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Anita Durst is the founder of Chashama, an experimental theater group and artist’s collective providing rehearsal, performance and studio space for NY artists, as well as providing outreach programs to urban youth interested in the performing and visual arts.

MERCY: Can you talk a little about the origins of Chashama?

ANITA DURST: I used to be in a company run by Reza A. It was called Dar A Luz. Reza had a very strong vision. He was dying of AIDS. He made plays that were very shocking, disturbing, very visual and very fast. Like, Andy Warhol and Jeffrey Dahmur, they meet each other and they go through the seven stages of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. They get to heaven, and God’s like this Puerto Rican drag queen with a frozen erection. I played Ishtar, the Goddess of Love, and Jeffrey’s prom date. The set was a dead forest and a white chain link fence and a burnt room. Jeffrey would stab somebody all the time and be right in the audience’s face. Everyone was wearing bustiers, and no clothes. It was very sexual and I was naked a lot. We all had plates in our hands; at one point, we were shaking them then we dropped them right in front of the audience. It was very visual.

The energy he created was something really special. He taught me how to be more than I am, how to step outside of the boundaries of the facts, the facts of what I was brought up to believe about being theatrical, or what art was. He allowed me to see that there was so much more. I didn’t know I was allowed to, or could do, those kinds of things, or think in those sorts of ways.
And he died, and I told everyone in the group, let’s start another theater company. We did a production in twenty-seven windows of an office building on the second floor. We had a pirate radio station, a guest stage and then we got an office. We tried to do a few more productions from there, and they failed.

I started working with a guy named Ian Belton and we were working on my acting and trying to do a play over at the office space. But at the same time when Ian and I were working people would come and say: “On your off night could we use the basement? Or, could we use the roof?” The way we are now, it is very serendipitous. It wasn’t something I planned.

M: Reza was your first experience in the theater?

No, not my very first (laughing). I was a high school drop out, you know and did very poorly in school. I was sent to a reform school kind of thing. They had this program like Scared Straight and they had this guy come and do improv with us. Then we did a theater piece in front of retarded children. I thought, this is something I can do, you know, anyone can go in front of a TV and say lines. How hard can it be? As I got more involved I appreciated the art more. I appreciated the art of doing things. When I was young I was like ‘I just want to do something easy’. As I did it more the ambition and trying to, I guess, break out of the commercial world took over. I found another world, which interests me a lot more. I know a lot of your interests; the reason you wanted to interview me, was because I do have an interest in the darker world, you know, and the Dommes. A lot of Reza’s work was very dark.

M: How did you meet Reza?

He did a play in the meatpacking district. He chose people from that play. He had like sixty people in the play. The audience followed us around and the house blew-up. All this stuff happened. Reza was very interested in those sorts of things. He was gay and he was very aware of the SM scene and that whole thing. He sparked an interest in me. I was twenty years old, and I became very interested in that world. I would seek it out, and theatrically, I did a couple of performances with a friend, Andrew, a long time ago.

M: So you are aware you have a history of supporting members of the BDSM and fetish scenes?

Yes, that is one of the reasons I’m doing the P-Cult. A lot of the people he deals with are from the bdsm community; and he often performs in that community. It should be exposed more, because it is so hidden. It really is a part of our psyche and the way we are. It’s been so squashed. It’s important to have that aspect of life. My ideas with the fetish scene; they are very exploratory. And people aren’t very exploratory. Our first benefit party we had for Chashama was actually a fetish ball called TS2000 . It was at the Henry Miller’s theater in 1997.

M: I didn’t know Chashama was that old? How old are you?

I’ve been doing this forever, since I was twenty. Now I am thirty-four. I remember there was press written about it too, the fetish party. I remember it said, there was something about a midget who’s vagina got sewn-up…(laughs) and Anita Durst is having this sort of party and blah, blah, blah.…I think it was Variety.

M: Can you talk about some of your personal ambitions and projects? How Chashama has changed your future?

Well, with Chashama, my ambition was purely my acting, in the beginning. Well no, it was to recreate Reza’s energy, but I used it for my acting. To try to do productions, but now it’s really changed. I want to bridge the gap between the poor artist in New York and the money. So things are more accessible, like space, like the people on Broadway. They have a lot of resources. They have a lot of people with talent, who could provide time and give to the young artists in New York. It’s changing into this whole thing where it could really help the art in New York. Because there is no support for it, really. So I want to get the private sector and Broadway to foster artists, such as you, who can then go into a room and make a book, or any of the things that happened over at 57th Street. You can give an artist a little space and a place to make mistakes and stuff, where the pressure isn’t like the commercial world where it is only about what you can provide. What’s inside your head, what’s going on; the spirituality of making connections with people… there is so much technology to facilitate those connections.

That’s what I was trying to do with the P–cult. Because I know most of the girls who work with Flambeaux are not exposed to acting styles, or voice work, or movement work and having that sort of release and knowing that you can have that release is very powerful. That was my goal, to allow people who don’t have that sort of stuff, to be able to have that release so they will be able to perform. Without that release you can never get it on stage. That’s the reason I do it. It’s also because that dark scene interests me; the whole community interests me. My interest used to be different, like I used to be like, what is it? What’s all this about? You know, the illicit sexuality part of it drew me. But, really, I stay away from the whole thing. It doesn’t really attract me as much as it did.

M: Do you believe the bdsm scene is something that you will continue to incorporate into your work? Or do you feel its something you are moving away from?

I don’t think I was directly trying to help that community. I am aware that I do by giving you a space or by doing the P–cult thing, or by giving Veronica the space. I’m aware that I’m trying to help. But it is very selective. It’s very much about the kind of people I know and it’s definitely geared toward the women who are in that kind of world. It’s not like I went out and said I’m going to do this thing, it just happened. It’s like Chashama. The support is just something that happened.

