EIGHTH ANNUAL CHICAGO WOMEN’S FUNNY FESTIVAL IS HERE August 22 through August 25 at Stage 773

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THE NATION’S LARGEST CELEBRATION OF WOMEN IN COMEDY

CHICAGO WOMEN’S FUNNY FESTIVAL

Join over 400 queens of comedy from all around the world for one of the biggest funny festivals in the country, now with their first ever all-Spanish speaking set, August 22-25

Chicago knows funny, and we're ready to launch some laughs again, with four days of fem fun. This year, for the first time ever, the Chicago Women’s Funny Festival will also feature an all-Spanish speaking slot showcasing a stand up show, a sketch group, and two improv groups! 

Check it out. The 8th Annual Chicago Women’s Funny Festival is taking place August 22 through August 25 at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont. The Chicago Women’s Funny Festival is the largest celebration of women in comedy in the country and offers talented, and funny individuals the opportunity to learn, teach, and empower each other and audiences who all love to laugh. Featuring a spectrum of comedic genius ranging from ‘relatable stand up’ to ‘highbrow musical improv’, the Chicago Women’s Funny Festival has something for everyone. 

Blending long term veterans with fresh newcomers, the fest packs over 80 shows into four funny-filled days, making it easier than ever to discover new groups to love. 

The full schedule and searchable calendar for the 8th Annual Chicago Women’s Funny Festival can be viewed at www.stage773.com/cwff-lineup.  

“Chicago is home to one of the biggest comedy scenes in the world, and with that comes an immeasurable number of very funny and highly talented women who are constantly re-defining the industry and setting the stage for what it means to be a comedian,” said Valentine. “We are honored to have the opportunity to unite these women and deliver a festival that is full of fun laughs, inclusion, and empowerment.”

Featuring an array of veteran talent and newcomers, highlights for the 2019 festival include stand up acts like longtime favorite, Patti Vasquez, whose solo show will take audiences on a journey of awkward dates, embarrassing moments and other funny stories of personal humiliation that will make you think “Wow, I guess my life isn’t so bad after all”, Dina Nina Martinez, who the Late Late Show’s James Corden hails as “…very funny”, longtime couple and dynamic comedy duo Anna Vocino and Loren Tarquinio of Married AF with their special part stand up, party storytelling, part improv set, and ventriloquist Hannah Leskosky with her magical mouth moving and substance abusing puppet unicorn, Marzipan Lavender Sparkles.

The brand new all-Spanish speaking set of shows will feature standup comedian, Eliana La Casa, an Argentinian comedian living in Chicago who blends personal stories and opinions into laugh out loud relatable moments, La Carne Asada #2: The Seasoning, a hilarious sketch show re-living all that a Latinx family dinner has to offer, Las Tinas Improv, creating a one night only audience based telenovela, and Ratas De Dos Patas, who will translate suggestions into Spanish to create hilarious streetwise teaching moments for the audience.

Other lineup highlights include the marvelous talent of improv group Bosses in Bonnetts with their “Black Girl Magic” Sketch Revue offering lots of laughs and real thoughts on the black female experience, the Chicago Reader’s 2016 Best Improv Troupe, Hitch* Cocktails, with their Alfred Hitchcock style improv fueled by audience suggestions, and the Super Tasty variety show featuring frank and funny talks about sex, performances, demos and more.

Chicago Women’s Funny Festival was founded in 2012 when producers Jill Valentine and Liz McArthur wanted to build a comedy festival where women could come together and celebrate all art forms of comedy under one roof. The first festival boasted 66 shows and 400 performers in five days. Women’s Fest also hosted events throughout the week where women from across the country could network with each other and more importantly, celebrate one another’s work. The response from comedians and audience members was overwhelmingly positive – which is why the festival is coming back for an eighth year.

Jill Valentine is a Chicago Southside native who has been the Executive Director of the Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival (the largest of its kind in the nation) since the festival’s inception in 2000. She is also Stage 773’s Executive Director and a founding principal of the building. Jill performs in several popular and critically acclaimed groups in Chicago, including The Cupid Players, Off Off Broadzway and Feminine Gentleman who have performed all over the country.

Liz McArthur hails from St. Louis and has worked with the Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival since 2005. McArthur can be seen with groups such as Off Off Broadzway, OneTwoThree Comedy, and Feminine Gentlemen. McArthur is also part of the hit zombie comedy Musical of the Living Dead.

All performances will take place at Chicago’s home for the city’s most innovative, creative and passionate off-Loop performing artists, Stage 773, located at 1225 W. Belmont. Stage 773 is a non-profit Chicago company that produces produces Bye Bye Liver, The Chicago Nerd Comedy Festival, The Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival, education and program opportunities, as well as offering subsidized theater rental space to the hundreds of Chicago’s itinerant off-Loop companies and performers.

Tickets for the 8th Annual Women’s Funny Festival are $15 each. Nightly and festival passes are also available ranging from $36 to $150. Tickets and information are available online at www.Stage773.com, by phone 773.327.5252, and in person at the Stage 773 box office, located at 1225 W Belmont.



About Stage 773
Stage 773 is a vibrant anchor of the Belmont Theatre District and home to Chicago’s finest off-Loop talent. As a performance and tenant venue, our four stages provide entertainment for everyone: comedy, theatre, dance, musicals and more. We are a not-for-profit, connecting and catalyzing the theater community, while showcasing established artists and incubating up-and-coming talent.

FREE With RSVP: Victory Gardens Theater Announces Lineup for IGNITION Festival of New Plays August 2 - 4, 2019

Fest Alert:

Victory Gardens Theater Announces

Lineup for IGNITION Festival of New Plays

2019 Festival runs August 2 - 4, 2019

Victory Gardens Theater Artistic Director Chay Yew, Executive Director Erica Daniels and Director of New Play Development Skyler Gray announce the lineup for the 2019 IGNITION Festival of New Plays, including The Tasters by Meghan Brown; The Gradient by Steph Del Rosso; [hieroglyph] by Erika Dickerson-Despenza; #NEWSLAVES by Keelay Gipson; Reckoning: Furies from a New Queer Nation by Geraldine Inoa; and They Could Give No Name by Exal Iraheta. The 2019 Festival runs August 2 -4, 2019 at Victory Gardens Theater, located at 2433 N Lincoln Avenue.

All readings are free and open to the public, though a reservation is strongly encouraged. For more information or to RSVP, visit www.victorygardens.org/ignition or call the Victory Gardens Box Office at 773.871.3000.

IGNITION’s six selected plays will be presented in a festival of readings and will be directed by leading artists from Chicago, including Lili-Anne Brown, Mikael Burke, Monty Cole, Elly Green, Devon de Mayo, and Chay Yew.

"I'm excited to introduce a brave new generation of American playwrights for our eleventh edition of Victory Gardens' IGNITION Festival of New Plays. Since its inception in 2008, we have given world premiere productions to some of our country's most innovative voices from Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and Lauren Yee to Jackie Sibblies Drury and Kristoffer Diaz. We're thrilled to have shared these plays with Chicagoans and the world," says Artistic Director Chay Yew. "This year, we give a home to emerging playwrights who shine light on our diverse humanity, whose powerful plays create meaningful dialogue towards a more unified and equitable world."

"This year's Ignition Festival includes six of the most exciting new voices writing today. Each piece is exploring our complicated world and the people in it with a rich complexity and vibrant urgency that demands these stories be told,” says Director of New Play Development Skyler Gray. “I could not be more excited to introduce Chicago to these powerhouse writers who are paving a new road in the American Theater."



