Lifeline Theatre and Live Bait Theater to Co-Produce the Returns of the Fillet of Solo Festival, 7/29-8/21

Lifeline Theatre Artistic Director Dorothy Milne and former Live Bait Theater Artistic Director Sharon Evans announce a joint revival, the 14th Annual Fillet of Solo Festival, running July 29-August 21 at multiple Chicago venues. Performances run Thursday - Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. Tickets are $10 for all performances and may be purchased online at lifelinetheatre.com or by calling the Lifeline Theatre Box Office, 773.761.4477.

Live Bait Theater has developed over 200 world premieres over its 20-year history and has been nominated for over 50 non-Equity Jeff Awards, predominately in the category of new work. Sharon Evans was the artistic director from 1987-2008, and in 1995 she created the Fillet of Solo Festival, which featured over 200 solo artists in its 13-year history (last festival was held in 2008). In 2009, Live Bait closed its doors and leased the building to Artistic Home Theatre, but Evans' enthusiasm for new work and for the Festival remained undiminished. "I retired from the day-to-day management of a theater to concentrate on my own writing, which has been fruitful," Evans said. "But I also wanted to find a new home for the Festival, and it was important to me that it be a new work theater. I am delighted to find a perfect fit at Lifeline."

Lifeline Artistic Director Dorothy Milne has a long history with the solo form. As a writer-performer and occasional director, she has worked with the Sweat Girls for the past 17 years at numerous Chicago performance venues (including Fillet of Solo), as well as festivals across the nation. Recently Milne has also directed events for 2nd Story, a popular storytelling collective of writers and performers. She said, "Lifeline's specialization in new work, combined with my passion for this form, made me eager to offer a home to the Fillet of Solo Festival. The artistic ensemble is proud of our reputation as an incubator for new work, and is pleased to expand the mission by welcoming these numerous world premieres to the Fest this summer."

SCHEDULE BELOW:
WEEK ONE (July 29 - August 1):
Location: Lifeline Theatre, 6912 N. Glenwood Ave., Chicago
• CTA accessible (Red Line Morse stop/buses)
• Free designated parking lot west of the theatre at the NE corner of Morse and Ravenswood with free shuttle service before and after the show. Street parking also available
• Handicapped accessible
Thursday - Saturday, July 29 - 31
7:00 p.m. 2nd Story
Kim Morris, Doug Whippo and John Wilson explore the arc of human experience. All are company members of 2nd Story, a wildly popular, Chicago-based storytelling troupe that performs regularly at Webster's Wine Bar in Lincoln Park and the Morseland in Rogers Park.
8:30 p.m. The Sweat Girls are A-Gaga!

Members of the 17-year old storytelling troupe (Caroline Andres, Cindy Hanson, Claire Nolan, Martie Sanders and Pamela Webster), tell tales of becoming a mama in your 40's... and losing the mama moniker when your baby goes to college... and figuring out if you're going to need to be a mama to both your grandmamma and mother. It's all just the stuff of life, as the Sweat Girls "illuminate the extraordinary within the usual and the profundity in the everyday." (Windy City Times)

Sunday, August 1
3:00 p.m. The Sweat Girls are A-Gaga!
(see description above)

WEEK TWO (August 5 - August 8):
Location: Lifeline Theatre, 6912 N. Glenwood Ave., Chicago
• CTA accessible (Red Line Morse stop/buses)
• Free designated parking lot west of the theatre at the NE corner of Morse and Ravenswood with free shuttle service before and after the show. Street parking also available
• Handicapped accessible

Thursday - Saturday, August 5 - 7
7:00 p.m. Grown Up
Dorothy Milne hadn't noticed that time was passing and suddenly her generation is in charge. Worse yet, she's in charge. With her older relatives passed on, Dorothy is definitely a grown up now -- and making it up as she goes along. She sure wishes she'd paid more attention when the oldsters were still around to tell her things. Dorothy has been artistic director of Lifeline Theatre for 11 years and has been reporting on her life from the stage in group shows with the Sweat Girls for the past 17 years. This is her first solo excursion. Directed by Sharon Evans.

