Notes on the Dresden Dolls and Girls Rock Camp
By JIM SULLIVAN | November 27, 2006
The Dresden Dolls |
It’s no secret that, along with being a rock band, the DRESDEN DOLLS are, well, theatrical. And from December 9 through January 13, they’ll be taking their act into a real theater in Harvard Square. Singer/pianist Amanda Palmer and drummer Brian Viglione will star in The Onion Cellar at the American Repertory Theatre’s Zero Arrow Theatre. “The idea for the collaboration came from ART,” Palmer explains. “I had had the concept of creating The Onion Cellar on my back burner, and this was the perfect opportunity. I think you can take risks in a theater setting that you can’t take in a rock setting. You’ve got more contact with the theater audience, and there’s a different energy. If nothing else is true about me, I like to switch things up. The director [Marcus Stern] has said from the beginning that we can create a piece of theater that rises to the level of a rock show rather than bring a rock show down to the level of theater.” The title is taken from the surreal nightclub in Günter Grass’s novel Die Blechtrommel|The Tin Drum. And the production, Palmer says, “is improv-based, incredibly personal, and tailored to the talent of who is on stage.”The GIRLS ROCK CAMP in Portland, Oregon, is recruiting. For five years, the organization has been teaching young women the art of rock, and on December 13 the Boston area gets into the picture with a Girls Camp benefit at T.T. the Bear’s Place featuring hip-hopper Cathy Cathodic, post-punks the Squids, the electronic More Teeth, and New Hampshire’s the Nicky Click. As Click, who got involved with the Camp when she lived in Portland, explains, “It’s really important for young girls and women to learn music. And it’s really important for women to have their own actual empowering time.”
On the Web
Girls Rock Camp: http://www.girlsrockcamp.org
Email the author
Jim Sullivan: jimsullivanink@verizon.net
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