Performing Arts Chicago and the School of the Art Institute's second annual 'PAC/Edge Performance Festival: A Convergence of Chicago Artists' runs March 12-April 18 at the Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport. Performances and exhibits range in price from no charge to $20. Workshops run $20 to $60. Tickets can be purchased at the Athenaeum box office and through Ticketmaster outlets by visiting or calling (312) 902-1500. See www.pachicago.org .
On paper it sounds chaotic. Even anarchic. Imagine more than 40 cutting-edge Chicago artists and performance troupes invading the Athenaeum Theatre building for six weeks. Not only do the artists take over the stages, but they transform the hallways, the lobbies and the stairwells into performance playgrounds. Even the bathrooms are turned into art galleries.
Jumbled as it all sounds, there is a calculated method to the potential madness of the second-annual 'PAC/Edge Performance Festival: A Convergence of Chicago Artists.' As a collaboration between presenter Performing Arts Chicago and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the PAC/Edge Festival strives to be a one-stop-shopping experience for Chicago avant garde theater, dance, visual art, performance art and music.
PAC/Edge Festival Executive Director Susan Lipman was bowled over by the unexpected success of last year's festival, despite its limited budget and scant press attention. Lipman attributes last year's surge in ticket sales to strong word of mouth.
'That's the best thing you can do,' Lipman said. 'The response from the public was wonderful. It was very clear that people cared about what we were trying to do and that they got it.'
Lipman hopes that even more people will 'get it' this year as the PAC/Edge Festival expands its breadth, scope and stay at the Athenaeum. An additional 26 new artists and companies are joining 15 PAC/Edge veterans this year for more than 200 events. There are more than 10 world-premieres on the docket and the festival presents its first family day on March 20. The festival has also stepped up the presence of visual and spoken word artists.
For the first time, the festival has appropriated the Athenaeum's main stage. Novelist Jonathan Goldstein (introduced by Ira Glass of WBEZ/Chicago Public Radio's This American Life) is on the bill, plus dance performances by Molly Shanahan/Mad Shak Dance Company and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago member Lauri Stallings' world-premiere piece Moody Hollow. The 960-seat theater also plays host to a multimedia look at Charles Darwin called Voyaging by Lucky Plush Production and Walkabout Theater Company.
Lipman and many of the artists are banking on the festival's expansion and strength-in-numbers booking to increase awareness of Chicago's contemporary arts scene. It was an increased awareness of contemporary Chicago performance art that drove Lipman and her collaborators to push for the festival's creation.
'The great thing about PAC/Edge is the collective force of showing a whole vibrant theater scene,' said Dexter Bullard, artistic director of Plasticene, which is presenting the world premiere BlankSlate. Bullard likens PAC/Edge to the Austin, Texas-music festival South by Southwest because 'A lot of unknowns can be seen in one place by critics and create a buzz.'
While Chicago is world-famous for its comedy/improv and storefront theater movements, Bullard predicts the physical and unconventional theater works by companies like 500 Clown, Curious Theatre Branch, Local Infinities, Plasticene, DOG and others will be the next big thing.
'[PAC/Edge] is their chance to highlight what is going on here in our own town,' Bullard said. 'That visibility gives companies like ours a context. Just like modern art or modern jazz, our work requires a bit of context to access and comprehend what we are doing.'
Lipman noted how many companies that presented at PAC/Edge last year reported a bump up in attendance for their other productions later in the season. But increasing Chicagoans' awareness of art in their own backyard isn't the PAC/Edge Festival's only goal.
PAC and SAIC are both aggressively marketing this year's festival to more than 100 national presenters, offering discounted hotel rates and tickets so these Chicago artists and troupes can tour and gain even more exposure across the country and around the world.
One success story is Local Infinities, which remounted its acclaimed Wax and Wayne for PAC/Edge last year. According to Local Infinities respective artistic and executive directors Meghan Strell and John Musial, their tape of Wax and Wayne at the PAC/Edge Festival helped them get into the New York International Fringe Festival.
'Chicago is in many ways the capital of new and experimental theater work,' Musial said. 'But most of the money is concentrated in New York for theater and Los Angeles for film. Hopefully the PAC/Edge will help groups develop and grow and make us more visible.'
'But first you have to get that attention,' Lipman said. 'You need people to take notice and say, 'You know what, this is a significant happening.''
The PAC/Edge Festival has a number of cutting-edge attractions, but here's a smattering of works that have quotients of GLTBQ interest:
The Misadventures of Kid Kitten and the King of the Bathhouse:
Yes, it's one of THOSE bathhouses according to openly gay artist Matthew Hollis. Drawing from his own experiences, Hollis portrays many characters in the fictional 'Steam Kingdom' including the hero, Kid Kitten (a moniker a co-worker gave him when he lost two sets of keys in two days' time). Rounding out the performance is a duet Hollis created following his appendectomy.
Kid Kitten plays March 12-14.
Lot's Wife:
Local Infinities submerged itself in wax for the hit Wax and Wayne at last year's festival. This time the company pours on the salt for this world-premiere piece.
'We're not spending a lot of time in Sodom and Gomorrah,' said Strell, adding that the piece looks at ancient cultures' relationship with sodium chloride. 'It's more about survival and loss and the experience of that.'
'There's a danger of moralizing in a Christian sort of way and that is not our interest,' said Musial.
Lot's Wife plays March 12 through April 11. Local Infinities also presents a workshop, a visual installation and a children's performance during the festival.
In the Solitude of Cotton Fields:
Red Orchid Theatre remounts its production by the late gay French playwright Bernard-Marie Koltés for the festival. While many critics have concluded the play is about a drug deal, Red Orchid Theatre ensemble member and performer Larry Grimm says it could also be interpreted as a gay relationship. 'It shows that every relationship is a negotiation or a transaction,' he said. Plasticine artistic director Dexter Bullard directs.
In the Solitude of Cotton Fields plays March 12 through March 28.
Second Place and Handle With Care: Direct Mail and the American Dream:
GirlCharlie, a.k.a. Charlie Levin, is a former member of Local Infinities and bisexual artist who has struck out on her own. Known for her wax paintings that rely on light and other technology to provide a changing perspective, GirlCharlie incorporates her work into the world-premiere Second Place. GirlCharlie's concurrent visual installation Handle With Care looks at the racism and greed of right-wing organizations through direct-mail campaigns that prey on the fears of the elderly.
Second Place plays March 13 to April 4. Handle with Care runs the length of the festival.
Doris:
Openly gay artist David Kodeski returns from his recent stint at the Perth International Arts Festival in Australia to revive one of his first 'true life tales' based on others' memories. Doris preserves the memories of a 90-year-old minister's widow, one of Kodeski's many pieces documenting non-celebrities. 'I don't play her,' Kodeski said. 'I'm basically myself and her words are purely from her.'
Doris plays April 9 through April 11.