Friday, August 6, only:
8:30 p.m. 2nd Story
(see description above)

Saturday, August 7, only:
8:30 p.m. Solo Sampler 1: A collection of shorter pieces by three different artists
Featuring Julie Ganey, George Rosebrock, and Caitlin Parrish
The Half-Life of Magic by Julie Ganey: How does a half-believer navigate the space between story and truth? Ganey examines the stories we tell ourselves as she wrestles with fairies, Michelangelo, lingerie and a priest... not necessarily in that order.
Belong by George Rosebrock: Rosebrock entertains with Chicago stories of his youth, his early employment, and 28 years of service as a Chicago Police Officer.
Strapped by Caitlin Parrish: An industrious young woman delivers a treatise on economics, sex, and the American way.

Sunday, August 8
3:00 p.m. The Sylvia Chronicles: 30 years of Graphic Misbehavior from Regan to Obama
A workshop reading of a work-in-progress by Nicole Hollander. Hollander has appeared as a solo performer all over the Chicagoland area and is a published writer of over 20 books. Her cartoon strip SYLVIA appears daily and weekly in 30 newspapers across the country. (This is a free workshop event.)

WEEK THREE (August 12 - 16):
Location: The Artistic Home (formerly Live Bait Theater), 3914 N. Clark St., Chicago
• Street parking available
• CTA accessible (Red Line Sheridan stop/Clark and Irving Park buses)

Thursday-Sunday, August 12 - 15
7:00 p.m. Solo Sampler 2: Featuring Julie Ganey, George Rosebrock, and Matt Miller
The Half-Life of Magic by Julie Ganey: How does a half-believer navigate the space between story and truth? Ganey examines the stories we tell ourselves as she wrestles with fairies, Michelangelo, lingerie and a priest - not necessarily in that order.

Belong by George Rosebrock: Rosebrock entertains with Chicago stories of his youth, his early employment, and 28 years of service as a Chicago Police Officer.

Sea World by Matt Miller: In the summer of 1998, Miller worked as a birds-of-prey trainer in the "Wild Wings Bird Show!" at Sea World Cleveland. This is the story of that beautifully crazy summer.
8:30 p.m. Solo Sampler 3: Featuring Rett Lowell, James Anthony Zoccoli, and Deborah Lewis
The Second Boat by Rett Lowell: Years after the loss of her father Tom, a daughter agonizes over the items he left behind - namely, his Vietnam era dog tags. While on a mental expedition to conquer a web of memory, she will come to understand whether the rhetoric left in his wake is born of artifact or of her.

Wiggerlover [whiteboy+blackdad=greyareas] by James Anthony Zoccoli: Actor/writer Zoccoli (JAZ) gives a retrospective account of his life as Little Jimmy: a half-Italian, half-Polish kid who wants to be all Black when his White mother gets remarried to an African-American man.
Darkness, then Light by Deborah Lewis: A story of how Lewis and her partner rescued her granddaughter from a meth lab and became parents to a nine-month-old with virtually no warning when Lewis never saw herself as being a parent. A tale of coping with "dyke fatherhood," so to speak.

Sunday, August 15
3:00 p.m. Man Up
A reading of a work-in-progress by Martie Sanders (writer-performer with the Sweat Girls) directed by Richard Corley, former artistic director of Madison Repertory Theater. Martie's solo pieces include vivid and hilarious portrayals of eccentrics discovered in her life's adventures, and in this tour de force, she portrays 12 (male) characters encountered while navigating her career as an actress. There will be a post-show discussion after the performance. (This is a free workshop event.)

WEEK FOUR (August 19 - 21):
Location The Artistic Home (formerly Live Bait Theater), 3914 N. Clark St., Chicago
Street parking available; CTA accessible (Red Line Sheridan stop/Clark and Irving Park buses)

Thursday-Friday, August 19 - 20:
7:00 p.m. The Best of Tekki Lominki
Performer, teacher, and political activist Tekki Lomnicki presents three pieces: "Thanksgiving," Tekki's classic first solo show about growing up Catholic and the journey with her mother to Lourdes; "Clothing Optional," which gives the audience an intimate peek at what goes on at a clothing-optional commune in Northern California; and "Mr. Sandman," where Tekki's unconscious runs amuck, short-circuiting her sleep patterns, dreams and CPAP machine
Saturday, August 21, only at 7 p.m.

