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dateline: Chicago, September 2004
special addendum:
The Rhinoceros Theater Festival’s
16th season
Presented by Curious Theatre Branch, starting Friday, 17 September and running through Saturday, 20 November. All performances are at Curious Theatre, 7001 N Glenwood (Rogers Park), Chicago. All tickets are $12, or pay what you can. Call 773-274-6660 reservations, or click into the Curious Theatre Branch website for more detailed info.
The Curious Theatre Branch is recognized as a critically active element in Chicago's theater, cabaret, and spoken word community. e-poets.net is proud to offer their schedule in full below.
performances by title: Cant | 16 Grandmothers | The Authentics | Under Milk Wood | The Big Promise | White Suit Science | Standards and Fake Standards | John Starrs storytelling | A Dangerous Ornithology | 16 Students | POWER brecht-down 2004 | 16 Assholes | Cope! | Full Moon Vaudeville | discussion: Buzz Words | The Fine Art of Italian Cooking
The Curious Theatre Branch:
Cant
Written and performed by Jenny Magnus. Shows are on Fridays, September 17, 24; October 1, 8, 15; and November 5. All curtain times are at 7:00 PM
"Cant" is not not being able to. "Cant" is an edge, a brink that one can teeter on. Jenny Magnus returns to her familiar niche of solo performance with "Cant," a new meditation on inclines and their slants when it comes to comfort, responsibility, and the terror of love. In her first new work in two years, Magnus uses her whining manner of speaking and vulgar slang to explore the relationship she creates with her doppleganger, a bag of rice the exact weight of her only child. When one’s concerns turn to having children, aging parents, and the inexorable passage of time, one must be careful of sudden movements which result in turning over or tilting up. Or so Magnus finds in her unique language, implying the pretended assumption of goodness. "Cant" is not not being able to. "Cant" is doing, in spite of whether one is able.
The Curious Theatre Branch:
16 Grandmothers
Saturday, September 18 at 6:00 PM and 8:00 PM
As part of the 16th season of Rhino, Curious offers a special program of 16 short pieces by a variety of performers, all waxing poetic on the subject of Grandmothers. Actual grandmothers will participate, artists with grandmothers, others who will merely riff on the concept. Including Lee Riley, Melissa Walker, Mary Cross, Amy Eaton, Matt Wilson, Jennifer Harris, David Issacson, Kat McJimsey, Winifred O’Reilly, Marriane Brun, Max Greenberg, Bab Magnus, Sheila Donahue, Michael Anania, Mary Beth Burns, and more! A one-time-only event in two sets. Curated by Beau O’Reilly.
Paula Gilovitch:
The Authentics
Written by Paula Gilovich. Directed by Paula Gilovich, MJ Rider and Mike Duffy. Friday September 17 at 9:00 PM. Saturdays, September 18, 25, October 2, 9, 16, November 6 at 9:00 PM
At the center of "The Authentics" is a plane crash from which only awkward, perverse David Wise has been pulled. The crash brings him Sarah Sharp, the reporter who covers his disaster, and a lost father looking for money. With the father comes a charismatic sidekick, and with Sarah comes a successful mother in the business of everyone's business. A wry look at the inherently absurd forces that create what's real, strange, funny, unromantic, fast, and furious is the universe of The Authentics. Sex, gender, death, disappointment, dismemberment, semi-celebrity, Chinese food, editors, and bus stations: this is life authentic.
Under Milk Wood (a play for voices)
Written by Dylan Thomas. Performed by eight O'Reillys and one Weed. Rhino preview performance Sunday, September 12 at 7:00 PM. Full performances thereafter on Sundays September 19, 26 at 7:00 PM
Thomas' play is back at the Rhino! The Welsh poet's dreamy, funny world of owls, magic, and whiskey at nightfall on Larregub Hill where blind Captain Cat pulls the bell rope is brought back to life by three generations of voices. Milkwood is part of the Rhino ’04 look-back to the masters who influenced Curious.
