Chicago Fringe Festival's events

Playing Sep 1 – 3, 2018: calendar (pretty shiny cage) // CONSUME ME | Lindsey Greer Sikes ellipsischat Lindsey Greer Sikes makes sexy, fleshy, scandalous, delicious, silly and often grotesque work which challenges the constructs of shame that keep our identities caged. Here she presents her HumAnimal and asks: do we want to break free? Or is it safer inside of society's cage? Warning: You may never look at a bowl of strawberries the same way again. location CCJP Meeting Hall, 5320 W Giddings, Bsmt, Chicago, IL 60630 cart $10

Playing Sep 1, 2018: calendar Fringe After Dark 2018 ellipsischat Grab your flashlight and join us for the second FRINGE AFTER DARK - a new late night fundraiser featuring 2018 ChiFringe artists, staff, and volunteers. This cabaret is sure to surprise and delight you with previously unseen songs and skits, lit only by your flashlights! location CCJP Meeting Hall, 5320 W Giddings, Bsmt, Chicago, IL 60630 cart $20 – $30

Playing Sep 1 – 3, 2018: calendar Hildegard of Bingen Musical | With a Machete Productions ellipsischat What would you do if you spent 40 years locked in a windowless room with a schizophrenic, self-flagellating fanatic while experiencing divine visions? Hildegard of Bingen changed the world. location CCJP Gym, 5320 W Giddings, 3rd Flr, Chicago, IL 60630 cart $10

Playing Sep 1 – 3, 2018: calendar Big Balloon Show | Smarty Pants ellipsischat Smarty Pants presents the Big Balloon Show - an all-ages production featuring magic, comedy and Smarty's world famous giant balloon props. Frequently seen on WGN-TV's morning news, Smarty Pants and the Big Balloon Show promises hilarious fun with a theatre full of balloons! location The Playhouse @ Jefferson Park – Home of Windy City Performs, 4766 Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60630 cart $5 – $10

Playing Jun 1, 2019: calendar The Fringe-est of Goodbyes ellipsischat After 9 years of celebrating the weird and unpredictable, Chicago Fringe Festival is closing its doors. Join us for a final 10-year celebration party. Let's say goodbye in style! *Your ticket includes one complimentary drink, pizza, and access to fringe-y pop up performances. location Windsor Tavern, 4530 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60630 cart $10

Playing Aug 31 – 3, 2018: calendar Rainbow Children, Angel Babies and Fruitless Fig Trees | V. Lash Productions| Veronique LaShell MacRae ellipsischat Inspired by the structural format of "For Colored Girls..." and "Women on Fire" this piece is an exploration of infertility, loss, and barrenness in support of pregnancy and infant loss awareness. Through a series of monologues, song, and dance, "Rainbow Children, Angel Babies, and Fruitless Fig Trees" expresses the stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance) for those who have experienced loss or inability to have children. location The Gift Theatre, 4802 Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60630 cart $10

Playing Sep 1 – 3, 2018: calendar CANCEL The Body of a Woman as as Battlefield in the Bosnian War | 2000 Feet Up Theatre Company ellipsischat The father is war. Meeting by chance in a medical facility, an American psychologist attempts to convince a rape victim to give birth to her unborn child of war -- forming an unexpected bond in the process. location CCJP Gym, 5320 W Giddings, 3rd Flr, Chicago, IL 60630 cart $10

Playing Sep 1 – 3, 2018: calendar Lynne Roberts Solo Sketch Kookoomunga | Lynne Roberts ellipsischat Lynne Roberts Solo Sketch Kookoomunga is solo sketch at its wackiest! Come and enter the mind of a crazy kookoomunga as she performs multiple sketches designed to make you laugh and look at the world with fish-colored glasses. Fresh from 2018 Chicago Sketch Fest, this show guarantees you're gonna have a good time! location The Gift Theatre, 4802 Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60630 cart $10

