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Dreamlanders are the cast and crew of regulars whom
John Waters
John Samuel Waters Jr. (born April 22, 1946) is an American filmmaker, writer, actor, and artist. He rose to fame in the early 1970s for his Cinema of Transgression, transgressive cult films, including ''Multiple Maniacs'' (1970), ''Pink Flamin ...
has used in his films. The term comes from the name of Waters'
production company
A production company, production house, production studio, or a production team is a studio that creates works in the fields of performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, comics, interactive arts, video games, websites, music, and ...
, Dreamland Productions.
Many of the original Dreamlanders were friends of Waters from his native
Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
. They included the "bad
suburban
A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...
kids" he knew from
Towson
Towson () is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. The population was 55,197 as of the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Baltimore County and the second-most populous unincorp ...
and
Lutherville: Bob Skidmore, Mark Isherwood, and
Mary Vivian Pearce
Mary Vivian Pearce (born November 9, 1947) is an American actress. She has worked primarily in the films of John Waters.
Life and career
Pearce is a childhood best friend of Waters and has appeared as an actress in all of his films. Because o ...
. This crowd was drawn to downtown Baltimore by the gay scene, where
Divine
Divinity or the divine are things that are either related to, devoted to, or proceeding from a deity.[divine< ...](_blank)
introduced Waters to
David Lochary
David Crawford Lochary (August 21, 1944 – July 29, 1977) was an American actor, one of the regular " Dreamlander" actors in early films of the controversial "trash" film director John Waters. He starred in such films as ''Pink Flamingos'', ''Fe ...
.
History
The original Dreamlanders also included denizens of the
Fells Point
Fell's Point is a historic waterfront neighborhood in southeastern Baltimore, Maryland. It was established around 1763 along the north shore of the Baltimore Harbor and the Northwest Branch of the Patapsco River. The area has many antique, music, ...
neighborhood where Waters' art director,
Vincent Peranio
Vincent Peranio (born 1945) is a retired American production designer, art director, set designer, and actor.
Peranio began his career designing film sets for John Waters. Because of his work with Waters, he is considered one of the Dreamlande ...
, a recent graduate of
Maryland Institute College of Art
The Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) is a private art and design college in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1826 as the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts, making it one of the oldest art colleges in the U ...
, had rented an industrial space that once housed a commercial bakery with seven other Maryland Institute graduates, to use as cheap studio and living space. They called it the Hollywood Bakery. In Fells Point, the Dreamlanders were regular customers at Pete's Hotel, Bertha's, and Jimmy's. In addition to Peranio, the Fells Point Dreamlanders included
Mink Stole
Nancy Paine Stoll (born August 25, 1947), known professionally as Mink Stole, is an American actress from Baltimore, Maryland. She began her career working for director John Waters, and has appeared in all of his feature films to date (a distinc ...
,
George Figgs
George Figgs (born 1947, Baltimore, Maryland) is an American actor and projectionist. He began his career portraying
characters in the early films of John Waters. Because of his work with Waters, he is considered one of the Dreamlanders, Waters' ...
, Bob Adams,
Susan Lowe
Susan Lowe (born Laura Susan Lowe on January 19, 1948 in Reidsville, North Carolina) is an American actress, educator and painter. She has appeared exclusively in the works of John Waters for most of her career, starring in ten of his films.
Abo ...
,
Paul Swift, Chris Mason, and
Peter Koper
Peter Koper (January 1947 – May 21, 2022) was an American journalist, professor, screenwriter, and producer. He numbers among the original Dreamlanders, the group of actors and artists who worked with independent filmmaker John Waters on his ...
.
Although Waters has attempted to include many of the same actors and production team members in every film, not every Dreamlander is used in each of his films. This is frequently the result of the death of an actor, as was the case with
Maelcum Soul
Patricia Ann Soul (September 22, 1940 – April 5, 1968), known professionally as Maelcum Soul, was an American bartender, artist's model, and actress. In the 1960s, she portrayed leading characters in two of filmmaker John Waters' earliest wor ...
,
Edith Massey, Divine, and David Lochary. Other actors such as
Jean Hill
Norma Jean Lollis Hill (February 11, 1931 – November 7, 2000) was an American woman who was an eyewitness to the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. Syndicated from the ''Dallas Mo ...
and
Ricki Lake
Ricki Pamela Lake (born September 21, 1968) is an American television host and actress. She is known for her lead role as Tracy Turnblad in the 1988 film ''Hairspray'', for which she received a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for B ...
have not been used in every film, but appear occasionally.
Typically Waters would discover an actor and continue to use them in subsequent films. Most notably,
Mary Vivian Pearce
Mary Vivian Pearce (born November 9, 1947) is an American actress. She has worked primarily in the films of John Waters.
Life and career
Pearce is a childhood best friend of Waters and has appeared as an actress in all of his films. Because o ...
is the only Dreamlander to appear in every one of Waters' films, although her scenes in ''
Cry-Baby
''Cry-Baby'' is a 1990 American teen musical romantic comedy film written and directed by John Waters. It was the only film of Waters's over which studios were in a bidding war, coming off the heels of the successful ''Hairspray''. The film sta ...
'' were cut. Mink Stole has appeared in all of Waters' feature films, but does not appear in the early short films ''
Hag in a Black Leather Jacket'' (1964), ''
Eat Your Makeup
''Eat Your Makeup'' is a 1968 short film directed by John Waters, starring Marina Melin, Divine, Mary Vivian Pearce, David Lochary, Howard Gruber, and Maelcum Soul.
It was John Waters' first film production to be shot on 16mm film; his prior f ...
'' (1967), and ''
The Diane Linkletter Story
''The Diane Linkletter Story'' is a 1970 16mm short film by American filmmaker John Waters starring Divine, Mary Vivian Pearce, and David Lochary.
Overview
This improvised film is based on the 1969 suicide of TV personality Art Linkletter's daug ...
'' (1969). Although many Dreamlanders have a prolific history with Waters, the distinction of being a Dreamlander is generally bequested upon anyone who has made more than one Waters film, such as
Traci Lords
Traci Lords (born Nora Louise Kuzma; May 7, 1968) is an American actress and singer. She entered the adult film industry using a fake birth certificate to conceal that she was two years under the legal age of eighteen. Lords starred in adult fi ...
who appeared in ''
Cry-Baby
''Cry-Baby'' is a 1990 American teen musical romantic comedy film written and directed by John Waters. It was the only film of Waters's over which studios were in a bidding war, coming off the heels of the successful ''Hairspray''. The film sta ...
'' (1990) and ''
Serial Mom
Serial may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media The presentation of works in sequential segments
* Serial (literature), serialised literature in print
* Serial (publishing), periodical publications and newspapers
* Serial (radio and televisi ...
'' (1994). Danny Mills is sometimes considered a Dreamlander despite only appearing in the 1972 film ''
Pink Flamingos
''Pink Flamingos'' is a 1972 American film directed, written, produced, narrated, filmed, and edited by John Waters. It is part of what Waters has labelled the "Trash Trilogy", which also includes ''Female Trouble'' (1974) and ''Desperate Livin ...
''.
The Dreamlanders
References
* ''All the Dirt on "A Dirty Shame"'' 2004
* ''John Waters DVD Scrapbook'' 2005
* Curley, Mallory. ''A Cookie Mueller Encyclopedia,'' Randy Press, 2010
External links
Dreamland websiteDreamland's archive of articles
Performing groups
John Waters
Groups of entertainers
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