Victory Gardens Announces 09-10 Fresh Squeezed Series, Features Mike Daisey, Charles Busch, Michael Kearns, Tim Miller & More

Victory Gardens Theater is proud to announce an exciting line-up for its new 2009/2010 Fresh Squeezed Series. Now in its second season, Fresh Squeezed is a series of late-night, low priced offbeat performance-based events targeting younger and diverse audiences while celebrating alternative voices and approaches to creating new work.

This season's line-up will explore the art of storytelling from every direction, boasting an eclectic mélange of talents with an emphasis on the works of women and queer artists. With the popularization of creative non-fiction and political humor as mainstream entertainment, Victory Gardens Fresh Squeezed is sounding off to this new era of storytelling by rolling out the carpet for national paragons Mike Daisey, Charles Busch, Julie Halston, Michael Kearns, Terry Galloway, Tim Miller, and Holly Hughes, and showcasing local favorites like The Neo-Futurists, 2nd Story, Blair Thomas, Rohina and The New Colony.

Collectively, Victory Gardens Fresh Squeezed will celebrate bold and honest works that combine for a cultural melting pot where no ingredients are omitted. All Fresh Squeezed performances are at the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago. Tickets are on sale now. For tickets and information go to victorygardens.org/freshsqueezed or call 773.871.3000.

MORE ABOUT VICTORY GARDENS' FRESH SQUEEZED SEASON

Hard Headed Heart: A Chicago Neighborhood Tour
Friday, October 30, 2009 at 8:00pm
Victory Gardens Biograph Studio Theater
Tickets: $15 in advance, $20 day of show

Hard Headed Heart: A Chicago Neighborhood Tour is a trio of solo shows performed in one magical evening by puppet master, Blair Thomas. In 2002, Blair founded Blair Thomas & Company to create a distinctive Chamber Puppet Theater. With the company, Blair has toured to Boston, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Tampa, Atlanta, Phoenix, Madison, Bloomington, Mexico, and Spain, and has built a repertoire of work for adults and for children. He was awarded the Illinois Arts Council Fellowship for New Performance in 2002 and 2004, and was hand-picked to serve in the inaugural position of Jim Henson Artist-in-Residence at the University of Maryland in College Park for the 2006-07 academic year. He is a graduate of Oberlin College.

Hard Headed Heart: A Chicago Neighborhood Tour includes the following three shows:
ST. James Infirmary - Based on the traditional New Orleans folksong, this show is performed with rod marionettes, a motorized paper scroll and a one-man pit band.
The Puppet Show of Don Cristobal -A script by Federico Garcia Lorca. A bawdy telling of the traditional trickster Cristobal's wooing and marriage to the delectable Dona Rosita, performed with wooden hand puppets and a drum kit.
The Blackbird - Based on Wallace Steven's "13 ways of Looking at a Blackbird," The Blackbird is a shadow puppet show performed on a set of four rolling paper scrolls lit by lamplight. Hard Headed Heart has toured to Spain and Mexico and across the U.S. since 2002. Two of its three performances have received UNIMA (international puppetry) awards for excellence in the field.

The New Colony's Walk of Shame

Walk of Shame - STORYTELLING
Friday, October 16, 2009 at 10:30 p.m.
Victory Gardens Biograph Theater Mainstage
Tickets: $15 in advance, $20 day of show

Walk of Shame - QUEER
Friday, December 11, 2009 at 10:30 p.m.
Victory Gardens Biograph Theater Mainstage
Tickets: $15 in advance, $20 day of show

Walk of Shame - FEMALE
Friday, April 2, 2010 at 10:30 p.m.
Victory Gardens Biograph Theater Mainstage
Tickets: $15 in advance, $20 day of show

Remember when you woke you up in a bathtub wearing your friend's mom's brassiere? No? Well, The New Colony will jog your memory with Walk of Shame. Three late-night evenings of honest-to-God tales drawn from 2009-2010 Fresh Squeezed themes created by The New Colony ensemble and invited artists, will make your own worst moment-meeting your ex's fiancé, and having a few too many snowtinis at the company holiday party-pale in comparison.

The New Colony is one of the freshest creators of new work in Chicago, who tackled Amelia Earhart, frat boys, and musical Tupperware all in their first season. Now, these energetic Colonists are beyond thrilled to hold your hair back on the hung over stumble home. Yep, these guys can up the ante on just about any embarrassing moment, even if that moment was audible flatus during a job interview.

