Ask Brandon James to summarize Mad Haus, the performance collective currently curating the Red Light series at the Seacoast Repertory Theatre in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and you’ll get a series of answers as wild and varied as the shows themselves. “Our first show in January was like Burning Man at the end of the world, with time travelers,” he says. “And a little bit Alice in Wonderland. And then we had a Witch-Con show—like Comic-Con, but for witches. It’s sci-fi, time travel, heaven and hell, angels and demons and vampires and witches. And tons of drag queens and freaks.”

But it’s also a “performance portmanteau,” James adds, a hybrid theater experience that brings together a dozen different art forms. Cirque performers and jugglers and musicians and speed painters and puppeteers all come on stage together each month for a performance that happens only once. Add all that together, and you wind up with Mad Haus’ mission statement. “The art and message of Mad Haus is that it’s a big fucking party,” James says, laughing.

It’s a party firmly in its bacchanalian groove. James and partner Ben Hart, who produce shows under the moniker of The Mad Men of Oopsy Daisy Inc!, took over curatorial duties for the Red Light Series in January. In the last eight months, they’ve mashed up genres and aesthetics and technology, and brought a dedicated troupe of artists to Portsmouth, all as part of the Red Light Series’ mission to “keep Portsmouth weird.” The next show takes place Wednesday, Sept. 27 at 8 p.m.

The Mad Haus cast at February’s “Witch-Con” episode. Photo by The Mad Men Of Oopsy Daisy Inc!

Part variety show, part ongoing story, each installment of Mad Haus features a recurring cast of characters involved in interdimensional hijinks and cross-time capers. Backed by a live band and accompanied by cyr wheel artists, jugglers, puppets, among others, the characters live, die, come back to life, and, most of all, sing. Hart and James start writing each Mad Haus production by compiling a playlist of songs; that playlist forms the base of the story, which the actors then flesh out.

Each show is “direct proof magic exists,” James says. “We’re putting these shows together in a matter of days, and somehow, it always works. It’s always beautiful and amazing.”

Ben Hart as The Storyteller. Photo by Ben Bagley

It’s a sort of “organic performance art,” Hart adds, and part of the fun is pushing the artists involved into new areas. “We’ve had people come who are musical theater performers, but they love to paint, and now they’re doing live speed painting on stage every month,” he says.

Hart is originally from New Hampshire, and the two returned to the Seacoast region in 2013 after years of living and performing in New York City. Hart toured with Avenue Q off Broadway for two years, and when they began looking for a change in scenery, the Seacoast hit all their requirements, according to James. “Ben and I left New York City to be involved in this community that is super thriving and rife with art. There’s nowhere else in the country that you have as many theaters and venues and as much live art as we do here,” says James.

Alyssa Dumas as Estelle. Photo by Ben Bagley

That each show happens only once pushes Hart, James, and the rest to take risks, improvise, and let the wild material guide them. “The ephemeral nature of the show is so sexy to me,” James says. “This little universe opens for two hours, and if you were there, you’re the only people who witnessed it.”

The hijinks extend beyond the stage. Audiences are encouraged to come in costume, and many have obliged by dressing up as their favorite character. It’s a chance for performers and audience alike to let their freak-flag fly, Hart says. But it’s more than that. “We strive to show fantastic high art and exciting conceptual art that someone who wants to see something beautiful and moving can access,” he says.

Brandon James, Ben Hart, Mad Haus – Theatrical Company
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
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Top image: Jason Faria as Bonesy. Photo by the Mad Men of Ooopsy Daisy Inc!

The post Keeping it Weird in Portsmouth appeared first on Take Magazine.

When a well-known local New Hampshire director approached seamstress Mary Selvoski about refitting a dozen costumes for an 1800s version of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, the master seamstress didn’t hesitate. “He gave me two weeks,” she says and shrugs. “I’ve had tighter deadlines.”

It’s Monday morning when I catch up to Selvoski at her shop, Mary’s Closet, in an old warehouse called the Varick Building in the Millyard of Manchester, New Hampshire. Selvoski is cutting and restitching what to my eye just looks like an old blanket. But then she drapes her work over a nearby mannequin and the blanket is reborn as a flowing cloak. “It’s a spirit,” she says proudly. “There’s a few of those in The Tempest.”

If you have gone to a production of community theater anywhere in New Hampshire in the last four decades, odds are you’ve seen Selvoski’s work. Since 1980, the Granite State’s seamstress to the New Hampshire stars has been outfitting community theater groups, providing costumes from scratch or refitting outfits to meet the production’s needs. Taking a quick walk through her vast storage space, even the least theatrically savvy can identify the vast reach of her work. There’s a whole row of princess and queen outfits, from several copies of Beauty’s iconic yellow and blue gown to Glinda the Good Witch’s pink wings and high crown. An entire row is devoted to vests for men and another for Santa suits. There’s a shoe room and a hat room. And high up on the top shelf near the ceiling hangs an enormous Hello Kitty head. “My daughter made that,” Selvoski says. “She did a good job, don’t you think?”

In early 2016, Selvoski sold Mary’s Closet to Seacoast Repertory Theater, a well-known regional outfit based in Portsmouth. Now rechristened “Department M” by Seacoast Rep, Selvoski maintains her own corral of clients and serves as a designer and rental agent for the company. At this point, Selvoski estimates that she has 15,000 costumes in her warehouse.

Mary Selvoski in her workshop, Seaport Repertory Theater

Born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, and raised in Revere, Selvoski got her start in sewing out of stubbornness. She was a tumbler on the gymnastics team in her high school, but disliked her team’s costumes. “So I made new ones,” she says. “I’m very competitive, I look at other people’s work and think that maybe I can do better. That’s what’s kept me going.”

Ironically, it’s this same competitive nature that prevents the seamstress herself from attending the theater. She’s too critical. “I’ve never really been able to get into the show. I’m always looking at bad hemlines,” she says laughing. “Once I saw that an actress had a skirt made of the same material as an actor’s shirt and I thought, What were they thinking!”

Mary Selvoski – Seamstress, Costume Designer
Manchester, New Hampshire
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Top photo courtesy Mary Selvoski

The post Mary Selvoski: Seamstress to the New Hampshire Stars appeared first on Take Magazine.