Dog Day Afternoon is a 1975 American biographical crime drama film directed by Sidney Lumet, starring Al Pacino, John Cazale, featuring Chris Sarandon. It chronicles the events following a bank robbery by John Wojtowicz and was inspired by a 1972 Life magazine article “The Boys in the Bank” by P. F. Kluge. The film sticks fairly close to the true narrative. Two guys held up a small bank and through a series of comic and tragic misfires this leads to a 14 hour standoff with the police. The hook of the story for many was that Wojtowicz was robbing the bank in the hopes of getting the funds for his partner Elizabeth Eden’s gender-affirming surgery. To this day Al Pacino character, Sonny Wortzik, and his partner remain two of the highest profile LGBTQ characters in film history.

40 years later, Dance, Theatre, and Media company the feath3r theory began a search for the true motivations and outcome behind the bank robbery in a production they are calling WEDNESDAY. Their theatre veritè live documentary dismantles the film in an attempt to re-center the story on the company’s Artistic Director, Raja Feather Kelly’s relationship to Liz Eden, for whom the character Leon in the film is loosely based.

Kelly started this project when he wrote an essay for himself titled, Who Gets To Tell Whose Story. In this essay, Kelly contemplates and criticizes identity politics in performance culture and a fear that his particular and specific identity has no place in popular culture. Working with Kate Bornstein through Queer|Art|Mentorship, Kelly will release the long form essay with the theatrical world premiere. (http://thefeath3rtheory.com)

Written, Conceived, and Directed by Raja Feather Kelly

Performed by: Chris Bell, Collin Kelly, Alexandria Giroux, Claire Geringer, Ashley Chavonne, Amy Hoang, Jordan King

Collaborators: Tuce Yasak (Lighting Design), You-Shin Chen (Scenic Design), Brandi Holt and Jordan King (Costume Design), Laura Snow (Cinematography and Video Editing), Colm Summers (Assistant Direction)

Photography by Kate Enman