February 21st is the first installment of Miss Rose’s Sexploitation Follies’ 2015 season.

Founded in Philadelphia and produced by Philadelphia-based Liberty Rose the Miss Rose’s Sexploitation Follies are held on the third Saturday of every other month at PhilaMOCA and are an evening of burlesque homage to a different director each month. February is Miyazaki.

Known as “Philadelphia’s Badass of Burlesque”,  Liberty Rose has been changing Philadelphia’s burlesque scene since 2010, and she never puts on the same show twice!

We spoke with Liberty Rose about the Miyazaki show and her inspirations — we even got her to give our readers an exclusive audio message below the Q&A:

So you curate Burlesque shows that pay tribute to directors? How many have you done so far?

This is the 13th director, 14th show. Every show we make up these crazy ten minute acts and have all these costumes and props and are epic pieces that we usually only do once. So in Dec 2014 I started a BEST OF show which I want to continue doing. But its bi monthly and I started in august 2012.

There have been a lot of burlesque themed shows in the past, why directors? 

I really love film, always have. But when you work in film with a lot of these young directors they don’t really know what they’re doing and so you just have to end up listening to them instead of collaborating. I actually work in film…I do costume design and styling, but recently I’ve been putting most of my creative energy into Burlesque shows. It’s more enjoyable for me in a way.

Enjoyable for you. But how about the audiences? Have you seen a good reaction?

Its definitely the nerdiest show in Philadelphia! Dancers from New York come down to perform. The audiences really love it. Speaking of which, if anyone wants to get tickets, they need to do it now. We’re already at 90 presales!! PhilaMOCA will fill up quick!

Miyazaki is in my top 3 of favorite directors ever…what criteria did you use to choose his work? 

In general, I try to choose directors who are visually stunning or stylistically exceptional. Which gives me a large range. I’ve done Coen Brothers to Tim Burton to John Waters. They’re always very different and require a lot of work to pull off. With Miyazaki, I mean, his films are so beautiful! They’re lovely whimsical explosions of color beauty and cinematic poetry. I also want to do another animation director next February, so this was the perfect way to start.

What kinds of characters can attendees expect? 

Oh! Well we have a good run of them. There’s…I’m doing Nausicaa for my solo, and I’m really excited. The costume turned out beautifully! I have my little Teto for my shoulder. The opening number is a Totoro number with grey, white and blue Totoros…and we have a Catbus, so they’re going to ride in on a Catbus and its going to be adorable! Then there’s Kiki’s Delivery Service, Arriety, Princess Mononoke’s forest god, a Go-Go-ing soot sprite, Howl’s Moving Castle…AS the castle! And…Ponyo! Tthe finale is a Spirited Away act with No Face, Yubaba and Kamaji.

Check it out! Here’s the exclusive audio message straight from Liberty Rose!!:

Website: BroadStBurlesque.com

Tickets to Miyzaki: MiyazakiBurlesque.BrownPaperTickets.com

Poster by Matt Hepler