Before You Apply

Burlesque-Expo.com requires you to have completed two things before you can submit an act: an Account, and a Bio.  

An Account is who you really are and how you log into the site.  Each individual can only have one login.  They're behind-the-scenes info and not available to the public.

Your Bio is the information that is made publicly available: your stage name, your photo, your history.  Not every account requires a persona (for example, Vendors don't need one), but if you're going to apply as a performer, you need one.  You can have more than one Bio, like if you were submitting to perform and to teach and wanted different bios to appear next to your class description and under your picture in the show.  To make a Bio, log in and go to Your Account > Your Expo. Then click on New Bio, which is at the bottom of the middle column.  Add your info, upload a picture, and click the save button at the bottom.

Video

A lot of you have gotten really good at creating some amazing cinematography with scene changes, dissolves and tight close-ups, and all sorts of amazing special effects.  Please don't send us those videos.  We want to see what the act is going to look like on stage.  We'd rather see cellphone video shot in your living room than an MTV-worthy music video.

Do I Need A Video?

Yes and no. You can submit a video of a different act than the one you want to apply with, along with a description of the act you do want to apply with. It's not as good as seeing an actual video of you doing the act, but it gives us some ideas about you as a performer. Pretty much, any video is better than no video.

Accessibility

Salem's Old Town Hall was built in the early 1800s.  Performers in Star Bras (Thursday), The Rhinestone Revue (Friday), and The Main Event (Saturday), who wish to enter from the wings of the stage are going to need to contend with coming up a wide flight of stairs from the lower level to the upper level, and then 5 steps up to the stage.  Performers with mobility challenges can enter from the back of the hall and avoid the stairs between the first and second levels, but as of this writing there is no ramp up to the stage.  We are working with the City of Salem to see how this can be remedied.  The building does have an elevator that serves all three floors.

• The Lower Level houses one set of restrooms
• The Ground Floor is the main entrance to the building.  It is where The Burlesk Bordello will be on Friday night, and the Vendors and Exhibits on Saturday and Sunday.
• The Upper Level is where the theatre and Green Room are.  It is served by an elevator.  To get onto the stage is approximately six stairs.  The theatre will house Star Bras (Thursday night), The Rhinestone Revue (Friday night) The Main Event (Saturday).

You know your mobility issues better than we do.  If you find stairs challenging, please let us know and we will do our best to accomodate you.

Troupes/Multiple People Acts

A Troupe is a separate entity from any of its individual members.  To create a troupe and submit an act

• Pick one person to be the Troupe Contact.  The Troupe Contact gets to make all the on-line decisions for the troupe, like what picture to use, which rehearsal slot the troupe is going to use, etc. 
• That person should clicki New Bio, which is at the bottom of the middle column on your Dashboard. 
• Create a Bio for your whole group, with any websites or other social media.  You'll get to say which performers are in which acts later.
• Make sure everyone in your troupe who is hoping to attend the BurlExpo has created an account before Janaury 15, 2024, when applications close.

To submit an act, the Troupe Contact clicks the Propose Act button (in the right column on their dashboard).  On the application is a pulldown menu called Performer .  Select the troupe's bio (not their individual one).  Provide the number of performers in the act.  After an Act is accepted, the Troupe Contact will be notified and asked for further information: choosing a rehearsal slot, details about audio, lighting, and props; and the names of the members in the act.  Please enter only the names of those who are performing in this act.  We understand that your troupe may have more members who will not be in this particular act.  By this time, have all the members of the act should have created an account.  The performing members of the troupe will see the tech information on their Dashboard but they won't be able to change any details.

We need the contact info of all performers in order to keep track of registration, provide comps, and make sure media and video releases are signed.

Example: Bad Bunny Burlesque has four members: Flopsy; Mopsy; Bugs, and Peter Cottontail.  They all agree that Flopsy is going to be the Troupe Contact.  Flopsy creates an account, creates a Bio for Bad Bunny Burlesque, and submits two acts: I Want Carrots has three performers (Flopsy, Mopsy, and Peter); Bad To The Bunny has four performers.  Flopsy makes sure the other three each register for an account before applications close. Bad To The Bunny is accepted,  Flopsy sees an alert on their Dashboard (or receives a reminder mail about Act Tech Info). Flopsy chooses a rehearsal slot and adds the other three (Bugs, Mopsy and Peter) from the pulldown menu.  Now, they can all see the act submission, the rehearsal slots, and the show booking in their personalized (bunnified?) Expo Dashboard. 

If I Want Carrots had been accepted instead, Flopsy would only select two other troupe members who were performing in that act from the pulldown menu.  Flopsy, Mopsy, and Peter would get the benefits of performing at the BurlExpo.  Bugs, who wants to support the troupe, buys a ticket and cheers from the audience.

Applying

There are three steps to applying for The Great Burlesque Exposition:

• Creating Your Submission You can create as many different act submissions as you want as lomg as they all have different names.  Our system allows you to save one or more as drafts and come back to them.
• Paying Your Application Fee(s) Application fees can be paid before or at the same time you submit.  If you pay it before you submit, when you do get around to submitting your act, it'll be applied automatically.  Application fees are "Pay-What-You-Can" with a minimum of $5.00
  • Note each act needs a separate application fee.  If you want to submit two acts and pay $10 for each act, don't pay $20 for your application fee. The system will think you're paying $20 for one act.  You need to pay each application fee separately.   
• Submitting Your Act Acts have to be submitted by January 15, 2024.  The advantage of our creation system is that you can save a draft and come back to it later.  The disadvantage is that you need to tell the system when you're ready to submit.  Just because you've filled out an application and paid a fee, does not mean you've submitted the act.  Don't forget the last, most important step and make sure the act is submitted! You can check the status of any submission in your dashboard.
• Afterwards You'll get an on-screen notification and an email saying your act has been submitted.  You can also always check the status of your act in your Dashboard.  It can take up to 30 minutes for the submission to be reflected in your dashboard, so give it a little time.

If it helps, think of it like sending a letter through the post office.  The first step is you write the letter, maybe you re-write a couple of times, maybe you let it sit on your desk for a little while until you're 100% certain you want to send it.  On our site, you can create your Act Application and save it to come back and edit later.  Then you need to buy a stamp – that's your application fee.  You can't mail a letter without a stamp, and you can't submit an act without an application fee.  You can write multiple letters (you can create several applications for different acts) but you're going to need a stamp (application fee) for each one you want to send.  Last, once you've put the stamp on the letter, you have to mail it; it doesn't mail itself automatically.  So once you've finalized your act (on our site), and paid your application fee, you still need to click the submit button to send the application in.

Can I/We Submit More Than One Act?

You can submit as many acts as you like as individuals or as a troupe, but odds are only one of your acts is going to be accepted, so, unless you're performing both as a soloist and as part of a troupe, you're likely to do only one act over the weekend.  Each act submitted requires a separate application fee.