What is the Butt Game?

Connor Hogan dressed in a striped shirt and blue jean overall shorts dances in front of a projected image of a rainbow pentagram. They are wearing red headphones and listening intently

On a stage awash in red light, Connor Hogan runs forward into a spotlight wearing a plastic red cape, striped shirt, and blue jeans overalls. There is a projected image of three ladies behind them while cardboard boxes fly in the air

Connor Hogan gestures to Megan Thibodeaux while Jenna Kuerzi and Ashley Demain stand to the right of them. There is a projected image of a balding man behind the performers

Connor Hogan and Savannah Reich hold up both hands to the audience

Jenna Kuerzi reads a handwritten note that is projected behind her. Ashley Demain and Megan Thibodeaux watch the screen. There is a castle built of cardboard boxes in between them

The audience cleans up the stage. Connor holds a trash bag open for them

Megan Thibodeaux stands at attention while Connor gestures with their index and pinky finger. Megan has a red plastic ribbon tied around their waist

Connor wears a big brown wig, and sits on the ground next to Megan Thibodeaux who clutches a toucan puppet. Ashley Demain looks at Megan with curiosity, and holds a clipboard. Ashley has a white short wig on

Created with Savannah Reich
Philadelphia Fringe 2024

"Connor’s ability to connect with the audience, while also leading the three actors, is truly magnificent"
- Frank Schierloh, Queer Reviewed

What is the Butt Game? was a live directed play about the unreliability of memory, and the messiness of childhood created with playwright Savannah Reich. The piece was an attempt to weave together my personal narrative with Savannah’s, as two non-traditional adults that grew up as alternative kids in the nineties.

In 1989, when Savannah was three years old, her daycare was shut down by the Child Protection Agency under suspicion of child abuse. The primary investigator was particularly interested in something a child called “the butt game”, and interviewed many of the kids and parents to try to find out how it was played. All these accusations later proved false, but in the late 1980s, police and social workers were sure that Satanic cults were operating right under their noses.

With the help of an ensemble of unrehearsed actors, Savannah and I attempted to answer the question: why did CPS see danger where Savannah saw love and community? How much of truth is objective? And what actually was the butt game?