Live Bait Theater's Grigsby Award for Excellence in the Art of Solo Performance presented to Tekki Lomnicki.
LOCATION: Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago
Tickets: $50 for VIP tickets (includes pre-show reception at 6 p.m.), or $35 regular admission.
Street parking available; CTA accessible (Red/Brown/Purple Line Belmont stop/buses)
The 2010 Grigsby Award for Excellence in the Art of Solo Performance will be presented to Tekki Lomnicki on Saturday, August 21, in a special Fillet of Solo closing ceremony at Theater Wit. The evening will honor Lomnicki's exceptional achievements and unique talent. She will be celebrated with an industry roast by those who have worked with her and have loved her throughout her amazing career. The Grigsby Award is named after James Grigsby, an inspirational figure in solo performance in the late seventies and early eighties in Chicago. Past recipients include Brigid Murphy, Edward Thomas-Herrera, and David Kodeski.

Live Bait Theater and Lifeline Theatre honor Lomnicki for her dedication to solo performance, as an artist, producer and teacher, but also as a political activist for the disabled community. Through her entertaining stage presence, her generosity and humor, and her unflinching inclusive efforts to make sure everyone's story is heard, no matter how disenfranchised, she has forever changed the image of solo performers, their art, and the stories they tell.

As an artist she has mined her own life and created poignant, funny, inspirational and groundbreaking monologues. She opened a long-closed window into the life of an artist born with, but not limited by, her disabilities. As the artistic director of Tellin' Tales Theatre, she produces, writes, directs and performs critically acclaimed plays and solo performances. She facilitates storytelling workshops for corporations, hospitals, and schools, such as La Rabida and Loyola Hospitals, Lekotek, the Mobius Syndrome Association, and the Girl Scouts of America. As a teacher she has nurtured many first time performers to shed their fears and share stories both personal and timely. She has taught solo performance at Victory Gardens and Prop Theater for the past five years. She also developed curriculum and facilitated after-school workshops for Chicago Public School children with and without disabilities for more than ten years through the Gallery 37 and After School Matters Connections Programs.

As a political activist she created a showcase for stories written and performed by children with and without disabilities, empowering youthful artists with a stage to tell their stories and a nurturing community in which to create. Her annual Six Stories Up Mentoring Program, now in its 14th year, features six Chicago storytellers and six middle school children, plus a cast and crew made up of people with and without disabilities from all walks of life, culminating in a performance at a professional theater.

Lomnicki has received the 3Arts Artist Award in Theater (2008), Illinois Arts Council Artist Fellowship in New Performance Forms (2004), Carol Gill Award for Arts and Advocacy from the Progress Center (2001), Gargoyle Award from the Council for Disability Rights (1998), Caritas Veritas Award from Dominican University (1998), Regional Artists' Project Grant from the NEA (1993), and was named One of the 100 Women Making a Difference in Chicago by Today's Chicago Woman (1994). Ms. Lomnicki also starred in The Miracle, an award-winning film by Jeffrey Jon Smith based on her solo performance, Thanksgiving. (www.themiraclemovie.com).

Now in its 27th season, Lifeline Theatre specializes in original literary adaptations. Its ensemble of artists uses imaginative, unconventional staging to portray sprawling stories in an intimate space. Lifeline is committed to promoting the arts in its Rogers Park neighborhood and is an anchor of the Glenwood Avenue Arts District. We aspire to create art that is relevant to our culturally diverse, increasingly youthful neighborhood. Lifeline Theatre - Big Stories, Up Close.

Lifeline Theatre's programs are partially supported by Alphawood Foundation; Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation; The Chicago Community Trust; CityArts 3 grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs; Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation; The Richard H. Driehaus Charitable Lead Trust; Illinois Arts Council, a state agency; MacArthur Fund for Arts and Culture at Prince; The Rhoades Foundation; The Polk Bros. Foundation; S&C Foundation; Taproot Foundation; and the annual support of businesses and individuals.

Annual Fillet of Solo Festival, running July 29-August 21, 2010, at multiple Chicago venues. Performances run Thursday - Saturday at 7 P.M. and Sunday at 3 P.M. Tickets are $10 for all performances and may be purchased online at lifelinetheatre.com or by calling the Lifeline Theatre Box Office, 773.761.4477.