The 2019 Lineup Includes:

Friday, August 2 at 7:30pm
#NEWSLAVES
By Keelay Gipson
Directed by Mikael Burke

This Is the Story of Football and Football is the Story of America. A Sports Fantasia on the Commodification of the Black Body in America - Using the NFL Draft as a jumping off point, the show follows three black men as they attempt to free themselves from the history of a nation pitted against itself.

About Keelay Gipson

Keelay Gipson is an Activist, Professor, and award-winning Playwright whose plays include imagine sisyphus happy (Finalist; Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference; P73 Summer Residency at Yale University),  #NEWSLAVES (Finalist; Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Seven Devils Playwright Conference), CRH, or the placenta play (Semi- Finalist; The O’Neill, Bay Area Playwrights Conference, AADA Main Stage Live!), Nigger/Faggot (Downtown Urban Theater Festival), The Lost, Or How to Just Be, What I Tell You in the Dark (Premiere Stages Finalist), and Mary/Stuart, a dramatic queering of friederich schiller's classic play (BAM Next Wave Festival, partnership with Wendy’s Subway and Lambda Literary). He is the recipient of New York Stage and Film’s Founders’ Award, the Van Lier Fellowship at New Dramatists, as well as writing fellowships with Lambda Literary, The Amoralists, Page 73, Dramatist Guild Foundation and Playwrights’ Realm. He has held residencies with the MacDowell Colony, New York Stage and Film, the Cultural Affairs Department of the City of New York, and the Administration of Children’s Services of the City of New York. His work has been seen/developed at the Wild Project, Poetic Theater Productions, HERE Arts Center, The Theater at Alvin Ailey, Tom Noonan's Paradise Factory, Pace University, Planet Connections Theater Festivity, The University of Houston, The National Black Theater, Rattlestick Playwrights' Theater, The Fire This Time Festival, Classical Theater of Harlem, and New York Theatre Workshop. Represented by Abrams Artists Agency.



Saturday, August 3 at 11am
They Could Give No Name
By Exal Iraheta
Directed by Chay Yew

Somewhere in the southern end of Arizona, medical examiner Nellie Ramirez descends into near-madness when her fiancé, a border patrol agent, accidentally kills a young immigrant girl. In order to save her future family, Nellie must make a decision that threatens to tear her life apart. Little does she know that soon the desert will come to collect what is due to it. This macabre, magical play takes an unsettling look at the complexities of identity, cruelty of immigration, and the power behind a name.

About Exal Iraheta

Exal Iraheta is a Salvadorian American playwright & screenwriter, born in Houston, TX who is now based in Chicago, IL. Sometimes humorous and often uncomfortable, his writing explores the intersections of Latinx realities, innocence, queerness, violence, and sex. Exal earned an MFA from Northwestern University’s Writing for the Screen and Stage program in 2019, and a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Film & Video Production in 2009. He has worked with several Chicago-based organizations as videographer and editor, media advisor, and film/video equipment instructor. Recently, his short play Open Venas received a production as part of Theater Master's 2019 Take Ten Festival NYC. And his full-length play Rules of a Closed Door was a semi-finalist for 2019 Activate: Midwest New Play Fest, with an excerpt reading at The Goodman Theater the previous year. Exal is a 2018 Hispanic Scholarship Fund Scholar, 2018 Fornés Playwriting Workshop participant, and 2019 Theater Masters Playwright.



Saturday, August 3 at 2pm
Reckoning: Furies from a New Queer Nation
By Geraldine Inoa
Directed by Monty Cole

2015: a year when the Supreme Court's landmark ruling on marriage equality coincided with a record number of trans women being murdered. Reckoning: Furies from a New Queer Nation examines the most pressing issues affecting Queer America today: gay white male privilege and the systemic oppression of trans women. Because when a Supreme Court ruling like marriage equality passes, we must ask: what did we accomplish and who did we leave behind?

About Geraldine Inoa

Geraldine Inoa is a writer for theater and television. She is a story editor for AMC's “The Walking Dead.” Her play Scraps had its world premiere production at the Flea Theater in New York during the 2018/19 season, marking her professional debut. Scraps is making its West Coast premiere at The Matrix Theatre in Los Angeles during summer 2019. As a playwright, she is an alumnus of The Public Theater's Emerging Writers Group and the inaugural recipient of The Shonda Rhimes Unsung Voices Playwriting Commission. She is a L. Arnold Weissberg New Play Award finalist, a P73 Playwriting Fellowship finalist, and a twice-named Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference semifinalist. Her work has been developed at the Atlantic Theater Company and the Labyrinth Theater Company. She holds a B.A. from New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study. She resides in Los Angeles with her dog Alfred.

Saturday, August 3 at 7:30pm
The Tasters
By Meghan Brown
Directed by Devon de Mayo

With government leaders getting poisoned left and right, the Tasters have an important job — eating delicious, gourmet meals, and then waiting to see if they die. When rebellious Taster Elyse goes on hunger strike, she kicks off a series of events that will change the course of history… while putting all of the Tasters’ lives in jeopardy. In her sharp, energetic new play, Meghan Brown (The Pliant Girls) explores the nuances of political resistance, self-interest, and individual action creating hope in the face of hopelessness.

About Meghan Brown

Meghan is an Ovation Award-winning playwright, screenwriter, and lyricist based in Los Angeles. Current projects include These Girls Have Demons (Pittsburgh CLO SPARK Festival), Cowboy Elektra (with Rogue Artists Ensemble), The Tasters (Portland Center Stage’s JAW Festival), What Happened While Hero Was Dead (Moving Arts’ MADlab Development Lab), and the film adaptation of her play, The Kill-or-Dies. Meghan wrote the lyrics for the song cycle Untuned Ears Hear Nothing but Discord, which premiered at Lincoln Center as part of In Need of Music: The Songs of Ben Toth with Tony Award-winner Lindsay Mendez as Emma Goldman. Full-length plays include The Pliant Girls (winner of the 2014 Ovation Award for Playwriting for an Original Play), The Kill-or-Dies (Max K. Lerner Fellowship winner, Princess Grace Award semifinalist), Psyche (Princess Grace Award finalist), The Fire Room (Hollywood Fringe Festival Award winner), The Gypsy Machine, This Is Happening Now, Perfect Teeth for Crocodile Land, and Shine Darkly, Illyria. She wrote the libretto for Operaworks’ social just opera The Discord Altar, and the book and lyrics for a new musical version of Jane Austen’s Emma with composer Sarah Taylor Ellis. Emma has been workshopped in London, Washington D.C., Brooklyn, Orlando, Los Angeles, and New York City. www.MeghanBrown.net


Sunday, August 4 at 11am
[hieroglyph]
By Erika Dickerson-Despenza
Directed by Lili-Anne Brown

Involuntarily displaced in Chicago two months post-Katrina, 13-year-old Davis wrestles with the cultural landscape of a new city and school community while secretly coping with the PTSD of an assault at the Superdome. With her mother still in New Orleans committed to the fight for Black land ownership and her father committed to starting a new life in the Midwest, divorce threatens to further separate a family already torn apart. Will Davis be left hanging in the balance? [hieroglyph] traverses the intersection of environmental racism, sexual violence, and displacement, examining the psychological effects of a state-sanctioned man-made disaster on the most vulnerable members of the Katrina diaspora.