Playing Sep 1 – 3, 2018: calendar CANCEL Do You See What I Hear? | Strange Fangs Song Factory ellipsischat Composer James Glasgow (whose clients include Galumpha, Edinburgh Fringe Critic's Choice winner for Dance) performs new music composed for the award-winning poems of Mario Moroni as Moroni recites his works. The poetry is atmospheric, and the music is haunting and beautiful, creating a dramatic experience for the listener as the poems and music have a conversation of sorts with synced video projections. The music is performed on piano and electric cello and ranges from a modern take on impressionism to experimental usage of the cello with a new method of musical notation based on the symbol language Blissym. *PWYC tickets available at the venue.* location CCJP Meeting Hall, 5320 W Giddings, Bsmt, Chicago, IL 60630 cart $10

Playing Aug 31 – 2, 2018: calendar Intangible Notions on Top of Object | The Neue DeBris Foundation ellipsischat Join curators Mike and Kate for this elitist parody that explores the ways in which everyday objects take on art-like qualities simply by adjusting how we view them. For some time, Mike and Kate have been collecting the pieces of detritus we accumulate in our busy, busy urban lives: movie ticket stubs crumpled in pockets, a hotel key card from a trip left in a wallet, the prophecy from a Chinese fortune cookie at the bottom of a backpack. This guided tour crops the lines between theater and exhibition by elevating what is basically trash into precious art-like spectacles. location The Playhouse @ Jefferson Park – Home of Windy City Performs, 4766 Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60630 cart $10

Playing Aug 31 – 3, 2018: calendar Romeo, Juliet, et al. | The Witches ellipsischat Twenty-two characters, three actors, one hour. (Also an audience, maybe some chairs, a couple swords, at least one dagger, some poison, a letter or two, probably a dance, an ancient grudge, a minimum of two households) location The Gift Theatre, 4802 Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60630 cart $10

Playing Sep 1, 2018: calendar Windy City Performs at Kid's Fringe ellipsischat Alicia Jade, one of Windy City Performs' teachers, will be teaching an introductory workshop on musical theatre. The workshop will feature material from Grease, and will introduce young actors to Windy City’s ensemble-based theatre practices. location The Playhouse @ Jefferson Park – Home of Windy City Performs, 4766 Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60630 cart Free

Playing Aug 31 – 3, 2018: calendar Thread and Bone | Lisa Egan Woods ellipsischat Where memory meets a sewing machine... This world premiere original solo-work explores an intimate patchwork of love, family, loss and survival. In less than an hour, one woman and her sewing machine will create something unique from a tangle of memories. Written, performed, and sewn by Chicago actress Lisa Egan Woods - proud member of Actors Equity Association. Lisa sends love and thanks to her family and her husband Todd for their endless love and support. For Jessica. www.LisaEganWoods.com location The Playhouse @ Jefferson Park – Home of Windy City Performs, 4766 Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60630 cart $10

Playing Sep 1 – 3, 2018: calendar Mrs. Wrights | Quasimondo Physical Theatre ellipsischat Artist and philosopher Olgivanna has just lost her husband, Frank Lloyd Wright. Grief stricken, she channels the renowned architect and the four colorful women closest to him in a meditation on relationship, independence and immortality. Dance and theater construct untold stories of house and home in this tour de force solo performance. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has lauded Creator/Performer Jenni Reinke's performances as "always mesmerizing," "ravishingly beautiful" and "riveting," and has consistently included her work in its annual "Best Of Wisconsin Theater" review. "Mrs. Wrights" is produced by critically acclaimed, award-winning Quasimondo Physical Theatre, based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. location CCJP Gym, 5320 W Giddings, 3rd Flr, Chicago, IL 60630 cart $10

Playing Aug 31 – 3, 2018: calendar Mister Vibe: Psychic Hypnotist | Mister Vibe ellipsischat Experience an immersive, mind-expanding hour with award-winning entertainer Mister Vibe. This unique interactive show combines enlightening psychic readings with hypnosis to take the audience on a fast-paced, funny and fascinating journey of empowering self-discovery. World premiere. location CCJP Meeting Hall, 5320 W Giddings, Bsmt, Chicago, IL 60630 cart $10

