New Colony to Present THE GOLDFISH PROJECT: REJECTION, 6/27-28

The New Colony has announced the second installment of its new sidestage series formerly known as Okay Cupid: The Goldfish Project: Rejection created by Shawn Bowers, curated by Shawn Bowers and Sarah Gitenstein, playing June 27 and 28 at Dank Haus, 4740 N. Western Ave. in Chicago. Tickets are free and are available for reservation now at www.thenewcolony.org.

Goldfish - noun - The target of online deception or mischief-making in the world of online dating. An unwitting participant in bizarre flirtation with no solicitation of love. An innocent who's not always innocent.

Catfishing is so last year. Chicago comedian Shawn Bowers has spent years perfecting the art of goldfishing, pretending to be women on some of the web's most popular dating sites. The Goldfish Project takes all of that fun creepiness of catfishing and removes the awkward "people's emotions getting involved" stuff to create a multimedia showcase of actual conversations, e-mails, texts and photos from his time undercover. Along the way, he's joined by special guest correspondents doing their own odd experiments and true stories of real people who've had their own "unique interactions" online. Whatever happens, just remember that we're the good guys.

The first installment in March 2014 was based largely on Shawn Bowers' original Okcupid Project which was produced in November 2012 at the Lincoln Loft. Creator Shawn Bowers explains "Our first show back was very specifically framed by my own experience being catfished, and my experiments talking to men as one character on one site. The new show expands the focus in all areas: we're going to be exploring other people's stories, new characters and new websites with the same absurdist-meets-uncomfortable tone."

June's performances will feature new experiments and explorations into the world of online dating focusing on rejection. Co-Curator Sarah Gitenstein comments "As is the rule in the dating world, everyone has been the rejector or rejectee, and we remember the feeling of both, however, because of the nature of online dating we now have archival text to track the topic. It's both terrifying and extremely interesting. Are people harsher in the virtual world because of anonymity, is being rejected in person actually easier? We're looking into the real stories of being rejected, as well as ones that we provoke."