Vancouver’s Geekenders were recently the recipients of an offer the troupe just could not refuse. The talented crew that calls The Rio Theatre home are set to perform their unique brand of theatre, burlesque and pantomime Off Broadway. To find out more about their New York shows, we took a stroll along the seawall on a sunny midsummer’s day with Geekenders artistic director Fairlith Harvey.
Tell us about the Off Broadway venue that is lucky enough to host The Geekenders in New York.
54 Below is a famous cabaret venue Off Broadway that found us for their late-night programming. The Geekenders will be filling the 11:30 p.m. shows, which is great because it is after the Broadway shows get out. Patti Lupone and Lea Salonga have both performed at 54 Below. (The staff at) 54 Below really like our YouTube videos and approve of what we are trying to do concerning body positivity and silly humour.The show runs for two days, and The Geekenders are performing Jurassic Parody: The Musical and How I Met My Mother: A Back To The Future Parody Musical.
The Geekenders do well to promote themselves on all of the conventional social media platforms; you even continue to include Tumblr.
I try to be open to our fans on Tumblr and YouTube. The first successful show that we had on YouTube was the Portal musical in 2015 when Tumblr was still a huge deal.
We have a lot of young fans in the U.S. and England who watch our Portal and Jurassic Park musicals and seem to enjoy connecting with the Geekenders and each other through Tumblr.
The Geekenders do a tremendous job of bridging the gap between theatre and burlesque. Where does your troupe get that mindset?
We all originate from a theatre background and feel that we need to over-rehearse every aspect of the show.But we also love the ideals of burlesque in that we like having people of all sizes, sexualities, genders and identity expressions in any role. All of the Geekenders shows are a combination of musical theatre and traditional neo-burlesque.
I am obsessed with musical theatre and theatre in general; it's my passion. I love theatre above film because of the idea of connecting with the audience. …The Geekenders is a collaborative effort that came out of producing Geeky Club Nights. I wanted to take on something more theatrical and had friends helping at the beginning, but all but one of those friends have gone on to have children together and are nowtoo busy.Different people come and go. However, all I have ever wanted to do was make a living with art and in theatre.
It seems like there is a new Geekenders production almost monthly. How long does it take for you to put a show together?
We have multiple people that produce under the Geekenders brand. Kitty Glitter producers all of our variety shows, which I may appear in but have not necessarily had a hand in producing. Whereas the musicals I will work on for a year-and-a-half before they go up. We already know of things that The Geekenders will be performing in 2019.
Is there ever a situation where you put in that amount of effort, and the show only sees one performance?
We usually get a bit of a run. Our home theatre, The Rio, is so large that one night there is the equivalent of four nights at a standard community theatre. We are never disappointed in a short run at The Rio for that reason.
Does every Geekenders production, such as your upcoming Fringe Festival show, Slumber Here (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), incorporate burlesque?
We have a rigorous rehearsal schedule and we are starting to perform a lot less burlesque. Back To The Future and Jurassic Park do not incorporate any burlesque at all. Our Fringe Festival show does not have any burlesque. The Fringe show will be an immersive production of A Midsummer Night's Dream on Granville Island at Ron Basford Park, The Sculpture Garden, The Boardwalk and the Ron Basford Amphitheatre. Our show will have 25 actors playing all of the roles from A Midsummer Night's Dream and some roles from The Tempest. Audiences will be buying a ticket to be one of the characters (in the storyline) that go on the adventure in the Midsummer Night's Dream. The show is an intimate Shakespearean dance, improv, fusion show and has a real mini donkey in it playing the role of (Nick) Bottom. The Laughing Stock Ranch is our sponsor, and they provide birthday party mini-ponies and donkeys.
How many irons do you typically have in the fire?
I feel as though if I always have eight balls in the air. I should still have one or two left in the air if a bunch of them fall. I have a day job as the arts programmer in Whistler, so I am busy.
The Star Wars-themed burlesque nights seemedlike the Geekenders coming out party. When did that all start?
We performed A Nude Hope for the first time at the end of 2012. A Nude Hope was a marriage between musical theatre, burlesque and pantomime. The show sold out and we had to turn 300 people away at the door. Two-thousand people came to see the production over four days, all with very little promotion. We have performed A Nude Hope, The Empire Strips Back, Reveal of the Jedi, and The Force is Shaken.
Tell us about your crowdsourced funding campaign to help cover some of the costs for your two-night Off Broadway run.
We have an Indiegogo for our Off Broadway shows. We will be inviting New York media, producers and people in the city's theatre community to see the shows and get to know what we are doing. Our Indiegogo encompasses all of our work visas, international flights for 16 people and an Airbnb that we are all going to stuff into together. The only way that we can afford to go is with this crowdfunding campaign. If we have touched anybody or given them joy over the years, even a dollar helps us. For many of the Geekenders,getting an Off Broadway credit and a chance to perform in New York will be the biggest thing that has ever or will ever happen to them. We have 84 days to get a cast together for both shows, rehearse those shows while we are rehearsing for The Fringe, as well as continue with the production of four other burlesque shows.
Who have you already cast for your Off Broadway shows?
We have a couple of people that are new to The Geekenders but have been trying to get in on our shows for some time. Eric Guo, who just completed the Million Dollar Quartet at The Arts Club will be playing Marty McFly and Muldoon inBack To The Future and Jurassic Park respectively. Hal Rogers will be in the show; I will be in the show as a dilophosaurus and a “veloci-tapper.”We also have a lot of Geekenders regulars who have been with us since the beginning joining our family trip out to New York. Stephen Blakely will be with us playing Alan Grant; he has played Hans Solo in every single Star Wars show that we have performed. Jane Fondue is coming to New York,as well as Patrice Bowler.
Do the Geekenders have a mission statement?
We feel that our brand of gentle, warm humour, social awareness, positivity and body positivity is important to the theatre and we hope to lead by example. We hope to show the theatre community and the world that it does not matter who you are, anybody can be a princess or dinosaur. We believe that having that (fundamental idea) is important to contemporary theatre.
• Click here to contribute to the Geekenders’ crowdfunding campaign. The troupe performs Lord Of The Shwings at The Rio Theatre, Aug.18; Slumber Here (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) at the The Fringe Festival Sept. 9-17 (times vary); and at 54 Below Sept. 22-23.
