Mid Winters Trans Fest at P.S. 122 and Abrons Arts Center . His Lustre dance theatre piece is part of Drag Show Video Vierte, documenting the past 50 years of drag in New York City and is archived at Lincoln Centers Performing Arts Library. Glenn’s 2007 year-long performance project “New York City’s Hottest Fat Go-Go Boy” explored fat, gender and sex, and he danced all over the city bi-weekly becoming a regular in New York nightlife. Marla's early original work was featured in festivals at the Culture Project, Theater for the New City, HERE Arts Center, and traveled to NYC public schools.

Silas Howard (writer, director, and musician) co-directed his first feature, By Hook Or By Crook, with Harry Dodge. The indie classic was a 2002 Sundance Film Festival premiere and five-time Best Feature winner. Silas Howard's next film, Exactly Like You, (co-written with Nina Landey), is based on the life of Billy Tipton. Howard's short documentary, What I Love About Dying also premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. For eight years, Howard toured with his band Tribe 8, the notorious queer punk band (a band boycotted by republicans and women at Michigan womyn's music festival). The band has been featured in Rolling Stone, The Village Voice, and The Los Angeles Times. Howard's music videos, short musical and documentaries have aired on MTV and LOGO networks and at Disneyland, Anaheim (weird, yet true). Howard's writing is also featured in the anthologies, "Without a Net: Growing Up WorkingClass" and "Live Through This ," as well as the artists' journal, "LTTR." Currently Silas is working on a novel set in San Francisco's mid-90's homocore scene.

ABOUT MIRACLE THEATRE GROUP For more than 25 years, the Miracle Theatre Group has been dedicated to bringing the vibrancy of Latino theatre to the Northwest community. In addition to its national tours, Miracle provides a home for Spanish and Latin American arts and culture at El Centro Milagro, where it enriches the local community with a variety of community outreach projects and educational programs designed to share the diversity of Latino culture. For more information about the Miracle Theatre Group, visit www.milagro.org  or call 503-236-7253.