When it comes to the queer performance art scene in Chicago, the Windy City has got to give thanks to the Twin Cities in Minnesota. That's because several years ago, Patrick Scully took a group of queer performance artists from Minneapolis' Patrick's Cabaret to perform at Links Hall—which inspired Selene Carter to create a Poonie's Cabaret show for queer Chicago performance artists.
"Patrick's Cabaret in Minneapolis was part of the genesis of Poonie's Cabaret at Links Hall, which is held every couple of months as a collaborative variety performance show with different queer and queer-allied artists," said Rebecca Kling, a transgender performance artist who recently went through gender-reassignment surgery thanks to the help from an online Kickstarter fundraising campaign last year.
Kling has performed numerous times in Patrick's Cabaret, making contacts and building friendships with Minneapolis artists along the way. One of those is April Sellers, an artistic director and founder of a self-titled dance collective, who agreed with Kling that Twin Cities queer performance artists should make an appearance in Chicago.
So for two performances only, Kling and Sellers have co-curated a program at Links Hall called Patrick's at Poonie's Cabaret, which features artists from both the Windy City and the Twin Cities appearing on the same bill.
"We worked throughout the fall and winter to make sure that we had a good selection of a variety of types of performances and genres and attitudes and energies so that we could have a good thread and a good selection," Kling said.
"It seemed like a really easy way to build a grassroots touring network between Minneapolis and Chicago," said Sellers, stressing the importance of artists sharing ideas and finding inspiration from others' work. "The crossover with other artists and being able to dialogue about how are you starting to tour your work, what's working—just the opportunity to be in the whole conversation about craft."
For Patrick's at Ponnie's Cabaret, the April Sellers Dance Collective is debuting a piece called Big Baby, which takes its inspiration from variety shows and celebrity gay icons like Liza Minnelli or Dolly Parton who have become to an extent caricatures of their public personas.
"We're playing with exaggerated states of self," Sellers said, adding that there's a dress-up drag aspect to Big Baby, too. "We're pulling on the question of what is the true female experience, and exaggerating it so you see the concept of femininity at different stages."
There's also a big element of drag and dressing up in the other two acts by Minnesota artists in the show. Ballet dancer Justin Leaf will appear in his drag persona of Mistress Ginger, while Theresa Madaus appears in "nun drag" for her piece titled The Confessions of Sister Mary Katharine Perry which prominently features the song "I Kissed a Girl."
In addition to Kling, who will perform a trans-identity piece about adjusting to her new vagina, the Chicago contingent in the program include multimedia artist J'Sun Howard, choreographer Darrell Jones and Joseph R. Varisco, who will perform a piece called "Home Again," touching on his experiences of coming out as HIV-positive.
"I think it's always great to work with different communities," Kling said. "The scope and variety of this show is really fun and we have some great storytelling, we have dance, we have drag, we have humor and more serious stuff, so I think it's really a great opportunity to see the diversity and see the fun and celebration of these different aspects of the LGBTQ community."
Patrick's at Poonie's Cabaret plays 7 p.m. May 21 and 2, at Links Hall at Constellation, 3111 N. Western Ave. Tickets are $5; call 773-281-0824 or visit www.linkshall.org .
Hit the Wall to close early
Chicago Commercial Collective and The Inconvenience's revival of Ike Holter's acclaimed 2012 drama Hit the Wall is closing early. Instead of playing its originally scheduled run through Pride Weekend in June at Chicago's Greenhouse Theater Center, Hit the Wall is now closing Sunday, May 25.
That's a very surprising development, since Hit the Wall was an instant sell-out during its original run at the Steppenwolf Garage Theatre. The show also reopened to rave reviews again for the Chicago revival.
As a mythologized interpretation of the 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York, Hit the Wall won't make it through to the 45th anniversary of the events in June which are frequently cited as the catalyst for the modern-day LGBTQ rights moment ( the same thing happened to Hit the Wall for its off-Broadway transfer in 2013, even though it was playing just steps away from the Stonewall Inn at the Barrow Street Theatre ).
So don't miss out on your chance to see this acclaimed LGBTQ drama with most of its original cast. Though the second life of Hit the Wall has been shortened, this drama should have a major life regionally as it shows the discrimination and degradation that LGBTQ people had to face before they rose up to fight back.
Chicago Commercial Collective's revival of The Inconvenience's Hit the Wall now closes Sunday, May 25, at the Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave. Performances are at 7 p.m. Thursday, 9:30 p.m. Friday, 5 and 8:30 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $20-$45. Call 773-404-7336 or visit greenhousetheater.org .
The Chicago Commercial Collective revival of The New Colony's 5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche continues through June 8 at the Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division St. Tickets are $15-$40; visit www.5lesbianseatingaquiche.com .