The Curious Theatre Branch:
The Big Promise
Written and performed by Bryn Magnus. Performances on Mondays, September 20, 27, October 4 at 7:00 PM.
Bryn Magnus reads from his new novel, The Big Promise, the story of a morally disadvantaged father trying to redeem himself in the eyes of his teenage son. Specifically it's about a fringe playwright prone to tears and anti-social behavior whose son convinces him he might find redemption investigating the home invasion and robbery of a friend. Elmore Leonard meets Dave Eggers.
The Curious Theatre Branch:
White Suit Science
Written and directed by Shawn Reddy. Shows on Friday September 24, October 1, 8, 15 at 7:00 PM; on Friday October 22, 29 at 9:00 PM; and on Saturday October 23, 30 at 9:00 PM.
From the mind that brought you last year’s Rhino and PAC/Edge hit, "My Name is Mudd," comes a super-scientific-y investigation into one of America’s great literary mysteries. Why did Mark Twain wear a white suit out of season?
Complete with Mark Twain impersonators, Kentucky Fried Chicken conspiracies, dry cleaning techniques, God’s experiments on little animals, Silas Phelps’ penis, and much, much more in the way of irrelevant supporting material, "White Suit Science" finally reveals the greatest ancient Chinese secret this side of the Mississippi!
Jenny Magnus & Joe Tech:
Standards and Fake Standards
Single performance on Friday September 24 at 9:00 PM.
The song stylings of these old friends smack of lives lived, cigarettes smoked, drinks knocked back, and hearts broken. A wonderful, easy musical friendship that moves between the songs we all know and love, and the songs they know and you should love. Bring a date, preferably an ex, and Joe and Jenny will either rekindle something or remind you of why you’re apart.
The Curious Theatre Branch:
Hit Me Like a Flower
Written and directed by Beau O’Reilly. Shows on Saturdays September 25, October 2, 9, 16; and November 6. Also on Mondays October 11, 18, 25, November 1, 8. Curtain times for all shows are at 7:00 PM.
Beau O’Reilly’s "Hit Me Like a Flower" continues his “Big Play” experiment: large cast, lots of storyline, expanse. Sarah Wallace has come to an East Coast Waspish town to start her therapy practice and cast a watchful eye over her long-estranged college daughter Terry, known to her friends as “Oddhead.” Sarah’s patients: Arthur Moore, a psychopath with a bear suit and a 2-by-4; William Coughlin, a sometime novelist of minor fame who is recovering from a stroke; and Mrs. Chester, a woman who has been living on the streets but now is ready for a bus ride. Terry’s friends are Saul and Hannah--in their 20’s, skating tough, and worried about the war. The cast features Kathleen Powers, Shawn Reddy, Matt Wilson, Amy Eaton, John Starrs, Nia Amandes, Kate Teichman, Stefan Brun, and Beau O’Reilly.
John Starrs
Sundays October 3 & 17 at 7:00 PM.
John Starrs and Kristy Lockhart tell stories (and stories inside stories) about guns and jails, and perhaps about stories themselves. Kristy is from a neighborhood in Birmingham where guns (for instance) are sometimes found. She tells the story of her early life in Alabama, one of the hottest places in the state of confusion. John is from Chicago, where guns have been seen on policemen who were able to protect a second-story man--see? story again--in his neighborhood. So! Who knows?
James Owens:
A Dangerous Ornithology
Written by James Owens. Directed by Joe Tech Huppert. Performances on Fridays October 1, 8, 15; and November 5, 12. Curtain time at 9:00 PM for all shows.
The lives of seeming strangers become interwoven during the pressure of war in a one-party state. Amidst the rising violence surrounding him, a prison camp worker is gripped by an irresistible urge to defy the laws. After a chance encounter on a train with an accountant who seems to share his thoughts, the prison worker discovers he is caught in a circle of murder, sex, and ritual. The cycle must be broken before all is lost. The problem is that, when neither history nor your own senses can be trusted, reality becomes the enemy.
