Danny Anchondo Jr. as Mr. PIXIE in ‘Selfie Conscious.’ (Photos by Heather Alley)
On Saturday, Danny Anchondo Jr. will mark the fourth performance of his show Selfie Conscious at the Festival of Independent Theatres. This also marks the last performance as FIT will close this weekend after a month-long presentation of theatrical productions, cabarets, improvs and dance performances all held at Theatre Three. FIT returned after a five-year hiatus with a bang of a lineup of shows under managing director David Meglino.
In our queer roundup of shows and creatives at FIT, we pointed to Danny Anchondo Jr.’s Selfie Conscious. A poke at social media, his musical play will finish its run on Saturday. Before the performance, Anchondo talked about his experience with presenting his original production at FIT this year — and then what happens next.
In describing is experience of presenting his show at FIT, he looks at it as an education and informative.
“Though I have some theater in my background, I would never say that I come from a theater background. I am a musician (voice, piano, violin) and songwriter first and foremost. But I have always loved playing in musicals and whenever I had the opportunity to take those gigs I jumped at it,” he said.
He credits his most recent theater opportunities with giving him the confidence to push forward on Selfie Conscious. He’s been the music director for Danielle Georgiou Dance Group’s The Bibby Bobby Boo Show and Theatre Three’s Stede Bonnet: A F*&king Pirate Musical and composed music for T3’s The Butterfly’s Evil Spell and this summer’s The Odyssey at Shakespeare Dallas.
“That experience as a part of the directoral and design side of a show helped me tremendously in producing Selfie-Conscious,” he said. “Throughout the process I was basically just copying all the procedural elements of all the shows I had worked on. If I had to do all this five-10 years ago I would have been completely out of my depth. I’ve been fortunate to work with some very efficient and established organizations and I’m grateful for the examples they set for me to achieve this personal goal.”
In his show, Anchondo plays Mr. PIXIE who is creating his own social media platform. Behind that guise, PIXIE hopes to collect all the data in a somewhat stumbling fashion. However, the character is also a moniker Anchondo has been using for 20 years. PIXIE has a much deeper meaning for Anchondo.
“The birth of this alter ego also coincides with my sobriety from alcohol and represents a time when I really needed a mask to be able to create the music that was truly in my heart,” he said. “It was a difficult time and it’s not hyperbole to say that Mr. PIXIE saved my life. And since then, I have been self releasing music under that name.”
Under that name, Anchondo has released music on all major platforms
The idea for the show came well after PIXIE did, but it’s been a decade in the making — before Anchondo even had ties to the theater.
“I just thought it would be a cool rock show with some ‘selfie exercises’ sprinkled in. A ritual of self exploration through our selfie taking behaviours, but for all those years, all I had was a cool title and a rough idea of what the show could be,” he said. “I would talk all my friends’ ears off about it but the show never materialized. When I saw the call for FIT submissions I thought ‘What the hell?'”
When FIT came around, he said it was the kick in the butt he needed. And he was now better tied to the world of theater that could help him craft the show.
“It’s been fun to create a show that helps facilitate a conversation with one’s selfie and analyze the levers of social media platforms that we participate in without much thought at all,” Anchondo continued. “Every performance is a different adventure in which we create something that is unique to that particular group of individuals. The show has taught me a lot about myself but most importantly I hope it helps others to learn something new about their self(ie). Plus, I hope it’s just a lot of fun to just take crazy pictures of yourself!”
In the show, directed by Sean McGuire, Mr. PIXIE invites the audience to take a number of selfies based on specific prompts. Those selfies may be all what remains from the show after Saturday’s performance. Once it’s curtains for Selfie Conscious, Anchondo will move on to is next creation.
There is hope the show may still live on though.
“It’s hard to say what is next for Selfie Conscious now that I will be closing this chapter on its birth. But ,as with all other creative endeavors I’m sure it will let me know what to do with it next,” he said. “I’m currently working to release all the songs from the show on streaming services and the response from audiences has been positive enough that I would like to seek out other ways to mount a future production of the show. Stay tuned.”
But first, Anchondo will be releasing a new Mr. PIXIE album in October. Two songs were featured in Danielle Georgiou’s Echoes Cries Whispers show that debuted Thursday night at FIT.
“I’ve been working on these songs for a long time and they have been patiently waiting in the wings all summer as I wrote all the music for Odysseyand then Selfie Conscious.” he said. “So now it’s their time to be brought into the world and I’m very excited for that.”
Stay tuned for all things Mr. PIXIE here. FIT closes on Saturday but tickets are still available here.
–Rich Lopez