Playing Sep 1 – 3, 2018: calendar Jubilee Debtors Club | Elizabeth Wautlet ellipsischat As Liza leads you through a journey of self-help seminars and wacky last-ditch solutions in an effort to get out of the red, debt becomes more than dollars and cents. It's the currency of love and forgiveness. Both heart-wrenching and hilarious, Jubilee Debtors Club is a refreshing, original and darkly comic one woman show that talks about dad, Deuteronomy, baseball cards, raspberry tart ... and asks us to reevaluate what we owe and to whom. location The Gift Theatre, 4802 Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60630 cart $10

Playing Aug 31 – 3, 2018: calendar Settle This Thing | Bick/Antzis ellipsischat The audience was eating it up... it would do well at Just for Laughs -Keith Heistermann, (9to5.cc) Tamara Bick & Drew Antzis (comedy writers/directors - Second City, Funny Or Die, Comedy Central, HBO, ) discuss sex, parenting and dealing with their in-laws as they share their opinions and scientific-ish conclusions on what makes a marriage work. They also ask audiences to help them settle some hilarious marital disputes. "...always hilarious, Drew and Tamara's scientific ways will make you laugh and then, will make you think." -Vadim Gran (Montreal) location CCJP Meeting Hall, 5320 W Giddings, Bsmt, Chicago, IL 60630 cart $10

Playing Aug 31 – 2, 2018: calendar I Know It Was the Blood: The Totally True Adventures of a Newfangled Black Woman | Tara Lake ellipsischat Actress, Soprano, and Storyteller Tara Lake takes audiences on a journey into the world of African-American Jersey Girlhood in the 1980s-1990s' a world steeped in Family Sundays, Church Conventions, and extravagant reunions, weddings, and funerals. In a story of triumph tinged with bits of heartache, a scrappy girl-child navigates a changing world and finds the courage to live life on her own terms. A Chicago Fringe 2018 World Premiere, "I Know It Was the Blood" is an unforgettable performance of soul-rich theatre, storytelling, song, and poetry! location CCJP Meeting Hall, 5320 W Giddings, Bsmt, Chicago, IL 60630 cart $10

Playing Aug 31 – 3, 2018: calendar Mimecycle | Henry James Walker ellipsischat Premiering in Seattle in February 2018 Mimecycle is a (nearly) non-verbal solo show about braving Seattle streets on two wheels and true grit. Heavily inspired by Sylvain Chomet's Triplets of Belleville and Pixar shorts' and fueled by clown and mime - Henry James Walker pulls the audience into their imagination and behind the handlebars in a whirlwind physical theatre piece. When traffic rumbles the mantra, the only good cyclist is a dead cyclist, our hero sheds his fight or flight impulse and learns to love the ride. location CCJP Gym, 5320 W Giddings, 3rd Flr, Chicago, IL 60630 cart $10

Playing Sep 1 – 3, 2018: calendar I am trying to think of some way to make the title... | Lee Archer ellipsischat Lee Archer's solo show "I am trying to think of some way to make the title shorter because this one is way too long I think we can all agree" is perfect for anyone who would see a show with that title. And their friends, because usually you have at least one friend you could text saying "hey this sounds interesting, let's go see this :)" and that friend would say "OK" without needing to know every little detail up front. Lee Archer's show has been called "Entertaining!" by you, if you have been reading this sentence out loud. location The Playhouse @ Jefferson Park – Home of Windy City Performs, 4766 Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60630 cart $10

Playing Sep 1 – 3, 2018: calendar I Killed the Cow | The Herd ellipsischat One woman thinks she's steady. Until Mother Cheetah sweeps in, tipping her off balance. Through cataloging first sexual encounters, rehearsing mortifying phone calls, and tuning in to doctrinal lectures on veganism, she travels back to moments that shaped her. Her journey catapults into a quest when she must come to terms with her assault. It will take more than just courage and a good pair of cheetah-print pants to confront what has happened. This journey into the lawless world of sexuality asks: When it feels like you're being devoured alive, how do you make your body your own? location The Playhouse @ Jefferson Park – Home of Windy City Performs, 4766 Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60630 cart $10

