Shelly Mars (born 1960,

Celina, Ohio Celina ( ) is a city in Mercer County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. The population was 10,935 at the 2020 census. Located about northwest of Dayton, Celina is situated on the northwestern shores of Grand Lake St. Marys. History ...

) is a

performance artist Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

, actor and

printmaker Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand processed technique ...

based in New York. She studied at

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of C ...

and has a B.F.A. in theater from the

California Institute of the Arts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a Private university, private art school in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for ...

. She also studied at

American Conservatory Theater The American Conservatory Theater (ACT) is a nonprofit theater company in San Francisco, California, United States, that offers both classical and contemporary theater productions. It also has an attached acting school. History The American ...

(ACT) in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

Career

Since starting performing in San Francisco in the early 1980s, Mars has done everything from improvisational stage work to voiceovers to movies and is best known for her

monologues In theatre, a monologue (also known as monolog in North American English) (in , from μόνος ''mónos'', "alone, solitary" and λόγος ''lógos'', "speech") is a speech presented by a single character (arts), character, most often to expres ...

and gender-bending portrayals of various subcultures, with a focus on

queer culture Sexuality and gender identity-based cultures are subcultures and communities composed of people who have shared experiences, backgrounds, or interests due to common sexual or gender identities. Among the first to argue that members of sexual m ...

Film and TV appearances

Her first film role was in

Monika Treut Monika Treut (born April 6, 1954, in Mönchengladbach, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany) is a German filmmaker. She made her feature film debut with '' Seduction: The Cruel Woman'' (co-directed by Elfi Mikesch), a film that explores sadomasochist ...

's ''Die Jungfrauenmaschine'' (aka ''Virgin Machine''), a groundbreaking film about the hedonistic exploration of sexuality. Mars went on to appear in many more films, including ''Drop Dead Rock'' with

Debbie Harry Deborah Ann Harry (born Angela Trimble, July 1, 1945) is an American singer, songwriter and actress, best known as the lead vocalist of the band Blondie (band), Blondie. Four of her songs with the band reached on the US charts between 1979 and 1 ...

and

Adam Ant Stuart Leslie Goddard (born 3 November 1954), known professionally as Adam Ant, is an English singer, musician, and actor. He gained popularity as the lead singer of new wave group Adam and the Ants and later as a solo artist, scoring 10 UK ...

Jennie Livingston Jennie Livingston (born February 24, 1962) is an American director best known for the 1990 documentary '' Paris Is Burning''. Biography Early life and education Livingston was born in Dallas, Texas and grew up in Los Angeles, where her family ...

's ''Who's the Top?'', ''Venus Boyz'',

Mary Harron Mary Harron (born January 12, 1953) is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. She co-wrote the screenplay and directed ''American Psycho'', '' The Notorious Bettie Page' and I Shot Andy Warhol.'' Early life Born in Bracebridge, Ontar ...

's ''The Notorious Bettie Page'' and a documentary based on her own life, ''The Dark Matter of Mars''. After Virgin Machine's release in 1988, Mars was at the forefront of the emerging

drag king Drag kings have historically been mostly female performance artists who dress in masculine drag and personify male gender stereotypes as part of an individual or group routine. As documented in the 2003 ''Journal of Homosexuality,'' in more r ...

culture in the US and appeared on such television shows as '' The Kids in the Hall'', ''

The Phil Donahue Show ''The Phil Donahue Show'' is an American talk show that was hosted by Phil Donahue. The show ran for twenty-nine seasons from November 6, 1967, to September 13, 1996, in which it broadcast 6,715 episodes. Before it was placed in syndication ...

'', ''The Montel Williams Show'' and ''The Sally Jesse Raphael Show'' and on

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

's ''Real Sex'' and ''Drag Kings''. More recently, she has been featured in

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American Cable television in the United States, cable television channel, channel owned by Paramount Global through its Paramount Media Networks, network division's Paramount Media Networks#MTV Entertainment Group, MTV Ente ...

's ''Out There in Hollywood'', A&E's ''Role Reversal'' and ''The Jamie Kennedy Experience'' on The WB.

Live performances

Her solo shows include Bug Chasers (2005), Whiplash: Tales of a Tomboy (1999), which the New York Times called her "a female Candide", and Invasion from Mars (1997) working in venues across New York and beyond: Abrons Art Center, PS 122, New York Theatre Workshop, The Kitchen and the Grove Street Playhouse. She performed in the Night of 100 Stars to raise money for the first New York International Fringe Festival (1997)."New York to Move Beyond the Fringe, Aug. 13-24," Playbill, Feb. 24, 1997, retrieved 22 September 2011
Mars' autobiographical show, Sex on Mars, enjoyed a five-month run in Provincetown, MA in 2000. Her Homo Bonobo Project show, which is ongoing, weaves themes of sexuality, love, and violence into an educational piece about the bonobos of the Congo. Recently, Mars has been Artist in Residence at NYC's

Museum of Sex The Museum of Sex, also known as MoSex, is a sex museum located at 233 Fifth Avenue at the corner of East 27th Street in Manhattan, New York City. It opened on October 5, 2002. History Founder Daniel Gluck wanted to start a museum dedicated t ...

and has received grants from the

New York State Council on the Arts The New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) serves to foster and advance the arts, culture, and creativity throughout New York State, according to its website. The goal of the council is to allow all New Yorkers to benefit from the contribution ...

(2010), the Arcus Foundation, the Gill Foundation, and the Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art. She is currently hosting a performance series at

Dixon Place Dixon Place is a theater organization in New York City dedicated to the development of works-in-progress from a broad range of performers and artists. It exists to serve the creative needs of artists—emerging, mid-career and established—who ...

called Bulldyke Chronicles that she co-hosts with Kirby the Bulldog. She has taught others the how-tos of performance art and creating one's own monologue; her own monologues have been published in Creating Your Own Monologue.

Printmaking

Mars has recently started doing printmaking and textile work with paper, metal and tee shirts in a style that reflects the intensity, sexuality and darkly layered aspects of her performance art.

References

External links

Official websiteShelly Mars on the Homo Bonobo Project websiteShelly Mars on YouTube
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mars, Shelly American film actresses American stage actresses American television actresses American lesbian actresses Living people 1960 births University of California, Santa Cruz alumni People from Celina, Ohio 21st-century American women