Billtown Burlesque was conceived at the end of 2010 when the idea of a burlesque show was presented as a fundraising idea for the soon to be on-air WXPI community radio station. Station Manager, Isaac Conner, acted as Producer/Director and enlisted volunteers to star in and promote the show. Some of the promotions included 1940s style “cigarette” girls who solicited donations for the radio station
by selling candy or roses on First Fridays and staging Tableaux Vivant scenes in a local downtown window. The first show was a tremendous success and was responsible for getting the station the funding it needed to get on air. Eventually, Conner stepped away from WXPI and came back to producing/directing Billtown Burlesque. The main goal for the group currently is to transition our volunteer group into a professional organization. We intend to do this by: self organizing the group along egalitarian lines, honing our stage skills, developing individuals’ characters, building a repertoire of acts, recruiting of more talent and technicians, practicing a professionally welcoming environment by routinely engaging in group improvisation exercises, and finding a “home” which would be a place to rehearse, to offer workshops, store equipment/props/sets/costumes, as well as perform. The Billtown Burlesque troupe is envisioned as a welcoming, inspirational modern expression of a classically humorous and sexy art form, encompassing a wide range of performance styles. Beauty is more than skin deep and radiates outward from the spirits of everyone who realizes how wonderful they are. We seek to encourage the discovery of the joy of diversity and create a medley of various forms of sexiness and humor. We bring our audience into our vision by maintaining an open casting policy and offering workshops on performance skills like belly dancing to help interested participants gain the confidence required to be on stage. We encourage performers and participants to follow their hearts and live their dreams, helping everyone to realize and embrace their own individual brand of allure, through limitless acceptance and love toward all, no matter their outward form. We plan to promote awareness of social issues, using comedy to make pointed commentary on such things like the environment, homelessness, or domestic violence, and to raise money for local charities that address these things. We are establishing ourselves as a promoter of sexiness and confidence building by bringing an innovative form of entertainment to an area that hardly sees the idea of unlimited artistic freedom of expression. To bring local musicians, artists, dancers and business owners of the community together under one common ideal of reinvigorating the public’s perception of burlesque would be another influence on the community that is part of our vision. We celebrate all forms of beauty and teach that “everything is possible” and will actively help those less fortunate in the eyes of society by giving them inspiration and the confidence to live out their dreams.
