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PREFIX
Swiss made
drama club
Virginia is for lovers,
and artists too.
“The Drama goes way back, so far back I can’t remember,” shares Joel Speasmaker,
the founder and creative director of the Richmond, VA outfit with the suitably melodramatic
name. Founded in 2000 as a collective of likeminded underground Virginian
artists, The Drama’s core seven members (who now live all over the country) organize
art shows and run an online store, as well as publish a totally awesome art and design
magazine. Issue six of the zine (also called The Drama) was recently released, which
features work from Wes Lang, Ron Rege Jr., Harrison Haynes, and Brian Roettinger
of Hand Held Heart/Dim Mak; past issues of the $6 tome (available through the website
and at independent bookstores worldwide) have highlighted heavyweights such
as Commonwealth Stacks, Typevsm, and Isaac Lin. “One of our biggest goals has
always been to make each section of the magazine as equally important as another,”
says Speasmaker, “so it’s almost like you are reading a book or a story as you go
through the issue.” Of course an unintended goal of The Drama’s growing popularity
is to make Richmond a future stop for visual art tourists and avant-hipsters. If you go,
Speasmaker recommends “First Fridays, Bell Isle, Carytown, The Bottom and Tobacco
Row, and walking around the Fan.” Tyra Bangs
www.thedrama.org, www.thedramastore.org
The Drama issue 4 cover;
The Drama Presents: A to
Z at Ada Gallery, April 2005
(pictured: work by Maya
Hayuk, Yuko Kondo, Katsuo
Design, and Helge Ruemann);
Travis Robertson, assistant
editor of The Drama, and Joel
Speasmaker, founder and
creative director
18
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