This multidisciplinary event, presented by Performing Arts Chicago and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, runs weekends through Sunday, April 10. The avant-garde showcase, now in its third year, features established and emerging artists (including a number of SAIC students and alumni) working in theater, performance, circus arts, puppetry, storytelling, dance, music, video, and sound and installation art. The shows range from family-oriented to adults-only. Participants include Goat Island, the Curious Theatre Branch, Free Street, Theater Oobleck, the Hypocrites, the Neo-Futurists, Plasticene, Teatro Luna, Mathew Wilson, Mad Shak Dance Company, and many more.
FRIDAY 1
For the Fashion Impaired
Idris Goodwin and composer Justin J. Mayer created this music-theater piece about life in “Pluto”–aka Chicago. It’s premiered by Free Street and Hermit Arts; Tony Sancho directs. Too often this hip-hop history comes across like a pageant at a progressive middle school. The politics are Pilsen-mural subtle, but Goodwin plays them out in interesting ways. His libretto resists the music, turning Pluto: The Opera into an epic rap recitation. The piece may fail, but it marks Goodwin as an inventive talent in progress. (TA) a 7 PM, Studio 1. $15.
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Duet
Interactive Debauchery
Chicago’s experimental, directorless Theater Oobleck presents Mickle Maher’s comedy, which takes the form of a panel discussion between Quasimodo, the deaf bell ringer of Notre Dame cathedral, and the hearing-impaired composer Beethoven. Maher is a master at creating complex, paradoxical works that encompass their own contradictions. Here he mocks academic examinations of the creative process even as he engages in a complicated deconstruction of creativity. (JHe) a 7:30 PM, Studio 3. $15.
