The 35th Annual RHINOCEROS THEATRE FESTIVAL Returns in May

Curious Theatre Branch has announced the 35th annual Rhinoceros Theater Festival, May 25 - June 30 at six venues across Chicago. The month-long festival of shows will kick off with a special Full Moon Vaudeville concert event on Saturday, May 25 at 7 p.m. at Facility Theatre, 1138 N. California Ave., headlined by art/folk/cabaret act The Crooked Mouth and other special guests. 

Throughout its more than three decades, Rhino Fest has endeavored to welcome as many participants as possible, both as artists and as audience members. To that end, artists pay no fee to apply or to produce their works at Rhino Fest and all tickets are offered at pay-what-you-can pricing, with a $20 suggested price. Tickets and details for all upcoming shows will be available Monday, May 6 at rhinofest.com.

Rhino Fest 2024 is the largest festival in Rhino's 35 year history, following an expansive and well-attended festival in 2023. Since its inception in 1989 as a single weekend of shows in the Wicker Park neighborhood, this unique and mutable fringe festival has expanded and contracted to fit the time. The Rhino charges on in an expansive mood this year, with more than 50 shows scheduled. 

Festival events will take place at six venues this year: Facility Theatre, 1138 N. California Ave. in Humboldt Park, Chicago Dramatists, 1105 W. Chicago Ave. in River West, Labyrinth Arts Club, 3658 N. Pulaski Ave. in the Irving Park neighborhood; Perceptions Theater, 1825 East 79th St. in the South Shore neighborhood; Experimental Sound Studio, 5925 N. Ravenswood Ave. in the Ravenswood neighborhood and Women and Children First Bookstore 5233 N. Clark St. in the Andersonville neighborhood.  

This year's festival will feature plays, music and performances from more than 50 companies and solo artists, with a focus on new work created in Chicago. Among the highlights are: 

Measure of a Man by India Nicole Burton

Saturday, June 9 at 7 p.m., Sunday, June 10 at 3 p.m., 6/12 Wednesday, June 12 at 7 p.m., Saturday, June 15 at 7 p.m., Sunday, June 16 3 p.m.*,  Monday, June 17 at  7 p.m., Friday, June 21 at 7 p.m.+,  Saturday, June 22 at 7 p.m.+, Monday, June 24 at 7 p.m. and Wednesday, June 26 at 7 p.m.

Perceptions Theater, 1825 East 79th St.

We are in Limbo. This Limbo is the distorted image of the apartment Chairman Fred Hampton was assassinated in. There is yellow tape hanging from the ceiling. A bed laying upside down. How do you take the measure of a man? A new work by the author of Panther Women: An Army for the Liberation.

* Child care available

+ Double program available with BIPOC Play Fest's matinee performance during the TCG National Conference. 

 

A Layperson's Guide to the Mermaids of Chicago by Rachel Claff

Saturdays, June 8 - 29 at 7 p.m. 

Labyrinth Arts Club, 3658 N. Pulaski Ave. 

A limno-ichthyological lecture (with visual aids) by expert non-experts on the various mermaids of Chicago, both well-known and obscure. Be forewarned: there is a splash zone. A Layperson's Guide to the Mermaids of Chicago is a new work by Rachel Claff, alumna of Chicago's Neo Futurists and BoyGirlBoyGirl performance ensembles.

Marie Curie Horror Story  by Holly Holsinger

Saturday, June 29 at 7 p.m. and  Sunday, June 30 at 5 p.m.

Facility Theatre, 1138 N. California Ave.

Marie Curie finds herself in an unknown place (the afterlife?), inhabited by a mysterious woman. As she reflects on the triumphs and tragedies of her life, she slowly puzzles through the mystery before her. The play paints a vivid picture of Curie's passion for science, her deep love for her partner and husband, her tenacity in weathering the great storms of her life and her complicated relationship to her “radiant child.” Through memory, music and poetically gruesome exchanges, Curie is forced to confront the mysterious young woman and in doing so comes face to face with the chilling realities of her radioactive discovery. Marie Curie succumbed to radium poisoning in 1934. She was still alive when a group of young women worked as watch dial painters in the United States, using glow-in-the-dark radium paint.

The Impossible Knot by Terri Sofianos Wohlgenant

Friday, June 7 and Saturday, June 8  at 7 p.m. 

Chicago Dramatists, 1105 W. Chicago Ave.

How do we accept incredible loss? What happens when the ties that bind us to the ones we love are suddenly severed? Can we create a knot so strong that even death cannot undo it? Terry Sofianos Wohlgenant's The Impossible Knot portrays one woman's struggle to come to terms with the finite nature of existence through story, myth and being tied up in rope. In a series of Vaudeville-inspired solos and skits featuring comedy, Shibari, burlesque and drag, the Three Fates spin, measure and cut strands of human lives, tying their mortal companion into an impossible knot of love, loss and ultimate acceptance. 

Grown Man Rapp by Kevin Coval

Fridays, May 31 - June 14 at 9 p.m.

Chicago Dramatists, 1105 W. Chicago Ave. 

A nearly 40-year-old Mike Rapp vowed to leave his fledgling music career behind, but a video resurfaces and a young viral rapper shows up to try to pull Rapp out of retirement, to the dismay of his partner Veronica. A living room play (of sorts) about aging and creativity in a genre (and world) made by young people.  

LegLand; An Absurd "Festival" "Show" by LegLand

Friday, June 21 and Saturday, June 22 at 9 p.m. 

Chicago Dramatists, 1105 W. Chicago Ave.  

In a desert of lost words, abstract creatures come and go as they please after sharing (or selling) something to the audience. With no linear plot, this show allows us to play multiple characters, establish multiple settings, and lampoon whatever we can get our legs on.  

Nothing By Mouth by Charlotte Lastra

Saturdays, June 1, 8 and 22 at 5 p.m. and Sundays, June 16 and 30 at 7 p.m.

Facility Theatre, 1138 N. California Ave.  

When your insides become your outsides, shit gets tough. After an unexpected diagnosis, Charlotte tries to understand what to do with a body she never expected to have. By methods poetic, scientific and illustrative, she takes a journey through the digestive system and into the belly of a whale.  A new solo work with low-fi overhead projector animation, written and performed by Charlotte Lastra of the Curious Theatre Branch.

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