The Chicago Fringe Festival is back for its sixth season, returning again to the Jefferson Park neighborhood at five different venues. This time the Fringe features nearly 50 companies presenting 198 performances from Thursday, Sept. 2, to Sunday, Sept. 13. As in past years, all the shows selected were by lottery and a few are of likely interest to LGBTQ audiences.
Two autobiographical works in particular are written by first-time Fringe visitors who offer representation for the "B" and "T" in LGBTQ acronym. Queer Heartache is a slam poetry show by Kit Yan, who is an Asian American transgender poet from Hawaii, while Turn That Thing Around: A Manic Narrator's Longest Ride is based upon bisexual playwright Aaron Harris Woodstein of Lincolnshire, Illinois, and his own mental health episode as a college freshman stressing out over the unknown results of an HIV test.
"It is the first time I'm doing a solo piece of theater," said Brooklyn-based Yan, who took inspiration from a Boston lecture by trans* activist Gunner Scott to create theatrical material about his own life. "( Scott ) was the most formative voice in my mind in terms of somebody who wasn't talking about art, but he was talking about trans* work and trans* justice. He put the idea in my mind that it's important to keep telling the story of what you want to see out in the world."
In the case of slam poet Yan, he takes audiences on a time-hopping autobiographical journey which includes stories of growing up in Hawaii, going to college in Boston and notions of family and queer identity.
"Some of the pieces will be about the medical industrial complex in terms of medical care and funding, testosterone and the emergency room and things that happen in there," Yan said. But another big focus in Queer Heartache deals with Yan's family.
"In Asian-American communities, there's a whole different set of values and issues in terms of coming out to your family and talking about queer identity with your parents," said Yan, noting that there's not only a communication barrier between his queer life and his more heteronormative family, but a literal language barrier due to his mother being more comfortable speaking in Cantonese rather than English.
Family misunderstandings also play a prominent part in Aaron Harris Woodstein's non-linear drama Turn That Thing Around: A Manic Narrator's Longest Ride. As someone diagnosed with bipolar disorder, Woodstein would have liked his parents to pick up on clues about his erratic behavior before he left to work as a New Hampshire summer camp counselor a few years ago.
"The idea behind the play is that it should have stopped before it started. The play is primarily talking about my mental health and how the people in the main character's life didn't notice something was wrong before it was too late," Woodstein said. "There's a lot of things in this play that a lot of people don't think about: being bipolar and bisexual if you've had an HIV scare or relationship problems."
Kit Yan's Queer Heartache plays 10 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 3; 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 5; 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 6; 8:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 7; 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Sept. 11 and 12 and 1 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 13 at the Congregational Church of Jefferson Park Meeting Hall, 5320 W. Giddings St.
Turn That Thing Around: A Manic Narrator's Longest Ride plays 8:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 11; 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 12 and 5:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 13 at the Congregational Church of Jefferson Park Meeting Hall, 5320 W. Giddings St.
Other shows of possible LGBTQ interest include:
Judah Leblang's One Man's Journey Through The Middle Ages, which looks at bad dates and unrequited love after the age of 40. It's performed 8:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 4; 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 5 and 10 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 6 at Windy City Music Theatre, 5340 W. Lawrence Ave.
Sit My Ass Down Comedy presents a "sexistential" comedy called Occupy Your Vagina! to empower women to take personal responsibility for their own sexual satisfaction at 5:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 6; 7 p.m. Thursday and Sunday, Sept. 10 and 13 at Windy City Music Theatre, 5340 W. Lawrence Ave.
The Wulfden presents Zipped & Pelted which tells the story of "Furries" at the 2014 Midwest Furfest in Rosemont when a mysterious chlorine gas leak led to the hospitalization of 19 guests. It plays 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 5; 8:30 p.m. Monday and Friday, Sept. 7 and 11; 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 12 and 7 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 13 at the Congregational Church of Jefferson Park Gymnasium, 5320 W. Giddings St.
The Chicago Fringe Festival requires a one-time button purchase of $5 with all subsequent individual performances at $10. Passes with a discounted ticket price are available when attending multiple performances: four-show pass is $36, ten-show pass is $80 and an unlimited pass is $175. Each venue will have a box office for day-of purchase and the box office for the entire festival is located at Fringe Central at Fischman's Liquors, 4780 N. Milwaukee Ave. For a full schedule of shows and to buy tickets in advance, visit ChicagoFringe.org .