The creators of the underground Halloween party known as Theatre Bizarre have spent the better part of the past decade transforming a section of a blighted, burned out neighborhood in the City of Detroit into a one night carnival. With stages, a roller coaster and even a Ferris wheel, Theatre Bizarre is a circus sideshow come alive. That was until city officials shut it down last fall. WDET’s Rob St. Mary recently caught up with the creators, who call their concept “the greatest masquerade on earth”, to talk about the future of their creation…
2011/06/28
Posted in Press, Uncategorized Tagged Detroit, documentary, Theatre Bizarre, WDET Comments Off on WDET (Rob St. Mary) – 6/28/2011
2011/06/27
The Theater Bizarre has become an institution in Detroit, a chance for the many alternative artists, fetishists, performance artists, perverts and degenerates to gather and collectively turn the State Fair Grounds into some sort of Hellish interpretation of a carnival. It’s a spectacular thing, all the more special because it’s been operating outside of the law since its inception, despite the fact that there are enough lights and fires there to illuminate Michigan…
Posted in Press, Uncategorized Tagged Detroit, Metro Times, Theatre Bizarre Comments Off on METRO TIMES – 6/26/2011
2011/06/27
Theatre Bizarre. For years the name was like a secret password for those in the know. For the cognoscenti of Detroit, the words evoked a fire-lit carnival fantasy world that, Brigadoon-like, appeared for one night a year the weekend before Halloween — and then went dark until its next conjuring.
It was an underground thing. The fantastical masquerade party wasn’t advertised; you just had to know that tickets would be on sale at Detroit’s Dally in the Alley street fair and a handful of retail stores. Each of the ten years it’s been reappearing — technically eight, since there was a two-year hiatus and this is its fourth year back on track — it’s gotten bigger, growing from 2,200 tickets sold last year to 2,700 this year that sold out in two days.
Sounds like a success story — except this was the year Theatre Bizarre almost didn’t happen. The day before the event Detroit city officials shut the venue down…
Posted in Press, Uncategorized Tagged Detroit, Theatre Bizarre Comments Off on The Detroit News – 10/31/2010
2011/06/27
DETROIT — The arts community here is abuzz over the potential dismantling of the site of Theatre Bizarre, an 11-year-old party and macabre neighborhood carnival that is part Ringling Brothers, part “Dawn of the Dead,” and features makeshift rides, punk rock bands, over-the-top costumes, a haunted house, burlesque sideshows and other performances, some of them involving fire.
Its success may have been its undoing…
Posted in Press, Uncategorized Tagged Detroit, New York Times, Theatre Bizarre Comments Off on NEW YORK TIMES – 10/29/2010
2011/06/26
As I waited on State Fair Road in the damp October cold, dressed as the only non-zombie member of a zombie marching band, sipping from a shiny metal flask, I knew I was about to see something special. “Theatre Bizarre” had been hyped up among the hardcore Detroit locals for the last few months, and I heard it was not to miss, despite knowing very little about it or what to expect. Alas, my friend John and I had waited until the last minute to find tickets. Which was probably a good idea. Despite the sold-out show, we snagged some tickets through a friend, and that night we rounded up some friends and some costumes. John had recently started an urban marching band and found a bunch of used marching costumes from a man on the west side of the State. A little zombie makeup, and… Perfect.
Just hours after deciding to attend, I was waiting under the crumbling homes on State Fair, quiet and observing. A man chanted the fable of “Zombo the Clown” to the waiting attendees. The dirge of the party filled the obscured backyards…
Posted in Press, Uncategorized Tagged Detroit, Film, Halloween, Theatre Bizarre Comments Off on GSG FILMS BLOG – 1/5/2010
Posted in Events, Uncategorized Tagged Big Bang Films, Detroit, Fire Eater, Freakshow, Halloween, Sideshow, suspension arts, Theatre Bizarre Comments Off on Theatre Bizarre Documentary Kickoff – 6/30/2011
2011/06/26
Posted in Press, Uncategorized Tagged Bizarre Magazine, Detroit, Theatre Bizarre, UK Comments Off on BIZARRE MAGAZINE (UK) – 12/2009
2011/06/26
2011/06/25
Just across the street from the now-shuttered State Fair, the carnival spirit lives on at Theatre Bizarre.
What is Theatre Bizarre? It’s is a place, a community, a hallucination held in common by a group of people dedicated to its survival. They stage a few other events on the grounds, but most of the year is spent gearing up for the biggest, most imaginatively themed, “underground” Halloween party in southeastern Michigan — if you can call something that sold out at 2,200 tickets this year “underground.”
Posted in Press, Uncategorized Tagged Detroit, Halloween, The Detroit News, Theatre Bizarre Comments Off on THE DETROIT NEWS – 10/1/2009
THE GREATEST MASQUERADE ON EARTH