Guaranteed one of the most unique experiences you’ll find in Manhattan is the now monthly Perraneu Magazine Launch Party and Variety Show at The Stonewall Inn. Next event is Tuesday, February 17th. Doors at 6pm
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Chauncey: Hey there Devon! Thank you for sitting down and having this Chauncey Chat with me!
Devon: Thank you! Over the moon to be here. You’re so kind to invite me on!
Let’s start at the very beginning. What is Perraneu and why is Perraneu?
A fever dream of my journalism career and performance careers rolled into a design print magazine performance extravaganza. And now a hit off broadway show at the stonewall once a month thanks to you. And the collective,
It is nothing without the colleteev! (We make up words but they mean more now because they’re our own!)
We use bombastee to promote vitalitæ—- a reason to leave the house and to finish a project or come see a project be celebrated for its hard work and fun!
Or sing along to all the crazy gay music we’re always playing at the events.
As for the magazine:
It’s what I hope will be a freckle on the nose of the future of media’s complexion. Print issues and corresponding events has grown from a small collective to a now monthly event at the historic and important Stonewall Inn!
The magazine is for essays, a body of work of a photographer that might not fit elsewhere, audio and movement performances that together are something they couldn’t have been apart!
Perraneu is what you want it to be and what she MUST be! She’s a print magazine, a collective, a disco, a poem, a Tupperware Party and a
What is the significance of the orange in your logo?
Citrus is sour and sweet, unpredictable wedges. I wanted to use my career in journalism, direction and performance to create experiences in print that engaged people with different forms of media. I was working at a dying newspaper and I kept thinking this needs more ZEST! So this logo always entices me and can change to limes or lemons or other citrus as the issues call for it! But our little traditional grapefruit logo in the print issues will always be in my heart.
The mosaic you see on my social media picture is from a china town street artist when I was living there and one day I hope we connect and they are celebrated big time in our shows! If you know them please help this happen!
I’m excited that you’ll be doing a monthly residency at The Stonewall Inn. Every show you do always is unique and wonderful and unlike pretty much anything I’ve seen out there. What can audience members expect from such a regularly scheduled show?
I want to use structure to create freedom for us to express.
So each performance/launch event I break down into wedges to keep it organized in the glorious chaos— kind of like the various iterations of collaborative print issues.
You can always expect an “essay” from me, featured guest artists, an artist who is actively showing something for sale, a nontraditional collaboration, movement piece. It’s like one dimension: print, 2dimension: our collective audioscape, and then a huge finalé! To dance into the night with hope for the next day!
I want to give people a reason to come outside and a reason to keep up the good work they’re doing! To keep being exactly who they are with full inhale and exhale and enormous sighs of relief that we have each other. When everything else feels bad.
Do your show themes come first and then you fill in the blanks or do you have a few ideas that kind of have something in common and then that informs the theme?
Both almost now!
It feels like alchemy as the artists that are available and who express interest in an idea start to gravitate it is absolutely magical to see the synchronicities.
I like to either respond to or address the weather we’re all dealing with or build a safe space for each artist to stand alone and to become something stronger together.
The aesthetics of our world and our art landscape start to become what I’m reflecting and then allowing people to take it in their direction in different works. Like your role for example, Chauncey where you live stage manage my nonsense and it becomes a Webster hall level production on the fly. Incredible magic is being made.
The first year we picked arbitrary themes by doing a game where we all say a word and narrow it down until we all say the same word. Then we challenged ourselves all year to keep that theme. Well music became the most amazing collaborative music issue. And the interest our illustrator Kate Atherton had in risograph printing turned into one of our incredible stand out printed issues.
He’s always running late, but he’s always worth the wait. How did the character of Flippard Skimmons come about?
Hahaha! The question made me laugh and I’m so honored to help answer it for our favorite guy. He’s full of enthusiasm and charm and he makes you believe in yourself.
His hair will never quit and we always forgive him for being late especially those four minutes of slow motion he’s always doing as an entrance.
The audience roars for him and that. Is what Flippard is about. Making the crowd roar.
He’s also a nod to Richard Simmons the late and great: i want to help develop the live show about him if anyone powerful in off broadway theatre Cole is reading this.
Are there any characters or personas we’ve yet to meet on The Stonewall Inn stage that we haven’t yet?
Endless. Endless amounts of them. They’re are so many that like… I hope to one day have a barge show with fireworks behind it and Flippard is brought onto the barge (late) with all of our perraneu performer characters and friends.
What is one thing you have always wanted to do on stage that you haven’t yet?
Unseat criminal politicians.
And I like to really build a character and take the house down. I want my norma moments.
I want to dance more which I am in February.
That’s what perraneu is all about is what do we all want to be doing let’s make it happen. Small scale then bigger then let’s see what happens. I want to do whole musicals at the stonewall where we get the whole bar to rehearse once a week and then do a full out absolute musical lol!
Anything is possible Chauncey. You help me believe that every single day.
I am having good success in organizing myself in a way that is very very me and personal so I can keep on top of all the spinning tops! Ooh la la spinning tops.
If there was a reality competition show designed for you to definitely win, what would that contest be?
A non competitive one would be a dream but maybe a cop out answer. I am pretty happy when we play to all of our strengths toward a common exciting payoff.
However.
I will say give me a scholarship to a real sewing program for one year and I have project runway in. The bag.
How can people find you on the internet and support your work?
It’s hard sometimes.
Isn’t it.
But devonturchan.com is for my acting resume and great reviews please read those.
And perraneu is a floating thing that sometimes has a landing spot and sometimes doesn’t. I dream of a rap genius type site that links lots of things which way but who has the time and money.
For now we are beholden to @perraneu on instagram which I have been curating for 7 years so please have fun diving into the archives and what has been.
All images by @epiquecaptures