About Erika Dickerson-Despenza

Erika Dickerson-Despenza is a Blk feminist poet-playwright, futurist, educator and grassroots organizer from Chicago, Illinois. She’s a 2019 New York Stage and Film Fellow-in-Residence, a 2019 New Harmony Project Writer-in-Residence, a 2018-2019 Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellow, The Lark’s 2018 Van Lier New Voices Fellow and a 2018 Relentless Award Semifinalist. Erika is a 2019-2020 member of Ars Nova Play Group and a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre's Obie-winning Youngblood collective. Current plays in development include: Ocean’s Lip/ Heavn's Shore, Took/Tied; Hung/Split, Shadow/Land and Cullud Wattah (Public Theater, 2020). In addition to this water tetralogy, Erika is developing a 10-play Katrina Cycle, including [hieroglyph], focused on the effects of Hurricane Katrina and its state-sanctioned man-made disaster.

Sunday, August 4 at 3pm
The Gradient
By Steph Del Rosso
Directed by Elly Green

Tess just landed her dream job at sleek tech start-up The Gradient: a center where men accused of sexual misconduct are sent to be rehabilitated. The clients go in with a lifetime of toxic male conditioning and emerge as new people, sensitized and redeemed. It sounds too good to be true, and maybe it is. The Gradient asks what it means to say I'm sorry and whether it's possible for people to truly change.

About Steph Del Rosso

Steph Del Rosso is a playwright, film and television writer, and educator. Her play 53% Of is the winner of the Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition and will receive its world premiere at the Alliance Theatre in March 2020. Her play Fill Fill Fill Fill Fill Fill Fill premiered at The Flea Theater and is published by Dramatists Play Service, Inc. Her work has been developed or produced by Soho Rep, Clubbed Thumb, JACK, New York Stage and Film, The Lark, Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, Ojai Playwrights Conference, Colt Coeur, SPACE on Ryder Farm, the Kennedy Center, and others. She is a Theater Masters Visionary Playwright and is currently commissioned by Studio Theatre and La Jolla Playhouse. BA, Northwestern University. MFA, UC-San Diego.

The IGNITION Festival of New Plays receives major support from the Bill and Orli Staley Foundation, The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, Southwest Airlines - Victory Garden Theater’s official travel sponsor, and Suite Home Chicago-Victory Gardens Theater’s housing sponsor for the 2019 IGNITION Festival.

Performances are at Victory Gardens Theater, 2433 N Lincoln Avenue, in the heart of Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood. Admission to all festival readings and events is free, though an RSVP is strongly encouraged. For more information or to RSVP, visit www.victorygardens.org/ignition/ or call the Victory Gardens Box Office at 773.871.3000.

About Victory Gardens Theater

Under the leadership of Artistic Director Chay Yew and Executive Director Erica Daniels, Victory Gardens is dedicated to artistic excellence while creating a vital, contemporary American Theater that is accessible and relevant to all people through productions of challenging new plays and musicals. Victory Gardens Theater is committed to the development, production and support of new plays that has been the mission of the theater since its founding, set forth by Dennis Začek, Marcelle McVay, and the original founders of Victory Gardens Theater.

Victory Gardens Theater is a leader in developing and producing new theater work and cultivating an inclusive Chicago theater community. Victory Gardens’ core strengths are nurturing and producing dynamic and inspiring new plays, reflecting the diversity of our city’s and nation’s culture through engaging diverse communities, and in partnership with Chicago Public Schools, bringing art and culture to our city’s active student population.  

Since its founding in 1974, the company has produced more world premieres than any other Chicago theater, a commitment recognized nationally when Victory Gardens received the 2001 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. Located in the Lincoln Park neighborhood, Victory Gardens Biograph Theater includes the Začek-McVay Theater, a state-of-the-art 259-seat mainstage and the 109-seat studio theater on the second floor, named the Richard Christiansen Theater.

Victory Gardens Ensemble Playwrights include Luis Alfaro, Philip Dawkins, Marcus Gardley, Ike Holter, Samuel D. Hunter, Naomi Iizuka, Tanya Saracho, and Laura Schellhardt. Each playwright has a seven-year residency at Victory Gardens Theater.

For more information about Victory Gardens, visit www.victorygardens.org.  Follow us on Facebook at Facebook.com/victorygardens, Twitter @VictoryGardens and Instagram at instagram.com/victorygardenstheater/

Victory Gardens Theater receives major funding from Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Joyce Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The REAM Foundation, Shubert Foundation, Venturous Theater Fund of the Tides Foundation, Wallace Foundation. Additional major funding comes from Crown Family Philanthropies, Lloyd A. Fry Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council Agency, Polk Bros. Foundation.

Major funders also include: Allstate, Alphawood Foundation, Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, Edgerton Foundation, Exelon, The Harvey L. Miller Supporting Foundation, David Rockefeller Fund, The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust.

Additional funding this season Robert and Isabelle Bass Foundation Inc., Charles H. and Bertha L. Boothroyd Foundation, Capital Group Private Client Services, Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation, City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, ComEd, Conagra Brands Foundation, Nathan Cummings Foundation, Golden Country Oriental Foods, Goldman Sachs, John R. Halligan Foundation, Illinois Humanities Council (with support from the MacArthur Foundation’s Safety + Justice Challenge), ITW, Mayer Brown LLP, The McVay Foundation, Metropolitan Capital Bank and Trust, National Endowment for the Arts, Negaunee Foundation, Roberta Olshansky Charitable Fund, Origin Ventures, Pauls Foundation, PNC Financial Services Group, Poetry Foundation, Prince Charitable Trusts, Service Club of Chicago, Charles and M.R. Shapiro Foundation, Wrightwood Neighbors Foundation.

In-kind support is provided by: Italian Village Restaurants, Southwest Airlines, Roy’s Furniture, Suite Home Chicago, Taco Joint, and Whole Foods Market.

Capital improvement support from the Performing Arts Venue Fund at the League of Chicago Theaters, with funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; and Capacity Building support by Compass-Chicago.

FEST ALERT: Full Line-Up Announced for The New Colony’s UNCHARTED Festival at The Den Theatre July 11 – 20, 2019

ChiIL Live Shows on our radar

Full Line-Up Announced!

The New Colony’s 

UNCHARTED Festival

July 11 – 20, 2019 at The Den Theatre

The New Colony’s UNCHARTED Festival playwrights include (top, l to r) Fin Coe, Grace McLeod, Michael Turrentine, Mario (Mars) Wolfe, Christina Renee Jones, Patriac Coakley and Evan Linder. Directors include (bottom, l to r) Elyse Dolan, James Fleming, Toma Tavares Langston, Rinska Carrasco-Prestinary, Dani Wieder, Megan Johns and Zach Weinberg.

The New Colony is pleased to present UNCHARTED, a two-week showcase of plays at different points in their journeys to production, playing July 11 – 20, 2019 at TNC’s resident home, The Den Theatre (2B) 1331 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood. Tickets will go on sale in June at www.thenewcolony.org.

UNCHARTED is a two-week festival showcasing bold new works from Chicago playwrights developed, incubated and curated by The New Colony. The company provides Chicago playwrights with support from professional directors, actors and designers to help them take the next step in the creation of a new work. UNCHARTED was founded in recognition and celebration of the Chicago community’s passion for creating and producing new American plays and aims to connect audiences and theatrical producers with today’s stories and tomorrow’s playwrights. Each offering will receive two presentations over the course of the festival.

