lilac
If you’re interested in my work, meet my alter ego, lilac!
photo: bernard brault/la presse
drag origins
In the queer underground performance scene, I was influenced by drag queens in clubs, at protests, around pagan ritual fires, at guerrilla film premieres in parking lots, et cetera. By 2013, Lilac was born as my own hi-femme drag persona.
photo: guillaume bell
As her personality emerged onstage, it didn’t take long to realize Lilac was a superhuman born on Venus, with Earth as her launchpad for surreal inter-galactic adventures in the far future.
A personal essay about this process was published in LAMDA-winning book Glitter & Grit: Queer Performance From The Heels On Wheels Femme Galaxy.
new myths for the 21st century
lilac’s original sigil: the cross of matter within the circle of spirit, within the downward point of the chalice, within the crescent of soul.
Collaborations with fellow femme artists sparked ethereal, absurd-comedic storylines on a future fantasy planet. Lilac faced off against allegorical villains, while decoding an entirely new system of astrology. Her goal? to build a flourishing society of “supreme feminine beings” in need of safe haven.
The Femmetopian Adventures emerged as a series of short form episodic plays created collaboratively for some of my first professional performance contracts: studio 303’s edgy women & buddies in bad times’ rhubarb performance festivals.
wrestling
sky stryker as the guardian vs.lilac photo: jimmy st. mike
Introducing pro wrestling into Lilac’s reality lead me to independently co-producing full-length fantasy action-adventure plays/wrestling shows, complete with original music, sound design and projections, sometimes attracting audiences of 200 +.
To call this show refreshingly progressive, even for montreal standards, would be an understatement.
-vice (re: Castlemania: the birth of Queendom)
wrestling brought lilac “down to earth”. She was anchored in the present time, using her sapphic superpowers to combat sinister forces alongside her Venusian Spirit Sister Ula, amongst a bigger cast of increasingly fascinating characters.
to facilitate independent production of wrestling shows, we opened an independent venue. It was named for our wrestling ring; a spot where the veils between universes are thin… the sacred square
sky stryker as the guardian, tanya stasilowitch as ula, lilac, simon maxwell-stewART AS MADSI. photo: kinga michalska.
The dramas that came to a head at the sacred square entered the arenas of the metaphysical & scientific… with a hearty dose of camp! The creation & production company became known as EarthBound Sci Fi Wrestling.
I’ve never seen anything like it! experimental theatre, somewhere between shakespeare and madonna…
- urbania (re: Lilac & Ula vs. godberd)
tanya stasilowitch as ula, lilac, beth cross as upshot, mike sciscia as remedy, lighting by marie-michèle cyr. photo: skylar boushel
The infectious cathartic draw of EarthBound is bolstered by the personal creative investment of every team member involved. Mutual empowerment through cross-disciplinary character and world building is at the heart of our work.
In 2019 I contributed to registering the company as a non-profit organization aimed at sustaining these empowering practices in a grassroots way. The magic lives on, under the moniker EarthBound Futures.
science fiction
Lilac, Sky Stryker as The Guardian, Simon Maxwell-stewart as Madsi, lighting by Marie-Michèle cyr. photo: zuzu knew
just Like many humans in the 21st century, lilac sees reality as a vibrant and ensouled multiverse.
The wrestling matches thrown down in the Sacred Square are hi-camp allegories for competing cosmologies, without a referee in sight.
Debates have often revolved around the very nature of causality, and the moral implications of interactions between parallel universes.
Oh, and especially how diamonds should (or shouldn’t) be used to conduct those interactions!
quantum equation devised by “madsi” (simon-maxwell stewart)
Innovating with astrology
I began astrology classes soon after birthing Lilac onto the stage, as seeing things her way opened me to the aliveness of the cosmos.
As a writer & director, I’ve devised a practice of syncretizing astrological elections* and delineations into story arc & character development. this practice is fruitful in identifying and adapting to archetypal dynamics that audiences could be most primed to wrestle with on any given day, week or month.
EarthBound writers like to experiment with the cyclical arcana of the zodiac as a tool for devising strong, coherent and poignant story structure, inspired by Ursula K. Le Guin’s carrier bag theory of fiction.
*electional astrology is a practice of using astrological data to “elect” an auspicious moment in time to take an action. as a tool it is unrelated to political elections, unless used for that purpose.
lilac’s current missions
At Cafe Tissardmine Art Residency, Morocco, 2024.
The original concept of The Femmetopian Adventures (see above) has been re-developped over a decade, and is now shaping into an animated erotic fantasy tv series, taking place in the pleiades constellation.
(New show title is to be revealed - stay tuned!)
in spring 2024, I worked on this series pilot in morocco, at the Café tissardmine residency, located in the remote desert region of tafilalet.
Prominent themes include: the ethics of civil leadership, spiritual evolution as part of biological evolution, and the immensity of each soul’s creative power.
Meanwhile, on earth…
Earthbound Futures is currently in script development, physical training, and technological experimentation (what’s up, A.I.?) for our biggest full length production yet, slated for early 2026.
After much anticipation, Lilac and Ula will finally reunite their powers in the ring for the first time since 2018.
As the people of Earth struggle to protect each other and a climate-changed planet, a shady corporation has begun colonizing Mars, advertising the project as a high-tech paradise and escape from earthly chaos.
But, just like most humans, neither Lilac nor Ula is fooled by their bid for supreme technocratic power. Luckily, A group of displaced native Martians have some crucial secrets to share about these dangerous corporate deals.
together, characters and audience alike will be embroiled in the fight to reject these covert fascists with the most potent technology in the cosmos: love!