PSSST's Nude Evening at the Top Hat Playhouse

Palm Springs, 20 February 1998

A Page With Absolutely No Official Connection to PSSST or the Top Hat Playhouse

The nude dudes in Palm Springs -- the Palm Springs Social Sun Tanners, or PSSST -- heard about a wonderful play at the Top Hat -- Palm Springs' unique new theater. Rumor had it that the play -- entitled "ResERECT the Theater" -- was actually about a theater's using nudity to rake in the customers. And not only that, but not one, not two, but three of the performers were actually nude in the play itself. Talk about your value for money!!

But there was just one more detail to take care of: the nude audience. Apparently, some clothing-obsessed theater patrons in Palm Springs would be offended by sitting next to nude fellow customers who didn't have to pay to have clothes dry-cleaned for the occasion. (Can you imagine? I'm shocked -- shocked! -- by this lack of compassion and understanding.) So PSSST arranged a special performance of ResERECT the Theater and sold the seats to their members. They provided wine and cheese at the intermission and the program-signing party afterwards, towels to keep the seats clean (ahem -- yes, some of you are pigs, and you know who you are), and a good time was had by all. At last! Nude theater patrons enjoying nude theater in the nude comfort they're entitled to by the U.S. and California Constitutions!

After all, the phrase "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of nakedness" is not just a bunch of empty words. They need to be believed, breathed, and lived to the fullest. Put them into action, I say -- don't just stare at them on the dull, dry pages of history. Use a red-white-and-blue color scheme when you do, just as I did on this page! After all, of what were our Founding Fathers thinking when they wrote those words -- if not nude theater with a nude audience? Legal scholars have pointed out that the "original intent" of the Founding Fathers as they wrote this phrase is an important one to...

WHACK! But I digress. Thanks. Let's see now, where was I?

Oh, yes -- the Top Hat Playhouse -- Palm Springs' unique new theater. Their management scheduled PSSST's special performance for Friday night, February 20th. They nearly sold out the house (after three BBC members from San Diego drove up just for the occasion, including Pen is Central's crack photographer, James Donald). Management neglected to mention the audience's nudity to the performers in advance, and since spotlights tend to blind actors as they perform they often didn't notice the pen ises on display until well into the delivery of their first lines. Yesirree, it was fun to watch the double-takes they took that night.

So the next time you're in Palm Springs, check out the Top Hat and its program. It's run by a sexy dude with a Commonwealth accent who plans a wide variety of serious, entertaining, and seriously entertaining clothed and nude events for the foreseeable future. We've put up a page listing some of their events as our way of saying "Thank you, Top Hat Playhouse -- thank you for letting us see your actors' dicks!"

By the way, you may wonder why the actors do not appear nude here on this page. Tsk, tsk! Actors' Equity rules, you know! Plus if you see them naked here, why bother going to go see the play itself? Trust me, you won't be disappointed.

But if you insist, just click on the black-and-white photo to the right, and you'll be taken to a page with more information about the playhouse and this performance.

Just click on a mini-picture to be taken to the original-sized image.

Thanks to my friend Joe  for help in digitizing these pictures!