16 Students
Single performance on Sunday October 10 at 7:00 PM.
16 students with stories about learning or teaching or failing to learn. Or failing to teach. A variety show of student pieces including improvisation, collaborative performance art, narrative, nonfiction, monologue, and electric cello, among other things, with pieces written or performed by Eric Blank, Alison Chesley, Olivia Cronk, James Dunn, Alex Jovanovich, Heidi Moore, Shannon Mullally, Erika Pahk, Christopher Piatt, Adam Pomajzl, Janie Porche, Andrea Rexilius, and Della Watson, among others.
The Curious Theatre Branch:
POWER brecht-down 2004
Adapted by Stefan Brün. Shows on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday October 22, 23, 24, and 29, 30, 31 at 7:00 PM
Jenny Magnus and Beau O'Reilly break down power for you in a new revue devoted to this, unfortunately, so-timely poet and playwright. "POWER brecht-down 2004" includes texts and songs never before translated into English as well as "The Beggar or the Dead Dog," "Money Medley," and an excerpt from Brecht's "Training Manual for War." Part of Curious’s Rhino ’04 look back at the masters who influenced us.
"Oppression has increased
The struggle against it
Is considered out of date"
"Trust not what you hear
Trust not your own sight
You see darkness
Perhaps it is light."
16 Assholes
Sunday November 7 at 7:00 PM.
Are you an asshole? Do you know any assholes? Do you have any theories on assholes and assholic behavior? I think we can all answer “yes” to these questions. This special event sets out to provide a sample, merely a sample, of the plethora of examples, explanations, and confessions about being, knowing, and confronting assholes in all their glory. 16 performers share their observations about assholes, including a distinguished panel of experts who will determine if audience members are, in fact, assholes. Come prepared to share with us, for this one night event, your secret suspicions and fears about yourself, and leave knowing, once and for all, if you qualify for that mighty epithet, “ASSHOLE!” Written and performed by Idris Goodwin, Cris Taylor, Nicole Garneau, and Kat McJimsey, among others. Hosted and curated by one of the best, Jenny Magnus.
Julie Caffie & Barrie Cole:
Cope!
Saturday and Sunday November 13, 14 at 7:00 PM
Join Julie Caffey and Barrie Cole for an evening of new performance works. Special musical guest: The Oxford Group--featuring Leslie Swieck, Katie Brick, and Valerie Gonder--will perform new original material.
Full Moon Vaudeville
Saturday November 13 at 9:00 PM.
An all-music vaudeville this year, as the Curiousers and Rhinosities pull another one out of their asses. Featuring Vernon Tonges, Jeff Dorchen, Sherry Antonini, Teresa Weed’s Jabberwocky, The Pedestrians.
panel discussion:
Buzz Words: What They Are, How to Use Them, and Why
Not To
Monday November 15 at 7:00 PM.
Every year, Rhino presents a great conversation, usually for a small gathering of people, who walk away saying, “We should do this more often.” But we don’t, so we appreciate these occasions all the more. This year, the gang will discuss the golden words that seem to magically coalesce out of the ether every few years: collaboration, community, and partnership. These words become like a magnet for money -- or so we would like to think -- yet their overuse deadens their meaning and helps to undermine the originality and uniqueness of arts organizations. How can we communicate with funders and the press and the public without resorting to pandering? A distinguished panel helps to shape the conversation.
BoyGirlBoyGirl:
The Fine Art of Italian Cooking
Written and Performed by BoyGirlBoyGirl; a/k/a Susan McLaughlin Karp, David Kodeski, Stephanie Shaw, and Edward Thomas-Herrera. Shows on Friday November 19 and Saturday November 20 at 7:00 PM.
It all starts with a published text (in this case, a sensuously written guide to Italian cuisine); from there, it's anything goes. Four solo theater artists take their turns expounding on everything from bitter almonds to crying at the opera to eating under unfriendly circumstances—-a menu of comic dishes fit for any palette. Don't miss the latest effort of Chicago's newest performance collective.
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