If there were any question that furries have entered Pittsburgh’s cultural lexicon, a planned stage musical about those lovable scamps erases all doubt. The work-in-progress, the one-act, 90-minute Furry Tales, scurries onto the scene in a staged reading July 5 at the CLO Cabaret.
The reading is timed to coincide with Pittsburgh’s second year playing host to Anthrocon, the nation’s largest conference of furries. Furries, an oft-misunderstood fandom, are people with a strong affinity for anthropomorphized animal characters. Their appreciation runs the gamut from wearing Mickey Mouse T-shirts to donning full-body fursuits. Often, furries interact and build friendships and furry personas — “fursonas” — online. Actual in-the-fur meetings might happen only at yearly conventions.
Furry Tales was sparked during last year’s Anthrocon, when Bill Medica and JC Carter of But Why? Productions were sitting at Tonic, across the street from the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. Like many in the city, they were mystified at seeing people around town in tails, ears and fursuits. As the convention weekend progressed, their thoughts about furries evolved from “preconceived notions” into the realization that “we’re all a little furry on the inside.”
“They’re not afraid to be themselves,” says Carter. “When they left, the magic left.”
“They were such a force,” adds Medica.
Medica, who works in advertising, has written and produced documentary films; as a lyricist, he collaborated with composer Carter on Girl on the Go, a still-unproduced musical. With the furries, the collaborators knew they had the makings of a traditional piece of musical theater — a great drama of outsiders coming together, contemporary themes of the Internet and isolation, and, of course, fabulous costumes.
Working with Ty DeMartino, a writer from Baltimore they located on craigslist, Medica and Carter created four friends who had met online: BlueWolf22, MisoKitty2, HuggyBunny and Gorillanator. Gorillanator is the shy, parents’-basement-dwelling dork who got picked on in school; HuggyBunny the lonely poor little rich girl; and MisoKitty the rabble-rousing idealist. BlueWolf, it turns out, is something of an impostor.
The story begins with the friends preparing to meet up at the convention. BlueWolf is actually an undercover reporter for everythingawful.com, an online magazine whose editors sent him to expose all the sordid, freaky sex they suppose is going on. But, of course, in true musical-theater tradition, BlueWolf eventually realizes that he’s found his real peers in the furry community as we sing, dance, and learn a valuable lesson about ourselves. As one lyric puts it, “Let people gawk and stare, fun is our one pursuit / Truth is we don’t even freakin’ care, we’re gonna put on our best fursuit.”
Furry Tales‘ creators hope that staging the reading during the convention will draw actual furries who’ll provide feedback that will be incorporated into the show. But Why? Productions even sought the imprimatur of Samuel Conway, the executive director of the convention. But although Conway wasn’t willing to give Furry Tales the con stamp of approval, the two say he seemed enthusiastic about the show.
Carter and Medica spent lots of time online in furry communities, getting a feel for furry interactions. (Another source, they acknowledge was “Animal Passions,” CP‘s June 29, 2006, feature story about last year’s Anthrocon.) They wanted furry input on specific details and were wary of getting them wrong, with or without the official paw of approval. “You are kind of co-opting their world,” says Medica.
But it was ultimately the furries themselves who inspired the show: the cat in the crosswalk nonchalantly batting at a huge ball of yarn on her shoulder, and the fursuiter whose species was not even remotely apparent and who explained, “I’m what happens when magic goes horribly wrong.”
“It’s really fun,” says Medica of the furry parade. “It’s like moving theater.”
Furry Tales, a staged reading. 10 p.m. Thu., July 5. CLO Cabaret, 665 Penn Ave., Downtown. $15. 412-456-6666
This article appears in Jun 28 – Jul 4, 2007.
Is Everythingawful.com a coy reference to Somethingawful.com? How much info about furry do those behind this play have?
Cool, If I were headed to Pittsburgh this year I’d probably see it.
*FreakyLynx
Who else could it be about? I don’t think anyone hates furries more.
This is going to be such an abyss of self-gratification and bitching about fursecution (there is no truth to furries “just wanting to have fun) it will be… well, I don’t know what it will be. But if it ever comes to the greater Seattle area, I’m sure as fuck not going to waste my time.
Oh, and “everyone has a little bit of furry inside of them?” No, they do not.
i dont understand what everyone has against us furrs, and to be honest yes everyone does, because im pretty positive that as a kid you liked watching bugs bunny and the loony toons, or watching animated movies like over the hedge.
Fun? You’re kidding me. A furry con is nothing more than an excuse to have a free for all freak sex fest. I watch cartoons, I don’t fantasize about having thee way sex with a rabbit, a fox and a goat. These people do .. and they act out their fantasies for real at these cons. Some are there for the arts and crafts part but most are there for kink gay sex whether it be imagined thatthe partner is a humanoid horse or screwing someone in a furry costume. Is all that in the show too? If you are going to have a show glorifying this group then you have to count the perverts and sickos in there too or you are misleading the public.
I find these accusations about furries to be quite a hoot. Most of these accusations come from the anime and hentai groups, which honestly I don’t see why those two subgroups hate furries so much. I’m neither, but I’ve been to about a dozen cons of each subgroup and to be honest, freaky sex happens at each. Don’t go living lie Anime and hentai goers, you are no different than the furries, in fact I’ve come to find the furry subgroup to be more friendly than the most other subgroups I have wandered about through. And to clear something up here, Hentai and Anime fans day dream about sexual situations with fantasy creatures as well. What do you think an elf, orc and such things as cat boy and cat girls who are mostly human fall into? Anthropomorphic, which is exactly what a furry is, some just a to different degrees of animal attributes. Stop trying to separate yourself from them out of spite and accept that you are no different. I’m glad to see that there is some positive media going around for the furries, there seems to be very little of it. I believe it’s time more people start looking into anime and hentai cons and expose all the freaky sex that goes on at those cons.
