Welcome to RPM eNews!
SISTERS
WITH A
DIFFERENCE
Rudecat Pictures is proud to present,
" Sisters with a Difference,
The Quinlan Sisters, 1981-1984"
an introduction to Peter McGehee's
a cappella musical revue which began
in Saskatoon and took the Sisters to Toronto seeking fame and fortune
on the great stage!
Professor Raymond Frontain at the University of Central Arkansas takes a look back on the work, life and times of Peter McGehee _
http://www.glbtq.com/literature/mcgehee_p.html
There is more about Peter on Wikipedia _
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_McGehee
...as well as in the The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture _
http://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=3252
Check out Jeff Round's excellent blog for Open Book: Toronto _
rpm e-news
RPM campaign extended indefinitely!
Producer Fiji Robinson announced on September 23rd on the RPM Facebook page that she is extending the RPM campaign indefinitely!
“Although I had intended to make the campaign a one-year event, there is still more work to do in promoting and documenting McGehee’s writing and music, not to mention the other projects that are evolving from the campaign,” Robinson said. “Other projects are already in the pipeline and I’m excited to say that they’re not all mine!”
Robinson is looking forward to her upcoming reading/performance at the Neil Richard's Collection launch on November 2nd in the Special Collections Library at the University of Saskatchewan. She'll be reading from McGehee's novel Boys Like Us and is hoping that the crowd will appreciate her rendition of Zero MacNoo's fateful journey to Arkansas for his mother's marriage - one of his best ever!
RPM e-News 8.pdf
RPM e-News #6.ppt.pdf
RPM e-News Issue 5.pdf
rpm e-news issue 4.pdf
RPM e-News Issue 3.pdf
RPM E-News Issue 2.pdf
RPM e-News Issue 1.pdf
RPM e-News #7.pdf
Boys Like Us
Boys Like Us is a remarkable comedy about life, love and friendship in the age of AIDS.
Zero MacNoo is perplexed by the curveballs of fate. His best friend has been diagnosed with AIDS and Zero is frantic to organize a circle of support. In the midst of this, Zero is called back to Arkansas to his mothers second marriage and has to confront the zany array of crazed Southerners he calls family.
Funny, bittersweet, outrageous, and moving, Zero's adventures suggest that while God is unfathomable, she must have a deep sense of humour.
A genuinely delightful gay domestic comedy so full of tangy dialogue and wacky situations that it screams for the stage, or better yet, the screen. - Booklist
Beyond Happiness,
The Intimate Memoirs of
Billy Lee Belle
A comic monologue about homosexuality, family ties and true love, Beyond Happiness is the hilarious story of growing up gay in the American South.
Scented with the gardenia and just a hint of diesel exhaust.
- Bay Area Reporter
Sweetheart
Sweetheart continues the story of Zero MacNoo and his cast of wonderfully zany characters one year after the conclusion of McGehee`s first book, Boys Like Us .
Zero still finds himself caught between the two wildly divergent worlds of his eccentric family in Arkansas and the urban gay community in Toronto that he calls home. These two worlds collide when his cousin, Trebreh the porn star, parks his estranged teenaged daughter with Zero, further complicating Zero`s already complex life. With great wit and warmth, Zero struggles with sex and love, politics, friendship and family, as he muddles through life and death in the age of AIDS.
Relying on keenly rendered dialogue, McGehee shunts his vivid characters effortlessly between high comedy and drama. The author's obvious affection for and thorough understanding of his eccentric cast infuses the tale with a cuddly, comic romanticism.
- Publishers Weekly
The I.Q. Zoo
An uncompromising view of contemporary gay life from both gay and straight perspectives. McGehee writes perceptive and intelligent stories, often infused with dark humour, about survival, about finding and holding on to happiness whenever and however you can.
McGehee's books are available to buy on-line and can also be found in some Canadian libraries.
Just Plain People.pdf
by Professor Charles Bane
This essay explores the origin of the Mississippi Mud Folk and considers their relevance in McGehee's work, as well as situates these Folks in the larger context of queer studies.
On November 2, 2010, The Globe and Mail newspaper published the recipe for Mississippi Mud Pie, surely the Universe's way of indicating its support of the Resurrection campaign!
The "darlings of the underground," The Quinlan Sisters were McGehee's trio of "foot-tapping artists, satirists, jazzy a cappella singers, and delightfully maniacal comics" who burst onto the Canadian arts scene in 1982.
McGehee was the witty songwriter, director, and co-producer of the musical revue, while human rights activitist and boyfriend Douglas Wilson was manager and the driving force behind McGehee's more politically charged messages. McGehee used his love of the absurd to offset and yet perfectly complement Wilson's interests in promoting diversity and dismantling inequality. Songs, like Don't You Ever Think, Job Hazard and Single with Kids , rally for the disenfranchised and scolded the inequitable status quo. Off My Body is a protest song in support of women's reproductive rights, while Are Straight Folks Normal? asks, what is normal anyway?
KAAI and McGehee.pdf
Peter McGehee invades Kingston
as artist-in-residence, 1984
RPM Ambassador Sandy Lynch recalls her memories of Peter McGehee and The Quinlan Sisters during their time as artists-in-residence at the Kingston Artists Association Inc.!
Sing-a-long with The Fabulous Sirs!
