Ode to the Blackmarket Bernadettes

This Fringe, the streets of Philadelphia were invaded by Bernadettes.

Blackmarket, our guerilla pop-up piece, traveled across the city this September. From the Fringe bar to the Franklin Flea to theaters on Broad Street to Parking Day 2015, cigarette girls in yellow skirts catcalled Fringe-goers and civilians alike, hawking $1 cookies and crackers with bawdy bravado. They flocked in groups of 3–4 and cooed like pigeons. They were all named Bernadette.

Their clientele quickly learned that the cookie-and-cracker racket was a front for a black market operation selling intimate performances.

For $1 — $5 tips, Bernadettes would pull you aside, coo secrets into your ear, and initiate you into their illicit world of intimate art. Among the intimate art acts: group dance, jungle sounds, ecstatic movement, and a silent film for one with a live score that occasionally included a harpist.

For a larger fee, the Bernadettes would initiate you into their circle. 10 Philadelphians chose to undergo a private ritual and become a Bernadette. What happened in that initiation, only they can know. But suffice to say, the Bernadettes are among you.

They could be anyone.

Great thanks to everyone who participated in Blackmarket. You’ll definitely be seeing us again soon. Look out for yellow skirts at theater openings this fall, and feel free to post Bernadette sightings at #appliedmechanics, #bernadettes.

Originally published at http://www.appliedmechanics.us.