Comments The New Colony Co-Artistic Directors Fin Coe and Stephanie Shum, "The New Colony's pipeline is full of intriguing new plays, more than we could ever give a production to. UNCHARTED is our attempt to break the cycle of wonderful, timely new plays staying undiscovered and unproduced. We've curated a selection of promising new stories that deserve to be showcased for other Chicago theatres to see and hear. Our ensemble and staff are applying our decade of new play development experience to connecting these plays and their playwrights with the organizations that are hungry for contemporary scripts that fit their aesthetic and mission. We're confident that this matchmaking will result in more new Chicago classics finding homes and productions."

The UNCHARTED line-up includes:

OTHER ROCKPOOLS
Written by Fin Coe*
Directed by Elyse Dolan

In the summer of 2001, a brilliant physicist sets up shop in her family's cabin and gathers a team of scientists for one wild, irresistible purpose: build a machine to get them all the hell out of their awful timeline.

SCARE ME
Written by Grace McLeod
Directed by James Fleming

When Alex gets hired at a Halloween pop-up store in the suburbs of Chicago, she's thrilled to start her gap year with her first real job. As she and her older, jaded co-workers scramble to meet their sales goal and push superhero capes and fake blood on strangers, they each struggle to distinguish the masks they wear from the masks they sell. Scare Me is a queer coming-of-age comedy about the fear of being yourself, the desire to be somebody else, and the danger of getting attached to something that was always meant to be temporary.

IF ONLY ONCE
Written by Michael Turrentine
Directed by Toma Tavares Langston

Ryan and Tyler live in a quaint little house in the near suburbs of Chicago. They’ve been married two years, are insatiably in love, and thinking of starting a family in the near future. But when Ryan asks his ex-wife of four years, Lona, to be the surrogate mother, Tyler is forced to dive deep into Ryan’s past, to see his husband in a way he never thought possible. If Only Once is a story of feeling trapped inside our own lives and poses the question: do we ever really know the people we choose to love?

BERTHA VAN ATION 3.0 (birth-of-a-nation 3 point-oh)
Written by Mario (Mars) Wolfe 
Directed by Rinska Carrasco-Prestinary 

Genesis double oh seven. Sometime after Adam and Eve learned to fart and fornicate and much after the Twin Towers. Oprah Shy X (Shy) and Oprah Shy Y (O) set out to recall the story of their escape from incarceration and enslavement. Their brother, Cole, steers the whip to freedom, using 8-oh-8 to guide the Odyssey. The siblings find their task to be a tall order when the memories of the Privileged and their genetic experiments resurface. Scientists, Sanitation Workers, and a Nurse join the Children on their quest for truth within recycled myths, parables, and trap beats.

THE PUPPET PLAY
Written by Christina Renee Jones
Directed by Dani Wieder

Julie grew up following all the rules. While she aced her youth, she is currently flunking adulting. After years of horrible luck, bad decisions and undiagnosed mental illnesses, Julie decides she just can’t deal with it anymore. Until one night, when her reality is transformed into the world of her favorite childhood public television show, "Puppet Playhouse." Sunny days, the air is sweet, and the arts and crafts made streets are populated with irritating, singing puppets. The Puppet Play is brought to you by the letters F: for embracing Friendship, M: for tackling Mental illnesses, and L: for learning to Love yourself.

Bits & Pieces Series (presented together in one program as scripts still in process):

LETTS WRITE A PLAY
Written by Patriac Coakley*
Directed by Megan Johns*

After winning a raffle at a benefit, two members of a struggling Chicago storefront theatre go to a famous Chicago playwright’s house for dinner. Resentment brews under conversation and intentions for the evening are revealed to go beyond a dinner… and maybe the law.

JO & LIV
Written by Evan Linder*
Directed by Zach Weinberg

Liv has accepted her estranged sister Jo’s invitation to spend Christmas together with their families in New York in 1961. With years of hurt between them, they hope this can be their chance to finally exhume all the skeletons in their closets. Or at least the contentious Academy Award stuffed in the cupboard. Jo & Liv is at turns hysterical and heartbreaking as it explores two legendary Hollywood siblings who love each other fiercely, but love their grudges more. Jo & Liv was commissioned as part of the Goodman Theatre's 2017 Playwright Unit.

*Denotes The New Colony Ensemble Member

UNCHARTED Performance Schedule:

Thursday, July 11 at 7:30 pm
Friday, July 12 at 7:30 pm
Saturday, July 13 at 3 pm & 7:30 pm
Sunday, July 14 at 3 pm & 7:30 pm
Monday July 15 at 7:30 pm
Wednesday, July 17 at 7:30 pm
Thursday, July 18 at 7:30 pm
Friday, July 19 at 7:30 pm
Saturday, July 20 at 3 pm & 7:30 pm

Note: a detailed schedule by production will be posted shortly at www.thenewcolony.org.

About the Artists

Fin Coe (Playwright, Other Rockpools) is a Chicago-based theatre artist, and the Co-Artistic Director of The New Colony. A native of Silicon Valley and a graduate of Case Western Reserve University, his past writing credits include Pretty/Windy Theatre Company, Scribble Bibble, A-Squared Theatre, the Sketch Review, and others. Fun Harmless Warmachine is his first full-length play to be produced.

Elyse Dolan (Director, Other Rockpools) is excited to join the New Colony team! Previously at TNC, she directed the Associate Company production of Here After by Evan Sesek and acted as Assistant Director on Kin Folk (dir. Evan Linder). She is the Assistant Producer at American Blues Theater, where she is also an Artistic Affiliate. At Blues, she has directed several short plays in past Ripped festivals and has been Assistant Director on a handful shows including Six Corners (dir. Gary Griffin) and Little Shop of Horrors (dir. Jonathan Berry). Her directing work has been seen across Chicago at Broken Nose Theatre, Prop Thtr, Babes with Blades, Commission Theatre, 20% Theatre Company, Pride Films & Plays, Gorilla Tango Theatre, and more. She has also served as Assistant Director on productions at Raven Theatre, Oracle Theatre, 16th Street Theater and Redtwist Theatre. Elyse holds a B.A. from Denison University.

Grace McLeod (Playwright, Scare Me) is a playwright and screenwriter based in Chicago and New York. She was the recipient of the 2018 Olga and Paul Menn Foundation Prize for Playwriting and a 2017-18 Trellis playwright-in-residence at the Greenhouse Theater Center, where she developed her play Herland (2019 National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere at MOXIE Theatre in San Diego, Redtwist Theatre in Chicago, and Greenway Court Theatre in Los Angeles). Grace has developed her plays with First Floor Theater, The New Colony, Commission Theatre, American Blues Theater, and the Victory Gardens College Night series, among others. She was a 2013-14 Tribeca Film Fellow and wrote and directed the short film Under the Table, which premiered during the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival, and co-wrote and produced Local/Express, an experimental short film that screened across Times Square as part of the Midnight Moment Series, the world’s largest, longest-running digital art exhibition. Grace is a recent graduate of the University of Chicago. She is represented by the Gersh Agency.

