Rock and Roll: Impatience
DOG
When uptown presenters showcase downtown performers, the results usually resemble the faux boho of Rent, exuding the odor of investors’ money rather than artists’ sweat. But Performing Arts Chicago’s second annual PAC/edge Festival, a five-week affair that includes the city’s most progressive performing artists, still smells of little but perspiration–or stale urine in the case of Sandra Binion’s lyrical video installation, Watercloset(s), in the Athenaeum Theatre’s second-floor restrooms. Though Performing Arts Chicago executive director Susan Lipman generally imports international acts to upscale venues, she knows the fringe scene intimately enough to construct a festival around its stalwarts.
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Considering the large number of performers watching their colleagues’ work on opening weekend, cross-pollination may be the festival’s most important legacy. Indeed, PAC needs to find a way to draw a bigger audience to this unglamorous spot. Although box-office receipts were reportedly better than last year’s miserable 10 percent of capacity on opening weekend, shows with at least two-thirds of their seats empty were the rule. As one person wrote on a section of stairwell wall reserved for audience comments: “10:55. Where is everybody?”
