Empress Stah is an Artist, Aerialist, Cabaret Performer, Show Producer, Director, Teacher and Rigger, famed for her unique stage shows, with a luminous career spanning 27 years and counting.
‘Cult Status’ - The Stage
Empress Stah was recently touring with cult rocks Star Peaches, as part of her new show ‘There’s Only One Peach with a Hole in the Middle’. Stah was performing her infamous laser aerial act, ‘Stargasm’ to the song ‘Light in Places’, which they created in collaboration. Highlights of the tour include selling out the Royal Festival Hall, London, and the last four nights of 2019, at the Volksbuhne, Berlin.
'Cabaret Star’ - The New York Times
In 2016, Stah archived her complete body of cabaret performances, spanning 20 years, and will be publishing a book about it in due course.
EMPRESS STAH PROFESSIONAL BIOGRAPHY 2020
Empress Stah is an Artist, Aerialist, Cabaret Performer, Show Producer, Director, Teacher and Rigger, famed for her unique stage shows, with a luminous career spanning 27 years and counting.
Empress Stah was touring with cult rocks Star Peaches, right up until the pandemic, as a guest in her show ‘There’s Only One Peach with a Hole in the Middle’. Stah was performing her infamous laser aerial act, ‘Stargasm’ to the song ‘Light in Places’, which they created in collaboration. Highlights of the tour include selling out the Royal Festival Hall, London, and the last four nights of 1999, at the Volksbuhne, Berlin.
’A prismatic intersection of sex, circus and special effects’ – New York Times
Torture Garden, the world’s leading fetish and body art club, is where Stah built up her cabaret repertoire and reputation, headlining international gigs with them from 2000 – 2015, from Tokyo to Moscow, New York to Rio.
“That’s Amazing” – Huffington Post Live
‘The SPILL Festival of Performance’ commissioned Stah’s solo show ‘Empress Stah in Space’ in 2011. Directed by Ron Athey, with guest vocals from Lydia Lunch and Peaches, the show opened the festival in Ipswich at Dance East and enjoyed a sold out run at The Soho Theatre in 2013. This production was supported by the Arts Council of England and Queen Mary University.
’E is for Empress Stah in Space’ – Dazed Digital: A-Z guide to Outer Space.
The Raunch, a punk panto circus cabaret, commissioned by the Yorkshire Arts Festival, supported by the Arts Council England, produced by Underbelly, written, directed and performed by Empress Stah and cast, was the headline show at the London Wonderground in 2016, also touring to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
‘The Very Best of Empress Stah’ was a cabaret extravaganza created in 2007 that premiered at the Soho Revue Bar, now the home of The Box. This show went on to tour around the UK with Dusty Limits and Rhyannon Styles, before heading to the Adelaide Fringe Festival 2008, where it introduced fringe audiences to what I then marketed as neo-burlesque but now refer to as CabarART, and by chance, launching the career of Le Gateaux Chocolate who was Hello, Hi, our Host.
“Utterly Unique”- Time Out
‘Swinging from the Chandelier’ was Empress Stah’s first funded show, receiving a Jerwood Circus Award in 2003, and selling out 3 performances at the Circus Space aka The National Centre for Circus Arts. The Chandelier was Empress Stah’s first iconic prop and her act ‘Roses are Dead’ with the Diamond Pussy finale, was a headline act for ‘Lost Vagueness’ at Glastonbury Festival, and features in the film about it.
Companies and shows of which Empress Stah has been a cast member include; The Magic Flute at The Royal Opera House, Carnesky’s Ghost Train and Dystopian Wonders by Marisa Carnesky, Painful Creatures by Mischief La Bas, Le Haggis for Big Burns Supper, Rubicon by Skinning the Cat and Trash City at The Roundhouse.
Empress Stah is the Artistic Director of Zero Central, a creative production company she established with her husband Graham Power in 2014, focused on creating work that is accessible to a more mainstream audience, including family shows, so she can deliver her style of performance and vision of the what could be, to people far and wide.
A sample of the luminaries and companies I have worked with over the years .......
