THE CITIZENS BAND
The Citizens Band at Deitch Projects. Photo by Thomas Dozol.
The Citizens Band was an all-star, collaborative cabaret that made thematic, evening-length shows incorporating existing and original songs in a highly aesthetic presentation. The lead creative directors were Chelsea Bacon, Jorjee Douglass, Adam Dugas, Karen Elson, and Sarah Sophie Flicker.
The regular roster of performers included Paul Cantelon, Duke Bojadziev, Ian Buchanan, Michael Cavadias, Turner Cody, Aaron Conte, Adam Crystal, Rachelle Garniez, Mike Jackson, Alessandro Magania, Mark McAdam, Angela McCluskey, Amy Miles, Jon Natchez, Jonathan Nosan, Rain Phoenix, Kelly Pratt, Ronin, Viva Ruiz, Desi Santiago, Mia Theodoratus and Craig Wedren.
Special guest stars included Melissa Auf der Maur, Billy Corgan, Zooey Deschanel, John Fugelsang, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Eugene Hutz, Aaron Kant, Cyndi Lauper, Bruce Martin, George Rush, Tracey Ryans, Miss Alyssa Wendt, and Yelena Yumchuk.
Craig Wedren, Karen Elson; photo by Michael Schmelling
Sarah Sophie Flicker, Angela McCluskey;
photo by Michael Schmelling
The Trepanning Opera
The Trepanning Opera was a show about medicine and health care in America. First presented at the Deitch Projects Wooster Street space in front of a gallery-spanning artwork by Jim Isermann, it was remounted at the Raleigh Hotel during Art Basel Miami Beach.
Opening with the sarcastic cheer of Noel Coward’s “Bad Times Just Around the Corner,” the show marched through a series of vignettes and songs touching on plastic surgery, insurance, veterans, mental health and medicine in general before a grand finale in which the entire ensemble dropped dead.
Written and performed during the peak of George W. Bush’s warmongering, the show included the Revolutionary War ballad “Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier,” exquisitely sung by Karen Elson, and “Remember My Forgotten Man,” a moving call to consider the citizens called to battle from the Busby Berkeley film Gold Diggers of 1933.
Adam contributed the original songs “Heal Thyself,” an acerbic hot take on the American health insurance system as sung by a conservative doctor, and “Spleen,” an adaptation of a Pushkin poem.
Highlights from The Trepanning Opera.
“Heal Thyself” - music and lyrics by Adam Dugas, performed by Adam Dugas and the Citizens Band.
From The Trepanning Opera.
The Art Parade
Deitch Projects organized an actual parade of artists that marched the streets of SoHo. The Citizens Band traveled in a horse-drawn carriage in all our finery and then performed at the Wooster Street gallery after.
Photos by Michael Schmelling.
No New Thing Under the Sun
No New Thing Under the Sun was an investigation into the myths and stories of the Bible. Presented by Deitch Projects and Paper Magazine at the Hiro Ballroom in New York.
Photos by Keith Widyolar.
Chewing Up The Scenery
The Garden Show
Illustration by Alejandro Cardenas
