FILLET OF SOLO Festival Celebrates 20 Years; Lineup Announced!

By: BWW News Desk Jan. 05, 2017

Lifeline Theatre Artistic Director Dorothy Milne and former Live Bait Theater Artistic Director Sharon Evans are pleased to announce the 20th Annual Fillet of Solo Festival, running January 13-29, 2017.

Celebrating the breadth of Chicago's enduring storytelling and live lit scene, Lifeline brings 15 storytelling collectives and numerous solo performers together for a three-week, multi-venue selection of powerful personal stories.

The 2017 Fillet of Solo festival will perform January 13-29, 2017, in Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood at Lifeline Theatre (6912 N. Glenwood Ave.) and Heartland Studio Theatre (7016 N. Glenwood Ave.). Free parking and shuttle available.

Performance times are Fridays at 7 and 8:30 p.m.; Saturdays at 4, 5:30, 7, and 8:30 p.m.; and Sundays at 4 and 5:30 p.m. (5:30 p.m. Sunday performances only at Heartland Studio).

Ticket prices are $10 for regular single tickets, and $50 for a Festival Pass (allows admission to any performance). Tickets may be purchased at the Lifeline Theatre Box Office, 773.761.4477, or by visiting www.lifelinetheatre.com.

The 20th Annual Fillet of Solo Festival will feature the work of:

- GayCo (gayco.com): An ensemble that specializes in creating sketch-comedy revues based on gay/lesbian themes. Since starting as a lesbigay focused workshop at the Second City Training Center in 1996, they've performed for massive, enthusiastic, sexy gay audiences in Chicago and across the country.

- GeNarrations (goodmantheatre.org/Engage-Learn/education-programs/GeNarrations): A personal narrative story performance workshop hosted at Goodman and in senior centers around Chicago.

- the kates (thekates.org): An all-female comedy showcase that provides an intimate night of comedy dedicated to showcasing talented and hilarious female-identified performers by creating inclusive and positive environments. Artists are encouraged to express their comic point of view in unique and non-apologetic ways - proving that women are equal in the eyes of comedy.

- The Lifeline Storytelling Project (lifelinestorytellingproject.com): The Lifeline Storytelling Project produces monthly live music & storytelling events designed to develop and showcase young artists affiliated with Lifeline Theatre.

- Loose Chicks (theloosechicks.com): Loose Chicks is a collection of courageous women who share experiences that most women keep to themselves. Each show features six exceptional writers and performers who allow themselves to be vulnerable as they share with uncommon honesty.

- OUTspoken (outspokenchicago.com): OUTspoken! is comprised of storytellers who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, or queer recalling true personal events. Stories are often funny, heartfelt, and sometimes historically significant.

- Sappho's Salon (facebook.com/sapphossalon2): A monthly performance salon at Chicago's Women and Children First bookstore featuring expressions of queerness, gender and feminism.

- Serving the Sentence (facebook.com/servingthesentencechicago): Different storytellers take the same first sentence -- each in their own direction. At the end of the show, a new sentence is drawn that the next show's storytellers will embark from!

- Stir-Friday Night! (stirfridaynight.org): One of the country's premier Asian-American comedy troupes, Stir-Friday Night! is made up of an ensemble of Asian-American actors/writers that travel the nation performing improv and sketch shows that educate all audiences, from an Asian-American perspective.

- The Stoop (facebook.com/StoopStyleStories): The Stoop is an off book (no notes/reading) storytelling show. Featured storytellers are given a theme. They take that theme and share a 7-10 minute story related to that theme. Hosted by Moth GrandSLAM champion Lily Be and Badass Clarence Browley.

- Story Club (storyclubchicago.com): "We give you a mic and 8 minutes. You tell us a story." Story Club is a non-fiction storytelling show. Story Club mixes the spontaneity of an open mic with the experience of live theatre. Each show has both featured performers and open mic performers.

- Sweat Girls (sweatgirls.org): The Sweat Girls speak with honesty, authenticity and humor about the human condition as they've experienced it. They have been writing and performing storytelling shows in Chicago for over 20 years.

- Tellin' Tales Theatre, featuring Tekki Lomnicki (tellintalestheatre.org): Tellin' Tales Theatre builds community through story - adult solo performances as well as "Six Stories Up," a mentoring program and show featuring kids and adults, with and without disabilities. Tekki Lomnicki is a solo performer, playwright, director and educator.

- That's All She Wrote (thatsallshewrotechicago.com): Chicago's only live lit show held in a tattoo shop. They are a non-competitive venue for storytellers of all stripes, co-produced by Angela Benander and J.H. Palmer, who share the mic with a new lineup of readers on the second Sunday of every month at Great Lakes Tattoo.

- You're Being Ridiculous (yourebeingridiculous.com): "Good stories are better than good times!" A group of real people telling real funny stories about their lives with a theme as their guide. They laugh at themselves and with each other.

- With solo performances by Nestor Gomez, Kevin Krispin, and Annalise Raziq.

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE:

WEEK ONE (January 13-15):

Friday, January 13