{"id":181418,"date":"2026-05-01T17:31:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T17:31:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/181418\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T17:31:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T17:31:27","slug":"west-philly-musical-teaches-econ-101-via-lap-dancing-and-strip-tease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/181418\/","title":{"rendered":"West Philly musical teaches Econ 101 via lap-dancing and strip-tease"},"content":{"rendered":"

Love Philly? So do we. Let\u2019s be friends. Sign up for the Billy Penn newsletter today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Singer, composer, and actor Emily Bate<\/a> had questions.<\/p>\n

Why did she work so hard and earn so little? Why was her income so feast ($90,000 with grants) one year and so famine ($15,000) the next? Why couldn\u2019t she have some financial stability? Or health benefits? Or a retirement fund?<\/p>\n

The political pundits have an answer for Emily.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the economy, stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emily Bate is not stupid, but she also realized that when people talked about economics, she really wasn\u2019t sure what that meant. And so, nerdishly, she began to read and study (sans professor!) economic theory.<\/p>\n

And now she wants you to know what she learned, hence \u201cHomo Economicus,\u201d<\/a> a lap-dancing, strip-teased, song-filled, performance art version of Econ 101 for a price considerably less than any college course and way more fun.<\/p>\n

The show runs through May 10 at God\u2019s Automatic Body & Spa,<\/a> on the 5500 block of Baltimore Avenue. \u201cHomo Economicus,\u201d produced in partnership with Obvious Agency,<\/a> the worker-owned theater cooperative, involves dating apps, billionaires, self-checkout lines, and landlords.<\/p>\n

\"\"(photo by Ryan Collerd)<\/p>\n

\u201cHomo Economicus\u201d is very informational,\u201d Bate said. \u201cI created a show that in some ways is a lecture. There\u2019s a ton of content that I think is interesting. I\u2019d like to impart it to the audience and also to have a conversation and a way to shift the conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy should this be a theater piece?\u201d she asked rhetorically.<\/p>\n

\u201cI created this whole vocabulary of songs, and dance music, and dancing, and music. I\u2019m trying with the music and the dance to create how it feels to be inside our economy and how a change in the economy might feel,\u201d Bate said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur current economic system makes us increasingly lonely and afraid,\u201d she said in a statement. \u201cLive theater, music, and dancing are antidotes to that. This show asks: what would our economic system look like if we could decide together? And what if deciding together was fun?\u201d<\/p>\n

Bate started her foray into the economic rabbit hole by trying to suss out the meaning of GDP, or gross domestic product, a term regularly used to measure growth in the economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was interesting to learn about the GDP. It\u2019s an incredibly important economic indicator and I really didn\u2019t know what does and doesn\u2019t count for GDP,\u201d she said. What she quickly discovered was that many things that seemed valuable to her didn\u2019t count as part of the GDP.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing that spelled out was really powerful for me. GDP does not measure things that are vitally important for a thriving society,\u201d she said. As an example, Bate explained, if someone makes dinner at home using vegetables grown in the back yard, that doesn\u2019t count in the GDP. But buying veggies at the store does count.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe measurement can\u2019t see the value of fresh food you grow yourself,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a tree stands in a forest, it doesn\u2019t impact GDP, but if you cut it down, GDP goes up,\u201d she said. GDP \u201cdoesn\u2019t account for the value of a living forest, only lumber.\u201d<\/p>\n

What she came to realize is that economic theory is based on scarcity, which produces selfishness and rancor in society. It\u2019s a depressing message that rings all too true but Bate believes there are alternatives and points to them in her first solo show.<\/p>\n

\"\"(photo by Joanna Austin)<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never made work that is really so politically pointed,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m really trying to express directly what I believe and talk to people about that and inspire conversation about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy hope for the show is that the audience would leave the theater with places to find economic agency whether it\u2019s in your relationship to your own finances, or societal, or emotional, to have a different sense of feeling,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to uplift where we have power to behave and feel differently, do some activism,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Aside from all that, \u201cif people enjoy dance music and club music, they\u2019ll have a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Bate studied economics, her attitude has shifted. \u201cI\u2019ve changed my marker for success,\u201d she said. \u201cSuccess is someone able to keep doing your work, spending your time, and pouring your energy into it.<\/p>\n

By that marker, Bate feels successful. \u201cI\u2019m able to keep working.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still experience the systemic conditions of scarcity in the arts,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I\u2019m rich in precious time to make my work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even so, \u201cI\u2019m a freelancer. I\u2019m on Medicaid. I make an amount of money that a lot of people do live on but is really hard to live on. I\u2019ve never had health benefits in my life,\u201d she said. \u201cJob security is non-existent.<\/p>\n

\u201cYet, somehow, I\u2019m meeting my needs. I do feel I have everything I need day-to-day and I would like to feel that I could continue to do this work as long as I want to.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you want to read some of what Bate read as she studied economics, here are her recommendations.<\/p>\n

God\u2019s Automatic Body & Spa,<\/a> at 5522 Baltimore Avenue, is housed in an unassuming building sandwiched between a Baptist storefront church and a daycare center. To enter, don\u2019t use the front door. Instead make your way to the back via a nearby empty lot. Turn right into the narrow alley between building backyards. Look for arrows to point you to the right place. Tickets are available at\u00a0 https:\/\/www.handstamp.com\/e\/homo-economicus<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Love Philly? So do we. Let\u2019s be friends. Sign up for the Billy Penn newsletter today. Singer, composer,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181419,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4877,61,78074,81020,78076,69,71,70,1483],"class_list":["post-181418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-arts","tag-economy","tag-emily-bate","tag-gods-automatic-body-spa","tag-obvious-agency","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-theater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}