PASS THE BLUTWURST, BITTE is an ensemble work for five performers that tells the story of the Viennese Expressionist artist Egon Schiele (1890-1918).
For this work I merged performance techniques with my training as a draughtsman and the act of drawing. I also tripled Schiele’s presence with a pair of “Alter-Egons”. Through choreography, film projections, on-stage drawing, and music, a series of scenes and tableaux show Schiele in his studio, with his lover-model Valli, and being thrown into jail on trumped-up pornography charges. Upon his release, he attempts to gain respectability through marriage. Finally, on the threshold of happiness, his wife Edith, who is six months pregnant, dies in the terrible influenza epidemic of 1918. Egon, twenty-eight years old, dies three days later.

Story, choreography, direction by John Kelly
music by Adolphe Adam, Ludwig von Beethoven, Alban Berg, Arrigo Boito, Witold Lutoslawski, Gustav Mahler, Modest Mussorgsky, Henry Purcell, Richard Strauss, Vienna Choir Boys, Hugo Wolf and traditional Tyrolean
film sequences by Anthony Chase
props and furniture by Huck Snyder
lighting design by Stan Pressner
costumes by Trine Walter/Gary Lisz/James Reilly

Version I premiere: Inroads, NY, January 1984.
Version II premiere: Dance Theatre Workshop, NY, November 1986.
Revivals I & II: La MaMa E.T.C., NY, February 1995 and December 2010.

WITH: John Kelly (Egon Schiele); Marleen Menard/Tymberle Canale (Valli Neuzil); Vivian Trimble/Dina Emerson/Victoria Boomsma/MacKenzie Meehan (Edith Schiele); Hayo David/John Beal/Jonathan Kinzel/ Eric Jackson Bradley (Alter Egon I); and Jan Barzac/Anthony Chase/Steven Craig/Luke Murphy (Alter Egon II).