Melissa Birch CV
All works written or composed by Birch (unless denoted by *)
“Birch is a fascinating performer, a walking contradiction constantly and precariously balanced on an edge. She’s a very funny and perceptive comic who’s nevertheless just a step away from tragedy. She’s a sassy provocateur one second, an eerily vulnerable woman the next...In Birch’s hands irony and melancholy are part of the same beast.”
- Mike Steele, Star Tribune
Performance Evenings 1998—2019 | Ensemble, Collaborative, Solo
All Hail the Queen, with Deborah Jinza Thayer (2018)
Cowles Center | Minneapolis, MN | Text/Performer | Dance Theater
You Were Once Wild Here, Barebones Puppets (2016)*
Hidden Falls Regional Park | St. Paul, MN | Artistic Director | Outdoor Puppetry
Illusion Theater | Minneapolis, MN | Creator/Performer | Physical Theater | Video
Bryant Lake Bowl | Minneapolis, MN | Creator/Director | Physical Theater | Video
WarQueerPeaceSolo (2011-2014)
Various theaters in MN, CO, Germany | Creator/Performer | Solo Performance | Video
Places (2010)
Soap Factory | Minneapolis, MN | Creator/Director | Physical Theater | Video
Open Eye Figure Theater | Minneapolis, MN | Creator/Performer | Physical Theater | Video
“Melissa Birch...was among 1990’s performance art royalty for her magnetically evocative femme fatale character named Yesterday. In her past work, queerness permeates the content and so it is with her latest [work]”
-Dylan Townsend, Arts & Entertainment
Bryant Lake Bowl | Minneapolis, MN | Creator/Performer | Physical Theater
"Perhaps we need the power of women, whatever that might be, to get us out of our current plight...This theme’s clearly crucial to Birch. She’s got something in particular to say, and it has to do with falling, with balancing ourselves in the free fall of our existence.”
-Lightsey Darst, MNArtists.org
Leopard Lounge, with Tim Frantzich and Dan Chouinard (2004)
Bryant Lake Bowl | Minneapolis, MN | Creator/Performer | Music Show
Red Curtain Cabaret (2001-2004)
Bryant Lake Bowl | Minneapolis, MN | Producer/Emcee | Cabaret | Video
“...though inspired by tradition, Birch is not trapped by boundaries of the past. Like many postmodern performers, she is most interested in intersections”
-Sun Yung Shin, Women's Press
The Bitch Is Back: the Elton John Show, with Steve Pomije (2003)
Bryant Lake Bowl | Minneapolis, MN | Creator/Vocalist | Music Show | Drag | Video
Rage, Joy, Relief (2000)
Dixon Place | New York City, NY | Writer/Performer | Solo Performance
Various theaters in MN, NY | Creator/Vocalist | Cabaret | Drag | Video
"[The Love Life is] different from the usual one-person show. By blending her anecdotes with live jazz, Birch has created a sort of experimental cabaret show that keeps the audience off guard. [Birch]...recognizes the need for public autobiography, and that audiences are looking for authenticity”
-Rose Marelli, New York Blade
Bryant Lake Bowl | Minneapolis, MN | Solo Performance | Drag
Dizzy Faint and Short of Breath, with Drew Jansen (1995-1997)
Bryant Lake Bowl | Minneapolis, MN | Solo Performance | Drag
"Melissa Birch’s performance is so nuanced, so apt, and so attendant to detail that she is indistinguishable from the real thing. Whatever the real thing is – which of course, is the driving question.”
-Citypages
Press for "Yesterday" Performances (1995-1996)
Arts Bank | Philadelphia, PA | Solo Performance | Drag
Jungle Theater, Bryant Lake Bowl Theater, Patrick's Cabaret, | Minneapolis, MN | Solo Performance | Drag
“Ultra-versatile performer-singer Melissa Birch has perfected the unique blend of physical theater, campy comedy and seductive crooning. As Yesterday, (an archetypal goddess of the 40’s and 50’s with a slightly shady past) Birch struts, jokes, and serenades her way to a whole new level of comedy.”
