About

Sodomite Warriors
The Dance of the Sodomite Warrior
Lies the Doctor Told My Mother
Teenage Forbidden Fruit
Ultra Gothic Romance
The Marriage of Figaro to Figaro
Warzone
Our Town

Chazz Dean and Kurt Fulton had been discussing the idea of a performance dealing with
homosexual subject matter for some time before the conception of Sodomite Warriors. Up to
this point, Watchface had not dealt overtly with any gay issues. In that time of social and
political upheaval and action, Chazz and Kurt, the two homosexual members of the group,
wanted to present their gay and male experience. The project was not meant to imply a
universality of gay American life, but to express their two points of view, which held contrasts
such as: Chazz was in a long-term relationship and had been a victim of gay bashing; Kurt
was on the fringes of radical protest groups, such as Act Up, and was deep into the bar and
club scenes.

Chazz wrote the basic outline selecting the titles and themes for the seven sections that
made up the performance, along with the majority of the text. The material eventually
presented was a collaborative effort that evolved during the creative/rehearsal process.

The Dance of the Sodomite Warrior

The performance began with the two men in silhouette, moving in silence with feminine
gestures, re-creating the “Two Little Girls from Little Rock” number from Gentlemen Prefer
Blondes. They transitioned into an intense dance based on gay stereotypes to a score of
various music clips associated with gay culture, establishing a strong gay presence and
point of view.

Lies the Doctor Told My Mother

This section starts at the “beginning.” Various diagnoses of the what, where, when, and why
of homosexuality are presented and ultimately rejected within the styles and stories of myths
and fairy tales.

Teenage Forbidden Fruit

For most gay people, the process of accepting themselves and coming out to others is the
most difficult aspect of their lives. Through personal anecdotes, Kurt and Chazz disclosed
their own revelatory moments of agony and ecstasy.

Ultra Gothic Romance

In a solely movement section of stylized grand gestures, the performers celebrated the
splendor of first love. In the words of reviewer Jay Boltcher of Outweek magazine –
“envisioning the outcome had Heathcliff dumped Cathy for the stable boy next door.”

The Marriage of Figaro to Figaro

Reality hit when the couple tried to form a traditional heterosexual-like relationship a la high
operatic camp. “Uproarious.” – Charles Wilmoth, Gay & Lesbian Times

Warzone

Following the humor and high energy of The Marriage of Figaro to Figaro, this section
confronted the homophobic sector of straight society and the repercussions of its ignorance,
hate, and violence. Starting slowly and with humor, the performers threw subtle verbal jabs
and reacted physically to each comment with a wink or a flinch. The sequence progressed
to nasty name calling and built to a full out violent street bashing, leaving the actors lying on
stage, beaten. In a sub-section called “Preacher Man,” they then rose to confront the
audience with their own hypocrisy and complicity in the ostracism of gay people.

Our Town

The final segment was a second pure movement section to a portion of Aaron Copland’s
“Our Town” with a voiceover of text portending a time and place where being out, loud,
and truthful would create its own utopia. The text was read offstage by Watchface member
James Siena. The piece finished with the men, again in silhouette, performing the
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes sequence, blowing a big kiss to the audience and beyond.

Sodomite Warriors premiered at La MaMa in October 1989, sharing a bill titled Double
Feature with AAaaaw! A Tribute to Domestic Animals by Maggie Siena and Melanie Monios.
La MaMa mailer It made for a successful but disparate evening, with AAaaaw! sweet and
comedic and Sodomite Warriors more confrontational. “The creative process and
rehearsals were almost intimidating. So much intimate personal information was being
exposed. But the performances ended up being exhilarating,” Kurt later revealed.
La MaMa Double Feature program

Sodomite Warriors became quite well known within the performance art scene, especially
because it was one of the few pieces with both humor and a strong political point of view.
Chazz and Kurt were often requested to perform for benefits Act Up benefit flyer and at nightclubs, including opening for RuPaul at the very popular dance club, Roxy.
Cucaracha Warehouse Cabaret poster

In 1991 at Dance Theater Workshop, the two men were again paired with a performance by
two women, billed as His and Hers. This time it was “gentle, fluid, meditative” contemporary
movement by dancers/choreographers Irene Hultman and Vicky Shick matched with the
“tight, angry voice and gesture chant” [Deborah Jowitt, Village Voice] of Sodomite Warriors.
Dance Theater Workshop mailer Also in ’91, Chazz and Kurt took the performance to Southern
California, first to queer performance artist Tim Miller’s Highways in Santa Monica, then to
San Diego’s Sushi on a bill with “Latin Lesbo Comic” Monica Palacio. Sushi postcard They used
a two man version of the Watchface commemorative piece 2000 Questions as their first act
on this tour.

In 1994, for the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall riots and The Gay Games & Cultural Festival,
La MaMa requested a revival of the show; it was presented as Return of the Sodomite
Warriors. La MaMa Anniversary program Since Chazz Dean had moved to the West Coast,
dancer Allan M. Tibbetts, then a principal with Doug Elkins Dance Company, performed his
role for this engagement. Allan had earlier participated in Watchface’s First green.

In 1999, Kurt was invited to perform in Basel’s International Performance Festival by curator
Linda Cassens. Linda had been a New York performance artist before moving to Switzerland
and worked with Watchface in White. Kurt’s presentation included abridged sections of
Sodomite Warriors, performed with Richard Schachter, who had been called upon to read
the narration of Our Town for some of the first New York City performances. Richard had
previously created rou-tine with Kurt and was also a performer in White. One of the sections
performed was Warzone. The Swiss audience found the anger and violence confusing, since
homosexuality was not a matter of contention in their lives. In a discussion after the show,
the performers described the atmosphere in the States, where the execution of Matthew
Shepard and its repercussions were currently big news and where Warzone was still
pertinent. proposal for Ways of Being Gay, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo, NY