Performance artist, singer, and filmmaker Julie Queen collaborated with Thick Description and other artists to create and produce Ten Dollar Destiny, a multi-media song cycle based on Queen’s research into psychics, fortune tellers, and psychiatry. The piece premiered at Thick House and was designed to tour to other venues. It featured a large pop-up book set designed with stereoscopic films, and 14 original songs.
For this project, Queen consulted with a range of psychics and astrologers from around the world; met with representatives of the Berkeley Psychic Institute and the Institute of Noetic Science; visited the psychic town of Lily Dale, New York; and consulted with a team of psychoanalysts at the Psychoanalytic Institute of California. Dr. Julie Leavitt provided ongoing advice throughout her research.
Also collaborating with Queen on Ten Dollar Destiny were members of Thick Description as well as composers Beth Custer, Will Hammond, Brook Hinton, Michael Becker, and Pamela Z; writer Carol Lloyd; filmmaker Paul Lundahl; and set designer Russ Milligan.
Julie Queen is a San Francisco based singer, performance artist, and filmmaker whose onstage career has consisted of singing and performing in startling operas, theatre pieces, and avant-cabaret for more than 20 years. Her work has been seen in diverse venues from dive bars to concert halls–often on ropes, trapezes, or cages–and her fearlessness has allowed her to continue exploring new and interesting work.
Thick Description created, produced, and presented new theater intended to reflect and engage the San Francisco Bay Area’s racially and culturally diverse audience community.