411 On Space 1026's Mummers Brigade
Sonja shows off a newly made wench costume.
Art in the Age recently spoke to Sonja Trauss, self-proclaimed attention hog who is ambitious about fun, about her involvement in the formation of a Space 1026 Mummers Brigade. Whilst gabbing with her we got a tiny bit more information about Club Lyfestiles, an entity we've been raving about ever since we saw the Club Lyfestiles/Dancetron Infinity Dance Off at Key West (Sonja was MC for this amazing occasion), learned the four rules of being a Mummer and heard enough about Space's Brigade to make the wait until the next Mummers Parade even more painful then it is usually.
Annette: How did the idea for a mummers project originate?
Sonja Trauss: Well, this past New Year's Day Jesse Goldstein and I were on 2 Street partying and marveling at the Mummers. The thing is, every year we say; damn, I want be a Mummer.
This year Jesse and the rest of the Space [1026] people had just finished the instillation at the ICA (Locally Localized Gravity). I had seen Aryon [Hoselton], in particular, because he was my roommate at the time, put in the hours and hours necessary to make a huge project like that work. I also knew there were lots of other people putting in similar amounts of time. So I told Jesse, you know, we can be Mummers. Your people have the time and skills and energy to make a project like this happen, there can be Space [1026] Mummers.
Jesse got really excited, and he said he wanted to do it, to make Space 1026 Mummers. Jesse was a founding member of the Space [1026], but now he lives in NYC. The first few people we ran it by - Aryon, Max [Lawrence], Thom [Lessner], were really excited. Jesse is gone, so now Aryon and I do most of the work. Which is fine of course. It is not actually clear how much involvement the rest of the Space [1026] members will wind up having with the Mummers in the end, although the use of the name "Space 1026" alone, has helped the project enormously.
Carrie Collins, owner of Fabric Horse, won the "Dating Game" fundraiser and currently helps sew the brigade's costumes.
We have found a crew of people that are helpful or enthusiastic about this project. Some of them are involved in creative endeavors of their own, like Dave, the head of the costume subcommittee. He also makes costumes for Club Lyfestile dance troupe. And of course Carrie, who has been really helpful because she actually knows how to follow a pattern and use the sewing machines. Carrie runs Fabric Horse. Most of the other people putting in time are random creative people that have not been part of a big project before, which is kind of hard, but really, really awesome.
Annette: Will Club Lyfestiles be a part of the mummer's brigade?
Sonja: Yeah! I sure hope so. The brigade will have a minute and fifty seconds before the judges to dance, so hopefully CL people will want to perform then. There will also be several hours of marching, interspersed with pauses at various intersections. The brigades perform their routines at those times as well.
Annette: Can you tell me a little bit about some of the fundraisers you've put on to fund your brigade?
Sonja: Well.... We put on two fundraisers, or, one and a half. The first fundraiser was really the biggest. We raised 700 dollars and provided live entertainment for 150 people. It was the end of February, so we were motivated by the recent memory of New Year's Day and inspired by Valentines Day. We held a live episode of "The Dating Game." You know?--the show with three dudes and a girl and vice versa. The girl asks the dudes questions and at the end, sight unseen, picks one for a date. we never sent them on dates, but there was an hour of priceless comedy on that evening. We also had a slow dance to "Eternal Flame" and a kissing booth.
Our other fundraiser was a Space 1026 food show. I call it half a fundraiser because we didn't earn much money, only a hundred dollars, if that. Also, it wasn't even our idea really. The space has had food shows before where people were invited to make art, based on a theme, out of food. Other years the art/food was love themed, this year it was; "imagine you are making a dish out of a creature that doesn't exist". We had eyeball of cyclops, that was made out of jello and tapioca, that was my favorite. Also some unicorn fillets... I don't remember what else. This years theme was Jessie's idea. Mummers and Caitlin [Emma Perkins] put in all the work to make it happen, but it was really more of a Space event.
Some "Do-Do Deviled Eggs" by Gerik forston and Bridge Cox were among the food cooked up for "The Kingdom of Magical Extinctions" fundraiser
Annette: Are you following all the rules that a "regular" Mummers troop would?
Sonja: Yeah. When Heidi and Aryon went to the first meeting with our mother club, The Murry Comic Club, they found out these were the rules:
1. No blackface, "that's not our rule, that's the city's rule."
2. No bats or sticks, "although if you need a bat or a stick for a hobo costume, you can fill out a petition to carry it, and the city will let you."
3. No smoke machines, "if you want smoke, use a fire extinguisher."
4. No dildos.
Apparently one year somebody used a dildo as part of his costume, and that upset everybody.
We found out the easiest way to be in the parade was to join someone else's club as a brigade instead of forming our own whole club. There are now only 4 "mother clubs" but each club can have up to 17 brigades of at least 25 marchers each. A Club has to have at least 2 brigades, plus a host of entries in a series of categories. by just being a brigade, we will only need 25 people to march on the day of the parade.
Stay tuned to Art in the Age for Mummers updates, included more wacky/fun fundraisers for the brigade!
Penelope cuts collars for the Mummer's costumes.
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