James Fleming (Director, Scare Me) Chicago-based director, Director of New Works at The New Colony, and Associate Artistic Director at Redtwist Theatre. Recent directing credits include Fun Harmless Warmachine by Fin Coe (The New Colony), Herland by Grace McLeod, Our Town by Thornton Wilder, and Sagittarius Ponderosa by MJ Kaufman (Redtwist Theatre). He has also directed readings, workshops and events for Goodman Theatre, Route 66 Theatre, AstonRep, Broken Nose Theatre, and arc theatre. He's had the pleasure of assistant directing at Goodman Theatre, Court Theatre, and Greenhouse Theatre Center. James worked as part of a collaborative team with Peca Stefan, Tamilla Woodard and Ana Margineanu of PopUp Theatrics to produce the Chicago story for #THENEWOLDHOME, a mix between puzzle, social game, exhibition, audio drama and interactive installation which premiered at CLB Berlin in January 2018. He has served on the literary panels for the National New Play Network's Annual Showcase of New Plays, Route 66's TEST DRIVE and Kitchen Dog Theatre's New Play Festival. James was a participant in the Chicago Directors Lab and a recipient of an SDC Foundation Observership. This fall, he will begin pursuing his MFA in Directing at Yale School of Drama.

Michael Turrentine (Playwright, If Only Once) is mainly an actor around Chicago, appearing at companies including Remy Bumppo, The Gift Theatre, Haven Theatre, Firebrand Theatre, The Lyric Opera, and several others. More recently, he has found himself writing for the theater. He began his writing career writing various short, physical theater shows, some of which traveled around the U.S. However, If Only Once is his first full length play and he is very excited to share it. (Michael will also be writing a piece for Broken Nose Theatre's Bechdel Fest this Summer.) He is represented by Gray Talent Group.

Toma Tavares Langston (Director, If Only Once) is a freelance theater director. Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre: Hedwig and The Angry Inch. New Colony: The Light (2018 Joseph Jefferson Nomination for Director – Play). Victory Gardens: 2015 Directors Inclusion Initiative Director Fellowship. (Assistant Director) Sucker Punch. Jackalope Theatre: (Assistant Director) 1980 (or Why I'm Voting for John Anderson). Sideshow Theatre: (Assistant Director) Truth and Reconciliation and Give It All Back. Other directorial credits include The Last Five Years, The Shadow Box, For Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf.  

Mario (Mars) Wolfe (Playwright, Bertha Van Ation 3.0) is a writer, performance artist and theatre manager from central Florida. Mars’ plays – Bus 74, Turnt the Screw; or a trigger warning and Click Fate – have been read and performed at Victory Gardens, The Arc, Studio@620 and NoMads Art Collective. Mars was recently featured in the ArciTEXT Festival (Goddess, Forbid) and the Activate: Midwest Festival (1st Imani 22nd Six). Mars' play Party Goin On will be produced in New York later this year. Mars is a graduate of the Theatre School at DePaul and the Juilliard Apprentice Program.

Rinska Carrasco-Prestinary (Director, Bertha Van Ation 3.0) is a Dominican-American who is proud member of SAG-AFTRA, Gray Talent Group, Teatro Vista and Associate Artistic Director of Halcyon Theatre. A Columbia College Directing Grad, she has worked alongside companies such as Chicago Shakespeare, Goodman Theatre, Silk Road Rising, Steep, Stage Left, Red Twist, Northlight and Something Marvelous, among many others both on and off stage. Selected directing credits include: Between Riverside and Crazy (Red Twist) Firefly Love (Something Marvelous) The River Bride (Halcyon) Heat Wave (Steppenwolf Garage), Between Pancho Villa and a Naked Woman (Halcyon). Past selected production credits include: Taming of the Shrew Assistant Director (Barbara Gaines/Chicago Shakes), Romeo and Juliet Directing Intern (Marti Lyons/ Chicago Shakes), Fishmen Assistant Director/ Casting Director (Goodman Theatre/Teatro Vista). Select acting credits include: There’s always the Hudson (Goodman New Stages), In the Time of the Butterflies (Teatro Vista), She Kills Monsters (Steppenwolf Garage). She has also been seen on Chicago P.D, Empire, A.P.B and CHI-IRAQ.

Christina Renee Jones (Playwright, The Puppet Play) is a Chicago performer and writer of silly stories. She is an ensemble member of Birch House, a company that focuses on immersive, theatrical experiences. She also writes, performs and goofs around as a company member with Hobo Junction. Other acting credits include City Lit, Otherworld, Midsommer Flight, A Dead Whale Productions, the side project, Promethean, Akvavit, and other theatres that are now defunct. Her writing has been seen in many different forms around town through the Eccentric Expedition, Junior Varsity, the Crowd, Potluck, and Factory Theatre. christinareneejones.com

Dani Wieder (Director, The Puppet Play) is a director of performance and film in Chicago. Recent credits include People in the Wind (Haven Theatre), In the Canyon by Calamity West (dramaturg, Jackalope Theatre), La Ronde (American Theatre Company, CORE), Josephine the Mouse Singer by Franz Kafka (Curious Theatre Branch, Rhinofest), and Miss Julie (University of Chicago). She has assistant directed and dramaturged plays across Chicago at theaters such as at The Goodman Theatre, American Theater Company, Steep Theatre Company, and Court Theatre. Dani is also the Literary Manager of Haven Theatre Chicago. She is a graduate of the University of Chicago. Up next, Dani will be the Associate Director for The Fly Honey Show 10, and her film Cool for Five Seconds will be appearing at festivals around the country. www.daniwieder.com

Patriac Coakley (Playwright, Letts Write a Play) is an ensemble member with The New Colony. He is grateful to be a part of the work. Past works with TNC include Small World, The Bearsuit of Happiness, Frat and That Sordid Little Story. He performs sketch with OPIE and improv with losdosdudes.

Megan Johns (Director, Letts Write a Play) is an improviser, teacher, writer and director who has been living in Chicago for the last 15 years. She is originally from Virginia, where the mountains are blue. In Chicago, Meg has taught improv at The Annoyance for 11 years and instructed collaborative theatre at both The University of Chicago and After School Matters. At The Annoyance, Meg has been in Love is Dead: A Necromantic Musical Comedy, Burlesque is More, and hosted a weekly variety show featuring LGBTQIA and female-identifying performers. She has collaborated with and directed sketch duo OPIE for the last four years and most recently took OPIE: Vol. 2 to The 2018 New York International Fringe Festival. Meg is a proud ensemble member of The New Colony, and there has directed, performed and created devised theatre for the last 10 years, including directing 11:11 and co-writing ReWilding Genius with Andrew Hobgood.

Evan Linder (Playwright, Jo & Liv) is an ensemble member and the founding Co-Artistic Director of The New Colony. He works in Chicago as a playwright, actor and director. He also teaches playwriting at the University of Chicago. Evan is a proud graduate of the College of Charleston, which presented him the Alumnus of the Year award in 2016. His plays include Byhalia Mississippi, 11:11, The Warriors, The Bear Suit of Happiness, B-Side Studio, The Hunted, Jo & Liv and 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche, which was named Best Overall Production at the 2012 NYC International Fringe Festival and is published by Samuel French. 5 Lesbians also enjoyed an Off-Broadway run as part of the Soho Playhouse’s 2012-13 season and has seen productions in over 35 States, Canada, Australia, Denmark, Spain, South Africa, Great Britain and Japan. Byhalia, Mississippi (2016 Jeff Award: Best New Work) opens in Washington, D.C. in June 2019 as part of the Kennedy Center’s 2018-19 Season. At The New Colony, Evan continues to teach the Writers Room, an education program he created in 2015 that has now welcomed over 100 emerging Chicago playwrights. evanlinder.com

Zach Weinberg (Director, Jo & Liv) is a Chicago-based theater director, adaptor and administrator. He is interested in the creation of new, non-traditional works and finding the perfect medium for the message. Zach is a company member and Grants Manager at Red Tape Theatre, and a graduate of Oberlin College. Selected directing credits include serving as a Directing Apprentice with the late Redmoon Theatre, the 2016 Director’s Haven at Haven Theatre, two seasons with the Oberlin Summer Theatre Festival, two original adaptations at Curious Theatre Branch’s Rhinofest: Love in a Maze (’17) and MAY DAY (’18), and the world premiere of 2 unfortunate 2 travel, an original semi-devised work, as part of the Prop Thtr’s 2018-19 season. His credits as an assistant director include The New Colony, Organic Theatre Company, Oracle Productions, the Actors' Gymnasium, and Redmoon.