-Tad Simons,Twin Cities Reader
University of Madison, Wisconsin | Wedding Ritual | Solo Performance | Physical Improvisation
Supporting Roles in Collaborative Productions 2008—2011*
Amy's Gold, Julyen Hamilton
Southern Theater | Minneapolis, MN | Physical Improvisation
Songs of Innocence and Experience, Kathleen Hermesdorf
Ponderosa International Art Center | Stolzenhagen, Germany | Physical Improvisation
Proximity, Olive Bieringa
Bell Museum, University of Minnesota | Minneapolis, MN | Physical Improvisation
½ Life, Body Cartography
PS 122, Southern Theater | Minneapolis, MN | Physical Improvisation | Video
Jump, Body Cartography
Walker Art Center | Minneapolis, MN | Physical Improvisation
Chicken Baby, Molly Van Avery
Open Eye Figure Theater | Vocalist/Performer | Physical Theater
Fleeced, Barebones Outdoor Puppet Extravaganza
Hidden Falls Regional Park | St. Paul, MN | Vocalist | Outdoor Puppetry
Big Trees Small, Insitu Dance
Muir Woods | Mill Valley, CA | Vocalist | Dance Improvisation
Selected Short Works 1988—2014
Duet with Noise (2014)
9X22 Dance Lab, Bryant Lake Bowl Theater | Minneapolis, MN | Solo Performance | Video
Flying Nuns (2013)
9X22 Dance Lab, Bryant Lake Bowl Theater | Minneapolis, MN | Creator | Physical Theater
Post Post (2013)
Mixed Blood Theater, Bedlam 10-Minute Play Festival | Minneapolis, MN | Creator/Performer | Physical Theater
Bryant Lake Bowl | Minneapolis, MN | Solo Performance | Birthday Party Cabaret
Limbo Solo (2013)
Ritz Theater/Monday Live Arts | Minneapolis, MN | Solo Performance
Stonewall, with Maya Weinberg (2012)
Ponderosa International Art Center | Stolzenhagen, Germany | Collaboration | Dance Theater
Happy Imposter, with Molly Van Avery (2008)
Bedlam Theater, 10-Minute Play Festival | St. Paul, MN | Collaboration | Physical Theater | Video
Audrey The Spy I, II, III (2008)
Patrick’s Cabaret | Minneapolis, MN | Solo Performance | Drag
Knock Knock Knockn, with Tamara Ober (2007)
9X22 Dance Lab, Bryant Lake Bowl Theater | Minneapolis, MN | Collaboration | Dance Theater
Concordia University Art Gallery | St. Paul, MN | Poetry
Formulaically Opposite (2006)
Jungle Theater | Minneapolis, MN | Solo Performance | Drag | Video
First Avenue | Minneapolis, MN | Solo Performance | Drag
John’s Gash, with John Francis Bueche (2003)
Bedlam Theater | St. Paul, MN | Writer/Performer | Physical Theater
Bric Studio | New York City, NY | Solo Performance
Subsistence, with Emily Johnson/ Catalyst Dance (2002)
Barbara Barker Center for Dance | Minneapolis, MN | Vocalist | Dance
Performing Arts Benefit (2001)
Private Home | Minneapolis, MN | Solo Cabaret
We Hold These Truths, with Sarah East Johnson/ LAVA (2001)
Southern Theater | Minneapolis, MN | Collaboration | Physical Theater
Blizzard In August (2000-2001)
Theater de la Jeune Lune | Minneapolis, MN | Solo Performance | Festival
Southern Theater | Minneapolis, MN | Curator/Emcee/Performer | Festival
My Mother’s Knives (1999)
Dixon Place | New York City, NY | Solo Performance
Little Suicides (1999)
Dixon Place | New York City, NY | Solo Performance
"Melissa... created a subversive performer persona that could not be ignored...'Yesterday' was partly what the audience wanted -- a female singer, feminine and seductive. But Birch added her own twist on gender stereotypes, a 'full-blown hypersexuality' with drag and other mindbenders thrown into the mix."