Two of their greatest hits, Big Dyke and Boy to Boy can be heard at the University of Saskatchewans Saskatchewan Resources for Sexual Diversity Web site:
Sing-a-long to the Jazzy Video Series on YouTube!
After McGehee's return to Canada from his exile in New York City, he and Fiji got together to form The Fabulous Sirs in 1987. The Sirs' sound was becoming increasingly sophisticated, with McGehee's cultivated lyrics and their polished vocal harmonies. They toured nationally and regionally and recorded themselves live at the Edmonton Fringe Theatre Festival in 1988.
http://library2.usask.ca/srsd/media.php
http://www.youtube.com/user/4MarieQuinlan?feature=mhum
Sask Archive donation leads to completion of latest Rudecat Picture's video production for
RPM campaign!
RPM Ambassador Neil Richards' $100 donation to the RPM campaign through its agreement with the Saskatchewan Archives Board resulted in nine new photographs being added to the campaign collection as well as his own collection and that of Archives.
Fiji hand-picked the photos to be produced and then used them in the most recent RPM production, Sisters with a Difference, an introduction to the Quinlan Sisters, 1981-1984.
Under the Photo Collection Project, order a negative and instantly become an Ambassador!
The Photo Collection Project is made possible through a very generous agreement with the Saskatchewan Archives Board which will digitally print orders of specific negatives.
All you need are four things:
For a fee of $10.00 (cost recovery), Sask. Archives will produce a 300 dpi 8x10 scan! One copy will be added to the Sask. Archives Image Bank; One copy will be provided to donor by e-mail at no charge ( note : a CD charge and shipping charges will apply to RPM requests for a CD copy); and one copy will be emailed to the RPM campaign with the subject heading Peter McGehee photo donation from [name of Ambassador], Sask. Archives has promised to have the scans prepared and delivered within three weeks of the initial request.
To become a Photo Ambassador, contact the Saskatchewan Archives Board at:
Phone: 306-787-4068
Fax: 306-787-1197
CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS FROM PETER'S PERSONAL
PHOTO COLLECTION!
To encourage a better understanding of the historical significance of McGehee photo collection, friends, family, and others are encouraged to view the contact sheets to help identify the people in the photos and to give them context.
Let us know what you know!
McGehee folder 1.pdf
The first three chapters of Beyond Happiness were performed and videotaped at the University of Saskatchewan Drama Department during the 2007 visit of Dr. Raymond-Jean Frontain from the University of Central Arkansas. Performed by Scott Gould, Nic Koupantsis, and Curtis Henschel, their wonderful performances are directed by faculty member Pamela Haig Bartley.
In 2001, Rudecat Pictures taped readings from McGehee's books by Christian Bordeleau and Jeffrey Canton when Bordeleau visited Toronto in 2001 to participate in the International Gay and Lesbian Aquatics' annual tournament.
Short video projects created for and during the Resurrection campaign by RPM producer Fiji Robinson for Rudecat Pictures Inc.
The Jazzy Sing-a-long Video Series invites RPMers to learn the jazzier side of Peter McGehee's song writing. He called himself a jazz baby and, over the years, McGehee led many a Quinlan family outing to see some of the very best in jazz in Toronto and New York.
Peter and Doug were very proud of their art collection. Dmytro Stryjek and Caroline Goe were the two painters whose works made up its majority. View more images and read more stories on Facebook.
the art collection
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Resurrection-of-Peter-McGehee/119643841426586
Beyond Happiness: The Intimate Memoirs of Billy Lee Belle . Wilson and McGehee then produced a one-man show based on the novella that McGehee performed across Canada, in New York City, and in San Francisco in 1983 and 1984.
Wilson's influence was also felt through the close role he played as advisor and sounding board for McGehee on his three books, The I .Q. Zoo (1991), Boys Like Us (1991), and Sweetheart (1992).
In mid-1991, with McGehee's health in serious decline, Wilson helped him complete the revisions to Sweetheart.
Shortly after McGehee's death, Wilson found notes for the third book in McGehee's projected trilogy. Wilson became driven to write it for his lover. He retreated to the Saskatchewan Writers Colony at St. Peter's Abbey in Muenster, as McGehee had done for the earlier books. He finished Labor of Love two weeks before his own death on September 26, 1992. Watch for more about Labour of Love soon.
McGehee met the love of his life, Canadian human rights activist Douglas Wilson, when Wilson was in San Francisco for the annual gay pride celebrations in 1979. In Wilson McGehee found the political perspective he would embrace.
McGehee moved to Saskatoon to be with Wilson in 1980 and together they were the brains and the beauty behind the witty social, political, and sexual satire of the third and most successful incarnation of McGehee's musical revue, The Quinlan Sisters. With Wilson as manager, The Quinlan Sisters gained them legions of fans and cult status in arts and gay circles. These early contacts created a network of support for all McGehee/Wilson ventures over the next nine years.
Wilson founded Stubblejumper Press in 1977 in order to publish works by Canadian lesbians and gay men. In 1983, Stubblejumper Press published McGehee's first novella,
Become an Ambassador to this world-wide phenomenon! Its easy-peasy - read a book, video tape a memory, sing a song, take a photo - AND THEN TELL US! You don't need to have known Peter McGehee, you just have to be inspired by him!
For more information or to get on the RPM e-News mailing list, contact Fiji _ rudecat_sasktel.net