About The New Colony
The New Colony develops New Art and New Artists in order to educate and build New Audiences.

Now in its tenth year, The New Colony has established itself as “one of Chicago’s essential off-Loop companies” (Chicago Tribune). Through the premiere of over thirty premiere plays and musicals, The New Colony has cultivated a diverse audience of theatergoers eager to have a voice in the storytelling. Conversation, collaboration and innovation remain at the heart of everything they produce. The New Colony’s work has been honored with five non-Equity Jeff Awards, Broadway In Chicago’s 2011 Emerging Theatre Award and Best Overall Production at the 2012 New York International Fringe Festival. The New Colony’s 2018/19 Season marks their fourth year as a resident company in the Upstairs Mainstage of The Den Theatre in Wicker Park.

FEST ALERT: 22ND ANNUAL FILLET OF SOLO FESTIVAL, JANUARY 18–FEBRUARY 2, 2019

ChiIL Live Shows on our radar

LIFELINE THEATRE PRESENTS THE 22ND ANNUAL 

FILLET OF SOLO FESTIVAL, 

JANUARY 18–FEBRUARY 2, 2019 

Lifeline Partners with 12 Chicago Storytelling Collectives

Free Kick-Off Event With Discounted Festival Passes on January 16 at 7 p.m.

Lifeline Theatre Artistic Director Dorothy Milne and former Live Bait Theater Artistic Director Sharon Evans are pleased to announce the 22nd Annual Fillet of Solo Festival, running January 18–February 2, 2019. Celebrating the breadth of Chicago’s enduring storytelling and live lit scene, Lifeline brings 12 storytelling collectives and seven solo performers together for a three-week, multi-venue selection of powerful personal stories.

**FREE KICK-OFF NIGHT**

   

The 22nd Annual Fillet of Solo Festival offers easy access to 12 Live Lit groups and numerous solo performers that perform regularly throughout Chicago. On Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019 at 7 p.m., at the Heartland Event Space, (formerly Red Line Tap), 7006 N. Glenwood Ave. Dorothy Milne of Lifeline Theatre will lead a conversation with numerous local storytellers and share a taste of things to come in the festival.

The 2019 Fillet of Solo festival will perform January 18-February 2, 2019, in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood at Lifeline Theatre (6912 N. Glenwood Ave.) and the Heartland Event Space (Formerly Red Line Tap, 7006 N. Glenwood Ave. – new location this year). Free parking and shuttle available. 



Performance times are Fridays at 7 and 8:30 p.m. at both venues; Saturdays at 4, 5:30, 7, and 8:30 p.m. at both venues; and Sundays at 4 p.m. at Lifeline Theatre. 

Ticket prices are $10 for regular single tickets, and $50 for a Festival Pass (allows admission to any performance). Tickets may be purchased at the Lifeline Box Office, 773.761.4477, or by visiting www.lifelinetheatre.com.

Discounted Passes: Fillet of Solo Festival Passes will be offered at a special discounted rate of $25 at the free kick- off event (regularly $50).
The Kick-Off Night is free, no reservations required. Contact the Lifeline Theatre Box Office, 773.761.4477, for more information.

Top Picks:
the kates: An all-female comedy showcase that provides an intimate night of comedy dedicated to showcasing talented and hilarious female-identified performers by creating inclusive and positive environments. Artists are encouraged to express their comic point of view in unique and non apologetic ways - proving that women are equal in the eyes of comedy. Scheduled: Friday, Jan. 18 at 7 p.m. and Friday, Feb.1 at 8:30 p.m. at Lifeline Theatre

The Lifeline Storytelling Project: The Lifeline Storytelling Project produces live music & storytelling events designed to develop and showcase artists affiliated with Lifeline Theatre. Scheduled: Saturday, Jan. 19 at 4 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 26 at 8:30 p.m. and Saturday, Feb. 2 at 8:30 p.m. at Lifeline Theatre

Tellin’ Tales Theatre featuring Tekki Lomnicki: Tellin' Tales Theatre shatters the barriers between the disabled and non-disabled worlds through personal story — adult solo performances as well as "Six Stories Up,” a mentoring program and show featuring kids and adults, with and without disabilities. Tekki Lomnicki is a solo performer, playwright, director and educator. Scheduled: Saturday, Jan. 19 at 5:30 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 26 at 5:30 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 2 at 5:30 p.m. at Lifeline Theatre  


Sweat Girls: With 24 years of shared history, the Sweat Girls represent the greying edge of Chicago's Live Lit community. Known for their "contagious gusto" the Sweat Girls have been called "the undisputed tribal elders" of the solo performance scene (Chicago Reader , 2014). Scheduled: Saturday, Jan. 19 at 7 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 26 at 4 p.m., and Saturday, Feb. 2 at 7 p.m. at Lifeline Theatre.



Now in its 36th season, Lifeline Theatre is driven by a passion for story. Our ensemble process supports writers in the development of literary adaptations and new work, and our theatrical and educational programs foster a lifelong engagement with literature and the arts. A cultural anchor of Rogers Park, we are committed to deepening our connection to an ever-growing family of artists and audiences, both near and far. Lifeline Theatre – Big Stories, Up Close.
Lifeline Theatre’s programs are partially supported by Alphawood Foundation; A.R.T. League Inc.; Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Illinois; Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation; Chicago CityArts, a grant from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events; CIG Management; CNA Foundation; Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation; FGMK LLC; FlexPrint Inc.; Lloyd A. Fry Foundation; The Michael and Mona Heath Fund at The Chicago Community Trust Foundation; Illinois Arts Council Agency; Illinois Humanities Council; MacArthur Fund for Arts and Culture at Prince; The National Endowment for the Arts; The PAV Grant Fund; The Polk Bros. Foundation; Rogers Park Social; The Saints; S&C Electric Company Fund; The Shubert Foundation; The Steele Foundation; Th Manufacturing; and the annual support of businesses and individuals.

FEST ALERT: THE 30th ANNUAL RHINOCEROS THEATER FESTIVAL RUNS JANUARY 12 – FEBRUARY 24 AT PROP THTR

ChiIL Live Shows on our radar

CURIOUS THEATRE BRANCH AND PROP THTR PRESENT THE 30th ANNUAL RHINOCEROS THEATER FESTIVAL, 

JANUARY 12 – FEBRUARY 24, 2019 AT PROP THTR 

(L to R)  Heather Riordan, Beau O'Reilly, Jenny Magnus, T-Roy Martin and Vicki Walden of THE CROOKED MOUTH, part of the 30th ANNUAL RHINOCEROS THEATER FESTIVAL, photo by Jeffrey Bivens

Chicago’s Longest Running Fringe Festival Returns with Six Weeks of Performances and Special Events Including Full Moon Vaudeville and a Celebration of Poet and Teacher John Starrs

Curious Theatre Branch and Prop Thtr are proud to announce the 30th annual Rhinoceros Theater Festival (Rhinofest), January 12 – February 24, 2019 at Prop Thtr, 3502 N. Elston Ave. The 2019 Rhinofest includes six weeks of new plays, dance, devised works, variety shows, comedy, live podcasting, fresh takes on classic texts, and more. Tickets go on sale Friday, Dec. 21 at 12 p.m. Performances are $15 or pay-what-you-can, and run daily except Tuesdays. A complete performance schedule with performances, dates and times is available at RhinoFest.com.