-Michael Dahl, Q Monthly
"Birch says she finds freedom in playing a character so unlike herself. ‘It’s a disguise I put on.’ And though some may think Birch is hiding behind a sexist stereotype, she insists that Yesterday is not a parody. ‘It’s about doing justice to a class of women and a tradition of women. I find the humor in it, and Yesterday is not afraid to laugh at herself.”
-Heidi Raschke, Twin Cities Reader
Richie Itch (1995)
Old Arizona Theater | Minneapolis, MN | Solo Performance | Drag
Dizzy, Faint, and Short of Breath (1995)
Arts Bank | Philadelphia, PA | Solo Cabaret | Drag
Queer Comedy Night (1994-1995)
Padded Cellar | Minneapolis, MN | Stand-up Comedy
When She Smiles (1994)
Southern Theater | Minneapolis, MN | Solo Performance | Drag
Ridicule (1994)
Patrick’s Cabaret | Minneapolis, MN | Solo Performance | Drag
This Mouth (1994)
Southern Theater | Minneapolis, MN | Solo Performance | Drag
The Wedding March (1994)
The Walker Art Center, Dyke Night | Solo Performance | Drag
UND Burtness Theater, Limited Exposure | Grand Forks, ND | Solo Performance | Drag
Yesterday’s Cabaret (1993)
The Walker Art Center, Dyke Night | Solo Cabaret | Drag
Stay: The Next Best Thing (1990)
Wilmar Center | Madison, WI | Solo Performance | Physical Theater
Ark Theater | Madison, WI | Writer/Performer/Musician | Solo Performance | Cabaret
Commissions & Residencies
The Right Here Showcase (2016), "Who Moved My Child"
The Illusion Theater | Minneapolis, MN | Creator/Performer | Physical Theater
Artist-In-Residence (2012), "WarQueerPeaceSolo"
Ponderosa International Art Center | Stolzenhagen, Germany | Creator/Performer | Theater
Workhorse Works-In-Progress (2010), "Places 2010"
Soap Factory | Minneapolis, MN | Creator/Director | Physical Theater
Open Studio, with Molly Van Avery (2009), "Undying Regrets"
Open Eye Figure Theater | Minneapolis, MN | Creator/Performer | Physical Theater
Performance/Clown Residency (2001-2002)
Three Legged Race | Minneapolis, MN | Physical Comedy
HOT! Festival (1998), "The Love Life"
Dixon Place | New York City, NY | Creator/Vocalist | Cabaret | Drag
Jerome Foundation Travel-Study with Eleanor Savage (1995)
South-Eastern United States Tour: Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina and Kentucky | Writer
Training & Development
Delicious Movement | Eiko Otake | 2019
Vocal Workshop | Ellen Hemphill | 2014
Shape of Attention | Chris Aiken and Angie Hauser | 2012
Witch Camp/Improvisation | Meg Stuart and Lexa Rosean | 2012 | Berlin
Improvisation | Jess Curtis, Peter Pleyer, Keith Hennessy | 2011-2012 | Berlin
Reperformatory/Contact Improvisation | Kathleen Hermesdorf | 2011-2012 | Berlin
Physical Improvisation | Rajendra Serber | 2011
Making Dance | Julyen Hamilton | 2011
Residency Workshop | Miguel Gutierrez | 2011
Be Here Now | Keith Hennessy | 2010
The Tuning Score | Karen Nelson, Margit Galanter, and HIJACK | 2003-2006
Contact Improvisation | HIJACK | 2001-2006
Skinner Release | DD Dorvillier | 2003
Skinner Release | Morgan Thorson | 2002-03, 1996
Clown Intensive | Christopher Bayes | 2001
Acrobatics/Balance Technique | Sarah East Johnson and LAVA | 2000-2001 | New York City
Mandatory Repertory | Ellie Covan and Dixon Place | 1999-2001 | New York City
Margolis-Brown Method | Kari Margolis | 1993-1996
Voice Training + Technique Teachers in MN, WI, CA, NY | 1989-2001