Terry Galloway's Out All Night and Lost My Shoes
Sunday, November 15, 2009 at 7:30pm
Victory Gardens Biograph Theater Mainstage
Tickets: $20 in advance, $25 day of show

Not quite blind as a bat but definitely deaf as a doornail, Terry Galloway is a modern medical accident who makes wild sport of her own disabilities in defense of the defenseless. Side-splitting funny and shocking, she's brimful of ideas for shaking an audience out of its gosh-aren't-we-enlightened complacency and onto that uncomfortable narrow ledge where they're not sure whether they should be laughing or crying. Out All Night ... is one hour of pure, energetic theater that's "just a little scary, like eating snails or doing oral sex for the first time," says Time Out London. Don't miss this Chicago premiere, part of Victory Gardens Fresh Squeezed and the Access Project Crip Slam Series.

Michael Kearns' intimacies
Sunday, November 22, 2009 at 7:30pm
Victory Gardens Biograph Theater Mainstage
Tickets: $25 in advance, $30 day of show

It's nearly impossible in 2009 to imagine the entertainment world without a thriving LGBTQ culture and the HIV/AIDS movement, but it was less than 20 years ago when Hollywood's first openly gay actor, Michael Kearns, made history with the announcement that he was HIV positive. Kearns first garnered success as a mainstream actor, appearing in such television shows as The Waltons, Cheers, Murder She Wrote, Beverly Hills 90210, and The Band Played On. He continued his career as an activist pioneer and solo performance artist.

In celebration of World AIDS Day and two decades of tireless efforts for the LGBTQ community and its friends, Fresh Squeezed is proud to host Kearns's celebrated solo show, intimacies, in its 20th anniversary. This collection of six multi-faceted monologues crosses boundaries of race, age, gender, and sexual identity to shed a personal light on the AIDS crisis in the early 1980s. Kearns reminds us that only when we reconsider The catalysts for public fear and ignorance can we celebrate how far we've come as we challenge ourselves to secure equal rights for LGBTQ citizens.

An Evening with Charles Busch & Julie Halston
Monday, December 7, 2009 at 7:30 p.m.
Victory Gardens Biograph Theater Mainstage
Tickets: $30 in advance, $35 day of show

The original Vampire Lesbians of Sodom are together again. This unpredictable evening of conversation with alt-theater mainstays Charles Busch and Julie Halston will be the cheekiest gift you've given yourself in years. Known for his drag star alter-egos in works like Die, Mommie, Die! and Psycho Beach Party, as well as the Tony nominated Broadway hit, TheTale of the Allergist's Wife, writer-director-actor Busch will take the stage with his best friend and muse, Julie Halston. She is the acclaimed actress most recognized as Bitsy Von Muffling from Sex and The City who began her career originating roles in Busch's Vampire Lesbians of Sodom. For one night only, the pair will recount their theatrical climb from campy cult success to critical acclaim on film, television, and Broadway. Through anecdotes, film clips and recreating scenes from Busch's plays, the two will share the triumphs and tribulations that made for longevity in not only their professional lives but their friendship as well.

Tim Miller's Lay of the Land
Opening: March 15, 2010, 7:30pm
Runs with Holly Hughes' The Dog and Pony Show: March 19 at 8 pm, March 20 at 8 pm, and March 21 at 5 pm
Victory Gardens Biograph Studio Theater
Tickets: $25, $40 with The Dog and Pony Show

Paired with

Holly Hughes' The Dog and Pony Show (Bring Your Own Pony)
Opening: March 18, 2010, 7:30pm
Runs with Tim Miller's Lay of the Land: March 19 at 9:30pm, March 20 at 5 pm, and March 21 at 7:30pm
Victory Gardens Biograph Theater
Tickets: $25, $40 with Lay of the Land

When the NEA revoked funding to four artists in 1990 for work deemed indecent, Tim Miller and Holly Hughes were plaintiffs on the front line. The unprecedented censorship led to a Supreme Court ruling that permanently discontinued all NEA funding to individual artists. As queer performers, Miller and Hughes are no strangers to regressive progress. That's why we invited them to Victory Gardens to squeeze us fresh and frisky.

Tim Miller defines himself from the beginning as the gay little sperm that could. With fierce wit and candor, Miller eloquently drives through narratives with more stamina than an honor roll student on Adderall. Lay of the Land is Miller's saucy, sharp-knifed look at the State of the Queer Union during a time of trial! Careening from his sexy misadventures performing in 45 States, to Marriage Equality street protests, to the electoral assaults on gay folks all over the country, to his life as a grade-school flag monitor, to choking on cheap meat caught in his 10 year old gay boy's throat, Lay of the Land friskily gets at that feeling of queer people being perpetually on trial, on the ballot, and on the menu!

