Douglas Sadownick See the classes
Archive · Performance

Before the consulting room, the stage.

Performance art made in and around Los Angeles, forged from gay life under the shadow of the epidemic. A record of the work, with documentation to come.

Still from The Buddy Systems, 1985Watch
Performance · 1985

The Buddy Systems

Co-created with Tim Miller

An early two-man performance piece I made with Tim Miller in the downtown scene of the mid-1980s, before we went on to co-found Highways. The full performance is here.

A Multicultural Performance Art Seder at Highways, 1990s
Santa Monica · Late 1980s

Highways Performance Space

Co-founder and board member, with Tim Miller

A home for performance at the edge of identity and politics, built so that the most urgent work of the moment had a stage to stand on. I helped found it, served on the board, and made my own work there, including three Multicultural Performance Art Seders in the 1990s, evening-length pieces that turned the ritual of the seder into a gathering of artists across communities.

Douglas Sadownick and Tim Miller, co-founders of Highways
With Tim Miller, co-founders of Highways Performance Space.
Queer Rites performance troupe, 1994, in front of a Wrong Way sign
Touring troupe · National tour, 1994–1996

Queer Rites

With Luis Alfaro, Sandra Golvin, and Robin Podolsky

A Los Angeles performance group: Luis Alfaro, Sandra Golvin, Robin Podolsky, and Douglas Sadownick. On November 19, 1994, the four presented their Franklin Furnace Fund piece at Performance Space 122 in Manhattan, weaving their separate stories of growing up gay, and the family turmoil that followed, into an hour of what they called word music. The work toured nationally through 1996 and was later rediscovered and spotlighted by Franklin Furnace. The San Francisco Bay Times called it "a victorious statement of personal truths by four culturally diverse artists."

Watch on Vimeo
VHS being digitized
Performance work

Jew Meat

With Matt Silverstein and John Ellis

A performance piece made with Matt Silverstein, John Ellis and Doug.