Noveltease Theatre produces contemporary burlesque plays, blending neo-burlesque styling with the theatrical roots of burlesque theatre in the 1880s. Through a combination of text and dance, we seek to embody literature and create shared community around storytelling. We stage unique burlesque adaptations of classic works of theatre and literature in order to reclaim and rework the canon from a sex-positive, queer, feminist, and anti-racist standpoint that enlivens and transforms classic works for contemporary audiences. Noveltease Theatre is a shared vision that emerges from a past history of collaboration between Artistic Directors Fosse Jack and Sailor St. Claire. They are the creators and producers of The Tennessee Tease, a full-length burlesque play based on the memoirs of Tennessee Williams. With Sailor’s direction, and scripting and choreography by Fosse, the show was performed both in 2015 and 2018 at Theatre Off Jackson, as well as at SEAF in a one-act format. In addition, both have worked on related projects as individual creators and producers, and with other producing companies that share similar artistic DNA with the work that has become Noveltease. Fosse Jack has artistic directed and choreographed three short burlesque ballets through his production company, OtterPup Productions: Draculesque (based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula), Coppafeelia (based on E.T.A. Hoffman’s The Sandman), and A Metamodern Prometheus (adapted from the introduction to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein). Sailor St. Claire has concepted and performed her own short-form literary acts that combine text and dance, based on sources as diverse as Frank Norris’s McTeague, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and the entirety of Act V of Hamlet. With Evilyn Sin Claire, she co-wrote and co-directed Sinner Saint Burlesque’s much lauded burlesque adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 2017 and 2018. She is also the producer and host of Accio Burlesque, a long-running burlesque tribute to Harry Potter pe
