Who is Mickee Faust?
The Mickee Faust Club is Tallahassee Florida’s
tongue-in-cheek answer to a certain unctuous rodent living in Orlando.
But the Faust Club’s name also plays homage to Goethe's good German
doctor whose struggles with the devil mirror the group's own.
The leader of the club is Mickee Faust himself, the foul-mouth,
illegitimate sewer rat brother of that better known, better groomed
cartoon creation. In real life, this cigar chomping, male rodent is
deaf, female performance artist Terry Galloway.
Ostensibly Faust has grown embittered by stories about the "other"
side of his family: the Parades of Lights, the castles, the sleeping
beauties and the constant singing of happy songs. And it has driven him
into madness—and a subversive brand of theater.
Rallying around this rebellious rat bastard are the three dozen
members of the Club who call themselves the Mickee Faustkateers. The
Faustkateers are a diverse bunch—firewomen and hairdressers, teens and
parents, video producers and radio news reporters, biologists and
nurses, university professors and students, ex prostitutes and
prosecuting attorneys, Mennonites and men in tights.
But several times a year they peacefully converge to write, direct
and perform the raucous and wily cabarets that have become Faust's
hallmark. In every Faust show you’ll find a mix of political and
socio-sexual satire, literary and cinematic parodies, old vaudeville,
new vaudeville, original and adapted songs and some fully-staged bad
jokes thrown in for good measure.
Every cabaret is a mutt mix of grizzled Faust veterans and raw,
terrified
recruits, some of whom are thrown into substantial roles that require
an expertise
they do not at first (or sometimes ever) possess.
Although it bills itself as “community theater for the weird
community,” World
Media Domination has truly been Faust’s goal. Faust now produces a
nationally
acclaimed hour-long radio show and comic video shorts that have been
winning
recognition and prizes in film festivals throughout the world. Take a
gander
at the Faust Vita if you want particulars.