Murray Hill, Glenn Marla Join Cast of The Lesbian Love Octagon 11/4

THE LESBIAN LOVE OCTAGON will feature a star-studded line-up of queer performers when it opens November 4th at The Kraine Theatre. Each night of the limited engagement will showcase a different guest star in the role of the Lesbian Performance Artist. Opening night, Thursday, November 4th, Murray Hill will bring his special brand of showbiz to the new musical. Friday, November 5th will feature the recently crowned Miss Lez 2010, Drae Campbell, followed by tranny superstar, Glenn Marla on Saturday, November 6th. Performance artist and seasoned drag king, Shelly Mars, performs on closing night, Sunday, November 7th.

The production, presented by Horse Trade Theater Group and Cause Dyke Drama will play a limited engagement at The Kraine Theater (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Ave and Bowery), November 4-7 at 7pm.Tickets ($18) are available by calling Smarttix at 212-868-4444 or online at www.horseTRADE.info.

THE LESBIAN LOVE OCTAGON will also feature Sarah Louise Anderson, Felicia Blum, Kat Bridgeman, Sheaquan M. Datts, Missy Diaz, Tracie Franklin, Nikki Jenkins, Dana Musgrove, Lindsay Naas, Susan O'Dea, Ti, Lilly Walleck, Lauren Wood, and Rebecca Zaretzky.

"Anyone who thinks lesbians don't have a sense of humor should see this show. Great songs, great performances, great fun!" Bill Russell, Tony nominated librettist for Side Show

Murray Hill (Nov 4th) Comedian and world-renowned entertainer Murray Hill is a relentless retro shtick slinger, buster of audience chops and freewheeling ad-libber. The New York Times anointEd Murray "the patriarch of downtown performance." He recently performed with Dita Von Teese for sold-out engagements in New Orleans, Los Angeles and Seattle. He can be seen on television this year, playing himself, on STARZ "Gravity" Season 1 and HBO's "Bored to Death" Season 2, which airs September 2010. He's performed his comedy at top showrooms like Upright Citizen's Brigade, Gotham Comedy Club, Comix, LA's Billy Wilder Theater, and headlined his own show at Caroline's on Broadway. Murray has toured with Le Tigre, hosted The Gossip concerts, and introduced the Beastie Boys and Antony and The Johnsons, to name a few. He's hosted sold-out burlesque shows at the Bloomsbury Ballroom (London), MTV Italia's opening party for the Venice Film Festival, NY International Burlesque Festival, Just For Laughs (Montreal) directed by Thierry Mugler, and co-starred in Immodesty Blaize's show at London's Arts Theatre in the West End. He's produced and starred in several theatrical productions: The Murray Hill Show, A Murray Little Christmas, and This is Burlesque. He's been included in "Best of New York" lists in the Village Voice, Paper Magazine, and New York Magazine; inducted into Paper's Nightlife Hall of Fame; and selected as OUT magazine's Top 100 Influential Performers. He enjoys cheeseburgers, Swedish Fish, showbiz biographies, showgirls, and he put the "yes" in polyester. He's currently working on his debut Off-Broadway one-man show to debut in 2011. For a good time, visit http://mistershowbiz.com and follow him http://twitter.com/murray_hill

DRAE CAMPBELL (Nov 5th) has had an eclectic career as a comedian, rock singer, director, choreographer and actor. Drae has appeared on many stages and screens the world over. She's even been seen on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. As a director Drae has proudly created and developed several pieces including Nerve for the American Living Room Festival at HERE Arts Center. Recently Drae received a space grant from the Brooklyn Arts Exchange (BAX) to develop and create a theater piece showcasing talent of women who are over the age of 60. Additionally, Drae wrote and starred in the short film You Move Me with Rebecca Drysdale. You Move Me won the Audience Award for Outstanding Narrative Short at Outfest 2010, as well as The Short Film Jury Award and Audience Award at the Austin International Gay and Lesbian Film Fest. Drae was also just crowned Miss Lez in the famed NY 2010 Miss Lez Pageant. Find out more about Drae's work at www.nowcasting.com/draecampbell.

GLENN MARLA (Nov 6th) is a Brooklyn-based performance artist, tranny superstar and beauty pageant queen (Miss LES 2006 and the reigning Mr. Coney Island). The Portland Phoenix calls Glenn Marla's work, "performance art that pushes the envelope without pushing the audience away," Time Out New York Calls Glenn a "downtown prophet" and The New York Times calls Glenn "an obese transvestite in tights." Glenn Marla is a firm believer that if you don't fit in anywhere you can fit in everywhere; this mindset has stretched his own concept of performance and the minds of his audiences. He has performed at galleries, theaters big and small, clubs, bars, and burlesque venues, benefits for arts, culture, and humanitarian organizations, colleges and universities, and all over the U.S. Glenn was last seen playing a Poppy Flower in Taylor Mac's epic extravaganza "The Lily's Revenge." Glenn was also featured in Justin Bond's in Lustre: A Mid Winters Trans Fest at P.S. 122 and Abrons Arts Center. His Lustre dance theatre piece was captured in documentarian Joe Jefferies Drag Show Video Vierte, documenting the past 50 years of drag in New York City and is currently archived at Lincoln Center. Glenn's 2008 year-long performance project "New York City's Hottest Fat Go-Go Boy" explored fat, gender and sex, as he danced all over the city becoming a fixture in New York City nightlife. He was nominated for two 2008 Glammy Awards, New York City's downtown and nightlife awards. In his hometown Glenn is often found gracing the pages of The Village Voice, Time Out New York and myriad LGBTQ publications and last year Glenn was in a Glamorous Glossy Spread shot by Mathu Placek with Justin Bond and Kate Bornstein in V magazine. A short story of his is featured in Gendered Hearts soon to released by Alyson Press. Marla's early original work was featured in festivals at the Culture Project, Theater for the New City, HERE Arts Center, and traveled to NYC public schools with a grant from Liberty Partnership Program.

SHELLY MARS (Nov 7th) is an established solo performance artist based in Manhattan who has entertained and shocked audiences in the US and around the world for 20 years. Mars' solo shows include The Homo Bonobo Project (2010), Bug Chasers (2005), Sex on Mars (2001), Whiplash: Tales of a Tomboy (1999), and Invasion from Mars (1997). Venues have included Abrons Theater (Performa 2009), PS 122, New York Theatre Workshop, The Kitchen, Dixon Place, and Highways Performance Space. Sex on Mars enjoyed a five-month run in Provincetown, MA in 2000. Her monologues have also been published in the book "Creating Your Own Monologue". As one of the first "drag kings" of the late 1980s, Mars appeared all over TV ("Kids in the Hall", "Phil Donahue", "Montel Williams", "Sally Jesse Raphael") and in many films, including Drop Dead Rock with Debbie Harry and Adam Ant, Jennie Livingston's Who's the Top?, the HBO special "Drag Kings", and the independent documentary Venus Boyz. Recently, Mars has been Artist in Residence at NYC's Museum of Sex and has received grants from the New York State Council on the Arts (2010), the Arcus Foundation, the Gill Foundation, and the Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art, and she is currently hosting a performance series at Dixon Place theatre, called, "Bulldyke Chronicles" that she co-hosts with Kirby the Bulldog.

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