Don't miss this heralded new work as well as the opportunity to work with Tim Miller when he conducts a week-long workshop with the Victory Gardens Training Center.

"I don't think circle is really my shape," says Holly Hughes of her career in performance art that's taken her from an uneventful upbringing in Michigan to a heroic and controversial performance career in New York and back again to Michigan where she is a professor at the University of Michigan. Former member of the WOW Café, a feminist theater collective made up of women who had been booted from other like collectives, Holly Hughes made a name for herself as a lesbian performer known for plucky solo works that fearlessly dig for tangible identity in the wire-crossed world of sexuality, gender, race, ethnicity, and socio-political cultures.

With original work that includes The Lady Dick, World Without End, Dress Suits for Hire, Preaching To The Perverted and Clit Notes, Hughes is produced worldwide and has garnered two Obie Awards, a Lambda Book Award, a GLAAD Media Award, and a Distinguished Alumni Award. Hughes unleashes her post-racial poodle with the Chicago premiere of her newest work, The Dog and Pony Show (Bring Your Own Pony), a meditation on midlife set in the eye of a canine.

Rohina's Unveiled
March 24-April 4, 2010
Press opening: Wednesday, March 24, 2010 at 7:30pm
Thursday, March 25, 2010, at 7:30pm
Friday, March 26, 2010, at 7:30pm
Saturday, March 27, 2010, at 7:30pm
Sunday, March 28, 2010, at 3 pm
Wednesday, March 31, 2010, at 7:30pm
Thursday, April 1, 2010, at 7:30pm
Friday, April 2, 2010, at 7:30pm
Saturday, April 3, 2010, at 7:30pm
Sunday, April 4, 2010, at 3 pm
Victory Gardens Biograph Studio Theater
Tickets: $25

Come take a rare and intimate glimpse at Muslim life when Victory Gardens Fresh Squeezed hosts last year's hit from Berwyn's 16th Street Theater, Unveiled. Written and performed by local playwright and soloist Rohina, in Unveiled, five Muslim women in a post-9/11 world serve tea and uncover what lies beneath the veil. Rohina was raised in London and draws heavily from her Indo-Pakistani heritage as inspiration for her writing. Originally developed for Live Bait's Fillet of Solo, Rohina continued to workshop Unveiled through Rivendell Theater Ensemble and with Ann Filmer at 16th Street. This fall Rohina will further explore the piece in workshops at Victory Gardens before Fresh Squeezed in association with 16th Street Theater presents an even richer production.

The Neo-Futurists' Too Much LADY Makes the Baby Go Blind
Monday, April 19, 2010 at 8 p.m.
Doors open at 7 p.m., so come early for classic Neo pre-show activities including rolling, tokening, name-tagging, and libations
Victory Gardens Biograph Theater Mainstage
Tickets: $25 in advance, $30 day of show

Who says women don't have balls? In April, Fresh Squeezed will partner with the stalwarts of late-night Chicago theater, The Neo-Futurists, to send you on a brazen date with some of the most prolific female writers this side of the Kennedy Expressway. For the first time in the company's 20-year history, the broads are going stag on the Biograph mainstage in an exclusively female presentation of Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind curated by ensemble members Kristie Vuocolo and Megan Mercier. This sassy troupe of Neo-Futurettes boasts nearly every woman who's graced the nether-clothesline region since the latter days of Reagan. Fellow Neo-Futurists, SEan Benjamin and Steve Mosqueda (of Drinking & Writing Brewery), will host a post-show round table, "Ladies In Your Face." So grab a drink from our bar and help us pick the brains of some Chicago's most talented female performers from the last two decades.

Mike Daisey's How Theater Failed America and The Last Cargo Cult

How Theater Failed America - April 26-May 1, 2010
Press opening: Monday, April 26 at 7:30pm
Wednesday, April 28 at 7:30pm
Thursday, April 29 at 8 pm*
Friday, April 30 at 8 pm
Saturday, May 1 at 8 pm
Sunday, May 1 at 7 pm*
Victory Gardens Biograph Studio Theater
Ticket: $30, or buy both shows for $50
*Indicates performances with post-show panels of Chicago theater professionals moderated by Mike Daisey

The Last Cargo Cult - May 5-9, 2010
Press opening: Wednesday, May 5, 2010 at what time?
Thursday, May 6 at 8 pm
Friday, May 7 at 8 pm
Saturday, May 8 at 8 pm
Sunday, May 9 at 3 pm
Sunday, May 9 at 7 pm
Victory Gardens Biograph Studio Theater
Tickets: $30, or buy both shows for $50

If the golden age masters of stand-up comedy had a one-night stand with the irreverent liberal pundits of today, their love child might have been monologist Mike Daisey. Victory Gardens Fresh Squeezed is delighted to host Daisey in his raucous return to the city for two consecutive Chicago premieres: How Theater Failed America and The Last Cargo Cult.

