JOHN WATERS
Appearing Saturday July 14th
Growing up in Baltimore in the 1950s, John Waters was not like other children; he was obsessed by violence and gore, both real and on the screen. With his weird counter-culture friends as his cast, he began making silent 8mm and 16mm films in the mid-'60s; he screened these in rented Baltimore church halls to underground audiences drawn by word of mouth and street leafleting campaigns. As his filmmaking grew more polished and his subject matter more shocking, his audiences grew bigger, and his write-ups in the Baltimore papers more outraged.

By the early 1970s he was making features, which he managed to get shown in midnight screenings in art cinemas by sheer perseverance. Success came when Pink Flamingos (1972) - a deliberate exercise in ultra-bad taste - took off in 1973, helped no doubt by lead actor Divine's infamous dog-crap eating scene.

Waters continued to make low-budget shocking movies with his Dreamland repertory company until Hollywood crossover success came with Hairspray (1988) in 1987, and although his movies nowadays might now appear cleaned up and professional, they retain Waters' playfulness, and reflect his lifelong obsessions.
-Mini Bio by Stuart Young

ELVIRA (CASSANDRA PETERSON)
Appearing AUGUST 24TH & 25TH
Better known to the public as her alter-ego "Elvira, Mistress of the Dark", Cassandra is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the character’s creation as a horror movie hostess on local television in Los Angeles. In that time, Elvira has become a cult icon synonymous with Halloween, horror and things that go bump in the night.

She has made over 1000 television appearances, starred in 3 movies, recorded 5 CDs, published 4 books and licensed over 350 products, including pinball machines, comic books, computer games, beer, perfume and haunted houses, with her costume being the best selling female costume of all time. Her latest endeavors will be an Elvira electric guitar from BC Rich Guitars and a slot machine from International Game Technologies.

MINK STOLE
Appearing Friday July 14th
Mink Stole began her acting career in the early '70s as part of "John Waters' cast of miscreants and has appeared in every John Waters film to date. She’s often played memorable characters, acting as an embodiment of poor taste and a frequent arbiter of nasty schemes. Stole appeared in the infamous Pink Flamingos as Connie Marble, the red-haired villain in exaggerated cat-eye glasses and a fur coat.

Stole's next two films marked her most memorable and prominent roles: obnoxious girl-child Taffy Davenport in "Female Trouble and housewife-on-the-run Peggy Gravel in Desperate Living. Recent beloved roles include Dottie Hinkle, the obscene phone call victim in Serial Mom. She’s also brought some name recognition to numerous independent features such as Jamie Babbit's But I'm a Cheerleader and Gregg Araki's Splendor.
In 2002, she appeared on-stage with the Los Angeles Women's Shakespeare Company and continued to write an advice column for the Baltimore City Paper called "Think Mink." Most recently she “stole” scenes in Waters’ latest feature A Dirty Shame.

TURA SATANA
Appearing Friday July 13th
Tura Satana is a Japanese born American actress and formerexotic dancer. She will forever be remembered as "Varla" in Russ Meyer's cult film, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!. Her early acting career saw Tura take on a few television appearances on Hawaiian Eye, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., and others.

She then began appearing in movies, including Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed? where she played a dancer with Dean Martin and Elizabeth Montgomery. That same year, she had a cameo as a Paris prostitute in the musical Irma La Douce with Jack Lemmon and Shirley Maclaine. After Pussycat, Tura worked mainly with cult film director, Ted V. Mikels and starred in The Astro-Zombies, The Doll Squad and Mark of the Astro Zombies.