BITCHES, BEHEADINGS, AND BLOODLUST... OH MY.

A self-confessed musical-comedy-nerd is trying her hand at the macabre... and loving it.
Amanda Louise Miller, macabre moonlighter 

Did you know that after someone was decapitated via guillotine, their head remained conscious for approximately 30 seconds?  Or that if a gallows noose did not have the proper number of knots in it, the "subject" being hung was slowly strangled to death, rather than dying instantly from a broken neck?

Neither did I.

But these are the kinds of things one learns whilst working on a play about notorious women who were executed by their governments, specifically a play called "BITCH (Perception. Reality. Execution)" being presented by The Witching Hour theatre company at the Kansas City Fringe Festival this weekend.

Other fun facts:  Marie Antionette's last words pre-beheading were "Excuse me, sir.  I did not do it on purpose" (she had stepped on the executioner's foot), and although Mata Hari was comfortable going completely bottom-less, she never took her bejeweled bra off during any of her dances on account of her oddly-shaped nipples.

Full confession:  I am normally a jazz-hands-and-glitter-musical-comedy-loving kind of girl.  I love happy endings, kiss cutoffs at the end of romantic ballads, and flashy dance numbers that appear mid-show for no real reason.  But here I am, onstage, in a creepy-as-hell play about executions... and loving it.  Come on:  when else am I going to get to play a dude, learn history, and utilize my 20th Century Theory Class (via the tone chimes I used in middle school church choir) in a single theatre project?

(Name that tune.)

And I also think it's important, artistically and culturally speaking.  "BITCH" is without a doubt a piece of theatre that makes people uncomfortable.  I mean, we talk about periods and stretch someone's arms out for several feet (to illustrate Anne Askew being tortured on the rack in the Tower of London), for pete's sake.  

Another fun fact:  Anne Askew was stretched so far on the rack that her body was five inches off the table.  And, while men being tortured were usually given the chance to watch the previous person be tortured, Anne was not allowed to see a man naked, and so was offered no such chance.

(Anne Askew on the rack.)

And, in so doing, we hopefully get people thinking - and talking - about the role of the "bitch" in the world, and how women can be "crucified" in popular conscience today...

modern bitch #1

#2

 

....aaaaaaand #3

...while we (hopefully!) creep them the hell out. 

AMANDA LOUISE MILLER will be appearing as Coryphaeus in "BITCH (Perception. Reality. Execution.) at the Kansas City Fringe Festival this weekend.
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