The Habits and Hobbies of Dictators: An Interview with the Creators

The 6th annual Denver Fringe Festival is bringing 70-plus shows to the Five Points/Rino area including Spectacle: The Habits and Hobbies of Dictators, an experimental puppetry show full of absurdity presented by Amuse Bouche Company! I had the opportunity to speak with Masha Mikulinsky and Sheila Klein, the co-creators and performers, to learn about the beauty of absurdity especially in our current political climate.

What is Spectacle: The Habits and Hobbies of Dictators about, and what can the audience expect coming to the show?

Masha: The audience can expect an immersive experience where each successive round of engagement with performers and puppets builds upon the previous one and nudges the audience into reflection.

Sheila: As a part of the 2025 Denver Fringe Festival, Spectacle is a live installation where puppetry and experimental theater collide at the dinner table. This round will take place at Redline Contemporary Arts Center in Five Points/RINO on Thursday, June 5 at 6:45 p.m.; Friday, June 6 at 8 p.m.’ and Saturday, June 7 at 5:30 p.m. The audience can expect an immersive exploration of surveillance, endurance, and authoritarianism over a five course tea served on china—with a twist!

How and why was Spectacle created?
Masha: Spectacle was created in part as a pressure release valve for those of us who are held captive by the horror or disappointment at the increasingly violent cultural and political changes bracketing our day-to-day lives. It was also created to water the seeds of collective resilience, to combat the currents of despair and disengagement with what we know about the incredibly multidimensional learning pathways of humor and collective play.

Incidentally, Spectacle quite literally arose out of a social media rabbit hole that had us both horrified and laughing out loud at the images authoritarian leaders project of themselves. If power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, then how is it that authoritarian leaders are invariably corrupted into remarkably similarly outlandish obsessions with themselves? Spectacle is what happened as we attempted to contend with not just mass acculturation to violence, but also the patent absurdity undergirding said violence.

Sheila: For me, the “why” of Spectacle precedes (and therefore directs) the how. Spectacle is being created as a way to metabolize and move the intensity, fear, isolation, and mundaneness that is weighing heavily on our collective body and spirit during the rise of authoritarianism in the U.S. As the government is attempting to seize control not only of bodies, but also of our thoughts and and our creative practices, independent and under-the-radar art has unique potential to generate resistance, revolt, and respite. The “how” of our creative practice is rooted in careful attention to what it feels like (moment to moment) to live in a militarized surveillance state that is reeling towards authoritarianism while being inundated with headlines that are as dire as they are absurd.

What does “experimental” mean to you? Can you give us some insight on the puppetry (are we talking traditional puppets? How much of the show is puppetry? What kind of puppets can be expected? etc.)
Masha: Spectacle intends to encourage us to ask exactly these questions: Who and what exactly is a puppet and where does that line get blurry.

Sheila: I understand experimental theater as storytelling/theater that uses space, symbolism, sound, body, and form to generate an active and embodied relationship with witnesses/audience. What excites me about experimental theater is an orientation of holding questions with as much regard as answers or hypotheses—staying intimately involved with curiosity and adaptation as a core tenet of the work itself.

How do your backgrounds influence your work?
Masha: As a queer, post-Soviet Jew, I am particularly interested in the politics of memor—the view from the fringes of societal norms and untold stories of resistance, resilience, and also the blunders of our ancestors that we carry in our bones. I think my background predisposes me toward stoicism and against a certain kind of sentimentality, which breeds a brand of humor easily recognizable to folks with similar predilections

Sheila: As a queer and disabled person, I can’t pretend that choosing artmaking forms that center creative adaptation to the present moment is just about personal preference. Leaning into awkwardness, absurdity, and finding humor in really dark places while being wildly earnest is absolutely part of my personality, which is inevitably shaped by my cultural background and queerness.

What makes absurdity/humor such a strong way to highlight conversations some people may find uncomfortable?
Masha: I am of the opinion that some of the most important aspects of life are best contended with through humor, repetition, and play. Does that make humor and play the most important things in life? Maybe, maybe not. But I do know magic can happen in the moments we take ourselves and our uniqueness a little less seriously.

Sheila: I think that, in this moment in particular, I find joy and resilience in deconstructing the power of “overwhelm” through absurdity and humor. In this current political climate, the U.S. administration attempts to pass off absurd, ludicrous, grandiose and uninformed rhetoric and behavior as normative, outside the box, ingenious, or straight up genius. This behavior is neither unique nor creative–particularly not the desperation with which authoritarian regimes cling to image while demanding absolute veneration in order to build more and more power. What we are doing in Spectacle (pointing out the absurdity without the fear or danger) feels like one iteration of reality checking. Yes, this is terrifying and dangerous, and at the same time, it is objectively absurd!

It’s a rough time to be queer in the current political climate, so let’s end this with some queer joy. Can you uplift the readers with some recent queer joy you’ve experienced in your life (other than the success of Spectacle)?
Masha: Yeah, you’re not kidding about it being a rough time to be queer! And yet, have you seen the kind of fun folks are making of this administration? Have you seen the memes? What we do best in queer communities is show up with and for each other in the hardest of times, not not because we are riding on the brilliance and tenacity of our queer ancestors having long led the way with resisting violence and thriving in the face of repression.

Sheila: I second everything Masha says here, especially the part of leaning into the example of fighting like hell while being fabulous in the process—lineages that our queer ancestors so generously left us to carry forward.

Lastly, what’s next for Amuse Bouche Company? And any final words you’d like to leave for readers?
Masha: We’re excited about the evolution of this piece and are looking forward to opportunities for bringing Spectacle to other venues in the Denver Metro Area.

Sheila: Thank you so much to OFM for the work you are doing to share stories and events that help queer communities thrive. This work feels more important now than it has ever been in my lifetime. If you are reading this article and feel even remotely curious about Spectacle, come check it out and bring your friends! Please also reach out to us at therealamusebouche@gmail.com if you want to see the show but are experiencing financial barriers–we can figure something out!

In other exciting news, we head to New York City just a few weeks after Denver Fringe to perform Disko Boy, a dance and drag show, in the Queerly Festival in the East Village. We are really excited to share that work, a no-holds-barred extravaganza of camp, earnestness, and awkwardness as a ski ballet champion survives the collapse of the Berlin wall and wonders if he is man enough to ever love again. The festival theme is “Revolting Queers.”

Photos courtesy social media