This second annual showcase of one-person performances features more than 40 pieces, ranging from stand-up comedy acts to theatrical monologues and one-person plays. The festival runs March 13-22. Shows take place at the Athenaeum Theatre, third-floor studio, 2936 N. Southport, 312-902-1500; Playground Theater, 3341 N. Lincoln, 773-871-3793; WNEP Theater, 3209 N. Halsted, 773-755-1693; and the Elevated at Cherry Red, 2833 N. Sheffield, 773-477-3661. Ticket prices for individual programs are $12; “all access” passes cost $75. In addition to the performances, interdisciplinary artist Rachel Rosenthal will lead a workshop on the festival’s closing weekend. For more information and reservations, or to register for the Rosenthal workshop, call 312-388-1805; information is also available on-line at www.singlefilechicago.com. Tickets for shows at the Athenaeum Theatre can be purchased through Ticketmaster by calling 312-902-1500 or logging onto www.ticketmaster.com, and tickets for shows at WNEP Theater are available on-line at www.ticketweb.com.
Angela Farruggia plays a famous writer facilitating a self-help seminar for young authors with low self-esteem in her interactive one-woman show Judy in Disguise. “The concept is overflowing with possibilities. . . . The script, however, feels awkwardly adolescent in its development,” Reader critic Kim Wilson said during an earlier run. Andrew Ritter tackles Jungian dream theory in What Plays That Dream Are This?; Trust Funnin’ is Steve Scholz’s satirical look at trust; a sociopathic Boston fan finds a new “friend” in Mike Burns’s Amanda; The Kara Buller Show stars Kara Buller; and Kara Lashmet tells of losing 200 pounds in Results Not Typical. Athenaeum Theatre, 8 PM.
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C’mon features solo performer Michael Lehrer. “With his white short-sleeved dress shirt, black pants, black midwidth tie, portly physique, and wide-eyed stupefaction, . . . Lehrer could easily pass as the colorless mail-room guy who goes postal one day. And after hearing what he has to say, we might understand. Through seven characters–among others, a gay rapper, a movie star wannabe, a convict resigned to orienting kids to prison, and a Successories spokesman–Lehrer voices amazement at some of life’s cruel jokes. [His] alternation between bewildered first-person rants and conversations with imaginary partners keeps this one-hour revue clipping along and provides plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, [but Lehrer] could better distinguish his characters, who all seem to speak from the same point of view,” Reader critic Kim Wilson said of the show’s run last year. Katie Nahansen performs sketch comedy in Tales From Waterloo. Playground Theater, 10:30 PM.
Writer-performer Anthony Wills Jr. explores sexual identity and mental illness in The Happiness of Schizophrenia. “[Wills] seems to want to portray various types of mental illness while exploring his own fear of slipping into madness. Despite a commanding presence, [he] overacts to such an extreme that his portraits of schizophrenics become stereotypical and condescending. Rather than inviting the audience into his own experience, he puts simulated mania and paranoia on sordid display at a nearly unmodulated high emotional pitch,” said Reader critic Justin Hayford when he reviewed the show last year. Our Lady of the Fatasses is Janie Martinez’s examination of body image; Joseph Ravens interweaves “superheroes and demigods” in Becoming Someone Else. Athenaeum Theatre, 9 PM.
New Zealander Andy Clay presents a program of stand-up comedy. The Elevated at Cherry Red, 8:30 PM.
“Too blasphemous for the faithful, too kinky for the vanilla, too vanilla for the thrill-seeking, Scott Lee Heckman’s Sir is an underachieving how-to workshop for those uninitiated in the ways of a gay leather bottom pain pig. A flip chart maps out the narrative vignettes that constitute this one-man hour-long show, an explanation of Heckman’s own ‘spiritual journey’ from born-again Christian to sibilant leather man. . . . But this potentially amusing story . . . is surprisingly dull and insightless even as it aims to shock,” said Reader critic Erik Piepenburg when he reviewed this show two years ago. Joanna Buese’s Mahboyfren’ examines the human need for love; Jaime Black explores transgendered identity in Are You a Boy or a Girl? WNEP Theater, 8 PM.
