Please note, this event will take place remotely via Zoom. Zoom meeting details will be emailed to you when you register.

Laurie Kurutz, Professor of Costume Construction and the Costume Shop Supervisor at Southern Oregon University, will present "Oregon Burlesque Revealed."

Burlesque is a theatrical art form that uses satire, caricature, and parody to comment on social mores and attitudes. The performance art form of burlesque sits squarely in the context of social history, and women’s and gender-equity movements. Mainstream society has often dismissed burlesque as superficial and degenerate, going so far as to pass laws limiting and criminalizing the behavior perceived as transgressive. Therefore, American burlesque theatre has long been a refuge for society’s so-called “deviants” to find acceptance. Otherwise marginalized and independent women, queer, transgender, and gender-fluid performers, designers, and theatre-makers have found opportunities for expression in burlesque. Kurutz's research expands the traditional narrative of history by featuring interviews with current Oregon performers and producers who reveal how the art form has given them a voice to express themselves and a community in which to do so.

Kurutz has worked in professional theatre and theatre education for over 25 years. Her career began at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where she specialized in period costumes and men's tailoring. Between her eleven seasons at OSF, she traveled the United States, working as a Draper/Tailor at Seattle Opera, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company, Milwaukee Repertory Theater and others. Kurutz also worked for thirteen years as Lead Costumer and Lecturer at the University of Washington, School of Drama in Seattle.