M: Do you feel September 11th related to your ambitions? Did it spur you on or was it a deterrent from continuing work in New York City?

September 11th…people are very like, if it’s not right in front of their face, it’s not a problem. I don’t think anything has changed. This horrible thing has happened, but as a society we haven’t stopped and been like, why is this is happening? What is going on? Why is somebody so mad at us that they are going to come and blow up our city? It doesn’t seem that as a community, we have come together. It makes me sad. This really awful thing happened and more awful things will probably happen, because they’re very mad about how we live. You know, we go and bomb their deserts and I don’t know how that changes anything. Or how what we’ve done here has changed anything. I don’t see much of a change. I’m aware that downtown…is bombed and there are people out of business and people moved out of the city. But it is business as usual, in a way.

M: Do you see any changes in the work that you support, in the artists?

I see references to September 11th and I’m sure it has changed a lot of artist’s work and their viewpoints. But I don’t see it right in front of me. I am not close enough to any artists to know specifically how it changed their work. There is so much going on around us at all times, you know, business as usual, two days afterward. Get the city on its feet. Get the economy going. That’s what is most important. Not our world policies, which is what is causing it. That is what’s important. It’s how we treat the rest of the world and what we are doing that affect it. No one seems very concerned with that. They’re concerned with: get ‘em back! Well, get who back? We have people in jail, in Florida. They are refusing to eat. Crazy. I think it is insane. But like most people, I’m too busy and too caught up in what I’m doing.

M: Facilitating a lot of artists.

I enjoy what I am doing. I enjoy facilitating right now. I’m not going to do it forever; it’s like the wind, it pushes things along…and then it’s gone. I know that Chashama will always be a part of my life. But I won’t always be working in my office from like ten to ten, seven days a week, like right now. It’s just insane. It’s just something I’m going to make and then hopefully give to somebody, who then can continue it. Somebody who has an ambition to run or have a company like this, which enables art in the city. And the outreach program. The base of it—the reason we started it—we wanted to bring a kind of art that is not seen. That’s why we started doing all of this. People who don’t usually see this kind of art are exposed to it. And the windows are great for exposure. They have set up window performances for three months and every week it changes in all three windows.

M: What’s the future for Chashama?

We’re going to have other real-estate people give us space. And then we are going to facilitate that space to other artists: either visual artists or theatrical artists, or for rehearsal space. And also, just bridging the gap between money in the city - the resources and the artists - to make that gap smaller.

M: Do you want to talk about any specific projects?

So my first idea, I might be able to obtain it… is One Times Square. It’s the triangle building. And that is a center point of New York. Then we could have, instead of a space that is closed up with nothing in it; a space with some vitality to it. Who knows? Maybe it is already rented out. I saw some people in there the other day, so maybe something is already happening. I don’t know, but that is the idea. So there is no dead space

INTERVIEW BY: Kate Cook

After graduating from Sarah Lawrence I found studio space with Chashama. It was the first opportunity since graduation I had had to work and it was relieving to find a supportive environment. The reality of living in NYC can be harsh, especially for the artist with little recourse. A community eases the demands on the individual.

Because the space on 57th Street was so raw everyone needed to work together. It functioned both as an artists’ space and a meeting ground. A lot of ideas that are currently in fruition were nurtured in that building. I met people in similar situations, with similar concerns and learned many skills to help maintain the drive to succeed: to be a productive artist and maintain residence in New York City. The communities thrive today beyond the existence of the space.

Not only did Chashama provide studio spaces, it also had a relationship with the non-for-profit Materials for the Arts that provided us with free materials for a multitude of mediums from painting to printmaking. Along with other studio spaces on 42nd Street Chashama also supported several exhibition spaces, theater and rehearsal spaces. Although I no longer work in relationship to Chashama, it founded many relationships I maintain to this day. It is responsible for refueling and refocusing my skills, determination and ambition. Chashama is a rare and invaluable asset for young or un-established artists in the City and could be an excellent model for future foundations.

Kate Cook has most recently launched a new site for her jewelry and other creations: www.lipsticknyc.com

Paintings By Kate Cook

MORE ABOUT CHASHAMA

Interview with
MADAME DOLLHAUS

Madame Dollhaus, multi media artist and prodom, takes us on a tour of her recent work with Chashama:

"I consider myself a fetishist with a strong obsession for materials and objects. I have always used the female form in my works and more often I like to work with women from the sex industry, especially Dominatrices. I also have always worked with men who are sexually submissive and are slaves to these women. Once I have made a space, I like the people I am working with to feel like they are just behaving in a way that is normal action for them. Only they are doing this 'action' in some bizarre installation.

My 'ALTERNATIVE PEEPSHOWS' were part of THE CHASHAMA FESTIVAL in the Windows on 42nd Street in Times Square, curated by Caterina Bartha and Laura Barnett. I created three separate installations in each window, culminating on the last day with an 'ACTIVE-VISUAL PEEPSHOW' that was observed from the street. The room was completely covered in rubber and vinyl, enveloping the viewer in a heavy latex scent. To enter the room you had to squeeze through a very small opening in the vinyl. Once entering the room you felt very enclosed. The main focus was several mattresses on top of each other and also covered with rubber. There were approximately 100 I.V. bags suspended from the ceiling. The bedposts were covered in bandages and rubberized ropes were draped from each post. The room was incredibly dark and when people started to cram in, it became very scary. Through minimal red lighting one could see slight movement and hear every breath and physical action."

Madame Dollhaus has opened an art gallery in Brooklyn where there are definitely some very interesting artists and happenings. For more information, upcoming shows and other projects please go to: www.dollhaus.org

Images by Madame Dollhaus