Mystery Classmate 057

Congratulations to Frank Battaglia, Paula Recchio Joseph, Matt McKeever, Melissa Mahoney Kortyna, and Joanna Patterson, all of whom correctly identified Dean Novotny ('82) as Mystery Classmate #57 and are listed in the order that their responses were received.

In case you were wondering, Dean Novotny was an original member of the Black Lips Performance Cult in New York City's East Village, appearing in productions of The Transvestite's Twelve Stations of the Cross, The Candy Darling Story (about the late Warhol superstar), The Ascension of Marsh P. Johnson (about the transvestite that threw the first brick at the Stonewall riots), and The Birth of Anne Frank.

The character of Sissy Fit, as whom Dean appears here, was born from his experimentation with gender roles and perceptions in the traditional theater genre. "It was fun. It behooved me to have that splashy name," Dean says. "But I am a serious actor, not a drag queen. I decided it was time to start losing the circusy name. I wanted to be taken seriously."

Since his return to Pittsburgh six years ago, Dean has produced numerous performance art pieces along similar lines, and has enjoyed a two-year cabaret run in the East End. His adaptation of the Tennessee Williams novella, The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, was performed in December 1999 at The Lester Hamburg Studio Theatre at City Theatre, with Dean in the title role originated on the silver screen by Vivien Leigh.

Dean returned to City Theatre in 2001 with his original musical, The Balladof Captain Star Hollow and the Rings of Freedom, about a once handsome and dangerous corporate fleet captain who chucks a promising corporate career to sell illegal beauty products to the oppressed transgendered peoples of the galaxy.

Donna Andreas Copley guessed Brad Drago. Carrie Schadle (whom Bill Stout guessed last week) asserted that she does not look anything like Mystery Classmate #56 Karen Bonvalot, and guessed Bill Stout.