Playing Sep 1 – 3, 2018: calendar I'm In That Mood Where I Hate Everyone But You | Lucy Brooks & Tracie Kunzika ellipsischat A comedy variety hour, originally performed at the Second City Training Center and the 2018 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, this show explores the creative friendship of Lucy Brooks & Tracie Kunzika, directed by Jen Ellison. Featuring original feminist rap music, tuba playing, bubble blowing, spoken word, clowning, and sketch comedy. Come see what happens when friendship and art intersect. There is something for everyone in this show. In a world where it seems like everything is worth hating, this show reminds you that there is always one person you can count on. location The Gift Theatre, 4802 Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60630 cart $10

Playing Aug 31 – 3, 2018: calendar Dirty Ditties | BimBamBoom ellipsischat Dirty Ditties presents 45 minutes of ""the dirtiest songs that we know!"" Performed on guitar, accordion and drums, these songs promise to be 100% filthy and not for the easily offended! Featuring such songs as ""My Girl's P*ssy"" , ""Love your V*gina"" and ""F*ck Her Gently"". Those song titles should give you a good idea whether this is a show for you! Every performance is guaranteed to be 90% dildo-free!! location CCJP Gym, 5320 W Giddings, 3rd Flr, Chicago, IL 60630 cart $10

Playing Sep 1 – 3, 2018: calendar Swipe Left: Dating in the Windy City Blows | Cox Productions ellipsischat Emily moved to Chicago to further her career--and her love life as well! But things haven't been so much a Midwestern version of 'Sex in the City' as they have been, well, a DISASTER!! What follows is a comic tale of nerves of steel, embarrassment, delight, horror and wonder at the wide assortment of men out there. Featuring musical numbers by Heidi Joosten, Ryan Scott Oliver, and Drew Gasparini, 'SWIPE LEFT' is a musical comedy romp that is sure to delight. Join Emily and Heidi for a recap into one woman's crazy misadventures in Chicago's millennial dating scene! location CCJP Meeting Hall, 5320 W Giddings, Bsmt, Chicago, IL 60630 cart $10

Playing Sep 1 – 3, 2018: calendar She Moved Through the Fair | Polly MacIntyre ellipsischat The romantic life of a contemporary Irishwoman is illuminated in bittersweet, often comic tales of coming of age, illicit love affairs gone wrong, an unforgettable plan for revenge, and its surprising aftermath. Inspired by and freely adapted from the works of Edna O'Brien, She Moved Through the Fair has been performed at Artists of Tomorrow Festival (NYC), the Capital Fringe Festival (DC), Way Off Broadway performance space (Houston) and the Philadelphia Women's Theatre Festival. location The Gift Theatre, 4802 Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60630 cart $10

Playing Aug 31 – 3, 2018: calendar Good Samaritans | Offbeat Arts ellipsischat A wayward young woman returns home to find her devoutly Christian family in shambles. Her mother has taken a 19 year old boy as her sex slave, her brother comes home every day bleeding and covered in bruises, and worst of all, the damn family Crucifix keeps breaking. As the family unit begins to crumble, they all find themselves asking why they believe the things that they do, and why they seek abuse from the ones who are supposed to love them most. Good Samaritans received a staged reading at The Theatre School during its 2017 Wrights of Spring Festival. location The Playhouse @ Jefferson Park – Home of Windy City Performs, 4766 Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60630 cart $10

Playing Aug 31 – 3, 2018: calendar Peep Show | BimBamBoom ellipsischat Peep Show presents an evening of authentic, American striptease, comedy and surprises! This troupe of Chicago artists thrill in the art of the reveal! Each and every burlesque striptease was created, costumed and choreographed by the artist who performs it! PEEP SHOW mixes comedy, music, magic and striptease to give audiences everything they're looking show at the burly show! location CCJP Gym, 5320 W Giddings, 3rd Flr, Chicago, IL 60630 cart $10