Description
A major collection of performance works by artist and agitator Anthony Hudson
Lamp Back: Plays and Other Grievances collects nearly a decade of work by Anthony Hudson, a queer Indigenous artist and agitator also known as Portland, Oregon's premier drag clown, Carla Rossi. Whether fumbling with a lamp in a satirical takedown of land acknowledgments or confronting the history of redface in pop culture, Hudson alternates between Rossi's cackling "ghost of white privilege" and more earnest, vulnerable confessionals as himself--all with a deep commitment to bitter humor and brutal honesty. In these performance works, a mixed-race Native boy plays a pilgrim in his kindergarten Thanksgiving pageant. A young artist recounts the racism in their favorite musical and the larger American theater system. A drag queen storytime goes disastrously wrong and calls for an exorcism with a plunger. Kate Bredeson's unflinching introduction speaks to Hudson's work through a cultural and historical lens and illuminates the importance of his project to filet the American Empire.
Author: Anthony Hudson
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
Published: 10/15/2026
Pages: 136
Binding Type: Paperback
ISBN13: 9798899480690
BISAC Categories:
- Drama | Indigenous
- Drama | LGBTQ+
- Drama | Solo Shows
About the Author
ANTHONY HUDSON is a Grand Ronde / Siletz artist and writer. Anthony's plays, videos, essays, and exhibitions--and performances as Portland, Oregon's premier drag clown Carla Rossi--have earned him national fellowships, international engagements, and sainthood from the Portland Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.
KATE BREDESON is a theater historian, translator, director, and dramaturg. She is the author of Northwestern titles Occupying the Stage: The Theater of May '68, The Diaries of Judith Malina, and co-translator of The Inheritor, a play. She is a professor of theater at Reed College.