Well, whaddayaknow, my very first blog! Hello, everyone! Welcome to Patrick’s Cabaret! Hopefully I won’t accidentally hit the self-destruct button on this before I’m done typing, but I think this computer is possessed by a malevolent demon intent on causing me harm. Also, it’s a Mac. Same thing, really.
Plus I’m horrible with technology. Once I borrowed a friend’s cell phone and tried to dial my home number, and somehow I ended up in her address book calling one of her old friends from elementary school.
My name is Gabby Santiago, and I’m a student at Macalester College. About me: my love for reading, writing, and the performing arts is such that it borders on the perverse. Unless you want me to transmogrify into an unstoppable fountain of trivia, never mention linguistics or Star Trek in my presence. I’m currently fulfilling my student employment through an off-campus job at Patrick’s Cabaret. Feel entirely free to slap me in the face with a hatchet if you find the following gushing too saccharine, but THIS IS SO FREAKING COOL!!!!! OH MY GOD! I’M GETTING PAID TO WORK IN A THEATRE!
The Betazoids among you may have sensed some subtle overtones of enthusiasm there.
Anyways, I have been assigned the project of creating a Patrick’s Cabaret blog, the better to spread information and news regarding this shining beacon of awesome. I’ll be interviewing staff and artists, advertising for upcoming shows, and posting information on various themes touched upon by past, current, and future performances.
In later posts you’ll learn more about Patrick’s Cabaret, but here are the basics, straight from our website, www.patrickscabaret.org:
“Patrick’s Cabaret supports artists in their growth and development by encouraging artists of all experience levels to try new things, take risks or present works in progress. We serve a diverse range of artists, from emerging to experienced, from teenagers to seniors. The Cabaret’s first commitment is to serve the needs of local performing artists, specifically reaching out to artists of color and GLBT/queer-identified artists and those with disabilities.
The Cabaret began in 1986 as a single evening where Patrick Scully invited other artists to join him in a show of works-in-progress. The evening proved so successful, and the need for a performing venue to support new work so great, that Patrick’s Cabaret grew rapidly into an essential community resource. Over the next two decades, we have maintained the original formula of presenting a shared evening with artists of mixed artistic disciplines and levels of experience, expanding to fill two weekends each month that have featured literally thousands of performances by local artists.
In the early 1990s, we expanded the concept of cabaret to include theme-specific cabarets and guest-curators, such as Heidi Eckwall’s Sappho Rigolo. The expansion drew new artists and audiences to Patrick’s Cabaret. The number of guest-curators and thematic cabarets grew slowly over the years, and has expanded rapidly since Patrick’s return in 2005.
Once the Cabaret acquired its own space, first on 24th Street, and even more so now on Minnehaha Avenue, the Cabaret proved to be of great value to the local community as an affordable space to rehearse, teach, perform, and hold events. The demand for space has grown, as has our capacity to provide the space while working to keep it cost-effective. Many of our renters are emerging artists.”
Well, that’s it for now! Stick around, and I’ll be posting more stuff soon. Live long and prosper!
