My admiration for the opera singer Maria Callas prodded me to create an autobiographical work in which I portray a fan who is driven to embody her through the creation of her fictitious daughter, an obsessed punk diva named Dagmar Onassis. The antics of this female alter ego drive him to near self-destruction. He survives, as does his love of ‘La Divina’ Callas.

Originally performed as a solo performance that interacted with super 8mm film projections by Anthony Chase, and hand-painted sets by my then partner the visual artist Huck Snyder (who died of AIDS in 1993). The film sequences provided cinematic close-ups of the live stage action, debauched party locations, and documentary-style footage shot on the bar and in front of The Pyramid Club.

My live performance was subsequently filmed (on the stage of the Pyramid Club) by Anthony Chase and edited with the existing projection sequences to form a valuable 30-minute version of the work of these seminal East Village artists.

Written and Directed by John Kelly; Film Sequences by Anthony Chase; Set Design by Huck Snyder; Music by Bellini, Verdi, Proch, Gounod. This was my first evening length performance work. It premiered at the Pyramid Club in 1984, and was subsequently performed at the Collective for Living Cinema, Café Schmidt, in Berlin and Munich, and as part of The Decade Show at the New Museum in 1990. WITH: Tanya Ransom, Marlene Menard, The Mona Lisa, Paula Swede (The Swedish Housewife), George Carstens, Tabboo! (Stephen Tashjian), Hapi Phace, Philly, Hattie Hathaway, Jimmy Paulette, David Crocket, Robin Cradle, Ira, and Kuka the South African Flying Pig Dog.