Hailed by the New York Times as a "master storyteller...one of the finest solo performers of his generation," Daisey humorously beats sense into the bumbling pace of post-modern America with wit woven tighter than Betsy Ross's Stars and Bars. Daisey boils down society with the charm of everyone's favorite dinner guest and professes that the heart of his humor lies in "faith, love, honor, loyalty, friendship-the best human beings have to offer, still blossoming and blooming against the grain. It is a very interesting time to be alive."

In How Theater Failed America, Daisey sinks his razor-sharp wit into a subject he knows well: the American theater, from the sublimely crass to the genuinely ugly. From gorgeous new theaters standing empty as cathedrals, to "successful" working actors traveling like migrant farmhands, to an arts culture unwilling to speak or listen to its own nation, Daisey takes stock of the dystopian state of theater in America: a shrinking world with smaller audiences every year. Fearlessly implicating himself and the system he works within, Daisey seeks answers to essential and dangerous questions about the art we're making, the legacy we leave the future, and who it is we believe we're speaking to.

With the Chicago premiere of his latest work, The Last Cargo Cult, Daisey divulges the true-life story of his time on a remote South Pacific island whose inhabitants worship America at the base of a constantly erupting volcano. Their religion is explored alongside our own to form a sharp and searing examination of the international financial crisis. Daisey wrestles with the largest questions of what the collapse means, and what it says about our deepest values. Part adventure story and part memoir, he uses each culture to illuminate the other to find, between the seemingly primitive and the achingly modern, a human answer.

Victory Gardens 2009-2010 Fresh Squeezed Series is part of the New Audiences for New Plays initiative funded by a Wallace Foundation Excellence Award. For information and to purchase tickets, visit victorygardens.org/freshsqueezed or call 773.871.3000.

The Victory Gardens Biograph Theater is located 1/2 block north of Fullerton in the heart of Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood. Discounted parking is available one block south at Children's Memorial Hospital, and Lincoln Park Hospital two blocks south at Children's Memorial Hospital. By CTA train, take the Red, Purple and Brown lines to Fullerton. Walk east on Fullerton, then north on Lincoln 1/2 block. The #8 Halsted, #11 Lincoln, #37 Sedgwick/Ogden, and #74 Fullerton CTA buses all stop at Fullerton and Halsted, 1/2 block south of the theater. See transitchicago.com for times and routes.

About Victory Gardens Theater

Victory Gardens Theater is home to the bold voices of world premiere theater. The company features the work of its own 14-member Playwrights Ensemble, as well as that of exciting playwrights who are changing theater in the United States and abroad. Since its founding in 1974, the company has produced more world premieres than any other Chicago theater, a commitment recognized nationally when Victory Gardens received the 2001 Tony Award for Regional Theatre. The company's dedication to developing, supporting and producing new work makes Victory Gardens an American Center for New Plays.

Working with a $3.1 million annual budget in 2009/10, Victory Gardens continues to expand its artistic and institutional boundaries under the guidance of Artistic Director Dennis Zacek, Executive Director Jan Kallish, Associate Artistic Director Sandy Shinner, Board President Jeffrey Rappin, a dedicated staff and board, and the support of its loyal subscribers.

Victory Gardens Theater is supported in part by the Illinois Arts Council (IAC), a stage agency, and by a CityArts Program IV Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. Other major funders include 3Arts, Alphawood Foundation, Henry S. Black and Allon Fuller Fund, Charles H. and Bertha L. Boothroyd Foundation, Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation, The Chicago Community Trust, Arie & Ida Crown Memorial, Ford Foundation, Lloyd A. Fry Foundation, John R. Halligan Charitable Fund, Illinois Tool Works, Joyce Foundation, James S. Kemper Foundation, Kraft Foods, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Motorola Foundation, Albert Pick, Jr. Fund, Polk Bros. Foundation, Prince Charitable Trusts, REAM Foundation, Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, Sara Lee Foundation, Seigle Family Foundation, Charles and M.R. Shapiro Foundation, Shubert Foundation, The Wallace Foundation, and Wrightwood Neighbors Association.

For complete information, visit victorygardens.org.

Photo credit Peter James Zielinski

To post a comment, you must register and login.