Julia Williams of SKRIKER, part of the 30th ANNUAL RHINOCEROS THEATER FESTIVAL, photo by Jeffrey Bivens

(L to R) Beau O'Reilly, Patrick Ford, Bethany Arrington, Emily Rich, Barry Lohman and Julia William of SKRIKER, part of the 30th ANNUAL RHINOCEROS THEATER FESTIVAL, photo by Jeffrey Givens 

First organized in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago, Rhinofest, the longest-running multi-arts fringe festival in Chicago is unique among national fringe festivals in that artists are never charged a fee to participate, and each year programs are individually curated by a rotating selection committee composed of Curious and Prop artistic leaders, led by Beau O’Reilly, rather than selected on a lottery basis. The Rhinofest provides production and exhibition opportunities to hundreds of artists, from Chicago companies and national artists alike, drawing thousands in attendance each year.

The 30th Rhinofest begins Saturday, Jan. 12 at 8 p.m. with Full Moon Vaudeville, featuring The Crooked Mouth, piloted by Curious co-founders Beau O’Reilly and Jenny Magnus with special musical guests Matt Test, Jeff Kowalkowski, Mac Modean Greenberg, Leo Brün and more. 

Rhinofest2019-5 - Violet of BI-POLAR BITCH, part of the 30th ANNUAL RHINOCEROS THEATER FESTIVAL, photo by Larry Hart

(L to R) Diane Hamm, Robert Puig Cuevas, Violet and Kelly Anchors of BI-POLAR BITCH, part of the 30th ANNUAL RHINOCEROS THEATER FESTIVAL, photo by Larry Hart

Fiercely independent and committed to discovery, Rhinofest this year features many young performing companies including The Neighborhood Collective, El Bear, Uploose Odditorium, and others along with festival veterans including beloved Chicago playwright Barrie Cole (performing from her latest work in a two-evening engagement), animator Chris Sullivan, Susan Parenti and Mark Enslin (of the School for Designing a Society), Charles Pike (performing a new monologue by David Hauptschein), and Prop Thtr co-founder Scott Vehill. 

Littlebrain Theatre premieres a new devised adaptation of Vittoria de Sica’s Bicycle Thieves written by Zach Barr, Tara Branham directs Tanuja Jagernauth’s new interactive work Lockpickers, and Rob Onorato performs Night of a Million Barbras, a drag monologue and political paean to the enduring star. Curious Theatre Branch premieres Matt Rieger’s new razor-sharp comedy My Dinner with... Joe and a staging of Caryl Churchill’s dark fairytale The Skriker, while Prop Thtr produces a weekly live taping of Ben Moroney and Rahim Salaam’s arts and culture podcast “What About Chicago?!” And on Tuesday, Feb. 19 at 7 p.m., during the final week of Rhinofest, a special event celebrates John Starrs, the Chicago poet and teacher who has appeared in every Rhinofest since 1988.

Diane Hamm of CABARET PROP'D, part of the 30th ANNUAL RHINOCEROS THEATER FESTIVAL, part of the 30th ANNUAL RHINOCEROS THEATER FESTIVAL, photo by Beast Women

About Prop Thtr
The Prop Thtr is a DIY incubator for new performance work in all disciplines, and is a charter member of both The League of Chicago Theaters and the National New Play Network. Prop Thtr produces new plays, special events, rolling world premieres with their NNPN members; they also helped launch The New Play Exchange and co-produce the annual Rhinoceros Theater Festival. Prop Thtr is a renter of performance and rehearsal space and camp/class space and collaborates with productions on location and around the city. Prop Thtr is an Illinois Not-For-Profit 501c3 Organization that benefits from support by the MacArthur Fund of the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation and The Illinois Arts Council, in addition to being supported by artists and audiences of Illinois.

About Curious Theatre Branch
Founded in 1988 by Jenny Magnus and Beau O'Reilly-as the Curious Theatre "Branch" of the alt-rock cabaret act Maestro Subgum and the Whole-Curious has consistently worked with an ensemble of artists in a non-hierarchical decision-making process, through which the philosophy of collaboration as a social force is explored on every level.

Curious Theatre Branch has produced more than 100 full productions of world-premiere shows in 30 years. Curious has developed its own recognizable style, using an economy of means and production to make deeper and deeper, rather than larger and larger, work. 

Curious Theatre Branch and Prop Thtr are proud to announce the 30th annual Rhinoceros Theater Festival (Rhinofest), January 12 – February 24, 2019 at Prop Thtr, 3502 N. Elston Ave. The 2019 Rhinofest includes six weeks of new plays, dance, devised works, variety shows, comedy, live podcasting, fresh takes on classic texts, and more. Tickets go on sale Friday, Dec. 21 at 12 p.m. Performances are $15 or pay-what-you-can, and run daily except Tuesdays. A complete performance schedule with performances, dates and times is available at RhinoFest.com.

FEST ALERT: 2nd ANNUAL DESTINOS, THE CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL LATINO THEATER FESTIVAL SEPTEMBER 20-NOVEMBER 4, 2018

Chi IL Live Shows On Our Radar:

DESTINOS, 

THE CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL LATINO 

THEATER FESTIVAL, 

RETURNS FOR ITS SECOND YEAR, 

SEPTEMBER 20-NOVEMBER 4, 2018

Travel the diaspora of new Latino theater via world-class, cutting-edge

artists and companies from Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Argentina,

Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico and Puerto Rico

Participating theaters and companies include Chicago Shakespeare,

Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf and Victory Gardens, with Aguijón Theater,

National Museum of Mexican Art, The Miracle Center, Teatro Vista, UrbanTheater and Water People

What is the current state of contemporary Latino theater, in a time when cross-cultural understanding has never been more important?

Find out when the Chicago International Latino Theater Festival, known as Destinos, returns for its second annual outing, September 20-November 4, 2018.

Produced by the Chicago Latino Theater Alliance (CLATA), Destinos will bring together top Latino theater artists and companies from Chicago, the U.S. and around Latin America for seven weeks of shows, panels and student performances held throughout the city.

The second annual Destinos will celebrate homegrown Latino theater artists and companies, both emerging and established, from the host city, Chicago. Destinos will also showcase artists from Dallas and Los Angeles. Theater artists and companies from Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico and Puerto Rico round out the festival’s deep roster of international participants, helping underscore the growing reputation for Destinos as one of the country’s leading international Latino theater festivals.

Destinos presents in a range of marquee theaters like Chicago Shakespeare, Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf, and Victory Gardens, to theaters and cultural institutions in predominantly Latino neighborhoods like Aguijón Theater in Belmont Cragin, National Museum of Mexican Art in Pilsen, The Miracle Center in Logan Square/Hermosa, and UrbanTheater Company in Humboldt Park. Other participating Chicago companies include Teatro Vista and Water People Theater.

“I'm honored and excited to have been given the opportunity to lead CLATA,” said Myrna Salazar, executive director, Chicago Latino Theater Alliance. “Through Destinos, the second Chicago International Latino Theater Festival, we continue to fuel the vital connection of Chicago's enriching and exciting Latino theater community to their international counterparts, whose lives and stories mirror each other, and are very much embedded in today’s American kaleidoscope of cultures."

