#SPOTLIGHT ON ABBY PIERCE AND CASSIDY SLAUGHTER-MASON

How did you come of age as an artist? How did you come to your current practice?

Cassidy and Abby are rooted in the Chicago theater community. We came of age as artists because we can find absolutely nothing better to do, so we just keep doing it... and that is said with love and Oprah-level gratitude. We are lucky to be around interesting people making art all the time, we don't do well with idle hands, and we thought we better start jotting down their ridiculous stories of before we're too old to remember them.

What was the inspiration for your OTV project?

Two years ago, while Cassidy was living in the Firehaus (a now-defunct artists' collective in Chicago), she and her roommates threw a last-minute rent party for the house. They themed the party “Camp Wannaspoonya,” and decorated the entire space to look like a 1980’s surrealist summer camp, and the night was MC’d by Chic Fillet, their drag queen roommate turned camp counselor. Musicians performed, there was a drag competition and talent show, a late-night dance party, and a vegan barbeque. As a frequent guest of the Firehaus, and collaborator and best friend of Cassidy, I (Abby) ended up spending the night on the couch, being awoken in the morning by a New Orleans musician playing saxophone on the lawn outside while Cassidy and her roommates prepared a communal breakfast. It was somewhere in those late hours of the morning when we decided this world was ripe for a TV show, and The Exquisite Corpse entered the universe.

What's next for you or your series?

We had the great experience of getting a killer team to shoot this stand-alone episode. Next is to get funding and realize the series as we intended it to be!