*Ben12
Actually, most of it is coming from people who find the idea of anime conventions and hentai equally hilarious/repulsive. The difference is that fans of those two things don’t tend to get as bitchy and defensive as furries do whenever people make fun of them. If furries just stopped whining about “fursecution” then I really think people would have a better opinion of them.
“Fun? You’re kidding me. A furry con is nothing more than an excuse to have a free for all freak sex fest. I watch cartoons, I don’t fantasize about having thee way sex with a rabbit, a fox and a goat. These people do .. and they act out their fantasies for real at these cons. Some are there for the arts and crafts part but most are there for kink gay sex whether it be imagined thatthe partner is a humanoid horse or screwing someone in a furry costume. Is all that in the show too? If you are going to have a show glorifying this group then you have to count the perverts and sickos in there too or you are misleading the public.”
Excuse me as id like to take a moment to comment to this.
1. Don’t automatically assume thats what furrs do because you see it on T.V. CSI is a fictional T.V show, furrs do not have wild orgies while in fursuit because they are expensive and buying or repairing one costs alot, so no they are not gunna dirty them by having wild sex orgies.
2. Anime/Hentai/Manga fans fantasize about, lets see, tentacle monsters, aliens, demons, giant beasts, raping, but hey, lets not criticize that shall we? Lets criticize those that dress as animals and look friendly then someone dressed as a silent hill Red Pyramid and scary.
3 To be real entirely honest with you sex is all about kinks, if there were no kinks, there would be no sex. People do kinks to try something new and make it alittle more interesting. I’m sure your parents did a few kinks and im sure your going to try them with your sex partner. Don’t yell at us for things you do as well, your being biased and have no right to accuse.
4. The play i hope has no perverts because that is not at all what our fandom is about and if they do have them in it then that is a very terrible play and should not be put on stage.
Next time get your facts straight before accusing our fandom as you were way off on all of them
Haha, oh wow. Isn’t it just so adorable? A pissy widdle baby-waby’s trying to win on his own internet by saying the same sociopathic BS that people have been repetitively forcefeeding into his puny, miniscule skull.
Do us all a favor: Become an hero. Please? For little old us?
This play is going to be HUGE, based on the kind of controversy it’s mere SUBJECT is generating in the comments!
I’ve never been to a con, but I find it hard to imagine that “everyone’s” there for the wild and kinky sex that they think goes on there at these things. I’d imagine these would never be allowed at such public events. The authorities would surely crack down on them. Even if there WAS some sex in a private place, what business is it of yours anyway? None! Besides, as long as nobody’s hurt, and consents, there’s no problem anyway.
What goes on behind locked doors, no matter if you’re furry, otaku, gay, straight, bi, tri, or whatever, is your OWN business.
Well, at best, this will be pro-furry to the hilt – and at worst, it’ll be 50/50 with its neutrality, with HOPEFULLY some commentary put in about how some furs actually do use the fandom as their own expendable frat party/whorehouse, as well as do some name dropping on some of the more prominent offenders within the community *coughRossReddickcough*.
The anti-furs as I like to call them are hypocritical and foolish, dwelling in a nirvana where furries are everything unclean. Humans tend to fear what they do not understand, and understandably furries are a bit out of the norm in everyday life. But then again when catholic priests commit paedophilia and horny men can go down to a stripping joint to watch two naked women wrestling in mud… Or the wide range of beastiality videos on the internet, what some furries have done, other people have done worse.
This item was brought to my attention by a colleague in Pittsburgh. I’m somewhat perplexed by the entire discussion. Forgive me for being direct, but what do the rantings from a satirical web site (which no sane person would use for dissemination of truth) and the private activities of individuals at some convention have to do with a theatrical review?
From my viewpoint, there is something that inspired a group of playwrights to create a new musical and they did so under their own research and information. It’s theater, not necessarily a reflection of any group’s opinion. The storyline to me seems interesting.
If anything, not that makes one bit of difference, but it seems that all of the unsubstantiated accusations by several people on this forum, is giving a bit of credulity to the basic premise that the writers have used. Good theater can have reflections in life. If there is a genuine group that is actively mocking individuals for their interests, then I’d be interested in seeing how this was interpreted by someone not involved on either side (and how entertaining the production is.)
I’m now actually quite intrigued by this production.
The Furry Encyclopedia: http://furry.wikia.com/
“…it seems that all of the unsubstantiated accusations by several people on this forum, is giving a bit of credulity to the basic premise that the writers have used. Good theater can have reflections in life. If there is a genuine group that is actively mocking individuals for their interests, then I’d be interested in seeing how this was interpreted by someone not involved on either side”
Hear hear! Bob forbid we could ever have some objective interest instead of the knee-jerk “You suck!” “No, you suck!” comments.
1: Yes it’s about the sex, somewhat. So what. The entire world is about sex or as “The Dictators” put it so succinctly “What’s it all about, Pussy and Money!”
2: So let me get this straight… objectifying women in wet t-shirt contests, mud-wrestling, pole-dancing and every bloody beer and car commercial out there is ok but…. Hmmm…
3: Normal is so relative that it barely exists. Most of the worlds’ population is clinically insane. Most of the world wears costumes anyways. Doubt that? Do you work in an office?
4: Ultimately the words “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” mean that if I ain’t hurting you, get bent or get used to it.