Likewise, Martin R. Castro, founding board chair of CLATA, states “I’m so proud of the great line up we have for our second year of Destinos! There is literally something for every interest! Now more than ever, we must stand and celebrate our rich artistic and cultural heritage as Latinos and support Latinx theatre in Chicago, in the United States and in the hemisphere.” 

The second annual Destinos festival launches with a kick-off reception on Monday, September 17 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St. in downtown Chicago, in the GAR Hall & Rotunda. Leaders from the local Latino community will join the festival’s civic and philanthropic supporters, Chicago media, the city’s arts and theater community, and CLATA board, staff and volunteers to welcome and toast participating Latino theater artists from Chicago and around the world.

Stay tuned to the Destinos website, clata.org, in the coming weeks for the launch of online ticket sales, and news of other festival events including free roundtable discussions that will address political and identity issues within the Latino community.

To avoid hearing the words “sold out,” Chicago Latinos, Latinophiles and the city’s most avid cultural consumers are strongly encouraged to sign up for the Destinos weekly eblast at clata.org. Or, follow Destinos on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to receive first notice of all festival events.



Following is an advance sampler of the shows, artists, companies and venues confirmed to participate (at press time) in Destinos, September 20-November 4, 2018:


Chicago
American Jornalero / American Day Laborer (Midwest Premiere) by Ed Cardona Jr., a drama about a collision between immigrant day laborers and white power vigilantes, is a Teatro Vista presentation in the Richard Christiansen Theater at Victory Gardens,
2433 N. Lincoln Ave., October 18-21.

Casa Propia / A House of Her Own (Midwest Premiere) by Dolores Prida, a lighthearted yet poignant comedy about a woman’s tireless quest for her American Dream, will run October 18-November 25 at Aguijón Theater, 2707 N. Laramie Ave. in Belmont Cragin.

Musas / Muses (Midwest Premiere) by Néstor Caballero (Chicago Premiere), presented by Water People Theater in a co-presentation with American Writers Museum and The Poetry Foundation, imagines an extraordinary encounter between two icons of contemporary art, Mexican painter Frida Kahlo and American poet Sylvia Plath. Performances are September 20-23 in Steppenwolf’s 1700 Theatre as part of the LookOut Series, 1700 N. Halsted St.

Not For Sale (World Premiere) by Guadalís Del Carmen tackling issues of gentrification and displacement in Humboldt Park. With new neighbors looking to make changes west of Western Avenue in a community rich with decades of culture, the question persists who gets to lay claim to the neighborhood? Performances are September 20-October 21 at UrbanTheater Company, 2620 W. Division St. in Humboldt Park.

The Real Life Adventures of Jimmy de la Rosas (World Premiere) by Chicago playwright Ricardo Gamboa. Jimmy’s just your average boy on the block — except he can move things with his mind. When his mother goes missing, joining the numbers of other people disappearing from the hood, Jimmy will have to turn up the heat on his mutant abilities to rescue her and find out who is behind the kidnappings. Performances are October 11-21 at Pulaski Park, 1419 W. Blackhawk St. in Noble Square.

There’s a Coqui in My Shoe! (World Premiere) by The Miracle Center’s Playwright, Roberto J. Negron, an adaptation of Marissa de Jesus Paolicelli’s children’s book about Puerto Rico’s national mascot, the Coquí (little tree frog). Performances are September 21-October 13 at The Miracle Center, 2311 N. Pulaski Rd. in Logan Square/Hermosa.


National 



An American Odyssey (Midwest Premiere), via Culture Clash from Los Angeles, the award-winning Chicano kings of comedy with a character study of real people and true stories from the shadows, borders and badlands of America. This is a timely co-presentation with Victory Gardens Theater, October 4-7 in the Richard Christiansen Theater.

WET: A DACAmented Journey (Midwest premiere) by Alex Alpharaoh via Cara Mía Theatre and Ignite/Arts Dallas chronicles the desperation and limitations DREAMers feel navigating a broken U.S. immigration system. This co-presentation with the Latino Policy Forum runs October 11-14 in the Richard Christiansen Theater at Victory Gardens.


International






Luna de Cristal / Crystal Moon (U.S. Premiere) from Puerto Rico’s Cuarto Blanco tells the story of a family of three confronting the realities of their lives and the unexpected event that unites them, October 11-14 at Steppenwolf’s 1700 Theatre, presented as part of the LookOut Series.


 


Mendoza (U.S. Premiere), an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s MacBeth reimagined against the 1910 backdrop of the Mexican Revolution, comes courtesy of Mexico’s Los Colochos Teatro in a co-presentation with the Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St., October 2-7. Mendoza is adapted by Antonio Zuniga and Juan Carrillo, directed by Carrillo.





El Patio / The Patio (North American Premiere), by Oscar Gonzàlez, David Korish and Janko Navarro via Costa Rica’s Teatro Abya Yala, offers glimpses of masculinity in different situations, exploring the impossibility of fulfilling the societal idea of what it means to be a man today. It runs September 27-29 at Steppenwolf’s 1700 Theatre, presented as part of the LookOut Series.

La Prietty Guoman / Pretty Woman (U.S. Premiere) from Teatro de la Ciudad Cabaret in Mexico City is a cabaret style narration of the life of an exuberant, brown and transgender girl who is a fan of the film Pretty Woman. It runs October 5-6 at the National Museum of Mexican Art, 1852 W. 19th St. in Pilsen.

Quiero Decir Te Amo / I Want to Say I Love You (North American premiere) is a drama by Humo Negro from Argentina about a car accident and a chance encounter that leads to a series of love letters and an unexpected romance. Performances are October 4-7 at Steppenwolf’s 1700 Theatre, presented as part of the LookOut Series.




About Destinos, the Chicago International Latino Theater Festival

Now entering its second year, the Destinos festival is the signature program of the Chicago Latino Theater Alliance (CLATA), a transformative cultural engine helping drive the city’s local Latino theater community to a more prominent level.

“In Spanish, the word Destinos has multiple meanings: destinies, destinations or fate,” explains Myrna Salazar, executive director, CLATA. “Destinos, the Chicago International Latino Theater Festival, shares the power of live theater to amplify ‘first-voice’ Latino artists and to create a cross-cultural experience.”

CLATA’s goal is to create the country’s leading international Latino theater festival with an emphasis on showcasing Chicago Latino theater artists and companies. Additionally CLATA provides local groups ongoing organizational support, is working diligently to create a permanent home for Chicago’s Latino theater artists, and ultimately works to underscore Chicago’s reputation as one of the most exciting and culturally diverse theater cities in the world.

CLATA was founded in 2016 as a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization by Myrna Salazar and the three most prominent Chicago Latino arts organizations: National Museum of Mexican Art (NNMA), International Latino Cultural Center (ILCC), and Puerto Rican Arts Alliance (PRAA), with the generous support of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. 

The first annual Destinos festival in the fall of 2017 ran for five weeks, and presented 61 performances by 10 companies from Chicago, the U.S. and Latin America. In sum, last year’s inaugural festival engaged approximately 8,000 people, including more than 850 students who attended matinee performances and participated in post-show discussions with artists, directors and playwrights.

The second annual Destinos 2018 festival is supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The Field Foundation of Illinois, The Joyce Foundation, the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, The Chicago Community Trust, Choose Chicago, the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, Illinois Humanities, Southwest Airlines, Allstate, ComEd and Corona Extra.

For more information, visit clata.org or call (312) 631-3112.