John Waters is a man of many monikers - ‘The Prince of Puke,’ ‘The Duke of Dirt,’ and ‘The Sultan of Sleeze.’
The raconteur will serve as the keynote speaker in “This Filthy World” as a part of Momentum Ada 2017 on Friday, May 19, at 7:30 p.m. in the Ataloa Theatre of East Central University’s Hallie Brown Ford Fine Arts Center. The event is recommended for mature audiences only.
Waters is famed throughout the world for his trash epic films including: “Pink Flamingos,” “Female Trouble,” “Desperate Living,” “Polyester,” “Serial Mom,” “Pecker,” “Cecil B. Demented,” and “A Dirty Shame.”
Two of his surprisingly commercial films have been adapted for the stage. “Hairspray,” winner of eight Tony Awards, and “Cry Baby – The Musical,” which was nominated four Tony Awards in 2008, including Best Musical. In the summer of 2007, “Hairspray” reinvented itself cinematically as big-budget Hollywood movie, starring John Travolta, that became a smash hit worldwide. Waters also authored “Role Models,” published in 2010, as a self-portrait told through intimate literary profiles of the author’s favorite personalities – some famous, some unknown, some criminal and some surprisingly middle-of-the road.
“This Filthy World” is Waters’ rapid-fire, one-man spoken word ‘Vaudeville” act that celebrates the film career and joyously appalling taste of the man William Burroughs once called “The Pope of Trash.” Updated and expanded from the original film versions that enjoyed critical success at the Edinburgh, Toronto and Berlin Film Festivals, the live performance of “This Filthy World” focuses on Waters’ early negative artistic influences, his fascination with true crime, exploitation films, fashion lunacy, the extremes of the art world, Catholicism, sexual deviancy and a love of reading.
Tickets are $15 and can be purchased by going online to ecok.edu/FineArts, email at boxoffice@ecok.edu or by calling 580-559-5751. Season passes for the 2016-17 ECU Fine Arts Season will be accepted.
The event, as part of Momentum Ada, includes the following sponsors: Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition, The Chickasaw Nation, The Law Offices of James R. Neal, David and Deanna Piercy, GFC Enterprises, OG&E, Mercy Hospital, Dr. F. Bradley Jessop and Stephen Kovash.
Sponsors from the 2016-2017 Fine Arts Season include: Communication Federal Credit Union, The Ada News, Score Broadcasting, Hampton Inn and Suites, Vision Bank, Santa Fe Cattle Co., Citizen’s Bank, ECU Bookstore, Vintage 22 and LaQuinta Inns and Suites. Those who have a season ticket patron card can make it a dinner and show by presenting it at Rib Crib, Vintage 22 or the Santa Fe Steakhouse for a 10 percent discount on the night of the show.
Momentum Ada 2017 is an interactive film and new media art event in which Oklahoma artists, 30 years of age and under, participate as two artists receive honoraria and curatorial guidance on a site-specific project or body of work.
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