As I
was driving to Lusty Lady at 5 in the morning, it occurred to me that it might
not be the best neighborhood for me to be hanging around if Shannon and
Felicity didn't show or were late.
I pulled in right behind them at 5:03! We took my gear in; then
Felicity and I drove around until we could find a place to park both cars.
First
we looked at the pictures from the Freakatorium, and their response was
entirely enthusiastic.
That made me feel really good, and it broke the ice with Shannon who
still claimed she was not going to be in the pictures.
A
lighting issue loomed large. Shannon had told me that there were stage lights,
so I assumed that meant it was brightly lit. Deep deep red stage lights,
mirrors, and a deep red carpet. What to do with my camera settings?
My right brain and my left brain were not exactly on the same page at
that hour of the morning.
We had the place pretty much to ourselves. Felicity wanted to put Bridgit into a black bra and begin taking pictures in the dressing room, so we did.
I decided to begin by shooting from inside the wheelchair accessible booth because it had the most space and the biggest window. Shannon got a five dollar bill from the cash register so we could keep the window open without sticking money in every 30 seconds. Bridgit and Felicity were on the stage.
At times, Bridgit appeared to be traveling under her own steam.
Then we had Felicity and Bridgit in the booth, a window completely surrounded by mirrors.
As I
came off the stage, shoeless as is the rule, Felicity looked at me in horror.
"Get your shoes on.
Do you have any idea what is on this floor?"
We ditched Bridgit's bra. Then the three of us got onto the stage which is a lot smaller than it looks. Red, red, red. It has 13 windows which open onto it. When the windows are closed, they convert to mirrors. Felicity and I were both really glad that Shannon chose to be involved. What a contrast between Shannon and Felicity -- one so fair and one so dark.
The two were having a lot of fun kidding around. "Do the pout look." "How do we get Bridgit to smile?" I shot every which way, following their leads. At one point, all three were down on the floor, curled around each other.
And, for the first time, Bridgit posed upside down!
From there, we went to the pleasure booth.
Again, the customer is separated from the dancer by a glass wall, but there is two-way voice communication, and the customer can ask for specific "activities" that are agreed upon or not. There are lots of pillows and drapes, all of which we utilized.
Felicity was tired. She had seen a play the night before called Shopping and Fucking starring a few of her friends. She explained that it's about addiction of every kind, and it gave her really bad nightmares. Posed in front of the pleasure booth window, she said: "Give me a word I can respond to." The first one that came to me was experience. Click.
We ended up by doing a "family portrait" on a couch with a very red backdrop. For this, Bridgit is in the Wonder Woman outfit.
The time flew. Back in the office, Felicity and I talked about other parts of her life. She is really interested in physical theatre. I asked if she had ever heard of Dell'Arte, and her face just lit up. Dell'Arte, located five miles from Arcata, was founded by my close friend Jane Hill
and
her ex-husband Carlo Mazzone Clementi.
Felicity had seen several Bay Area performances and wanted very much to
visit the school. We started to make a plan for Matthew and her to come up to
Arcata for a visit. Matthew is much more interested in the bizarre, the
sideshow aspect of things. He is supporting his interest by working with
troubled teenage boys.
Felicity and I headed out to the street. Our cars were sandwiched between two police cars with two policewomen just getting out their pens to write out tickets. They were five minutes too early!
Getting to Know Felicity
About Bridgit
Bridgit in Malta
Bridgit at St. Brigid's
She Floats!
High Light: The Winter Solstice
Excursion to Primal Decor
Getting to Know Felicity
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